I am a big buyer of Lucky Model products. They have always been responsive and reliable. But, I have hit a stone wall with them. I want to get the Voyager AM parts for the M20 and M8 Armored Cars. LM has them for $16.99 and $20.59 respectively (total $37.58). However, every time I put them in my cart the price zooms. Last week the two we shown as $82.56. I contacted them and was told the problem was solved, only to try again with the same results. Today, after receiving another assurance the problem was solved, I put the items in my cart...result $58.17! Has anyone else experienced this problem with LM? I sure hate to go elsewhere given my previous track record with them.
Thanks
DJ

I suggest to use the exsisting thread as it’s being monitored by LM’s customer services staff: https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/122059&page=11#2271037

Dear DJ,

Sorry the duplicate record has been solved. As we are doing some Windows server upgrade. The bug fix has been delayed for few days.

Now the item is ready for order.

Raymond

Dear DJ,

The item is fixed. I tried it with no problem. Can you email me directly [email protected] ? As I can see the price without problem.

Regards
Raymond

Raymond-- problem solved, thank you
DJ

The problem with Lucky Model is that if there is an issue you have to go public to get them to fix it. I was screwed over repeatedly I would message them and when they did respond they would have a so what kind of attitude. Other times they simply erase the complaint. I have been dealing with Hobby Easy since leaving Lucky and they are quick to respond to an issue and quick to resolve it. I wonder if the issues I had would have gone away had I gone public at the time.

Dear Greg ,

I am not sure if I help to resolve an issue is a bad things ? Me and my CS staff has tried their best to response/reply on time to your request, but not everyone can be fixed right away. Especially nowadays so many email spam blocked our reply and making us we don't reply to you.

We have move our email services to gmail and hopefully the reply is timely and accurate.

Regards
Raymond

Raymond, these were messages left on your system. I would place large orders, I would watch items come and say that they are being held. Then they would be given to somebody else and when I would write to ask about it I would be told that you would be getting more in 6 to 8 weeks. I ask to not have stuff from my order taken off any more but they just continued to do it and I would write to complain. I would log on to check the status of the messages and they would be sometimes be deleted or offer me store credit. I had been dealing with Lucky for years and then this became a nonstop issue for about 4 or 5 months so I stop using your service. The worst one was when I pre-ordered two Voyager sets for the Tamiya SU-76M. One came in a few days before the other one and by time the other one came in it was given away. Again I was told 6 to 8 weeks.

Dear Greg,

First of all, I apologize the services that we rendered in the past few years. Your problem came from the warehouse optimizer program where we engaged a serious warehouse space issue in HK warehouse in the past 3 years, therefore, our system always trigger the optimizer to kick out as much as pending order out of the warehouse. The reason is owning to the ever increasing order from the wholesales and export department (container based shipment, not retailing).

I have been working all the day to resolve all kinds of matter non-stop. First back to 2015, we try to outsources some of warehouse services to handle the local sourcing in mainland China, however, the result is not desired so we pull it off. Therefore from time to time, our services changed from time to time. (Sometimes fast, sometimes late).

Your bad experience in undetermined shipping time has been helped with expanded purchasing team in HK and China. We used to be a system to automatically restock item from vendor in china, however, seems we need a "person" to call and trace the shipment everyday. Now, we can have a better purchasing time located in mainland to speed up the services.

Until 2017 Feb, we finally rebuilt our own China warehouse with finally 15 times bigger the one that we have in HK (2200 SQM), but the system modification and operation is set until Dec 2017 as staff training and all kinds of software modification required. During the 2017, we partially group all the China made brand into our warehouse as a buffer to "store" and forward all the goods onward. If any customer place the order recently in the past year, when the item is reserved or being packed in China the wording (RESERVED in GZ or HK). Since 1st Jan 2018, LuckyModel has 2 packing center to manage different product origin (China and overseas). For goods located in China, the date from being pack and posted to post office with 1-2 day more. But recently we experience some additional delay if the goods transfer from China to HK being hold by China custom. But the max date is not more than 3 days. All aftermarket from China will still be managed and stock in HK. Mainly the plastic kit will be fulfill in our China plant.

Base the warehouse space limitation has been resolved, the warehouse optimizer program (reallocated stock to different pending orders) has been fully stopped since then. Therefore, your concern on whether the item being reserved would go to others would NOT POSSIBLE TO HAPPEN AGAIN (except we cannot find the item in the warehouse).

By 2018 April, we are test running with our overseas warehouse in Canada. We have time line to make our Canada warehouse full operation by Oct 2018 to fulfill orders located in US and Canada with stock preloaded (mainly Kinetic at the moment). These can cut back the shipping time from 10 days to 3 for North American customer. The most important one is the oversize model kit shipping cost can largely reduced. The website is now under modification to reflect on the services.

A new button in CS ticket will be deployed to services ticket, - a COMPLAIN button. That means in case of unsatify response from our CS staff, once you press the "COMPLAIN" button, your ticket/request will arrive my mailbox and our senior manager. And I will look after the source of the reason and we will hammer it to resolve from the ground up to avoid the issue from happening again.

Those are the physical resources that we have invested in the past years, but more importantly, we are almost in final stage to deploy the fully automated order status notification services where a new ordering procedure will be in place to let you know each line of item being processed and more accurately on the delivery timing. In fact, we are dealing with PayPal to see if we can offer the "charge as goods reserved" policy (not confirmed yet). That means we are planning to provide an option for you to backorder something that does not require to prepay upfront and waiting for whole shipment to be shipped (or at your instruction to ship partial or full shipment).


As mentioned in other thread, the customer say the nowadays LuckyModel is not the old day one. The customer services not as good as before. As the owner of LuckyModel, I must confess that LuckyModel retail operation has been setback on certain aspect for years. This is mainly due to my time has been occupied with the establishment for Kinetic Model (well, not a short period of time, Kinetic is 10 years old now!). The software used still running some Windows 2003 and 2008 server, where I don't find the time to manage upgrade (same as the management team).

But the good news I want to share is - I am back at LuckyModel ! After working very very very hard for 10 years, finally we have setup a team to look after the model kit production with a good tooling partner. So I can devote more to renew the operation.

if you have any question or help, please contact me directly at [email protected]

Regards
Raymond

Raymond, that actually makes sense to me I have developed warehouse programs in the past. Thank you for this update.

Greg

Dear Greg,

Thank you for you understanding and look forward to serve you soon.

Regards
Raymond

I had the very same problem a few years ago and dropped Lucky Model from my shop list.
Tried back a few months ago and have been highly pleased.
Raymond, you have a new old customer !

Folks, the best solution is NOT to order something that isn't in stock. That way your money isn't tied up waiting for the restock. You can email them off their site and find answers to your questions. And if there IS a problem, you can see that LM is quick to resolve it if possible. Bravo to Luckymodel!!

The only problem I have ever had with Lucky Model is not having enough money to spend there. Raymond has been quick to reach out to anyone here who has had an issue and resolve it. Don't see that much anywhere else.

Some of the items I ordered were in stock.

Been ordering from lucky model for years and on the rare occasion where an issue arose these were quickly resolved after an e-mail to them. I feel the issue here isn’t the company, but the software and we have all had software issues, I would have no hesitation in recommending Lucky Model and their customer service.

costumer since 2009, very pleased with CS and the priced are good

I get that, but most of the issues I hear about with LM are about items that are OOS. I'm glad Raymond has cleared things up, as he and his crew are stand-up people.

Try to empty the cache of your internet browser. it might help.