Why are Schumacher utterly incapable of keeping parts in stock???
 

Seriously, everytime I try to order from them half the items are not available in stock, and when I do place an order for items that show as in stock, by the time they ship they aren't in stock and they dump them out of my order without telling me so I have to do it again and get hit for postage again.

How can they manage their inventory so incompetently?

Why not order from one of the larger UK stockist's then such as oursleves, MK, Apex, PBM, JE, Microtech etc etc, you will probably find the reason Schumacher dont have stuff in stock is because we have all brought it and put it on to our shelves......

When you order with most "shops" you dont get charged for back orders either, using the UK network of shop dealers is often far better (and cheaper) than the the factory direct who really only offer their services to the public as a last resort option for hard to find items.

Your comments are the exact reason why we still dont use a stock checker online here at DMS, since VERY FEW are accurate and as such a waste of time in our opinion. Nothing a quick phone call or email cant reslove before placing the order.

What a crazy attitude to have in 2009!

There are loads of sites out there with reliable stock levels, it is easy to implement (even free ecommerce software has the facility to do this), all it takes is a little effort, and you will reap the financial rewards.

I have no experience of Schumacher's stock control but it is a bit worrying that a distributor and manufacturer are not on top of stock levels. I wonder how often the trade customers are let down on orders? This is a tough economy, now more than ever is the time to get the orders right, otherwise they will stop coming in altogether.

I'm not sure the cheaper ones have live stock picking though, certainly I have seen duff info on ecommerce sites before!

The issue is it's easy to say in stock, even "5 in stock" at 5pm before closing for the night, but if 6 more are ordered overnight unless you have live stock pick someone gets told it's in stock when it isn't. Or if someone comes in the shop at 9am and buys one off the shelf before you've done the overnight orders!?

Plus even the best systems rely on correct info being manually imputted when stock arrives (you don't want to know how much a barcode scanning solution would be!!

I'm not sure I know of any shop which has a storefront and webshop who can be 100% accurate, though it's doable for a web only store!

Most free sites are based on the osCommerce architecture which is a completely live stock system (if required), over-ordering is impossible.

In-store purchases are slightly more complex, depending on the layout of your shop and the number of customers you have it is harder to track stock, obviously you don't want to take items out of a customers basket because it had been ordered online the night before! However the instances when this will happen are very rare. Look at a shop like Modelsport or Microtech and they basically run a "trade counter" operation.

As you say, correct stock control as it comes in and goes out is fundamental in any business and I'm sure a shop the size of DMS have a strong system in place for that.

Cass..

What part(s) are you after, If Darren at DMS cant help you then Im sure someone on here can, I might even have it myself or maybe two :thumbsup:

Lee

Yeah, although my last order from Modelsport had an out of stock item missing when it was in stock in the website when I ordered. In fact somewhere about a third of my orders from them have exactly the same, in stock items becoming out of stock!

Live stock levels seems to work here at JEspares, can't fault it. If it didn't work then it'd make my life hardwork explaining to customers who thought we had stock, which is also bad news for customer satisfaction. No information is better than bad/wrong information ofcause though.

The thing is, banks are putting pressure on companies to reduce working capital (stock) due to the state of the economy, and therefore the wholesaler (Schumacher) try to forecast more tightly which results in reduced stock - and no availability more often. The shops are also under pressure to stock less, but the wholesaler wants/needs the shops to stock more of everything for the system to work. Vicous circle, getting it right is very hard to do.

For myself, I prefer some indicator than none (so if stock is low, I get a move on with the order!).

Another advantage with something like osCommerce is that it makes your stock visible to search engines and price comparators - whenever I Google to see what stores have particular items, DMS never shows up in the results. That, if anything, is even more critical.

Signing up to Quidco (even if it's just a tiny discount) may reap dividends too.

The reason I was inclined to order at schumacher is that they generally have the best categorisation of parts and one would assume they ought to keep more inventory than their retailers. Looking up on their site then finding them on another uncategorised site is painful.

With a properly stocked store that is automatically reordering inventory when it gets below a certain depletion level, then having live customers buying should never be a problem either assuming reorder triggers are set correctly.

So can anyone recommend a shop that categorises parts as well as schumacher and tracks+maintains a large inventory? I don't really see the point in introducing a middle man if they will then have to order from schumacher themselves introducing delays for no benefit to the customer.

So, are Schumacher still struggling to supply CATs these days? I just can't understand the constant high unavailability of essential parts. They never have a complete body shell + undertray + wing available, I ordered spring kits and only got one end, my ARBs got cancelled etc etc. Simply infuriating!

This time I just wanted some preglued yellow minispikes... They only have them for one end of the car... Quelle surprise.

We have Preglued's at JEspares in stock.

