Hornby Avaliações 

I have just received my TT120 Duchess of Athol back from Hornby hobbies technical repairs, thank you guys from a non working model to a fully functioning locomotive it now runs as it should. Excellent service thanks again..

Absolutely rubbish products, very poor quality. Hornby has had its day. Wish we had bought my son Bachmann, more expensive but a far higher quality.

OVER 130 DAYS AND STILL WAITING.
After wrong information given to me by Hornby who in April or May 2025 first advised me to return 2 faulty TT locos (both still in warranty) to the Wonderworks shop saying because I bought one of them there it needs to go to the Wonderworks and not to Hornby repairs, they finally apologised and arranged a return in June which they received June 20th. I chased their repairs dept. by phone 22nd August, they said one was fixed and the other waiting for a chassis. I phoned again 12th Sept, same answer but they agreed to send the fixed one, still nothing. I phoned again 22nd Oct, they agreed to return the fixed one and send a free replacement for the other, STILL NOTHING. Maybe it will arrive soon, but I shan't hold my breath. Over the last 5 years I've spent around £5,000 direct with Hornby on both TT and OO (yeh too much I know), plus other Hornby purchases from retailers. Of course that all counts for nothing, but now I've completely lost faith in Hornby.
Jeff Howard

My son has just got into model railways, 00 gauge. We only live 15 minutes from the Hornby building in Margate. Thinking that we could get all the help we needed we embarked on numerous trips spending over £800 on locos, decoders, and various other items. Without going into too much detail I can only say the sales staff are sadly lacking in anything remotely knowledgeable/ helpful. You would think that there we are in what I thought would be the most helpful establishment to do with all things trains, but NO. On every trip the staff seemed disinterested, completely lacking in knowledge, and as a result we were sold about £1000 worth of goods that we didn't need, were wrong, not compatible. I appreciate the rules applied by Hornby regarding the 30 day refundd policy, but after a month trying to sort out the issues we returned the locos to be told sorry couldn't do anything about it, I asked for a credit note for the locos that had never been used with the receipts and was told NO, even though the members of staff knew we had been regulars and purchased a large quantity of items. We sold all the locos and decoders on e-bay at a loss of about £500. There is one gentleman who works in the shop sometimes who is very helpful, the tall man dark hair, if he's not around forget it.

Sent my black 5 loco bakc as it was not steaming , hornby had it for seven weeks , never communicated with me once in seven weeks , they time i di phone them they sdaid they would email back still waiting for that e mail. anyway after seven week they sent the train back saying there was nothing wrong with it yet it still wont steam i think they just put it to one side then after seven weeks just sent it back. i have read a few reviews about Hornby and it seems i am not the only one who has problems with this company . will never deal with this company again.

Brought 2 hornby flirts class 755 back in September 2024, picked them up from the shop in April, along with 6 hm7000 decoders as recommended by hornby to run this train, got home to find bit missing on the 3 car unit, a phone call to hornby to no help ended with go back to the shop, I explained the shop is 78 mile away and a 1 hour 45 minute drive, sorry can't help you go back to the retailer, when back retailer was excellent and swapped the unit no problem. Got home and train didn't work, another unhelpful phone call to hornby and yep go back to the shop, I have had not stop problems with this so called out of this world unit, it has just came back from hornby repair center after 7 weeks still not fixed. Rude staff telling me the problem is not the train but my cheap entry level phone, put on hold for no reason and was asked if I had calmed down yet grumpy .... and then after an hour on the phone not being able to fix or get to the bottom of the problem asked if I could call back tomorrow because it was home time.
Picked it up april and as I write this still jot fixed... their answer to this is to take t somewhere else and let them fix it.WOW just no world WOW. Gesture of good will offered 15% off another model from the website site. That's 20% more that any other retailer. I have never felt so belittled or felt so stupid within myself from after the phone call to hornby ended. No one should be made to feel this way.

**UPDATE 29.08.25** - Email sent 04.08.25 to the Head of Customer Services as requested below. No response received. You only have to read the rest of the reviews to know that their Customer Service is extremely poor.

Personally, I won’t be using Hornby ever again. I contacted Hornby for some advice as we have had numerous issues since purchasing our son his first Hornby track. It was a lot of money, however our son idolises Hornby tracks and has always dreamed of having his own one day.

The lady I spoke with was professional, warming and really helpful which gave me hope that they were willing to help, however the phone call soon changed when I was transferred to their technical team.

