My experience with Gosford Hobbies in Australia

I cant say I have had this sort of experience in the UK with any model / sundry suppliers, some are super fast & super efficient, while others can be less so.

As for your suppliers attitude, it stinks like burning bodies. I have come across other companies / suppliers in other areas like this, they seem to be run by staff / management who have forgotten their ultimate purpose & dont give a s***. Some are like little pseudo-gods under the illusion that their customers are part of their despot & should do as they are told - the whole concept is beyond my comprehension.

I understand your frustration! 

Hey Wirraway, what are you trying to say? I guess seeing you are in QLD that me being in Western Australia, Gosford Hobbies is not very helpful?

I can fully understand your plight as waiting along time doesn't warrant a 'stuff up' more like a WHAT THE........You must have the patience of a saint as I know I would not be gracious if it took that long.

Have you tried Firestorm Hobbies in Victoria, I have ordered items from these guys and found them very efficient.

Cheers Jim

Yep, I cant speak highly enough of Firestorm hobbies, KT.  I was recently building my old Series III Landrover and GS traiiler for the Military Veterans GB.  The resin conversion kit was short of some pioneer tools (I thought)  Firestorm put me in touch with the guy that makes the Mouse House products.  Turns out it was my stuff up, I had the Testors kit and the conversion is for the Italeri Kit, which comes with pick and shovel.  But I got some resin tools posted to me free of charge.  THIS is the type of service that I will come back for, every time.

The other thing that burned me about the e-mail from Gosford hobbies, was his use of the term "bits of plastic"  Anyone that has any sort of love or interest in the hobby wouldnt refer to kits as "bits of plastic".  Another glorified Toystore masquerading as a hobby shop.

Thanks for posting your ordeal - too bad the person who needs to read it will never see it, but a helpful warning to the rest of us!

Even though I'm on the other side of the pond, I've had great luck with the Aussie company OzMods and his exquisite 1/144 figures and bombs ... and I just learned a new phrase. I think. Stuff up. I will have to try this at the next staff meeting and see if I get fired or not.

Mfsob,

Yes you should definately try that one out at your next meeting, if any of the employees "stuffs up"

Stuff up-  To make a gratuitous blunder or mistake which could have been avoided

Stuffed-  Extremely fatigued, after strenuous physical activity (eg: I'm totally stuffed)

Stuff you- Needs no explanation really, the Aussie equivalent of (screw you !)

Get stuffed-   usually used in preference to the "F" word if there are ladies present

Stuff about/stuff around What lazy employees do- taking an inordinate amount of time to do a relatively simple task (eg: will you blokes stop stuffing around and just get it done)

I'm sure any of the Aussies on FSM will be happy to guide you through our local lingo.

I've had the misfortune pleasure to work with many Aussies, and have picked up quite a bit of "Strine", enough that I can convince myself that Aussies actually speak English!

I would disagree with you. I have always found Glenn (the owner) and most of the staff extremely helpful, and there are a number of issues that it appears you don't understand.

The first one is that comparing a local retail hobby shop in a country with a total population of 20 million to two of the largest mail order specialists from a country with 300 million is comparing apples and oranges. If we assumed that 1% of the population is involved in the hobby, that means there is 15 times the market available in the US. Given the market size, repuations and business types I am willing to bet that there are far more staff working at Lucky Model or Sprue Brothers than at Gosford Hobbies. Additionally, they are not shops- they are internet/mail order warehouses. While they present there own unique issues, they avoid a whole lot of others unique to operating a physical retail presence.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the hobby industry in Australia, but most, if not all of the wholesalers in Australia, only order stock when they can ship it all in one go, and do not always hold great quantities or even the entire range that they import. More importantly, parallel importing doesn't happen. Look at the issues surrounding the importation of MPM. I have waited about 9 months for an Aires order, and know of other issues involving the unwillingness of the importer to import part of "their" range and refusing to allow anyone else to import the items the didn't want to. If the wholesaler doesn't have it in stock, then the retailer waits. It's as simple as that. No amount of phone calls, email requests, letters or any other form of communication will make a wholesaler obtain a product and dispatch it any faster.