Schumacher are wholesalers, and in theory its the shops/retailers who should stock the items. Schumacher shouldn't need to. End users should buy from retailers and wholesalers shouldn't really have a facility for end users to buy directly from them.

Everything you mention in your post we currently have in stock (except front spring sets) We also have 9 variants of the CAT kits on the shelf and our spares are amongst the highest in stock in the UK

Its not a crazy attitude at all, it is testement to the other posts that follow below yours that many of the online stock checkers ARE NOT accurate, this does not interest me in the slightest for our business.

We carry over 24,000 lines at DMS (more , I think I am safe in saying than almost anywhere), and we "stock it heavily" too. I am not prepapred to spend 1,000's of our money on "top of the range" software and fully automated EPOS systems that will be less money spent on the most important thing of all...stock!!

You show me a system that can be had cheap, that is 100% accurate, with an "easy" way to add 24,000 lines to the inventory that includes mobile barcode scanners for when we are trackside, then DMS will add it to our system instantly. This is where many of the other shops score highly, they dont sell trackside, whereas we do to support the racers, this adds the "sell it when it is already sold" equation in which we simply do not want to do. It would only take a few instances of letting customers down with "promised" stock that was "available" online and customers would leave in their droves, we simply cannot risk that, nor can we justify the 1,000's on the system that would be needed to avoid it...

Dave, thankyou my point exactly, we are both a walk in store (30% of our business), online webshop (65%) and trackside store at the weekends (5%) this system just is not viable for us at present as I mentioned above, maybe we should stop supporting the meetings (I dont think so) then the stock never leaves the building though.

As I mentioned above, we are not just a "trade counter" but a full on shop and this is why this kind of system just is not possibel here at present all of our stock control and stock checking here at DMS is manual, as in our invoicing as anybody who has used us will see.

Also, just how big do you think DMS are, (you make us sound like a Supermarket!! LOL) We are a one shop enterprise with just 5 members of staff (3 are part time, 2 full time) that is it, we are not as BIG as some poeple obviuosly think, we just service a LOT of racers....

Thanks Chris, my thoughts entirely too

PMSL.... :lol:...
Perhaps people just expect too much nowadays, but all we can do is our best.

People seem to forget, its a Niche market and its a lot to expect shops to stock every item as things move on so quickly, its not like selling paperclips, DMS take on a lot of risk by stocking so well.

i expect way to much - is it to much to ask for one A final win or for my wife not to nagg at me for 1 day

lol

Ive not seen you race for ages mate, are you back? :thumbsup:
Well.... as for your wife, im sure she would love to stop nagging & you probably deserve it though... :lol:

Not back full on, Just now and then - but the A final dream is still there- just a longer pipe dream now

Anyway my point remains, Schumacher ought to always have stock of parts for their most recent kit!

Whilst I'm here, anyone know if traxxas parts are hard to get in the UK? Want to buy an eRevo brushless but if parts are a problem maybe not!

is that the limited edition E-revo with the Castle Creations unit in? its a MONSTER of a truck, I love it, and we have one in stock. Getting Traxxas spares generally seems to be easy enough. They are very strong anyway.

Chris what colour is it?

Also do you know if I can get trakpower 4900's in without butchering the battery holder? I've seen pics in the US where they have dremelled it to death but I was wondering if I could get the battery in using a L type corally connected to a traxas battery plug. Wonder why there isn't a traxxas section on oople as I know we've just gone savagely off topic.

jEEEEZ, You had to go and make me look at it again, I love it!!!

Its Blue and Black.

The cell compartments are both 28mm high approx, height of 4900 2s trakpowers are 23mm, so yeh its certainly do-able. There are some vents into the cell compartment where the L connectors could go through..... infact, what you are suggesting is exactly what I was talking about with Ryan here last week..:thumbsup:

We measured the compartments last week, because Trakpower list Traxxas cells designed for the VXL, but the compartments are not tall enough for these in the E-revo.

arghhh gonna have to think hard about ordering this now!

Have a look on the Traxxas website, there are some video's of it on there in action and it looks to go as amazing as it looks! :)

Yeah I've watched that about 10 times since Christmas when I wanted to buy it originally! Thing is I find I don't have time to race so am bashing my CAT, but its shell is getting a battering as its a bit low riding for the terrain near me. Just not sure its sensible to buy another car given how short on time I am already :( My neighbour came out with me on Sunday though with his Tamiya POS. Once trying my CAT he is pretty keen to get an eRevo so hoping he will pull the trigger first and I can then make a decision and verify that the trakpowers definitely fit without butchery... I'll point him at you guys if he does, although I want blue so would prefer he got a different colour lol.

I can resist everything except temptation.

