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How do I obtain a replacement of a damaged resin set from Hannants?


Wm Blecky

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I recently received an order from Hannants.  One of the Quickboost sets was received damaged.  I've tried emailing Hannants and included pictures of the unopened package to show the broken piece.  A week plus later, there has been no reply from them - which I find quite disappointing.

 

The set is still listed on their website and they do have stock.

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA.

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You send them a reminder firstly - resend the email but without the photos. They may have missed your email, or the pictures may have made the email too big hence have gotten caught in some kind of email filter or similar. Some email servers don't allow emails over a certain gigabite size.  Secondly you could try to call them. 

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From the Hannants home page (towards the bottom)

 

"Currently we are not taking telephone calls at Lowestoft. This is because we have so many orders to process and fewer staff to do them. Please bear with us and  place your order at the website. Please email any questions. Staff who are working from home can answer emails but they cannot answer the phone."

 

Many companies are still remote working in the UK, and things have not returned to normal due to the pandemic - not having received a response within a week, whilst disappointing in the current climate is not unheard of. However, as noted, depending on the size of your pictures, it may have not reached them. I would firstly try to reduce the size of the picture(s) or even try to only send one or two pictures of a reasonable size - keeping the overall email to under 5MB (a lot of UK email providers seem to have an attachment size of 10mb or less). Secondly try to compress them into a zip file, however, JPG files are already compressed so you may find this only reduces the file sizes a very small amount. Last of all, you could also try contacting Quickboost directly. They are manufactured by Aires based in Czech Republic  https://www.aires.cz/en/contact/

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It looks like emails are not being handled in a timely manner at Hannants.  I've had a couple of companies tell me that they're not responding, so maybe they're just focusing on getting stuff out of the door.  I know a lot of companies have been worked off their feet during the lockdowns, but as it's been going for over a year now, I'd have thought that some kind of coping strategy would have been developed :shrug:

 

If you can't get any sense out of them by email, I'd send the idem back recorded delivery, and ask for a replacement plus refund of postage.

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It might be in progress, I had a missing canopy, sent them an email and a week later it showed up, but I didn't get any notification at all.

 

You should get an automated confirmation email when you send a query. If you didn't, maybe resend.

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Thanks all, I appreciate your suggestions.  I've taken Boman's suggestion and resent the email - still no reply from Hannants.

 

Even if Hannants were accepting phone calls, calling from Canada would cost me far more than the cost of the defective item and, sadly, the same applies to Mike's good suggestion as well.

 

I suppose that if Hannants does not respond or if nothing is received within the next 2 weeks, I'll just contact my credit card company and have the cost charged back to them.  Any future purchases will be re-evaluated with my money going to other companies for my modeling wants.

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That's a bit harsh to be honest. Firstly, postage these days takes forever, so setting a 2 week deadline will for sure give you dissappointment. 

Secondly, have you tried to contact the manufacturer and present the problem to them? Even if the goods where purchased through Hannants it is after all the manufacturer who screwed up, not Hannants. 

So try that path in parallell, and you may get a better response.

 

Remember, between Brexit and Covid, UK companies has more than their share of issues to deal with, so you should cut them some slack. 

 

Edit: 
Here is Quickboost webpage: http://www.quickboost.net/  

 

 

Edited by Boman
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Hannants are currently up their necks in trying to run the business with home workers, and horrendous problems with export deliveries to Ireland and the European mainland following Brexit. I'm sure they will get to you asap. They are up county to me, about 40 miles, and whereas I could normally walk in and browse their warehouse and pick my own stock, at present I can't even get in the door. It takes me roughly a month to get stuff from Moscow, and at the height of Covid, it took 3 months to get stuff from the USA. 

Have you got a stash you can be working on the the interim? I'm afraid the days of instant gratification are just a fading memory. Perhaps when things return to normal, Hannants can get back to replying to emails within 24-48 hours, which is normal.

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I bought a Valom 1:144 Sopwith Pup - dual combo last July from a site. 

 

On opening the sealed pack (very carefully as I knew there was tiny PE in it) I found that the PE was missing. As the PE was for the undercarriage and struts it would be sorely missed.

