[ssammi]

I had the same problem of late deliveries a couple of years ago.

To say Hornby Magazine were disinterested would be an understatement. As I recall, I couldn't even get an indication of what they considered to be acceptable delivery times.

The disdain from some UK magazines to overseas customers is shown by how often subscription specials, even digital ones, are limited to UK subscribers.

In the end I voted with my wallet.

 

[Bigglesof266]

Hi Peter. In an advisory non receipt email, I concurrently related that the problem had developed into a consistant one for AU ROW subscribers, that HM under MW editorship was still my favourite of the genre by far, but that I'd never sub solely to digital copy at any price having tried the digital format over time vide a 12 month promo sub to BRM.

Enjoyment, which is my raison d'etre for subscribing, on a 9.7" tablet screen encumbered by older eyes of typical railway modelling age demographic just doesn't rate in comparison with holding tactile copy in one's hands for my money.

Maybe they'll care, maybe not We'll see. An aside as regards the magazines advertisers who should care where they spend their advertising quid. I buy almost all of my railway modelling kit from the UK, my bicycle stuff too, from Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles (IE). They do a lot of business down under, so they care about their reputation in AU. Model rail suppliers out of the UK do a bucketload here too in my observation given the dearth of supply of other than fast moving mainstream items locally, and silly pricing of said mainstream items locally where available due to an outdated SLD model. The AU Hornby distro doesn't even answer warranty or service emails re locally procured product.

 

[hoonsou]

I emailed last Friday, morning in England and no reply or acknowledgement as of today Wednesday. Also, no July issue of the mag' to date. No renewal after this last issue arrives. As ssammi says, voting with my wallet.

 

[Bigglesof266]

No July issue here yet, now that you mention it. Pretty shabby. Back in the bad old days, it once used to arrive circa 28th of release month through 2nd of cover month with something resembling consistency. OTOH a wheelset of x2 bicycle rims in large protective cardboard boxes ordered from CRC IE routed via the UK arrived yesterday, delivered to my door in 5 calender days. I expect delivery Thur of another large item from the same origin, ordered Sunday. Surely arranging predictable (subscriber) reliable timely delivery of a prepaid tactile paper magazine to reach the end user in undamaged condition shouldn't, couldn't, be THAT difficult?

I think you are both right however about UK mags not giving a toss about their magazine's advertisers' adverts reaching ROW subscribers regardless we spend the significant proportion of our British Outline railway modelling budget with UK businesses. Tacit coercion to accept Digital Sub as the easy 'solution' for them is the only interpretation I can place on the behaviour.

In common with ssammi and you, I declined to renew my sub a couple of years back after a series of similar lost, late and too many damaged incidents with HM issues became the consistent norm rather than an aberrant occasional irregularity. This current (24 month) sub was a gift from my wife, tempted by nothing to lose promotional ROW pricing at the time I dare say.

 

[34C]

QUOTE (Bigglesof266 @ 18 Jun 2017, 00:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Here's the thing. Riddle me this if you would? How for instance, can Chain Reaction Cycles or Wiggle UK get a bicycle wheelset, cycling shoes, pedals, clothes or a myriad of other items to me consistently and reliably delivered to my door in less than a week from time of ordering, yet in 2017, HM can't seem to manage arranging regular delivery of their magazine to ROW subscribers in AU which releases to newstands the first week of the month preceding its nomenclatural cover issue before the release of the subsequent month's cover edition? If I ordered a one off hard copy book from Book Depository UK it reaches me faster, within 7 or less days usually, properly and effectively protected from sorting machine, handling or weather mishap in a purpose designed effective cardboard packaging all included in the cover price of the book a mega savings over High street bookseller pricing?
I suspect you know the answer. Small volume mag publishing operates on low - and declining - margins, certainly as far as the UK is concerned. Their distribution technique uses the lowest available price contractors to obtain bulk mail rates for printed material as a result. It became very apparent some years ago that the UK mail distribution was no longer reliable in conformance to agreed release dates, thus 'embargoed' information reaching readers ahead of the agreed date. The delivery contractor simply does the job at lowest possible price, and never mind requests for timing to be observed.

It's a hopelessly dated model for overseas distribution. Send the content down a wire or on a memory card airmail to a major Oz publishing house, and have them print it. Who wants to fly dead tree all over the place?

 

[hoonsou]

Totally agree with what you say about sending it electronically to be printed here, but we may have a breakthrough here. I received two emails from Hornby today which I'm sure they won't mind me putting on here, one of them anyway.

Hi Peter

The mailing house have said they have changed the distributor from the July issue. You should have received the July issue by now so I will send a replacement.

Please could you let me know when you receive the August issue to see if the change of distributor has made a difference.

The last issue of your subscription is September.

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards
Liz Ward
Mail Order and Subscriptions

I thought my last issue was July, so I'll see how the next two go after that issue.[/color]

 

[Darra]

At a newsagent today and saw the latest newsagent copies of Hornby Magazine and Railway Modeller which would be the May issues. On the shelf immediately above were the July issues of both magazines with a sticker on the cover saying special air freight and Gordon & Gotch (the australian distributor). The only downside to this is that they are charging about 6 dollars more for the airfreight copy (i.e. about 50% more). I hope they don't abandon the standard newsagent copy.

Keith

 

[Graeme Wilsonf4]

The digital version of august hornby and railway modeller available today and downloaded.

