Fox Valley Models?

[Chris333]

Is Matt still having health problems with his son? Perhaps that is why he hasn't been around.

[John]

"ParticularlyWierdRailroadSite north of the border run by the Knights Templar"?

PWRS

[kevlarcat]

Me too...  Plan to avoid FB until the day I die, but apparently it's the only way some of these companies communicate now.

I've sent several E-mails to three model railroad manufacturers over the last few months (three to NWSL and two to FVM) inquiring about products and none have been answered.

So it appears that if you don't join FB and pose any inquiries on their FB page, you're SOL for getting any response. 

JB

Don't worry they don't reply to facebook messages either.  I sent them a facebook message in November, along with a few emails before that looking fuel tank I need for a GEVO, and no reply.  I get if they don't have it, production was a while ago, but just tell me no

[sirenwerks]

Me too...  Plan to avoid FB until the day I die, but apparently it's the only way some of these companies communicate now.


I've sent several E-mails to three model railroad manufacturers over the last few months (three to NWSL and two to FVM) inquiring about products and none have been answered.

Yes, some companies depend on FB for their "comms"; but most of those are companies that believe communication is a one way street - company sells to consumer (consumer does not speak).  Look at  Walthers and Kalmbach.  Then you factor into it the whole political dislike of FB, right now.  It makes me laugh, FB is the new enemy, when all it is another media stream that you need to develop realistic expectations about.  Well, taht and you need to keep it away from your daughter...


Laughably, there is this double edged belief system around email.  That just because there is an email addie, it works, and that someone is eagerly awaiting your email to immediately respond to it.  Now I know how frustrating it is, the idea that a business establishes an email address and then never uses it but it seriously doesn't get written into the communication addendum of their business plan most of the time, when the business person is savvy enough to have written a communication plan.  When a model railroad manufacturer doesn't respond to me I immediately call the police, knowing it's just a front for cocaine distribution or human trafficking.  Seriously, I laugh at myself for saying this (and my eight year old, even my wife, look at  me in shock and disbelief.) but, remember before email existed?

[nkalanaga]

Yeah, but before email, one could reasonably assume that snail mail would get a response, IF one remembered the SSAE (remember those?).

[kiwi_bnsf]

Yes, some companies depend on FB for their "comms"; but most of those are companies that believe communication is a one way street - company sells to consumer (consumer does not speak).  Look at  Walthers and Kalmbach.  Then you factor into it the whole political dislike of FB, right now.  It makes me laugh, FB is the new enemy, when all it is another media stream that you need to develop realistic expectations about.  Well, taht and you need to keep it away from your daughter...


Laughably, there is this double edged belief system around email.  That just because there is an email addie, it works, and that someone is eagerly awaiting your email to immediately respond to it.  Now I know how frustrating it is, the idea that a business establishes an email address and then never uses it but it seriously doesn't get written into the communication addendum of their business plan most of the time, when the business person is savvy enough to have written a communication plan.  When a model railroad manufacturer doesn't respond to me I immediately call the police, knowing it's just a front for cocaine distribution or human trafficking.  Seriously, I laugh at myself for saying this (and my eight year old, even my wife, look at  me in shock and disbelief.) but, remember before email existed?

I'm sorry, but if a business cannot be bothered to answer a polite well-formatted email that is asking a business-related question like "can I buy some spares for your product X", then it would be more honest just to close up the business.

@nkalanaga analogy of email to snail mail is apt. There are only a few platforms left that allow direct communication without a broker — mail, phone, and email (Gmail aside perhaps), at least allow direct communication without a filter, broker, or indexer.

My experience of across multiple model railroad manufacturers (Kato, ScaleTrains, Briggs Models, Intermountain, Atlas, and others) is that they generally reply to a polite email within a few days.

Matt has not replied to any emails from me for more than a year — simply wanting to purchase some more stock in bulk. I really hope that his family situation is improving and that his son is doing well.

Facebook is more like the modern equivalent of Amway — you have to opt-in and can only see all the deals if you are a member. It's just for many (me included), the terms and conditions of membership are not acceptable.

Doing business or communicating solely by Facebook is not going to serve the wider market.

[JeffB]

Yeah, but before email, one could reasonably assume that snail mail would get a response, IF one remembered the SSAE (remember those?).

Yes, remember the SASE quite well...  It was the only way to make inquiries and/or correspond with manufacturers and some mail order retailers for quite a long time.

I'm sorry, but if a business cannot be bothered to answer a polite well-formatted email that is asking a business-related question like "can I buy some spares for your product X", then it would be more honest just to close up the business.

@nkalanaga analogy of email to snail mail is apt. There are only a few platforms left that allow direct communication without a broker — mail, phone, and email (Gmail aside perhaps), at least allow direct communication without a filter, broker, or indexer.

My experience of across multiple model railroad manufacturers (Kato, ScaleTrains, Briggs Models, Intermountain, Atlas, and others) is that they generally reply to a polite email within a few days.

Matt has not replied to any emails from me for more than a year — simply wanting to purchase some more stock in bulk. I really hope that his family situation is improving and that his son is doing well.

Facebook is more like the modern equivalent of Amway — you have to opt-in and can only see all the deals if you are a member. It's just for many (me included), the terms and conditions of membership are not acceptable.

Doing business or communicating solely by Facebook is not going to serve the wider market.

My thoughts exactly.  My E-mail inquiries were polite, though my most recent to NWSL was rather terse as it was the third in about 6 months.  The lack of replies is rather frustrating.  They clearly want the business, but can't be bothered to reply to an inquiry.

Not sure what's going on over at FVM, if the proprietor's child is sick, my heart and best wishes go out to he and his wife. 

JB

[bman]

Interesting. I had an email converstion with FVM back in Dec concerning an order.  My questions were answered quickly. I wonder what the difference could be?

[peteski]

Interesting. I had an email converstion with FVM back in Dec concerning an order.  My questions were answered quickly. I wonder what the difference could be?

Maybe emails from some domains (or for whatever other reason) are marked as SPAM by the FVMs mail server, and nobody's bothering to check the SPAM folder for possible non-SPAM emails there?  Emails don't just vanish - they get delivered, and either discarded or forgotten, or they could get rejected and bounced back to the sender.

[kevlarcat]

I understand things were different back in the day where phone was king and some businesses still act that way, but honestly if you are a small business email should be your primary form.  They can be responded to any time, if your small everyone can easily be out of the office, in a meeting, dealing with another customer or even in the bathroom when the phone rings.  Plus anyone who has worked phones knows how much time some people can waste talking about irrelevant stuff, when an email cuts all that out and back to productivity.   And my last reason would be anyone out of country it can get very expensive fast to make phone calls to the US.

Anyways I hope they can pull through and get back going, with so long out of production it's probably just Matt at the company and that can be alot to handle.  I have many of their engines and they made a great product. 

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  I agree that emails don't just vanish, but, very rarely, they do get lost.

I emailed a New Zealand newspaper ten or fifteen years ago about their website (don't remember just what).  They posted addresses for their various department heads, and I sent it to their webmaster.  No response.  I wasn't really surprised, as I wasn't a subscriber, or even in the same country.  Six months later, I got a notice from my email provider that the message was undeliverable, as the address didn't exist.  Sure enough, looking at their site, they now had a new webmaster.  I wonder where the message had been for those six months?