 

I emailed Václav at www.valom.net. In a very quick return email he apologised and said a new PE set would be dispatched the next day. Sure enough, about a week later a new PE fret arrived in the post from the Czech Republic.

 

Sometimes it really is worth contacting the manufacturer and the Valom response was superb!!!         :worthy:

 

Rigging the wee beggar in 1/144 has been a different matter...          :angry:

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3 hours ago, Boman said:

That's a bit harsh to be honest. Firstly, postage these days takes forever, so setting a 2 week deadline will for sure give you dissappointment. 

Secondly, have you tried to contact the manufacturer and present the problem to them? Even if the goods where purchased through Hannants it is after all the manufacturer who screwed up, not Hannants. 

So try that path in parallell, and you may get a better response.

 

Remember, between Brexit and Covid, UK companies has more than their share of issues to deal with, so you should cut them some slack. 

 

Edit: 
Here is Quickboost webpage: http://www.quickboost.net/  

 

 

You are entitled to your opinion, but harsh it is not.  When their employees are packaging a customer's order, they should be giving a quick glance at what they are packaging.  Now whether the item was damaged to begin with (this comes back to my point about inspecting product - especially when it comes in clear packaging) or if it was damaged in transit, it still falls upon the merchant to own up and take responsibility.  I would think that a merchant would have employees who have some working knowledge of the products they are selling and should, hopefully, be able to notice readily visible damage.

 

You may feel that waiting an additional 2 weeks is "harsh", but Hannants' own policy states:

Quote

If, in the unlikely event, your goods arrive in a damaged condition or are defective, you must inform us as soon as is practically possible and in any event no later than 7 days after discovery. Failure to do so will deem that you have accepted the goods.

 Hannants allows 7 days, so who is being "harsh".

 

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

 

All I want from Hannants is an acknowledgement of my email and a solution to the damaged set - replacement or refund.  Does that seem "harsh" or unreasonable.  COVID or otherwise - besides, COVID has been with us now for over a year, shouldn't any merchant have adapted by now???

 

I will however, check out the link to Quickboost that you provided.  Thank you!

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3 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Hannants are currently up their necks in trying to run the business with home workers, and horrendous problems with export deliveries to Ireland and the European mainland following Brexit. I'm sure they will get to you asap. They are up county to me, about 40 miles, and whereas I could normally walk in and browse their warehouse and pick my own stock, at present I can't even get in the door. It takes me roughly a month to get stuff from Moscow, and at the height of Covid, it took 3 months to get stuff from the USA. 

Have you got a stash you can be working on the the interim? I'm afraid the days of instant gratification are just a fading memory. Perhaps when things return to normal, Hannants can get back to replying to emails within 24-48 hours, which is normal.

Ohhh, so close yet ohhh so far!  I wish I could be so close to them - though my wallet might not!

 

I certainly do have other projects (too many in fact), but I do not want to let this lag for the very reason that I quoted above regarding Hannants' own 7 day policy when it comes to having received damaged goods.  That aside, I do not want to forget about it and then when (if!!!) I remember, it will definitely be too late.

Edited by Wm Blecky
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You are forgetting that COVID reduces sales in many cases and it doesn't necessarily allow for employing additional staff. Add to that most are ordered to work from home and you get the drift. 

It can also be difficult to check if an item is 100% even in a blister pack, and no, I don't expect the staff to have intimate knowledge of all the parts in each item they are selling, and wether they are OK or not. Just check how many items Hannants have in stock and you will understand why. 

 

But it is entirly up to you. As I said I would contact Quickboost in parallell and highlight the problem, refer to the order number from Hannants and it might sort itself out and quicker than through Hannants. 

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@Wm Blecky

 

Do you understand just how many customers Hannants have globally and just how few staff they have?  They probably only just manage during a normal year.  Now they've got to cope with a massive amount of extra people like yourself, who are sitting on their backsides assembling and painting model kits, whilst every one else, especially in the UK, is trying to deal with restrictions on what can and cannot be done and trying to scrape by.