Complaints about having to provide your credit card number are a bit foolish- as a security measure they are not retained beyond when they are actually processed- and trust me when I say Glenn is in a much better position than most to conduct risk assessments in regards to credit card fraud. It's pretty damn hard to charge something using a card number that you don't have after the authourised transaction has been completed.  

 I note that you didn't include your email, only the reply. Would that be because your email was not quite as polite as you would like to make out? One of the reasons that Australian hobby shops have such a difficult and tenous existence is that people who are not aware of the entire situation lambast people in public fora and reccomend going overseas. Australian hobby shops are at a significant commercial disadvantage due to limited customer base, and high prices charged by import companies with exclusive import contracts. They cannot compete commercially with mail order specialists based outside the country with a customer base covering several continents, particularly when the value of Australian dollar is high.  Personally, I would suggest that you understand the underlying conditions before you start firing in internet forums.

Given Glenn's background, comments about not loving the hobby are rather offensive and completely untrue. Prior to opening Gosford Hobbies, he produced a line of Australian figues in white metal. The only reason he sold the company and moulds was they he couldn't run both Gosford Hobbies and Ozmade. Plus, he opened and has been running a hobby shop for a number of years. He certainly isn't doing it for the money (there isn't enough in it). Fundamentally, he sells kits or starves. Accurate criticism is one thing, uniformed comments another.

Finally, what we do is not all that important in the grand scheme of things. I take my hobby very seriously, but given my background, and in full knowledge of Glenn's, him reminding you that it is only a hobby is probably good advice. An apology was offered for the mistakes concerning the missing email, your money was refunded, and you decided the have a shot via email. Your received a reply you didn't like and elected to fire away again in a public fora never expecting a response.  I would suggest other readers keep in mind a fundamental truism- there is your version, there is my version, and the truth sits somewhere between. 

tl;dr

i see you joined today, welcome. kind of a looong response to an older thread. you don't happen to be this "Glenn" fellow himself come to reclaim his honor, are you?    Did you join today just to reply to this?

Nah,

       I'm not Glenn- I'm about a foot taller and 10 years younger. Have tended to lurk here for a while- mainly hang out on Hyperscale/Britmodeller (as Thenarc).  Mostly got sick of not being able to get into articles with links from there....

Bill Watt

just to add, do you know it is actually a breach of Austarlia's Anti-money Laundring laws to keep a whole credit card number on file?

anyway thats a bit off topic - I have used Gosford Hobbies for about 6yrs, and if you think its difficult in QLD, try living in Tassie to get quality hobby stuff and I have always found them helpful and great to deal with.

Having twice been into the store on trips up to NSW, you couldnt find nicer people to be honest, not many hobby shops give you a cuppa while you browse about the shelves! on the last trip I even got invited to their 'Hobby Club Night' with a trip to the local pizza place before the night started. I didnt leave until about 11pm that night, and came away with a bunch of painting tips from the guys (and three lady modellers too) a stack of kits, paints and more importantly a few good friends including Glenn the owner, and the above formentioned Bill - and yes he is taller haha.

look we all make mistakes, emails do go missing and i can assure you Gosford Hobbies is not a 'toy store acting as a hobby shop' those guys are passionate about their hobbies, but they do also realise that at the end of the day, they are just bits of plastic, not anti-cancer drugs... and if you think I'm not, come and have a look at my converted garage and the 32 (yes 32 is NOT a typo) 50litre plastic containers full of unbuilt plastic kits, the 3 airbrushes, compressor and spray booth, - 99% supplied by Gosford Hobbies - all I can say is keep up the good work guys and I hope I can get to another one of those club meeting sooner rater than later.

Shane

CallSignOWL

tl;dr

i see you joined today, welcome. kind of a looong response to an older thread. you don't happen to be this "Glenn" fellow himself come to reclaim his honor, are you?    Did you join today just to reply to this?

Yes, Interesting.  A thread sits dormant for 6 months, then resurrected by someone steadfastly promoting the company.  Hmm, did you come onto the FSM forum and just randomly decide to search under "Gosford Hobbies" ?