Just pulled the trigger on that e-Revo Brushless! Neighbour very jealous. Are you getting more stock Chris?

Cool :thumbsup:, make sure to take some photos and videos.

Josh tends to stock parts and upgrades for most things, so I can't see why not with this. If you do see anything then do pop him an email with the part number ([email protected]) and he'll get it. The thing is, ive just found full time employment, im not sure if this particular job is for me just yet but im in need of money (and I am extremely grateful to Woody for recommending me), but now I am working I won't be at JEspares. Although I may go in for the odd Saturday here and there, and if business picks up I have told Josh im keen to work for him full time as its an ace shop and enjoyable work.... in the meantime, do ask me stuff, I do remain supportive to the shop and can find out stuff ofcause.

Good luck with the new job! Running a model shop seems more like a labour of love than a route to millions in the bank so its nice to support them. I only ordered from Josh because you posted here and it helps the website was easy to navigate :)

Will have to order from DMS too at some point!

Well thanks mate :) glad we (JE) could help. Hope it arrives quickly and let me know just how jealous your neighbour is. Its a fantastic machine, very impressive, if it was mine the time spent with it not running id spend looking at it. :lol:

I think neighbour will be buying one as long as this isn't a complete turkey ;)

Josh was saying he thought this was a limited edition model, but I don't get that impression from the marketing. Anyway hope not as that wouldn't bode well for parts supply.

well its arrived. Waiting for when I escape work!

Yeh I thought the same as Josh, I think the chassis and stuff is not limited, just the fact that it has the castle creations combo unit in there. I was under the impression it'll have there own or another unit in there which will be the unlimited edition.

This would be possible to accomplish in a number of ways though, if it's worth the effort is another thing.. but let's say you plan to go to a meeting and bring a lot of parts. Then the system only needs to have a function which enables you to "tag" or temporarily "check out" the items which you bring to the track. Let's say you bring a quantity of 5 items of a specific article. If there was 10 available at the store, then as soon as you "check out" the parts i.e when you close the store on friday or something, the web shop now says 5 items are available. When coming back on monday, remaining items are checked back into the system. Depending on the sheer number of items you actually bring to the track though, this might be more or less of a realistic option. The process for tagging / grouping checking out parts could also be made more or less automated for repetative use.

Another solution is of course to equip all items with bar codes and log all purchases. Either stay online all the time through a laptop with 3G modem or periodically check in the purchases being made every hour or so.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it is infact possible through clever use of software, it all depends on wether it's worth the effort or not.:)

Thanks for the input, although the sheer amount we take to the meetings would possibly be a problem for us.

We take a "full shop" not just a few odd spares, plus we would have to look into the cost and time involved to implement such a system before it would become a real possability, it already taks us most of monday and somtimes into a tuesday to get all the stock unloaded and back onto the shelves properly, any more admin would only slow this up even more sadly.

You are right it is a fantastic machine. The design is very advanced with push rod suspension etc. Clearly big budgets+heavy R&D were involved in creating it.

Being new to modern RC, the thing that surprised me most was how different it drives to the CAT. It weighs a LOT more and you can really feel that in the controls and how it responds + jumps. I was wondering if it would make the CAT feel redundant, but totally the opposite. I love the way the cat is so light on its feet whereas this is a real bruiser. It just eats up a rutted bit of grassy scrub land where the CAT gets tossed all over the place. In fact I can drive in this area pulling massively long wheelies it is so stable+large+heavy, in contrast the CAT can easily get flipped there unless I get the opp lock in just right when it gets launched sideways etc.

I have it setup with the more conservative spur and 2x 2s 4900 trackpowers. Still more than fast enough for where I was playing and I could make it 20% faster just using the included optional spur. 6S must be insane.

Unfortunately, it took me about 10 mins to break it :( broke an outer UJ on the rear axle. This is a little ironic as I bought this car to keep the CAT intact as the CATs custom painted shell was getting battered from bashing. Someone had built up some pretty big jumps at my normal bashing spot and I couldn't resist. I didn't do any terrible landings but half way through I spotted a drive shaft was hanging out... Not sure why it broke although I then realised the wheel nuts weren't tight from the factory - doh!

Anyway love the car, shell is already scratched from sliding along a carpark 3m on its roof. Oh well! Maybe some ARBs would help with that...

Also gonna order some 9000mah 2S SMC packs from the US. Should give me massive run times even if they are a bit heavy. Can then keep the trakpowers for my CAT!

Sounds like you been having a scream mate! :D thats what it is for anyway. Well sorry to hear about the driveshaft. If you send the Part# to [email protected] we'll get some in. If you want something harder, someone must do an upgrade, there is always insane amount of upgrades, roll cages and stuff for these... :thumbsup: