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I can tell you exactly what retailers do, and more to the point don't, get. GW don't do special deals for anyone. They don't do volume discounts either. They used to, but found that it obviously benefitted big web retailers. Exactly what they don't want.

Many web retailers charge for delivery, so include the delivery to net the discount down to a delivery inclusive figure. I also know that some retailers charge a Paypal surcharge. So compare the price after all charges have been levied with websites like ours that do free delivery and don't charge for Paypal.

Please note, I'm really not trying to promote us as a web retailer. Even after charges I'm sure there are many sites cheaper than ours. How do they do it? You can do the arithmetic. Ask yourself what other costs a retailer incurs to acquire, store (even if only temporarily) and despatch products to you. Arithmetically they can be losing money on every sale of GW products.

I would assume they do this in the hope that once you've bought from them you won't bother to go anywhere else so that in the long run they will acquire you as a customer, regardless of price.

We all have a slightly different business model. I happen to think ours is sustainable in the long term. I assume, but I may be wrong, they think likewise. We've been trading since 2003 and have seen plenty of Rocket Hobbies come and go. We stood and watched as Maelstrom grew to a multi million £ business, at least in turnover. They adopted a time limited big discount model. They went bust. I think, and I may be wrong, that customers came to expect the big discount offer to be repeated. When the offer ended, sales fell, forcing the offer to be repeated in ever decreasing circles.

Even with a tiny positive margin, which believe me does not exist at 30% discount, any changes (like closing down sales outside the EU to UK based retailers) can hole a company below the waterline. There is no magic formula; there are no secret deals. Just arithmetic. Its not difficult to generate turnover and its easy to calculate profit. I assume, but I may be wrong, that everyone understands the difference.

Our model is simple. It is based on sales all making a contribution towards the long term survival of our business. Its based on an assumption that GW will continue to find ways of squeezing, and possibly at some point eliminating, internet margins. It is based on delivering a consistent service, and attracting customers to our bricks and mortar store. If I'm allowed one plug, its for the B'n'M store. Click the link in the signature to take a Google virtual tour of the store. That is our business model.

Just out of interest I picked a web retailer currently advertising 25% off GW products. It would seem they don't take Paypal so this is a twist on the Paypal surcharge but the effect is the same, it saves them about 3% in costs. Shipping is £2.99 and delivery is quoted as 5-10 days.

The price, with the delivery charge included, is £29.24, which is 16.5% discount off the RRP of £35.

The Advertising Standards Authority deem this sort of advertising misleading. They will take action, if it is reported to them, to enforce a ruling that internet retailers should include compulsory delivery charges when quoting discounts.

So your choice in this instance is to wait 5-10 days and pay £29.24 or get same day despatch for £31.50 from stores like ours.

We talk to a lot of customers in our store and they seem, generally, unhappy about waiting 2 weeks or more for basic items like box games. That said, the retailers concerned do make it clear that they deliver within 10 (presumably working) days, so about a couple of weeks. If you don't want to wait that long you pay a bit extra from stores like ours to get your order despatched from stock, usually the same day the order is placed.

I hope the Dakka moderators don't take the view that I'm advertising through this forum. Our internet business is tiny in comparison to the stores offering "30%" discount. I merely trying to point out that different companies approach the market in different ways, that 30% discount is not sustainable and that most of these discount claims are inflated because they almost always exclude other charges like delivery & Paypal surcharges. I've even price checked one site who charges 2.5% surcharge on Paypal transactions and offers courier delivery for £18. I put a Dark Vengeance game into the cart at £49.20 (20% discount) selected courier delivery and Paypal as a payment method for a total cost of £68.88 (the Paypal surcharge is applied to the delivery charge as well) So the gross charge is £7.38 more than the RRP and at this stage the discount shown by the cart is...you guessed, still 20%!!

In the end you decide your priority. If its price, just be sure you compare total costs before you buy.

Going back to Rocket Hobbies and others like them, they try and break into the market by offering bigger discounts, in the hope they can keep the customers they've effectively "bought," in the longer term. Sadly the internet retail market seems not to work like this because its too easy to shop around. We've always taken the view that if our only edge is price there will always be someone determined to be cheaper so we'll just end up in the sort of price war that has brought down any number of retailers in the last 10 years. I'm not saying it can't work. I am saying that history demonstrates it usually doesn't.

In the short term this can be beneficial for customers, although as you have seen from the examples above its not usually as beneficial as it appears. You just need to make sure you don't have an order outstanding the day they cease trading. Don't ask me how to do that

If anyone else is looking at legal recourse against the owner then this may come in handy. Obviously one cannot say for certain if this is actually the correct address he resides at. But it could come in handy for any legal action against him.

Snip.
Sorry, but we cannot allow personal info like this to be published on the site.
Good luck to everyone who is trying to get back monies owed.
Reds8n

It also appears he had a company running at the same premises known as Rocket Distribution prior to Rocket Hobbies. Give it a few months and he will probably be trading again and taking unsuspecting customers money then fold again.

NO! Bad new user!

Please don't share someone's personal details publicly, if you wish, offer to PM details on request.

Secondly, there is no legal recourse, Rocket Hobbies was a limited liability company and therefore its debts are not those of its owner.

Thirdly, I had dealings with this chap a while back, I found him to be hard working and conscientious, alluding to the possibility he is dishonest and a charlatan is unfounded and bang out of order.

Your previous dealings with the chap are not relevant to how he treated his customers a couple of months before the company folded. During the last couple of months the individual was nothing but a dishonest thief who quite happily took money knowing he was not capable of providing the goods. And as stated in my edited post, if anyone requires the publically available details for his location feel free to contact me for them, I of course take no responsibility for what people do with said details.

vampireuk wrote:
Your previous dealings with the chap are not relevant to how he treated his customers a couple of months before the company folded. During the last couple of months the individual was nothing but a man desperately trying to keep his business afloat in order to be able to support himself, and possibly his family and maybe some employees and their families too. And as stated in my edited post, if anyone requires the publically available details for his location feel free to contact me for them, I of course take no responsibility for what people do with said details.

Fixed that for you.

Businesses go bust all the time, only occasionally is that what the owner wishes.

Admittedly there are better ways of closing a business then what appears to have gone on here, but if you are going to go around throwing accusations of thievery and dishonesty with no evidence whatsoever the we are going to have a problem.

When someone is taking orders right up until the last minute when they know they are going under then what else can you call it. People have been ripped off, you cannot sugar coat it.

Anyway, we have a policy not to call out someone for a crime like theft until they have actually been convicted.

There's a lot of wild assumption/speculation being thrown around on here.

If you are out of pocket with RH then head off to Trading Standards and go down the legitimate route. I live 10 minutes away from Rocket and used Richard a number of times.

Rich was excited and working tirelessly to get RH running from a very small footprint and had pumped a significant amount of his savings into the company expansion into miniature sales. (As per the name, he dealt with enthuistiast rockets before heading into miniatures)

If Richard has indeed fallen ill then we should all wish him a speedy recovery. He was in this to create something good in the community too. (I can't speak for everyone but my personal opinion of our local GW stores in Kent is the lowest it could be. Force fed guff in order to buy anything, even if it has no relevance to what you collect.)

Labelling him a thief is just downright ridiculous. You have the right legal avenues to go through.

This is the disadvantage of running a company on such a small footprint. Richard worked long hours and had a small number of part time staff to assist at peak times. Serious illness can affect anyone and I'm sure if it was someone in your family, 40 pounds would probably be the last on a long list of priorities for you. I'm sure after whatever issues Richard is facing, you and everyone else affected may hear from him.

Thanks

Jed

Agreed I always picked my stuff up from him rather tan having it delivered as I lived so close and he was a great guy. Once he even let me leave with stock and pay for it on PayPal later hardly the actions of a scam artist. As for taking orders up to the last minute if you thought you could save your business how would you keep it afloat if you couldn't take orders. I'd keep taking orders too until the end too.