Interesting that you feel you have an intimate knowledge about someone elses financial transaction with the company.  I guess friendship has clouded someones objectivity ?  And no, I didnt keep my reply to them, but "Stuffed Up" was as passionate as it got from my side.  Why dont you ask your mate Glenn if he still has my reply ?

At the end of the day, I dont care how big/small/overworked/understaffed/passionate/dispassionate a company is.  They put themselves out there in the mail order market, they either compete or sink.    It was a simple transaction, they blew it, and abused me in the process.

They may be as nice as pie to your face when you are in the shop, but I didnt have that option.  I had a worthwhile beef, and decided to air it.  If I had posted this on Aussie Modeller, I guess you could have come charging to their defence last year !

Wirraway

I agree.  What the heck...  This thing was long dead...

For the record, in ol' what's his names post (ironically his first post on FSM... hmmmm) many of the challenges he suggests are being faced by Aussie hobbyshops are EXACTLY the reason why those shops should be STEPPING UP their customer service.  Seems like this place (and I have had ZERO experience with them, so cannot offer a real opinion) has things a little backwards...

Can't wait to see what happens in here next!

bbrowniii

Wirraway

I agree.  What the heck...  This thing was long dead...

For the record, in ol' what's his names post (ironically his first post on FSM... hmmmm) many of the challenges he suggests are being faced by Aussie hobbyshops are EXACTLY the reason why those shops should be STEPPING UP their customer service.  Seems like this place (and I have had ZERO experience with them, so cannot offer a real opinion) has things a little backwards...

Can't wait to see what happens in here next!

Yep, and then we get another guy on his first post defending them as well !  Perhaps they'll round up every satisfied customer they have on the books and get them to start a letter writing campaign on this forum !

Really, how many people in the 'states would have used them anyway ?   The Aussie/Kiwi modellers that I know of on this forum you could count on both hands.  I blew off some steam here because this is the forum that I hang out in.  I cant believe people could be so precious about it.

Hi Guys,

I too am currently having a bad experience with Gosford Hobbies. :(

Sorry to say, yes, this is my first post and I wish better circumstances had prompted me to seek out this forum.

Here's my journal so far:

May/2012 - I made an order using Gosford's website.

July/2012 - having not received my order, but having been charged the for it, I inquired to it's status. Apparently the order had been missed but will be expedited right away. That's fine, we all make mistakes...no harm done. It's all cool.

August/2012 - still no delivery. I send another inquiry to Glenn as to the status. No reply. Ok, so what's going on. Suddenly customer service and good communication has gone out the window? I have no idea if the package is enroute, delayed, forgotten.

August/2012 - another email to Glenn. No reply. What the heck is going on? I've been billed the money...that part of the transaction sure worked flawlessly. Are they out of stock? Can't send it overseas? Been on vacation? That's fine...just let me know for cry'in out loud.

I hope to update you on this as things develop. In the meantime, buyer beware!

Thanks for reading my rant....I needed to get that off my chest. :P

Talagor

Let us know what happens.

 Ron

Status Update:

August/2012 - another email to Gosford. This one is just asking an acknowledgement that my emails are even being received. No reply.

August/2012 - 5 days later I finally get an email reporting that another duplicate package has been sent in addition to the first one that was allegedly mailed. I hope the second one will be expedited.

September/2012 - the second package is received. Upon opening it, I discover that the received order is incorrect. One item is missing and has been substituted by a different one. I expect that the first package should eventually show up.

+++more status later

Who1

Complaints about having to provide your credit card number are a bit foolish- as a security measure they are not retained beyond when they are actually processed- and trust me when I say Glenn is in a much better position than most to conduct risk assessments in regards to credit card fraud. It's pretty damn hard to charge something using a card number that you don't have after the authourised transaction has been completed. 

with the amount of credit card fraud reaching into the billions of dollars per year, i don't think being cautious with your card is foolish. In fact i'd not have sent my card details by email, period, which is not only unencrypted, but openly trackable. it is not 1990.

Apparently they haven't learned anything over the last three years.

Status Update:

October/2012 - original package still not received.

I saw this topic and couldn't help myself. A friend of mine is taking the store owner to the department of fair trading because he wrongfully advised her on a product for her 10 year old daughter and then refused to exchange or refund it.

I will let you know what happened when it goes to hearing.