Intermountain is Cancelling Reading F7's and more

[Mark5]

 ;D

[Ian MacMillan]

Anyone here ever hear the song "You Can't Always Get What You Want?"

[bbussey]

Bryan,

I cannot consider you impartial since IM distributes ESM.

Heck only 18.4% of the announced stuff (including ESM, RC, etc. in the tally) was cancelled. 39 out of a possible 212. Many more "TBD".

Are they really all re-releases? I hesitate to post them all here.

Either people like this kind of marketing, or they don't care. Time will tell.

Mark the chest thumper! ;D

Mark,

While IM isn't the only distributor of ESM, this is an overall issue and hasn't been brought up just with IM.  Again, if anyone has a better suggestion on how to determine whether or not to re-run a roadname on a model, now's the time to make it known.  The bottom line is, for whatever reason (the economy, over-saturation, non-interest) 18% of the announced items didn't hit the reservation quota and were canceled.  Better that than to have the product manufactured and not sell, and delay/prevent new products overall, new paintschemes on existing products, and re-releases from coming to market.

[Puddington]

John; If this get's me in trouble; I'm sorry.....................

I can't believe this junk..................you guys want to tell a independant company how to do business.......unreal...........y'all know about the free market...right ?

You get one vote - it's your wallet - buy or don't....... period. You don't have the inside information to tell IM how to do business; I don't care if you worked for them or not - unless you own it, you're just on the outside. Why does anyone think they have such perspective on the situation as to tell IM what to do....? Just who "tells" you what to do with your business.....?

You have an opinion as a consumer; express it; most here have; and I'll assume that IM knows all about Railwire and checks in........ But there are some "Monday morning quarterbacks" here that just "know" more than the guys that have their skin in the game...their cash; their houses; college funds and groceries..................If you don't then maybe it's time to express your "opinion" rather then telling everyone what IM is doing wrong as fact........I really get my Irish up when people make facts out of their opinions - it's  not a crime; sin or unrealistic situation for a model railway company to announce their intention to make a _______ F unit and then; when all ecconomic indicators indicate they will suffer a financial loss; cancel the project............Go ahead; defend the other side ? "You should lose money so I get my____________________" Anyone wanna jump on ?

There's been lots of good commentary here - cancelled roadnames are an issue we should discuss but folks; we don't own IM; we don't pay their bills; we don't have to live with the financial results of a failed release and we don't run their firm. If they want to release intended names; cancel when orders don't warrent a run then I, for one: understand and support that approach. To be P'd off with that way of doing business is silly - Yes; if one of the "gonged" roadnames was Canadian Pacific I'd be P'd;  but if my CPR mates and I can't stand up and be counted then what leg do I have to stand on......? None.

You don't like pre order........ ? Well; too bad. It isn't your money that will be flushed now is it ? Which one of you will stand up right now; commit to opening an n scale model railway firm that will announce projects and produce regardless of pre orders.......? Your market research is THAT good ?  Anyone ? And; if you will; then we'll schedule your bankrupt in minutes party right now......... no one would do that in this market.

"Cash is king" men.............learn it; love it; live it.........that's business. IM is doing business; and until we have an entirely new model across the industry where announcements are cast in stone and will guarentee the mfg a profit, you'll have to understand that cancellations are part of the hobby and live with it - and with some decorum if you please...........

Disagree ? - ok; sorry........refute the facts if you will......................

[bbussey]

So what you are doing is subsidizing those more costly schemes by taxing the least costly.  Sort of like a government transfer payment.  Why not let the costs fall as they may and let the market decide?  Maybe the demand for those higher cost schemes will be reduced or even disappear.  But the decision would be in the hands of the customer who would have no grounds to gripe.  If you want it you should be willing to pay for it.  Hey, I would like to drive a Lexus I just wish I could get one for the price of a Corolla.

Because it's my product to market and my decision.  Just as it's your decision whether or not to buy it.

I guess what it all boils down to is that we have this box called the pre-order system of production planning and everyone is thinking inside that box.  That is short term thinking.  Who is thinking about who will our customers be in 10 years or 20 years?  The pre-order system is a hand to mouth system and is short sighted and dooming this hobby to go the way of the dinosaurs.  

It's ALREADY been 20 years, so why do you consider it "short-term thinking" now?  You've been in the hobby at least that long - a better question is: why is this an issue for you in 2009 while it was not in 1989?

[Ian MacMillan]

Guys,
Our resident manufacture insiders and employees have been nice enough to give us all an insight as to how their respective parts of the industry works.  I urge us all to look at it that way insider info, some of it from the #1 guys.

Everyone is free to let their favorite so and so know that they would like to see this and that made, and in the same respect be a bit disappointed that this and that may not make the cut. But a business is not designed to please everyone. It it is designed to make a product that a majority of the people will want and not everyone is going to be happy. Some companies put out products at a loss to help those of us who want "smaller" roads done but they cant do that all the time.

Everyone here has the ability to start their own company to produce their own product. You may not have the capital up front, but it is relatively easy to seek it and or grants....Keeping it going, well thats a business and for you to judge on how your products do.

If you dont like something, voice your opinion to their customer service, or vote with your wallet, but remember no manufacture, model railroad or otherwise has an obligation to make you happy if you are not their market.

[bobcat]

It's funny how when Rapido announced that they would not be running roadnames that have been announced, the same kind of firestorm didn't develop. A bias in the way of Intermountain seems prevalent to me here.

Thankfully, after said announcement from Rapido, I for one pre-ordered a set of cars that I quite honestly didn't want to, but in order to save that run, I did put an order in. I guess enough others thought the same and that road was saved from a no go.

[haybros]

Guys...

Everyone is having trouble with capacity these days.....

The manufacturing sector (worldwide) has taken a hit along with all other sectors during these challenging economic times. Many credit lines have been slashed or have totally vaporized. Consequently many companies (Factories) have gone bankrupt or out of business and shuttered their doors... employees have returned to the provinces... Near-term capacity has suffered.... Many projects are now delayed and some as we see have been canceled....

Sometimes some things just have to bend so that other things will not break....

Bill Hay
www.nscaleloads.com

[John]

I agree with what Ian stated above. You have heard how the system works from someone who actually puts up the money, takes the risk, and brings the product to market. I believe him when he tells me things about the process. The rest of us only can speculate how things work. I would no more tell Bryan or Craig or Traincat, or any of the other folks who actually manufacture things that are on this board that they are doing it wrong. For the most part, they actually bring to market things that we want to buy.

And with that, this thread is on the verge of taking a turn that will just get people pissed off, so it's time to lock it down for now.

Cheers