Eileens Emporium Newsletter Summer 2021

[derekrussan]

Eileen's Emporium Summer 2021 Newsletter

We would like to thank all of our friends and customers for their support and patience during this pandemic and the challenges it has created for us all. We couldn’t have got through it by ourselves. We here at Eileen's hope this finds you fit and well and you are enjoying the summer.

As the weather is nice (ish) we won't keep you long, but we would like to make a few announcements and keep you updated.

HOLIDAY CLOSURE

Now that the summer is here, we too would like to enjoy some time with our families as well as needing a break from working continuously through the pandemic. Therefore we will be closing the office for a few days for our summer break. We will be shut from end of day on Friday 13th August 2021 and will resume on Tuesday 24th August 2021. We recommend placing orders no later than Wednesday 11th August 2021 if you want them before we close, we will do our best to ensure as many orders as possible are sent before we close, but are unable to make any promises. The website will remain open for orders throughout, and will be processed in order of placement.

TELEPHONE LINES

We are sorry but we currently have an issue with our telephone lines and are unable to access voicemails. We are working with our supplier to get these issues resolved as soon as we can, meanwhile email is the best way to contact us. Thank you for your understanding with this.

NEW PRODUCTS

We are delighted that Peco have released the long awaited Parkside PC90 BR(E) 13T steel body hopper wagon in 4mm (our part KPC90). Supplies have been intermittent as Peco are struggling to keep up with demand. We have had several deliveries of these and currently are awaiting further deliveries from Peco. They were out of stock for our delivery a couple of days ago.

We are also now stocking Dapol and Knightwing kits, these will only be available at shows if pre-ordered.

Modelu have added many new products which have been added to our website. Why not take a look.

EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions appear to be slowly returning to the circuit. Many will not return, or will be in a different location or format, mainly due to venue issues. Under the current circumstances all show bookings must be considered as subject to cancellation or change. We will take a very cautious attitude to shows. We want to do our best to protect our customers and ourselves. The economics of shows presents a variety of challenges, with high fixed costs (including much higher hotel costs) and potentially lower attendances. Therefore we will be taking a reduced size stand to shows for the foreseeable future and strongly advise pre-ordering via our website.

The only confirmed bookings we currently have are the Great British Model Railway Show, Gaydon, 30/31 October 2021 and Warley National at the NEC 27/28 November 2021.

EXPORTS

Great news, we have now resumed international shipments, with a few changes. At present we are only shipping items that can go by post. This means that there are limitations with a maximum of 610mm packed length, maximum of 2kg with no Royal Mail banned or dangerous items. After suffering a number of postal losses at the end of last year we are now tracking all international shipment for security which has increased the shipping costs. We are working on resuming international courier deliveries over the next few weeks.

Deliveries to Europe are currently being shipped without VAT being added, so shipments will be subject to Tax and Handling charges at your border and will need to be paid by you. We are close to implementing a Tax paid solution using IOSS which will slightly increase the shipping cost but should be a lot cheaper than the Post/Courier Tax handling charges. We will keep you informed of progress.

STOCK INFORMATION

We continue to maintain high stock levels, but are still seeing slow deliveries from some suppliers. We are also suffering from a growth in the Cancel Culture, whereby more and more customers are cancelling orders when we are not able to complete immediately. Please be assured we do our best, but are limited in what we can achieve. All cancelled items or orders cost us time and money (payment handling charges). The biggest issue is with Modelu figures, please note that we stock several hundred Modelu figures, but as we have a choice of over 7500 on the site it is not possible to stock all of them, so they are are on a 2 to 3 week leadtime. See the next item on displaying live stock levels.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENTS

We have been working with our website designers and believe we are very close to being able to add real time stock levels. This should gradually appear over the next few weeks. So you will be able to see if the item is in stock or can be pre-ordered awaiting delivery.

Many of the products we sell are complex to put stock levels on the website. For example, we offer Parkside 00 kits in 3 different wheel options, but they need the same base product. So it has been hard to show the availability for all of them so only the 00 are physically held in stock. Similar issues apply where we sell the same metal sections in different lengths.

We are also planning to change the way in which product options are displayed on the site, hopefully making things more obvious and simpler for you our loyal customers.

Watch out for the changes.


Thank you, keep safe.

Derek, Anita, Matt and Judith

[derekrussan]

Within 24 hours of posting the newsletter, Warley is now cancelled.

[bécasse]

The resumption of export, even if it is temporarily restricted, is excellent news, thank you, Derek, as I realise that a considerable amount of work was involved. I had anticipated major problems, and had consequently made two substantial orders before the Customs' barriers came down, so I am not anticipating having to order again in the near future but knowing that it is again possible is very reassuring.

The use of IOSS is more important, at least as far as I am concerned, for any deliveries that need to be made by courier as our postal service, bpost, has set up a remarkably efficient appli for the notification and payment of Customs' duties and TVA.

[essdee]

Hoping you all enjoy a relaxing and well-earned holiday break, team.

Superb service as ever, my order placed late Tuesday 10th Aug. was delivered this morning 12th Aug. - so, many thanks for that 'heads-up' about your holiday plans.

All best, and keep well and safe,

Steve