There have been a lot of negative service reports on the forum so I thought I’d relate a positive one.
I recently purchased an Athearn RS3 but found that one of the handrails was broken.
I called the number for missing parts that was in the box and had to leave a voice message about the problem. I thought that it would be interesting to see what happened and naturally I wasn’t expecting much.
Two weeks later there was a small box in the mail with a new handrail set in the correct colour and that is a delivery to Canada too.
I also recently had good results with Athearn service. I purchased one of the Genesis modernized F7s and it had a couple of cosmetic issues. The shop that I purchased it from sent it back to Athearn and they took care of the problem with a pretty quick turnaround.
When I got my Challenger a couple of years ago, I sent my DC hand-held controller back for replacement. At the same time an air compressor had come off - this thing is half the size of a pencil eraser and the parts diagram was useless to me. I had a new controller back in a week - included with the controller was an 8 1/2 x 11 color close-up of the front side of the loco showing the air compressor location!! THAT’S SERVICE!!! [bow]
I have been dealing with Athearn for over 40 years and have never had any problems with them at all. They have always provided excellent customer service and technical support when it was needed. You just cannot go wrong buying from them as far as quality and service.
When I wanted a mountain of obscure blue box parts in face of the impending wave of chinese made BB’s Athearn provided me with sufficiently precise information to relay to the hobby shop to get this box of parts ordered that will fit the rolling stock I owned at the time.
Nearly all of the complaints I have seen are never about the quality of Athearn products or its service, but about the MRC decoders Horizon Hobby is making them put into their engines.
I guess you passed over all the threads about growling motors, cracked steam gears, warped side frames and Athearn RTR’s are junk.[;)]
Glad to hear their service dept. is on the ball.
Well I have several and have had zero problems…I see these RTR engines run at both clubs and at the clubs I visit…I will believe my experiences and what I see with my eyes far more then what I read on this or any forum…Then there’s the comparing everything to Kato-a apple/orange thing at best.
Believe as you will but,Athearn has a monthly new product release just like Atlas…
I have seen 2 “bad” RTR units at the club…One had a rattle-a loose motor…A simple fix.The other had a loud grinding noise…The flywheel was rubbing the contact strip on a GP38-2.Another easy fix.
Brakie-I’m NOT trying to start an argument. I’m NOT trying to bash Athearns. (I own some too) I’m merely pointing out that Cacole said most of the Athearn issues posted here are MRC decoder related. I have seen just as many non decoder problems concerning them posted here.
Glad to hear your experiences with them have been more positive.[:)]GO ATHEARN!
No argument here either…Just reporting my experiences and what I see on the local scene and that my friend weighs a ton…But,I am bless with 7-that’s right 7 HO clubs in the Tricounty area.
I know a guy that uses the MRC decoders with no problems but,we call him Mr.DCC because-well-he’s our local(tricounty really) DCC guru.
Well I did have a problem with my Athearn RTR. The motor went bad after about a year. I replaced it with a mashima motor. I do however like the details on the locomotive. They have come along way since the blue box’s. Will I buy another one? Perhaps…but I will be careful to check it out thoroughly before I take it home from my LHS.