Where have they gone?

[Firefly16]

Just had a look round Hatton's OO list - their steam loco list has been drastically shortened. Where have all the Limas et al gone? To some 4mm limbo?

[Mountain]

Strange. Are you referring to the secondhand items or new?

[Firefly16]

They were all mixed in together before, weren't they? In the case of the Lima steam offerings, they would have all been pre-owned. It's a mystery...

[dubdee1000]

According to Hattons Dave, down for a stock take. Should be back up soon

[Firefly16]

Thanks dubdee, that's reassuring!

[Bigmet]

I expect some items will 'disappear'. Stocking s/h with every item having to be individually assigned an identifier by which the stock management is then handled is more error prone than bar code scanning them in and out. Then again, the odd piece of buried treasure may also surface...

A good time to take a look, right after a stock take.

[GWR_fan]

Will be interesting as to how they reintroduce the hundreds of pre-owned locomotive stock to their website. Surely not all will be added on a single day. That would cause mayhem for both the store and the customers.

They do have a subheading "Pre-owned Bargains". Perhaps many will be listed there at a reduced price to move them on. Much of their loco stock was grossly overpriced to start with, so any price reduction would only bring the selling price more in line with reality.

[Bufferstop]

It doesn't work the way you think it would, like most things on a computer the actuality is very different to the perceived. They are still there sitting in the database, a one line change in the report that drives the website makes them all disappear at a stroke. Once they've reconciled the data with the stock they will just change that line again and they'll be back. At least that's the way it should be set up if they are making sensible use of their IT investment.

[Bigmet]

The cynic in me insists that what will most likely happen - once the s/h stock reconciliation exercise is complete - is that the back up of the pre-reconciliation s/h list will be restored to active use, causing much confusion... (Experienced a version of this during a major reorganisation of stock holding for a multinational: to err is human, but to really mess things up big time those humans need computers.)

[Bufferstop]

In the world of computing it's often the case that doing it according to the hard to understand theory is often better than doing it the way everyone knows will work. Backups are for disasters, a stocktake is a routine part of day to day running and your system should include a mechanism to make it simple. Everyone knows that restoring from the backup brings things back, too many people fail to think it through and end up restoring what they have previously spent many hours removing. The joys of life in IT, "You need it by when? "

[GWR_fan]

Remember we are talking of an inhouse computing system that has trouble executing basic operations. They have partially resurfaced with just coaches from the 21st of the month. Also the scale dropdown list is abbreviated.

[Dad-1]

Funny, I'd never look at any Lima model ...........
I want the improved fine detail and DCC options on
a more refined modern chassis.
Luckily there's room in the hobby for many differing wants.

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

I have only two Lima loco's there's the Class 73 in Pullman colours which is probably the least operated of all my models, it currently sits in a display case with 4 Hornby Pullmans. The other is the 94xx sat on a Bachmann split chassis mechanism that shows none of the split chassis traits other than a reluctance to start first time after a few days of inactivity. There are of course a number of Lima models which have been drawn into the Hornby range, with improved mechs.

[GWR_fan]

Alas, one downside of the stocktake is that since the stock was counted it seems that some was "taken". I just received an email from the company manager that a small number of items relisted as instock were actually not. I do not know if my item was one of the unavailable items so will await a response to the initial email received. Of cause I received the customary, "we are really sorry that this has happened" apology.

[GWR_fan]

It would seem that the simple stock take carried out a week or so ago has caused some issues for the company. In the last week only a handfull of pre-owned stock has been relisted - where are the thousands of pre-owned items that have been a feature of the site of late? It would seem that all that glistens is not gold and that some items listed as instock were actually not available (maybe just unintentional window dressing).