I feel obligated to tell you about two incidents that happened to me recently. These experiences were both positive just in case you were expecting a rant!
First, I needed a replacement motor for a Bachmann 44 ton switcher (older two motor style) which I purchased on eBay. Bachmann had the part in stock for $10.00 but they wanted $25.25 to ship it via USPS Priority mail. That seemed a bit much so I e-mailed them to see if they would ship via USPS First Class mail which was $7.50. They said “no problem” so I placed the order. The motor arrived in a couple of weeks (had to cross the border) but unfortunately it was a dud. So I e-mailed them again to request permission to ship the dead motor back and have it replaced. All they said was “we will ship you a new motor” and they did.
By the way, I also contacted the e-Bay seller to tell him the motor was dead on arrival and he willingly refunded me the cost of the replacement which was about 2/3s of what I paid for the whole locomotive. Good on him. Sorry, I can’t remember his name.
The second episode happened with an InterMountain F7B which I also purchased on eBay from Dan’s Train Depot. When it arrived it ran very poorly. I had to crank the power up to get it to move and then it would only run a few inches before it would stall again. Not typical of InterMountain products. I was able to trace the problem to a binding truck. I contacted Dan’s TD to tell them about the problem. They were very supportive and were willing to take the loco back, but I didn’t want to return the unit because that particular locomotive was hard to come by at a decent price. My next step was to contact InterMountain to see if they had any advice. They sent me a brand new truck no charge, no questions asked.
I shared this on another thread earlier today. It’s small potatoes to your two examples, Dave, but I think it still merits mentioning.
For a variety of reasons I was missing coupler box covers on three 55-ton hoppers that had been out of service for a while and were sitting on a RIP track up on a book shelf above the layout. I sent an e-mail to Accurail earlier today, asking them if it were possible to purchase replacements covers for them.
Well, Eric Cote sent me the following reply near the end of the work day:
Hi Tom,
No trouble at all on the replacement coupler covers. If you'll send your mailing address,
I'll get some shipped right away. If I remember correctly, the NYCs are mineral red color
and the N&W and Wabash ones are black?
No worries on sending $$s for them. I think they can fit easily in an envelope and go by
1st Class (they travel better than I do!) Will get them to the post office on my next mail run.
Have a great evening!
Eric Cote
Accurail
Needless to say, I will continue to give Accurail my business and support. They still make kits and they are a home grown (North American) business.
I have had great service both from Bachmann’s service department and from Intermountain. Both representatives went all out to ensure I was satisfied with their service and the items I had perchased.
This must be the reason that I have predominately Bachmann Spectrum and Intermountain locomotives on my layout.
While on vacation a few months ago, I went to a hobby shop and found a Bowser PPLX hopper car (not a common find). When I returned from vacation, I immediately placed it on my layout to give it the “inaugural run”. When I powered up my DCC command station, it immediately went into circuit protection mode. Since I was gone for 14 days, I thought maybe something fell/got put across the tracks and caused the short (thought about blaming the cat!!). Before I could figure out what was causing the short, the circuit protection failed and all locos that were still analog enabled shot off at full throttle. Fortunately I was able to shut off the command station before more damage could be done.
Not giving up, I was bound and determined to find the short (even though the damaged Zephyr was in a box ready for shipment to Digitrax). I got out one of my old Athearn DC power packs (one with the overload light) and started checking EVERYTHING! I found that the short was caused by the new Bowser hopper - one of the metal wheels was lacking isolation. No biggie, I’ll just replace the wheel with one of the metal wheels I have in stock. WRONG! The plastic truck broke while trying to remove the wheel (never had that happen before).
I sent an email to Bowser explaining what had occurred and since I was 1500 miles from vacationland, returning it to the store was not an option. A week later I spoke with them on the phone about the situation. They were more than willing to send a new truck and wheel to replace the damaged ones. Since I mentioned that it caused the short circuit protection in my command station to fail and I had to send it back to Digitrax for repair ($12+ shipping), they also sent 3 PPLX hoppers…ALL AT NO COST!!
Anyway, one of the lessons I learned…All new rolling stock gets tested for bad/non-insulated metal wheels by the Athearn DC power pack on an isolated se
If any of you need such two motor Bachmann motors… I have a ton of them that I would send you for the shipping only… I have replaced them with another system and probably have a dozen laying around.
My Proto 2000 2-10-2 had an off track excursion at a train show breaking the engine to tender drawbar. Thinking that I’d be “whistling Dixie” I contacted Walthers, with low expectations, all the time wondering how I would go about fabricating a new item.
To cut a long story short, 23 days later a replacement drawbar was sitting on my desk, and even though I had explained that I expected to pay for the part as it could in no way viewed as a warranty claim and that postage to New Zealand is NOT cheap, it arrived “gratis” courtesy of Walthers and Jerry Roy in their Parts Department.
Dave Glad to hear you had good service from them. That makes me hopefull that someday I might be able to get the missing part I need for one of their engines I have. (first one I have purchased from them) So far all I have from them is a canned response letter telling me the part I need are not available. [:(]
I too have had similar experiances with both Bachmann and Intermountain and both are high on my list of prefered suppliers partly for that reason.
In addition to great follow up service from Intermountain, they are excelent to deal with when purchasing. I freelance, and as such often want undecorated items. My local dealer has always been able to call them, hand me the phone, and let me explain what “version” of their product I was looking for, and they have always gotten right. Example - early phase F unit with specific side air grills - undecorated - black trucks on the power unit.
Bachmann, while sometimes limited by their factory/parent being in China, and not always providing them with the parts support they would like, has still gone out of their way not only to service product problems, but also to sell me selected parts for kit bashing.
Most of my F units are Intermountain, most of my steam is Bachmann,
The little guys can have outstanding service, too. I placed an order online for one of Anvil Mountain Models new tramway tower kits and four pairs of AMM’s new tramway buckets around mid-day on Friday.
Lowell makes some fine kits.The pic of the built kit is in far better shape than the real thing, but it’s still standing after ~100 years of Colorado winter snows, so someone built it right. Word is that the owner of this house once owned the Hope Diamond and gave it to his daughter as a gift before it eventually ended up at the Smithsonian (?), but I’m not sure if that’s true or not.
I really want one of those AMM Iowa-Tiger Tram House kits, but it’s just not in the budget right now. I’m really happy with the looks of the tramway parts I ordered. It’ll actually serve two mills on my layout, in both cases appearing to go up the mountain, only to head down to the opposite mill once it’s over the crest. Sort of a “loads in/empties out” arrangement.
Tramways are a defining feature of mining ops in the San Juans, so it’s great to have these items available. Theoretically, you could build an operating tramway with AMM’s parts, although I plan mine to be stationary.
