Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

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derekrussan
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Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:02 pm

Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby derekrussan » Sun Dec 13, 2020 6:32 pm

Eileen's Emporium December Newsletter


Ho Ho Ho everyone. Christmas is now well and truly on its way and preparations are being made. We are still here busily working away with the elves in our workshop for anyone who needs some last minute Christmas presents or holiday projects. So check your stock of essentials and make sure you have all the parts to begin or continue your favourite projects over the festive season. All of the elves down on the farm in Gloucestershire will be hoping for a sense of normality in 2021 so the usual elf-antics can get back underway.

Boss Elf may regret asking Daughter Elf to review this newsletter before it was sent!

Once again Eileens Elves would like to thank all of our friends and customers for their support and patience during these very hard times. We couldn’t have got through 2020 by our-elves. (Sorry, bad pun, we couldn’t elf ourselves).

We hope you are keeping safe and well; thankfully the elves here are all fit and elfy (bar one too many mince pies). We are extremely grateful for all of your orders, please be patient with our elves as orders are often taking longer to process than usual due to sheer volume of orders and supply issues.

Our elves are also hearing from some customers about random delivery delays by Royal Mail. (Their busy elves must be a little overworked at this time of year). This seems to be localised as mail is coming fast in some areas and not others. We are also seeing several delays to mail to Europe.

Ok, so next up is the serious stuff! See you at the end of the newsletter for some more elf amusement! Meanwhile, I’m off to put another batch of reindeer cookies in the oven. The naughty elves around here keep finding my hidden stash!

Brexit:

If you know what is happening please tell us. We are as confused as anyone. Unless we have clarity we will be forced to stop exporting goods to Europe for a short time. The main reason is it looks likely that we will have to add Commodity Codes to all our invoices, and with 12500 items, most of which are not clear in the Government definitions, this will take some time. This is only a temporary measure and we will resume export as soon as possible.

Service Status:

We have completed the system upgrades and all is now in place. We are beginning to see the benefits and hopefully you will see them too.

Stock Levels:

We are still patiently waiting for deliveries from many suppliers, including Peco and Gibson. We appreciate the waits for some products have been substantial but are doing our best to work with all our suppliers to provide you with the goods you require. We have just had a delivery from HMRS, but they were unable to send everything needed.

Deliveries from Modelu are imminent, always on a couple of weeks leadtime, but again the pressures of the time of year are slightly extending this.

Due to recent demand, we have run out of a few metal sheets, strips and sections and are expecting deliveries before the end of the year. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regarding Gaugemaster manufactured products, we are experiencing significant delays and delivery dates are unfortunately unknown. This also seems to affect Springside and some Smiths items. We have removed all Gaugemaster controllers from the website as a temporary measure, until stock issues are resolved.

We are pleased to say that overall our stock levels are higher than usual and we are working hard with the suppliers and manufacturers to maintain and improve this further.

Exhibitions:

What exhibitions?? It’s certainly been a while since we were able to get out and about to travel the country. We doubt that there will be any viable exhibitions before the summer, but don’t fear our mail order will continue to remain open for you. We thank those who have used us by mail order for their support.

We are really missing meeting our friends and customers at exhibitions. Hopefully we can meet up with everyone again soon and bring a bit of normality back, whatever that may be.

The vast majority of planned exhibitions are cancelled for obvious reasons relating to Covid. Many will not be back in the same venue or indeed at all. We are hearing from a number of exhibition managers that venues will no longer be available, even after current restrictions are lifted.

The economics of exhibitions will also be an interesting issue, as sufficient attendance numbers need to be maintained in order for many exhibitions to be financially viable. From our point of view, we have fixed costs for transport and accommodation that may not be justified if shows have reduced attendance figures. We will just have to wait and see what happens. As soon as we have positive news, we will be reporting it. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Right better go, as Daughter Elf is likely to be in trouble for elfing up this newletter!



Thank you, Keep Safe and Stay Elfy!

Derek, Anita, Matt and Judith

(Also Known As - Eileen’s Elves)


Visit eileensemporium.com


Tel: 01531 828009
Derek Russan, Eileens Emporium.