I could tell straight away when the gentleman took the phone call that the atmosphere of the phone call had changed, he was blunt, dismissive and rude. He was using technical terms that I did not understand and he was quite aware that this was causing confusion, however, instead carried on without adjusting his terminology for someone who did not have the same knowledge as him.

It felt as though I was interrupting his working day so I ended the phone call. My 6 year old was sat beside me at the time listening so shame on you as this was our last attempt.

Hopefully other customers will have better luck than us. I now have a very sad little boy with a track that has never brought the enjoyment he hoped.

Disgusting, the wonder works, makes you wonder why you bothered… £5 per adult to enter a shop, the full size trains that were supposed to be there do not open till August… bunch of rotten scoundrels is how I view the Hornby company now.
So what is the entrance fee of £5 per adult and £2:50 per child for, just the shop?
It took an hour.
My review stands, a waste of time, a fee to enter a shop (in my opinion) and complete waste of a journey and money…
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY ONE GOES.

The whole returns process is an absolute nightmare I placed an order not knowing I could get it cheaper elsewhere (should have done. My research first) however less than 24 hours I wrote an email to Hornby requesting to cancel the order they wrote back stating the order was to far in the process (obviously trying to keep the order active) so took delivery and then requested to return the item which was approved so sent it back and now it’s been nearly a week an no refund absolutely appalling service definitely have learnt from this I won’t be ordering from Hornby directly in the future

Always been a very good company.
Been purchasing Scalextric, Hornby Trains and their paints for many years.
Reliable products over the years. I've got Hornby trains which are nearly 50 years old. They still look and go excellent. Just go on and on. Most other toys get wrecked or fall to bits within 2 years.
Only ever had two issues, and they were immediately dealt with.
1992. Bought a Lamborghini Diablo. Mirrors missing. Wrote to company and they sent out a whole new car
2024. Bought an i6000 train set. The box which controls two circuits, only worked intermittent. Rang customer service. They paid to have the product returned. After 10 days they had sent me a new unit. Really clever. It controls two circuits via a mobile app. No messy wires.Even let's you control rates of acceleration and deceleration .
Only thing which I don't like is the fact that they get their Scalextric and Hornby products made in China. That doesn't affect the quality though, it's just me.

This is a follow up review following the terrible customer service i received following the purchase of an expensive item. I received a very polite email which admitted the company mistakes. I also was given a partial refund for inconvenience and a discount code for a future purchase. Has restored my faith in this company i have used for years. Thank you and well done, just a shame the whole incident happened.
David Hoyle

I can't thank Hornby enough for a great service. We had an accident and damaged one of our locos, Hornby customer service couldn't do enough to assist and within 14 days we had everything fixed and running again. Thanks again!

Hornby Hobbies Customer Service/Technical Advice have been first class in advice on installing DCC
HM7000 with advice and help, thanks.

I have sent my train in to be repaired by Hornby's technical team, they need a serious lesson in customer service. I have never spoken to people who are as rude, unhelpful and generally not interested in their jobs as them. You get a grunt and and moan from them if you're lucky. My train has been with them for a week without even a courtesy email, to say that it's been received safely. Sort it out Hornby.

HORNBY it's not it's TRIANG really its a fraud Hornby was originally MECCANO LIMITED based in Liverpool these lot ROVEX started in Margate in 1953 so this company it may have the Hornby name but was never founded by FRANK HORNBY he founded MECCANO LIMITED

Hi this isn't so much a review of the company more a review on how a wonderful person called Jessica delt a with a very long and drawn out issue I had with my Dutchess of Montrose loco. Jessica once informed delt with my issues quickly, professionally and in a very reassuring calm way and now I have a new loco among others things that arrived over the weekend.
So thank you Jessica you are a real asset to Hornby and I hope you are fully appreciated.
So if you gave problems speak to this lady she's amaizing
Now a very happy customer 😀

Phoned customer service , really not helpful got a grunt from a Hornby representative . Can’t help loco too old , same motor is fitted to current loco they sell. Not happy and they really need to focus on customer support , quite happy to let you purchase £300 locos but really Hornby. Perhaps the rep today got out of the bed wrongside however no excuse for poor customer service

Great customer service, problem sorted out very quickly.

Worst company in the world. Did not received the item 5 months waiting for the refund. Send them emails and never respond.

I see a lot of bad reviews regarding trains and train sets, l can’t comment on that, (don’t do trains) what I can comment on is the Batmobile I bought from them. Sent my money got my product in a timely fashion, and was happy with the quality. I have no comment regarding customer service because I didn’t have any issue’s were I would need customer service.