 

And no, we in the UK haven't had a year, because of the government, and Brexit.  Whilst trying not to be political it's been a clusterbomb and the pandemic isn't over.  Things keep on changing here in the UK, as it has the rest of the world over, and we haven't done well with Covid, unlike most countries in the Far East and Oceania.   Perhaps Canada has done better...

 

It's actually lucky the likes of Hannants haven't gone under, many businesses in the UK have already.

 

So, as you've contacted them within 7 days of receipt of the item via email, you have proof of doing so, so you should be good for the "7 days clause".  So by all means prod them once in a while, but sit tight, be a little more patient and understanding, and let Hannants staff get around to dealing with you.

Edited by RobL
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Well, I'll let my credit card company handle this in the event of no response.

 

I had hoped for a constructive suggestion to this, aside from a couple of earlier posts and Bowman's helpful link/suggestion, there does not seem to be any real solution when it comes to Hannants themselves being accountable for this problem.  There should not be a financial benefit for them when they send damaged goods and ignore a customer.  This is true for any merchant.

 

@ RobL, you make a lot of excuses and uninformed assumptions.  You might wish to rethink how you respond to future posts.

Edited by Wm Blecky
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I hope you get a response soon. There's nothing more frustrating than not getting what you paid for. I'd keep sending emails to try and get a response. I'd give them a month before involving the credit card company.

 

I use Hannants a lot and I can appreciate they're busy. However, they're not accepting EU orders and other companies are working under the same conditions. In the past 9 months I've had missing parts from an Italeri kit and an Eduard set, and in both cases the sellers (Jadlam and Creative Models) had started the ball rolling on fixing the problem within 24 hours of me receiving it. 

 

Jon

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12 hours ago, Wm Blecky said:

Well, I'll let my credit card company handle this in the event of no response.

 

I had hoped for a constructive suggestion to this, aside from a couple of earlier posts and Bowman's helpful link/suggestion, there does not seem to be any real solution when it comes to Hannants themselves being accountable for this problem.  There should not be a financial benefit for them when they send damaged goods and ignore a customer.  This is true for any merchant.

 

@ RobL, you make a lot of excuses and uninformed assumptions.  You might wish to rethink how you respond to future posts.

 

 

You may want to rethink your attitude mate.

 

You are coming across as though Hannants are trying to screw you over.  You've already had one person state you are being harsh.

 

What constructive suggestion did you want - should Hannants drop everything just to deal with you?

 

And I'll tell you this for free - I live in the UK, so I know more about the situation in the UK than you do.  So, sorry for what you think are excuses and uninformed assumptions.  They're actually the truth of the matter when it comes to the situation here in the UK.

 

Cut then some slack and stop whinging about your entitlement on what is meant to be a friendly forum.

Edited by RobL
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I have used Hannants for more years than I care to think about, back when we got a paper catalog, on the odd occasion of a problem its been sorted. Maybe just give them some time with the whole worldwide pandemic thing happening?

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On 30/03/2021 at 23:44, Wm Blecky said:

Hannants allows 7 days, so who is being "harsh".

 

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

 

All I want from Hannants is an acknowledgement of my email and a solution to the damaged set - replacement or refund.  Does that seem "harsh" or unreasonable.  COVID or otherwise - besides, COVID has been with us now for over a year, shouldn't any merchant have adapted by now???

 

You have to understand that we're still in the middle of a pandemic, and that as others have said, this is affecting Hannants' business both in terms of higher volumes and reduced availability of staff.  You have notified them of your issue by email, so your job is done.  Just sit back and relax, maybe give them a nudge in a while about it, but try to come to terms with the fact that it's NOT personal.  Someone put that set in the box in good faith, not to catch you out or make off with your money.  Give them time and it will get sorted.  Just keep diarying it forward to ensure you don't forget, and keep your original sent email as evidence that you were in contact.

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  • 1 month later...

I've had a problem with a kit that Hannants are the importer for, and I notified emodels (who I bought it from) of the problem at the end of December. I still don't have the correct parts though after 4 months I did get a replacement sprue, with exactly the same fault as the kit I bought. So they've taken 4 months to not correct the faults and the latest request is to send the entire kit back to them! Its a half built 1/48 Flanker. It won't fit in the box without snapping a wing off so that's not happening. I don't know why Hannants can't accept that Kittyhawk have made undercarriage legs without axles as almost every build review mentions the fault, or why my photos of the faulty parts with the instruction diagrams showing an axle aren't enough.

