Member postings for George Ray

Phoned subscriptions today all they can do is add an extra issue. They say they dont have any copies of 4584 to send out. Which is a pity. There is obviously another glitch in the subscription distribution system, probably on the part of the post office, since 4584 was in the local newsagents last week.

Edited By George Ray on 17/04/2018 19:57:10

Is there a distribution problem with the latest issue 4584. I have not recieved my subscription copy not have several other subscribers in the SP and SO post code areas. This happened a couple of years ago so is it a case of the post office loosing another mailbag or the distributor failing to fill it.

George Ray

I posted this as a heads up.

Because I was not defrauded the local police are not interested in pursuing the matter as a case of forgery. The purchaser now has his money back so is not interested in pursuing the matter as a matter of fraud. I did however input the information to action fraud which is the police database. I also spoke to NAME as soon as I had sufficient information to enable them to take certain steps to reduce the likelihood of repetition but in principle this could happen again if people are not aware of what constitutes a valid boiler certificate.

I believe at least in the case of the RobRoy that the seller had acquired the loco with certificates in good faith. If you are not certain about a boiler certificate speak to your boiler inspector and certainly if offered a loco with a boiler certificate check its validity. It is incumbent on us all to understand what is and is not a valid certificate.

May I bring the following to your attention.

Over the last three weeks I have been involved in trying to get to the bottom of a fake/forged boiler certificate for a locomotive purchased on eBay. Not by me I add.
The Boiler certificate was allegedly issued by the Andover Society, I became involved as the holder of the records of boilers that have been tested by Andover. I was given a certificate number which did not correspond with any certificate issued by us. When the scan of the certificate reached me it was for a locomotive previously owned by an Andover club member that he had disposed of without a valid certificate earlier this year. I was amazed however to find that I was shown as the boiler inspector together with another member of the Andover club as a witness and that the test had taken place just after the loco had been transferred. Further examination showed that the certificate number was handwritten and the WSE number was also handwritten but was also not a genuine number. The Certificate did not have a boiler capacity shown nor the bar litres. Quite clearly whoever forged the certificate did not know how it should be filled in because there were other anomalies obvious to anyone who knows how the certificate is intended to be completed.
Then last week looking through the locos on eBay I came across a Rob Roy advertised with a boiler certificate not however claiming to be from Andover this time and the picture of the certificate indicated that exactly the same form of fakery had taken place, the handwriting looked very similar and there were similar errors in its completion.
It looks as if a blank certificate had been copied in both cases and then the details entered from other previous certificates or the blue card.
eBay have been informed by the unfortunate purchaser of the first loco who has received a repayment from eBay because of reasons unconnected with the certificate, but can I give a heads up to anyone going down the route of buying on eBay to make sure that if it is claimed to have an 'in-date certificate' that the certificate is seen and confirmed genuine before parting with any money.

My apologies if this is the wrong place to post this.

My copy of 4542 still hasn't appeared I purchased a copy from WH Smiths just before 4543 hit the streets so I did see it. However a replacement copy that was supposed to arrive a week ago hasn't.. I'll talk to subscriptions about extending by one issue to make up for it since I don't need the replacement. 4543 arrived on time last week.

Last night I checked with the Andover club members at our Wednesday meeting. None of those who have a subscription have received their copies. Today I purchased a copy in WHSmiths and then spoke to a very nice and helpful young lady at subscriptions, she said there were no problems and it sounded like Royal Mail had lost them she would follow this up, also that if it didn't turn up in the next couple of days She would add adjust my subscription accordingly.

George

To be precise has anyone in the UK received their subscription paper copy of 4542 yet. I don't mean from a newsagent, I know they have been on sale for several days.

Edited By George Ray on 07/09/2016 22:01:00

Edited By George Ray on 07/09/2016 22:29:53

Edited By George Ray on 07/09/2016 22:30:48

There is no sign of my subscription paper copy of ME 4542 in this part of Hampshire nor has a friend in Salisbury received his. This is over 7 days later than normal, has something gone wrong at the distributors.

In addition I have not received the normal email telling me what's in the latest issue for either 4541 or 4542 are these no longer being sent out?

Thank you to Neil for the escalation, I have received a message from Mytime saying they do have copies and will be sending one out to me. I am grateful for all the suggestions and responses to point me in the right direction. It would appear to have been the second team that responded to my telephone calls and gave out the wrong information.

Has anyone else had a problem with getting Mytime media to cough up a subscription copy of the magazine that didn't arrive. In my case I didn't get the IMLEC issue no 4490 by the time I realised it wasn't going to be delivered ie 2 weeks after publication date it was listed as out of stock on the Mytime subscription page. A phone call produced the information it wasn't available however the MyHobbystore back numbers page has it available and this was confirmed when I called them and I could have a copy if I paid for it.Transmitting that info to Mytime has had no effect whatsoever there are no stocks available for thme they say but they will put a note on the file. Is this a case of left and right hand or just a means of extracting extra revenue from subscribers.

Has anyone else read the latest missive from the Southern Federation regarding the new boiler test code. Apparently the Written Schem of Examination must also be accompanied by a copy of the green book. However the code says that societies cannot charge for testing. So each Society has to Subsidise by covering the cost of the Green Book itself for every time a WSE is completed as well as the cost of certificates. This whole shambolic introduction does not reflect well on the hobby and its organisers.