discussion Airfix - With me firmly kneeling on a prayer mat!

[spanner570]

A while ago I bought the Airfix 1/72 Lancaster Bomber kit from a BBMF presentation set. This I purchased privately. I knew beforehand it had been opened and it was delivered to me as such.

It arrived well packaged. I gave the contents a quick once over and put it to one side.......
Last week I decided to build the model. I found to my horror that the kit contained two port side fuselage sprues and no starboard one!



Yes, I know, how could I miss this when I first looked at the sprues? Search me, but I did. Perhaps I was checking for any smaller bits missing, rather than a huge bit of plastic...
Anyway, I figured that although I have no proof, the mistake had to be at source in the initial packing, so I've emailed Airfix explaining the facts and enclosed the above image.

Due to the circumstances of my request, I have offered to pay for the replacement sprue.

Other than an auto received message from Airfix, I have not received a 'human' reply.

I will keep members informed should anything happen.

Cheers.
Ron

 

[peterairfix]

I had this plenty of times with airfix they are genuinely quite good at sorting out these issues

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

Not the first time this has happened with a kit.
They claimed in the tv show that they boxed the kits in the UK , so can't blame anyone else

one example @

https://www.reddit.com/r/modelmakers/comments/pmf32r

 

[Geoffers]

Fingers crossed you manage to get it sorted Ron.

I’ve found them to be helpful if they still have spare’s available. It’s a recent tooling so you should be ok :thumb2:

Geoff.

 

[Guest]

I had an Airfix Fw 189 kit years ago that had two sets of upper wing halves but no lower ones. After I contacted them about it, I got the missing parts mailed to me fairly quickly but with no real replies, notifications or anything, so chances are your sprue will suddenly show up too.

 

[davecov]

They claimed in the tv show that they boxed the kits in the UK , so can't blame anyone else

The kits might now be boxed in the UK along with decals and instructions but the actual plastic parts are sealed in bags at the point of manufacture, such as India and elsewhere. Having said that, some new kits (and QuickBuilds) are produced in the UK.

Dave

 

[Tim Marlow]

Bit of a bummer Ron. Of course, there is almost certainly someone somewhere who has the exact opposite issue…..doesn’t help you though.

 

[Ian M]

Bit of a bummer that Airfix tend to be large with packing errors. I got a buccaneer kit once that had two full kits in the box. I let that one slide.

 

[Jim R]

I hope it's sorted quickly Ron.

 

[Mini Me]

Oh bad luck 570!....is there anything that you , Idu and the "boys" could get yer teeth into in the meantime?

 

[Valeron]

I think they'll respond properly. Last year my newly purchased Mossie had a similar problem with one sprue missing and a duplicate of the other side.

I got the automated email and then a proper reply a few days later. They replaced the sprue for free, although did request an original purchase receipt.

 

[spanner570]

Thanks for the comments chaps.

An update such as it is.........

I sent my first email on 27th Sept.
Then on the 8th Oct.
The latest one on the 21st Oct.

On each occasion I had an automated message........'Request Received'

Wouldn't it have been nice after all this time to simply receive a human response as to what course of action Airfix intend to follow?

It's only a replacement sprue I would like. Is it that difficult a problem that it is taking so long to resolve? Or at least to simply contact me!

Ron

 

[Mini Me]

Sorry to hear you still have no satisfaction from the Airfix "service" dept. It will only get better when AI takes over and you'll never talk to anyone with a pulse......oh, and you may not get even an automated response because you are a lowly human. Methinks we need to go back a century or two and start over! Hope Idu and the boys are doing well. :thumb2:

 

[spanner570]

Still waiting for some kind of response. Another email sent today.

A robot kindly informed me that 'my request has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.'.....for the fifth time!

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

Still waiting for some kind of response. Another email sent today.

A robot kindly informed me that 'my request has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.'.....for the fifth time!

If you use facebook go add to one of their posts there, they tend to be very quick on the defence there, so maybe that will light a fire under someone.

 

[Allen Dewire]

That's really a shame Ron and hard to believe a big firm like that won't even give you a proper human answer.

I had a similar situation recently with a set of resin wheels from DEF in Korea. I mailed them and included a pic of the problem. I had an answer in less than 24 hours and it was from the boss himself. I was also the first person to ever bring the prob to his attention and he said he would correct it accordingly...

Sorry to ramble on in your thread and I do hope you get some satisfaction soon Sir...

Prost
Allen

 

[spanner570]

Last week, I sent a polite reminder to Airfix's 'Customer Department' stating that I hadn't heard from them (A human, that is) since my initial request for a replacement sprue for a 1/72 Lancaster Bomber I've purchased. I have two port side sprues and requested a starboard one, so I can build the model....

Yesterday I received an email from an Airfix human being denying I had ever sent them ANY emails.

I have on record in my inbox all emails sent to them and the auto response from Airfix.
How can they deny not having ever received them?

I have the patience of a Saint, but to be more or less accused of lying is getting into serious grounds.......

 

[Jim R]

This is becoming more and more common. Some businesses, not all thankfully, seems to think that "telling lies" is an appropriate way to deal with customers.
What I don't understand it "WHY!". Surely companies realise that nowadays, with all this online, social media stuff, how they treat customers spreads like wildfire.
I hope you get things sorted. At least you have evidence.

 

[Andy T]

Not good Ron. Let's hope that now you have a real life human involved you'll get a speedy resolution.

 

[Waspie]

Post your grievance on Face Ache. Including them accusing you of lying.
That usually stires companies up.
I did recently with Boots.
After weeks of being ignored via email and phone. Took less than 20 minutes after posting on faceache to elicit a response.