Recently I returned two ready to roll boxcars for exchange at my local hobby shop. The problem was minor surface bleamishes (e.g., on one boxcar, a small but noticeable ink run adjacent the railroad company logo, and the other, a obvious glue smear near one of the grab irons). The hobby store clerk thought that I was being to “picky”, but never the less accepted the returns for exchange. He indicated that he could easy resell the boxcars, as new, to less demanding customers. Ready to roll products are not inexpensive. Therefore my question is, “am I to demanding to expect a perfect surface painting/printing/gluing job on ready to roll rolling stock?”
given the price of some rtr stuff i would expect nothing less than perfection , then again i’d be dissapointed if an el cheapo kit i bought had a smudged paint job . visible glue i’d probably try to remove if it didn’t look too bad
About two years ago my LHS was selling a P2K SD9 with a visible glue smudge where the handrail met the cab on their clearance rack for $40. Now I thought for about 5 seconds about this, asked if this was all that was wrong with the engine and promptly bought it feeling quite happy with myself that done some savy shopping. All it took was some careful work with fine grit sandpaper and then re-gluing the handrail and now you couldn’t tell anything had ever been wrong with the engine. However, had this been a full price engine I wouldn’t have bought it. I do believe that if I am going to shell out over $100 an engine, I’m going to get something that is precision made and inspected well, period. Now because of the nature of my layout, and the pace at which I’m making progress on it (aka incredibly slowly) I’m much happier having a few pieces of absolutely perfect rolling stock than a huge fleet of just average stock with imperfections on various pieces. That said, I still do a good deal when presented with one. Cheers! ~METRO
Not sure I’d frequent that LHS anymore, given that they freely admit to wanting to resell those cars as new (i.e., full price) when they’re imperfect and have already been purchased once.
The other thing you could always do is contact the manufacturer. Hopefully they’re willing to stand by their product. They’re supposed to have some sort of quality control anyway.
I don’t think your being to picky at all. I’ve returned a few cars that had very minor flaws in them as well. I’m not going to pay 40 dollars for a RTR car that has a scratch on it, I want to be able to put the first scratch on it myself.[:D]
Whether you’re being picky or not shouldn’t be the issue. The LHS should have taken back the product without making those comments (or any for that matter). It sounds like yet another shop that just can’t comprehend the concept of good customer service (like keeping their big mouths shut). I’d find another place to shop if possible.
I don’t think you are being too picky. If a car comes in here with a broken part or a slightly messed up paint scheme, it goes straight to the bargain shelf.
I would not assume that a manufacturer would replace the RTR car as most RTR is made in such limited runs that they most likely would not have a replacement car for you.
My question is, had you ordered this messed-up car from one of the internet shops…would you have taken the time and hassle to return it to them?
No you are not to picky…It is your right to reject that car because of the blemishesI would have done the same thing as far as ink runs…The glue I would sand off IF it wasn’t to bad.If it was bad then I would return it.