 

[hoonsou]

Well so much for the change of distributor, the postie's been, 24th of July and no August issue. Not bad considering the rest of world copies are supposed to be dispatched on the 8th of the preceding month. Anyone else had their August issue yet?

 

[Bigglesof266]

No appearance Your Worship.

Taking precedent from the distributor prior to the previous one, I won't be holding my breath in expectation of an appearance before 1st August. That was pretty consistently best performance, with the occasional exception a day or two earlier or later.

 

[hoonsou]

Righto, two Hornby mag's arrived today. One is the August edition in a brown envelope, marked as being monitored which I thought would have been here well before this and the other is another July edition. I really don't know what's going on here, but it doesn't bode well for me renewing my sub's. I had already said earlier in the thread that I wouldn't be renewing, but then Hornby said they were going with a new distributor which is the one that this August issue came through. Unfortunately, I don't see much of an improvement.

 

[Bigglesof266]

This will be a bemusing illustration of privatised AU (postal) inefficiencies.

Your sub copy would have been received out from Underwood sorting centre redirection for Bribie 'surburban' LPO delivery (Wed), and mine should have been received at the same sorting and distro centre too at the same time for redirection to the regional post office sorting centre from whence it is forwarded to the LPO agency (40km further north ...along the Bruce Highway with a minor diversion to the eastern seaboard) for sorting and delivery by the LPO contractor. Less than 300 road kilometres north of you (3 hours easy drive) along the Bruce Highway. Let's see how much longer August's copy takes to reach me here? I'm surmising out of Brisbane on Wednesday? Friday here, if I'm lucky. Monday, ...or Tuesday if the multiple stage handling and 'we no longer deliver mail five business days per week' but per typical corporate language obfuscation 'select physical mail delivery occasions' service delivery standard (chokes) policy permits the weekend to intervene.

 

[hoonsou]

Come on now, we have the bestest postal system in the world... except for UK of course.

 

[Bigglesof266]

Lo and behold, oh 'me' of little no faith.

Update
The August issue in its regular clear plastic cover turned up with this morning's postal delivery Peter.

To be fair, having been a Hornby Magazine subscriber off and on for most years since shortly after I came (back) to railway modelling in '09, with periods of subscription lapse following protracted periods of disenchantment with erratic and tardy delivery, e.g. arriving very late, or damaged - either waterlogged with the pages stuck irreparably together rendering most of it unreadable, or front and back covers plus pages torn or spine crushed in multiple places by mishap with the sorting machine, through not arriving at all, arriving two to three weeks after UK news stand release date in the last week of that month is consistent with about as good as predictable delivery of it has ever consistently been. When I used to sub to "Model Rail" as well back in 2010 through about 2013 as I recall, its underwhelming delivery predictability and overall performance was much the same, also changing distributors frequently.

P.S. Spoke too soon. Just went to pick it up to have a quick glance through it to notice the top of spine all torn and fractured along the first 2" of its length. Sorting machine (?) mishapitus .....again.

 

[fliermike]

As a USA resident I have been subjected to the huge fees for UK magazine subs.
Now I get Hornby Mag. and Railway Modeller electronically.

Hornby Mag comes via Pocketmags and RM via Exact editions.

Question, can anyone suggest or advise on a suitable method of printing selected pages.

 

[hoonsou]

I and many others don't like the digital copies, Much sooner a hard copy. As far as printing pages out, I've heard it can't be done, maybe because of some sort of copyright thing. I stand to be corrected here.

 

[hoonsou]

QUOTE (Bigglesof266 @ 27 Jul 2017, 10:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Lo and behold, oh 'me' of little no faith.

Update
The August issue in its regular clear plastic cover turned up with this morning's postal delivery Peter.

To be fair, having been a Hornby Magazine subscriber off and on for most years since shortly after I came (back) to railway modelling in '09, with periods of subscription lapse following protracted periods of disenchantment with erratic and tardy delivery, e.g. arriving very late, or damaged - either waterlogged with the pages stuck irreparably together rendering most of it unreadable, or front and back covers plus pages torn or spine crushed in multiple places by mishap with the sorting machine, through not arriving at all, arriving two to three weeks after UK news stand release date in the last week of that month is consistent with about as good as predictable delivery of it has ever consistently been. When I used to sub to "Model Rail" as well back in 2010 through about 2013 as I recall, its underwhelming delivery predictability and overall performance was much the same, also changing distributors frequently.

P.S. Spoke too soon. Just went to pick it up to have a quick glance through it to notice the top of spine all torn and fractured along the first 2" of its length. Sorting machine (?) mishapitus .....again.

Ain't that the truth. I think the "sorting machine ? mishapitus" should be a recognised phrase nowadays too. I consider myself very lucky that the brown envelope August copy that arrived with said envelope torn and tattered was actually in good nick

 

[fliermike]

Just looked at my Sept edition of RM, I see there is a print feature which I tested.
It prints a pdf file of the current page to the "downloads" folder which can then be opened and printed.

Would be nice to see the same feature for Hornby Mag.

 

[hoonsou]

Well the September issue arrived on the 28th of August... not good enough ! That was the last of my subscription and I'm not renewing. I don't suppose it bothers those that run it, but I wonder how many other 'rest of world customers' they've lost.

 

[Richard Johnson]

*** You have to laugh...

September edition arrives several days before the start of September... and its a problem

----------------

I have long argued with all of the mags that their dating helps nobody in the readership - but they all say they do it because it gives them a longer shelf life in the larger distributors.

Eventually, who is kidding who with the cover dates .

regards

Richard