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Paul Willis
Forum Team
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Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby Paul Willis » Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:38 pm

derekrussan wrote:Eileen's Emporium December Newsletter

Our elves are also hearing from some customers about random delivery delays by Royal Mail. (Their busy elves must be a little overworked at this time of year). This seems to be localised as mail is coming fast in some areas and not others. We are also seeing several delays to mail to Europe.


The voice of experience says that this is likely to continue randomly, and for some time...

According to our longstanding regular postie, the delays that we suffered a few weeks ago were due to five staff in the local sorting office contracted Covid. The entire team was sent to self-Isolate (postie was bored after two days - he needs railway modelling as a hobby) and a skeleton service was kept going with extras shipped in from the next county.

Whilst they did try and deal with the backlog by delivering on Sundays, there was some time when no post at all was being processed locally, and letters were being prioritised with parcels being held in the regional sorting office.

No blame - everyone was doing the best that they could. But it's a very disrupted world out there!

Take care all at our essential suppliers...

Cheers
Paul
Beware of Trains - occasional modelling in progress!
www.5522models.co.uk

DougN
Posts: 1252
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:57 am

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby DougN » Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:14 am

Derek, I can see you had to use a lot of elfcontrol with your Christmas message to all. The elves will be working over time so I hope you are all observing elfan safety. WE cant have an elf injuries how else can we get such a large volume of desporately needed modelling gear.

Merry Christmas!

Doug
(sorry couldnt help my elf) :D
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

Highpeak
Posts: 126
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:33 pm

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby Highpeak » Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:36 am

Glad to see all this industry, may it lead to continued prosperity. As well it should given the old saying, elf makes welf.
Neville
If at first you don't succeed, try reading the instructions.

Enigma
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Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:49 pm

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby Enigma » Mon Dec 14, 2020 1:31 pm

I'm really trying to look after my 'elf at present.

I need to, she makes a cracking cup of tea................... 8-)

Highpeak
Posts: 126
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:33 pm

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby Highpeak » Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:45 am

I was saddened to read on the website the news that right now export orders are having to be suspended. As Paul Willis noted, it is a disrupted world right now and this must be very disheartening for Derek and the crew.

Maybe a useful addition to the Extreme Products division might be a set of Red Tape Cutters, I'm sure they will come in very handy at times like this.

Will keep a patient watch on the site and hope things sort themselves out for the better. Illegitimi non carborundum and all that.
Neville
If at first you don't succeed, try reading the instructions.

derekrussan
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:02 pm

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby derekrussan » Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:36 am

I was saddened to read on the website the news that right now export orders are having to be suspended


It is indeed a nightmare at present. I feel for my export customers The export issue is not specifically Brexit related. We had assumed that we would just make a simple change to set all EU customer to no VAT and that woud be done. However, both out main shippers (Royal Mail and DPD) started a clamp down on export documentation just before Brexit, which means I have to send them more data. To be fully compliant this includes the Commodity Code, Price, Weight, Material Composition and Country of origin for every single item. To do this on 12500+ items will take a long time. Compounded by manic order levels because of lockdown and supplies form several main suppliers running out for the same reason (it takes far more effort to not send an order than to send one) means the process is not really started yet.

We have been running test on orders outstanding over the end of the year and the systems I use now appear to be compliant. Just a ton of data to add. (If anyone likes playing with spreadsheets and has time of their hands and is willing to help get the data together, please let me know). As an example I just sent an order to an export customer (not EU) and the CN22 was auto filled by my system and ran to 3 sheets.

The Royal Mail and DPD expectations are logical for large exports of thousands of pounds, but for supplier of low value items thay are insane.
Derek Russan, Eileens Emporium.

Highpeak
Posts: 126
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:33 pm

Re: Eileens Emporium Newsletter December 2020

Postby Highpeak » Fri Jan 29, 2021 4:39 pm

Thank you Derek for taking the time to provide a detailed explanation of the situation. Here's hoping you overcome the problems, but it still represents a considerable diversion of effort for no apparent gain which must be frustrating.

BTW, I bought a chassis jig from you a while ago and have had excellent results with the two chassis I have assembled on it. If I can do it, I think anyone could.
Neville
If at first you don't succeed, try reading the instructions.


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