Lionel website a bust for me

Lionel's website is about the most difficult to navigate I have seen. Yeow !!

Agreed.  The website is very unfriendly, save for current offerings.

I have found the Lionel website to be ok in general. I have not however  looked up the information which you seek.

Bob C.

I too have tried on more than a few occasions to navigate through Lionel's website, most unsuccessfully.  Why is it that in the time before "The Internet", it was so much simpler finding information on Lionel products ?  

Many dealers are too marginal to offer fancy websites.  However, MTH has found the solution by providing the opposite - dealer inventory on specific items.  Yes, I have called small outfits to attempt a purchase and have been told that the item, vouched for by MTH, is out of stock.  But 98% of the time MTH is right on the money.

Where MTH is weak and Lionel is strong is in the parts diagram and parts department area.

I think MTH's website is difficult to use, especially looking up items if you don't have the number. Frustrating. But that doesn't absolve Lionel, either, whose website is pretty and slick but very hard to navigate.

The Lionel website has long been a thorn in hobbyist's proverbial side.

-Greg 

Yes, Dave, exactly my feelings.  Lionel's website is pretty and slick, and very au courant, and I'm sure they paid a lot to their consultants who created it.  But it's not easy for the average user to navigate.

I don't even bother with the Lionel website. It is a total waste of time.

DougB

You are right about the dealer locator being screwed up, but I've had better luck with most of the rest of the website.

Rapid Transit Holmes posted:

Many dealers are too marginal to offer fancy websites.  However, MTH has found the solution by providing the opposite - dealer inventory on specific items.  Yes, I have called small outfits to attempt a purchase and have been told that the item, vouched for by MTH, is out of stock.  But 98% of the time MTH is right on the money.

Where MTH is weak and Lionel is strong is in the parts diagram and parts department area.

MTH does warn that the item may not be in stock.

There is other threads regarding this, and Mike Regan is trying the best he can. I really think LIONEL lost some customers with the messed up website

Lionel's web site totally sucks. It is designed to force the guest to look at product we are not interested in at all. The last time I was on that crap site all I wonted to do was get a delivery date on a product I ordered and all I was able to do after about a half hour hunting around that internet nightmare was come up with the product specs and where it can be ordered. I was so disgusted with it I called Nicholas Smith and canceled my order.

The people that designed that evil mind trap should go to jail as commercial terrorist.  

Come on Lionel get your head out and bring back the old site, it worked. The monster you have now is making people hate going to your house. 

The website bites I don't even bother going to it anymore. 

Both Lionel and mth websites are terrible.  They need to get a move on this. 

I will not waste another moment on that complete POS website.

I went looking for some previous Lionel catalogues and gave up after 10 minutes.  For ages, the main interface between the customer and the company was their catalogue.  Now, you can't even find it on their website.

I hope Mike Regan is able to resolve this problem. I stopped going to the Lionel website just for the reasons expressed above. I do find the MTH site to be well thought out and user friendly - especially the search feature and the dealer locator feature.

I can't imagine the frustration of a potential hobby member visiting the Lionel site.

Paul

The product support area works great particularly the parts locator and parts ordering. MTH could really take a lesson from this. But the rest of the site is trash. Several times lately I have tried to look up product specifics based on product number, and given up in disgust.

Rod

The new Lionel website is an embarassment.  It's pretty bad when folks need Google to help navigate a site.    Save yourself a bunch of valuable time, and just do a Google search for an item.  That'll give you a direct link to the item you're trying to find.  And sometimes, Google might also point out a few dealers who've advertised the item.  But looking for the item itself on Lionel's website is hopeless.  Don't even bother!  

David

I don't understand why going to the catalogs is not obvious [If I am missing any easy direct way for the public to get to them, please correct me. ]

LIONEL; You need to fix this mess, and SOON!

It's a sad state of affairs when people need Google to help them find something on YOUR website.

