I have the Woodland Scenics “City and Industry” set (the one with 15 kits in it), and there were some parts missing. I just got off the phone with Dana in customer service, and I must say, it was a real pleasure speaking with her. She apologized and assured me the parts would be in the mail in the morning. I read all kinds of posts about bad customer service, and I’m sure they read them. But, I also believe in giving kudos when I have a nice experience with a manufacturer. ^5 Dana!! And I WILL be a repeat customer.
Indeed, most perfectly satisfactory customer service experiences go unremarked upon. Usually only the bad ones get any real attention. I think we are quite lucky in this hobby in that most of the business seem to be smaller and go out of their way to made the customer experience a good one.
I had a great experience with Walthers:
When I received my order it was about half there and there was a bunch of N-scale stuff that I didn’t order. I called and, after the customer service rep and I chuckled over what happened, she overnighted the rest of my order to me. She included a label for the box of N-scale stuff and instructed me to just leave it on my porch.
What had happened is that the order fillers got two boxes confused and there was an N-scale
Kadee & Walthers. I’ve had nothing but excellent service from them!
Great service from MicroMark. My orders usually arrive before the scheduled date.
On one shipment, a jar of window glaze broke and mucked up a couple of items in the box as well. A pleasant call to MicroMark and a replacement jar of window glaze was on its way, as well as replacement small tool items even though I said that I could easily clean them. I was told to keep them or throw them away, whichever I wanted; new ones were on the way.
Questions to Walthers regarding kit items always result in pleasant answers.
MicroMark and Walthers have high marks on my list.
Chuck Stencil at Logic Rail Technologies (http://www.logicrailtech.com/) for not only assisting me with hooking up 12 signals all being ran off i/r activators but for taking the time to learn about someone else’s product too(CML Electronics DSS1 LocoShuttle). In order to integrate his sensors with the shuttle he built me a one off pc board and then provided me with a schematic to boot. All above and way beyond! 32 hours of soldering, wiring, and four letter expletives and we have some awesome signaling.
First Hobby in Decatur, Illinois; Cherry Creek Hobbies in Torrington, Wyoming; Litchfield Station in Glendale, Arizona; and Factory Direct Trains are four that have outstanding customer service.
Tomar Industries. Duane couldn’t have been more helpful when I was ordering and setting up my signal system from them, especially when I ran into problems with the LED setups. They’re a great company to deal with.
And their track-slider pickups are an absolute boon to anyone with older locos that need up-graded smooth operation. I swear by them.
Tom
I ordered a light kit for one my Superliner sleeper cars directly from Walthers. It malfunctioned and became extremely hot. It melted part of the interior of the car. I called Walthers and told them what happened. They overnighted me not only a new light kit, but a new car to boot. The new car was better because I had accidently painted something wrong and the shell was finished better. I still have the old car for spare parts.
[tup][tup] to Walthers.
I ordered the BLI Grab Bag and after two weeks of the “Shipment Sent” Email and it not arriving, I shot off an email to them, and they responded TWICE! One was from the customer service dpt., saying that the package was sent, and gave me the tracking info, and another telling me that a free locomotive was sent in lieu of the frames AND the non sent shipment. It promptly arrived five days later.
Now BLI has another customer (If I can get more cash loose)
AccuRail´s customer service is outstanding!
I ordered three boxcar kits, and, as one was already sold out, they included another one free of charge. When the kits arrived I found out that one had a missing wheelset, so I sent them an e-mail. Not only did they send the missing wheelset, they also included a complete set of their new metal wheelsets.
AccuRail receives [tup][tup][tup] for that!
I had a great experience with Train Control Systems. I purchased 2 of their decoders for an engine of mine and one for a neighbors. Same exact model of locomotive from Athearn Genesis, and his decoder went in fine on the first try. Mine experienced some problems and I contacted TCS. They sent a new one out, which I put in with the same result. They sent another one out, which had the same result. Finally they just said to ship the engine to them and the would install it until it worked correctly. Had it back in under 2 weeks with only some very minor damage to some detail parts (which were not a problem to fix). Everyone I spoke with at TCS was very proffesional and helpful, and it seemed like everyone knew about my problem even if I spoke with different people. They even threw in a few goodies in the return shipment. I have only purchased TCS decoders since.
I’ve gotten great customer service from Art Fahie at Bar Mills. Jim Ellister at Scenic Express is also a stand-up guy.
NCE, Walthers, Yardbird, Speedwitch, Westerfield, Wright Track, Standard Hobby, Tony’s Trains, Litchfield Station. All great. They answer emails promptly and make you feel they’re genuinely happy that you called.
Having been on both sides of “customer service” type calls, I suspect many people who complain about bad customer service probably started the call with a chip on their shoulder. If you start with a good attitude and explain your problem clearly, it’s usually pretty easy to get it resolved. If you start out assuming that everyone is out to get you, and swearing and threatening the person who answers the phone, you’re really not encouraging them to help you.
I totally agree with Stix - “Been there, done that.”