I must admit that until recently I was blaming emodels.co.uk for poor customer service but having tried to contact Hannants directly myself, I think I know where the problems begin.

You might be in this for the long haul Blecky.

Edited by MrProd
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No, I'd seen "in box" reviews, one was on this very site, praising the new Kittyhawk Flanker range of kits for the surface detail and accurate shape. None mentioned the lack of axles. I think the kit was a really new launch when I bought it and its taught me three lessons.

First; in box reviews are a bit of a waste of time, if they aren't building it they might not notice things like no axles.

Second; newly launched Tamiya kits have been product tested, newly launched Kittyhawk kits? Who knows.

Third; just because other model sites answer the phone and reply to emails within 24 hours don't assume they all will.

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5 hours ago, MrProd said:

I've had a problem with a kit that Hannants are the importer for, and I notified emodels (who I bought it from) of the problem at the end of December. I still don't have the correct parts though after 4 months I did get a replacement sprue, with exactly the same fault as the kit I bought. So they've taken 4 months to not correct the faults and the latest request is to send the entire kit back to them! Its a half built 1/48 Flanker. It won't fit in the box without snapping a wing off so that's not happening. I don't know why Hannants can't accept that Kittyhawk have made undercarriage legs without axles as almost every build review mentions the fault, or why my photos of the faulty parts with the instruction diagrams showing an axle aren't enough.

I must admit that until recently I was blaming emodels.co.uk for poor customer service but having tried to contact Hannants directly myself, I think I know where the problems begin.

You might be in this for the long haul Blecky.

 

Hannants have no direct obligations to you, you need to direct yor complaint through emodels.

 

I don't know the specifics of Kittyhawk supplies in the UK but there could be more than Hannants importing & distributing items, so your kit may not have come from Hannants. Even if they were the sole authorised UK distributor in this day and age there's alway what's termed 'grey' imports. The only way Hannants can be sure if they are fulfilling their legal obligations is if they receive, & respond to, complaints through the supply chain.

 

As Blecky appears to have bought direct his is with Hannants or as he suggested his credit card company.

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The axles are missing?  A short piece of plastic easily (and possibly better) replaced by rod?  Or is there more to them that that?  If that is something noted as wrong on all (? at least several?) of these what makes you think you will get anything better?  How about setting to and making the bits?  It used to be called "modelling".  People used to make entire undercarriages, entire aircraft even.  I'm not suggesting we should go all the way back to that, but "The axles are missing" does seem to call for a loud call of "diddums".   Excuse old fogey mode, but really...  

 

 

 

 

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Sorry Circloy, I hadn't explained, I contracted emodels.co.uk in December, they replied that day, asked if I could send photos which I did. They agreed it looked like a manufacturing fault and said they would contact the importer to see about replacement parts/sprue. I left it a couple of months because pandemic etc but hadn't heard anything so I got back in touch. Emodels.co.uk said they're waiting to hear back. Its only after I asked if they could tell me who the importer was (because at this point I doubted emodels when they said the importer couldn't be called by phone) that i found out it was Hannants.

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Graham Boak, consider the following before replying

I only got back into modelling in the last year when I found lots of time on my hands due to being self employed and a pandemic made it illegal to do my job.

Lacking experience, trying to put axles on the heaviest kit I've built, knowing that if it goes wrong I've ruined the most expensive kit I've bought doesn't sound like something I want to do. 

Having spent £63 on a kit I could resent needing to spend more money on tubing, pin vice, drill bits etc. Maybe £63 on a kit is  nothing to you but in my present circumstances it was hard to justify and I think it reasonable to expect it to be manufactured to a standard I can build it OOB.

If I'd spent £63 on a jacket and found the stitching holding the zip in place was coming away and the zip wouldn't do up, imagine if someone told me to go and buy a needle and thread because "diddums" people used to make their own clothes don't you know. 

I hope you didn't mean to come across as patronising. 

 

 

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