Rod

Amen to all the above. If Lionel was smart they would just pull the plug on their web-site and simply put up a banner linking their customers to Google. 

It may seem strange to people, but at lest they wont lose nearly as many customers because of it!  

The only logical  reason I can think of for that site is someone at Lionel wont's to author a text book on how to destroy a time honored company with the power of the internet.  

To that person and the creep who designed the site all I can say is; 

Lionel upper management, where in Gods name are you? Come on kill this child of Satan now! 

Many times I have looped round and round on the Lionel web site; ending up back where I started. I have had some success just using Google where Google takes me to the page I am looking for. I can't recall for sure, but I think finding the Lionel warranty registration page was one of those.

As a service to a company that I have loved and bought from for half a century I will offer this simple fix. ON the home page have a sweeping welcome to Lionel banner page and a very basic index list where each title takes us to the department we seek. Titles like SERVICE, DELIVERY DATES, CATALOGS, PARTS, etc, etc. 

Then if people wont to get lost in your mind numbing maze of pointless advertisements we can do it at our leisure and maybe have some fun in the process. But when we come to your house to do business we wont to do business and get out, not to be sucked into stupid games.

I really hate when a sales department takes over any company, it never fails to lead to it's destruction.  

Lionel's website is not user friendly.  MTH did a great job with theirs...the product locator is a very useful tool.

Ken-Oscale posted:

I don't understand why going to the catalogs is not obvious [If I am missing any easy direct way for the public to get to them, please correct me. ]

On the home page point to "products" at upper left, DON'T CLICK, then on the drop-down page click "catalogs" at lower center.

I have to agree, this is a cumbersome web site that tries too hard to be flashy and in the process is less user-friendly.

Yea, you go to the MTH site put in your part number in the search window then link to the product. Sound familiar Lionel?  At that point all you have to do is click on the product image and more stats are brought up along with the projected delivery date. Of course they seldom make that date but that's a subject all the importers have to deal with and has been dealt with intensively on other threads. 

For now lets simply say, hey Lionel your web site SUCKS!

The "Support" area on the Lionel website is all I use - their parts display and ordering setup is easy, logical and efficient. The rest of the site I don't like, don't need and never visit. I guess some do.

The new website did eliminate a lot of archived data - which I used regularly, so, net, a loss for me. I imagine that the parts department portion will be wrecked also in the near future. I spend money there, regularly. That will probably change. I won't work to get someone to take my money.

MTH's website is nice on searches - they seem to still have their archived data. Parts/drawings/convenience? Har. I would spend money there, too, but there's no way to shop for project parts.

Neither website is used much by me; the Lionel site (except parts) is so...fluffy. 

Got to agree with D500.  I usually only use the "Support" icon in the top right their home page.  Top right on my Windows computer, or the hamburger looking icon in the top left on my iPad.  Support takes you to what most of you are mentioning you are struggling to find or miss the ease to get to them.  Delivery schedules, parts, manuals, etc..  it's all there with just one click.

Never had an issue finding something from the item number.

For catalogs, do what Ace says above, or just keep a favorite to www.lionel.com/catalogs .

I don't love the new look, but it also doesn't keep me up at night either.

I dislike the new website, too.....I miss the old catalogs....I got rid of my catalogs from 2000 on because the USED TO be easy to read on the old website......not now. I hope they get 2000-2009 back up at some point.

Peter

Yes, Lionel's website is impossible to use!  I would fix this in a New York minute if were CEO.  This is not rocket science!  Do it Lionel!

the lionel web site has come a long way after I email Howard Hitchcock in nov 2015.

if you all are having so much problems WHY DON'T you email Howard and voice your concerns directly to him???

HHitchcock  at lionel.com

Upper management at Lionel needs to step up and fix their website - it is a bust.

Even with the websites as they are at least they make good trains.

Lionel's website is TERRIBLE.  There was a time when I found it very enjoyable to use.  Not anymore.