Hattons new Website Oh Dear.....

[Byegad]

I can see Track Shack and many other sellers will see an increase in sales too. Hattons are huge in the model railway world but appear, having taken careful aim, to have cunningly shot themselves in both feet!

[Bigmet]

...When testing a site the individual who "tests" the site should not be either the web developer or an IT savvy person. A site needs to be tested by some one with little to no IT experience as these people actually see the "faults" the designer missed.

Quite so. It needs to be tested by a sample of customers, for whom it is 'just another utility'.

[Admin4]

I think thats what they have everyone doing, for free

Its important to send them any feedback you have, if enough people have the same issue it will encourage them to change it before it fully goes live and the old one is no more

[Bufferstop]

A site needs to be tested by some one with little to no IT experience

In many cases that is the web designer.
I'm sure that's not the case here, but their previous site was designed entirely in house and there were several places where although a perfectly practical method it did not follow usual conventions, like having "my account" halfway down the left hand navigation pane.

[Admin4]

It might be linked to thier new website, but Hattons look to be more active on eBay as well: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/ehattons

I have a few alerts set up, one of which is for P class locos and its gone nuts recently with new listings - turns out they are all from Hattons

[Bufferstop]

Flashy new website to go with their very grand exhibition stand. All very refined and minimalist, definitely trying to out do you know who, " our big H is bigger than yours "

[Chops]

Well these days I do most of my British purchases at Mountain Goat's. It's pretty simple as he usually has just one item in stock at any given time. His motto is, "If I don't have it, you don't need it." High marks for courtesy and speed, although shipping is usually done by a tramp freighter and it makes stops all over the globe before getting to El Paso. Gives me something to look forward to!!

[Mountain]

Haha Chops. My problem is that when I was modelling in 00 gauge I bought too much. I had a mad few years when I used to work on the railway. I had a garden railway in mind. Never did get to run trains in the garden. One day maybe.
Actually, looking back I did run a train on about 10 ft of track outdoors and did a few other tests, and one of those tests had me run a Hornby 0-4-0 converted with a larger cab and chimney into 7mm narrow gauge. Then I converted it back to 00. Many years later it went through another conversion back into 7mm narrow gauge and became this:-

[Chops]

That is a delightful piece. I wonder what the draft would be like on the prototype?

[Mountain]

Not sure. Her chimney was made from an ink cartridge from a fountain pen.

[GWR_fan]

It might be linked to thier new website, but Hattons look to be more active on eBay as well: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/ehattons

I have a few alerts set up, one of which is for P class locos and its gone nuts recently with new listings - turns out they are all from Hattons

Looking at their seller feedback it is quite some time since model railway items were sold (listed) on their eBay site.

[Bigmet]

It would appear that Hattons are having another go at website 'redesign', to degrade what is easily the best and most useful model railway retail site, and reduce it to a similarly useless muddle as that proposed two years ago. It's so bad this time, that the feedback form doesn't work. I suppose that's a sure fire way for the s/w developer to be able to report no customer problems received as feedback.

Right: paper, pen, envelope, stamp. Gonna write me a letter to Richard Davies.

[Dad-1]

Bigmet,

Don't mock the good old written word, but aren't postage stamps expensive !!
This from a guy who is trying to arrange a postal AGM with voting forms. I've
just spent £39 on stamps !!

Geoff T.

[Byegad]

Yes visited Hattonsonline the other day after a couple of N gauge locos. I'm sure Rails will be grateful for my order.
Totally useless search/layout and (un)ease of use. Hattons have not only shot their N gauge business in the foot with their spat with Bachmann but they've then removed the entire other leg with their site downgrades.

[vespa]

My account was no longer there when I went to check any preorders. It was finally fixed but if anyone has a preorder for anything check you still have an account or you may not have the order for what you want. It now takes nearly a minute to load secondhand items.