Is N scale kits a going concern?

[cgw]

Help;
I have placed a sizable order with N scale kits back in July and have not received it.    All emails requesting a status of the order go unanswered.   Has any railwire member have recent dealings with them?  Are they still in business?    In the past the service was stellar always responded to emails etc.  The only contact information I have is  sales@nscalekits.com. 

[bnsfdash8]

Last November I had to send a couple emails to get my order produced and fulfilled.

You could also try emailing peter@nscalekits.com . That is who responded to me after emailing the sales email.

[thomasjmdavis]

Last thing I saw from them was an announcement saying they would be in Nashville in June for whichever train show that was. 

My last order from Europe (not nscalekits, but another manufacturer) took something like 5 to 6 weeks to arrive (I received a notice from the foreign post office when it entered their system, so I know it wasn't just sitting on the seller's desk).  Long delays have become the norm- between containers sitting in ports and customs delays- on everything not going by air.

[peteski]

While it is true that shipping times between US and UK can be long, if the order was placed in July and now it is end of September, that seems excessively long. But even more surprising are the unanswered emails asking for order update.  That doesn't seem like a good business practice.   Hopefully there is a good explanation.  Cgw, did you check your email Spam folder?

[cgw]

nothing in the spam folder. I check that one daily and delete the junk in there.  Ive ordered several items previously with no issues until now.   That is why I am wondering if something has happened.    I will try the Pete address to see it the works.  thanks for the suggestions folks.

[cgw]

I finally got a response from N scale kits.   Yes they are still in business but have been hammered with several isuues. 

"I have received your note and apologize that we have been tardy and your calls not answered. I am sorry that I have not been in touch. We have had major issues in our production. Sadly one of the team members died and so we have been unable to keep up with deliveries. Then, the company that supplies our etches went under. We had to scramble to get the tools back before they were taken away and probably destroyed. We got the tools just in time, however, we have not been able to get a suitable etch company. We are trying to do so.
 
Therefore, we are behind with production and the shipping of your order, but do expect that we will be able to do so very shortly."

With that said.   They are still around and in business and hopefully soon back on their feet after working through the issues that they are dealing with.

[peteski]

Good to know that you got a response. That is very sad to hear.  Losing an employee in a very small company can be very tough, and adding supplier issues for important parts of the kit, brings on even more problems.  I wish them the best.

I wonder if they could try using PPD, Ltd. for etching - they are next country over on the isles.

[Pizzaparty]

Glad to hear he’s still around. I’ve noticed his product updates went dark as well, as he was putting out quite a few new ones lately

[jagged ben]

Dang.

[sirenwerks]

I keep hoping NSK, or someone else, will offer etched auto racks to o with those earlier intermodal cars. Of course, if they're having etching issues, probably not a good time to bring that up.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Who were they using as their etch supplier?

[u36b]

Who were they using as their etch supplier?

Might be coincidence but:
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/132695-2mm-products-and-queries/page/8/#comment-4941856

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Looks like PPD is still up and running. That is where I had my kits etched. I wonder if N Scale Kits is aware of them?

http://ppdltd.com/

[peteski]

Looks like PPD is still up and running. That is where I had my kits etched. I wonder if N Scale Kits is aware of them?

http://ppdltd.com/

I mentioned this few posts earlier, but if the thread u36b pointed to is about the etching company that NSK (N Scale Kits) was also using, there  is a post stating: My PEC tools will be too big for PPD sheets, so I would need to set up a new tool for a given item, and this could require significant re-arranging of parts on an etch to get everything into a narrower fret.

But we also don't know what size tooling NSK was using.

[garethashenden]

In general, PPD and PEC are the two model railway friendly etching companies in Britain. From my understanding PPD is better suited to small or one off orders and PEC is better suited to kit production. PEC's setup costs are higher, but the total production run in less. If you're doing commercial quantities. All of the UK's etched kit suppliers are scrambling at the moment.