Was going through my storage bins yesterday to determine what inventory I was going to thin out. Came across an E7 A&B set I purchased new when Like-Like first released them and to my astonishment one of the journal covers is missing on the A-Unit!!!
Neither package had been opened since the factory packed them, and the cover is nowhere to be found. It’s ironic that an E8 I bought around the same time had a cover missing too, but that one was put into service right away so I was able to get a free replacement set from Life-Like customer service at the time.
I plan on contacting Walthers early in the week to inquire, but wanted to know if anyone else who purchased these locos experienced a similair problem.
i bought several of the E8’s but had no issues with them. i hope you saved your original receipt. i had some p2k problems and without the receipt, Walthers told me to get stuffed. perhaps your experience will be beter than mine.
A similar situation was with the cracked axle gears on a couple of GP9s that were in the box for years. Never run and the shells were never on. I test ran them prior to adding decoders and found the clicking and jumping. Walthers SOLD me replacements for $6. plus shipping. I can see their point. How do they know the box was just opened. Athearn sent me new axle gears for a 3 year old locomotive with many miles on it for free. BLI sent me some Idler gears and a rear tender truck for free also. Walthers is in business to make money not customers. They pretty much have most modelers under their thumb being the largest supplier of model railroad structures and supplies.
Have to agree with Walthers current attitude, sent them a P1K RDC a while ago that never ran right and they replaced the chassis at no charge but informed me that going forward a receipt and shipping charges would apply.
Athearn has replaced motors for me with just an explaination and has upgraded to the newer hex drive type when requested at no charge.
Atlas has provided stellar customer service providing replacement axle gears on two occasions, but wanted to charge me to replace a noisey U33C motor.
Hopefuly I still have the original receipt and we post the results of the call.
Well, it only tells you that if you buy an item: O T B !! (open the box). An analogy: If you were to buy a new car and put it in storage for 5 years, would you expect the factory warranties to apply?
It´s the same that I see on Ebay also. A lot of older stuff NIB that has no warrantys whatsoever.
pardon to all. since i have been hiding in a u-boat off the coast of argentina for decades, my second language is actually pig latin and i only know enough german to confuse those who are fluent. for instance, i thought a dog catcher was a barkenpantenschnifferschnatcher.
For me, personally, the anticipation of receiving a new product and then being crushed because of a defect, regardless of how small, is a bummer. I too often go over the top. The usual rant about QC going to hell in a hand basket, etc. Then my wife chides me for acting as a child, I get embarassed, and then put it all into perspective, and laugh it off.
Then I go to my workshop and pout and mutter in low tones about QC…
Bruce, they fall of with no forces needed. I have 5 E-6’s to E-7’s and I am missing a few. I cannot see them unless I am working on the engine so I stopped replacing them.
If you need one PM me, I am 95% sure I have some extras I will never install unless my eye sight gets better and it won’t!
Bruce, I’ll check, but I think I have an extra journal that I can spare. A while back my LHS’s owner let me strip the body parts off of 2 two P2K E-units that he referred to as “Hangar Queens” ( I posted a thread on it). I’m not sure, but I think that I took the journals too. Give me a day or two to check my parts bin. Contact me then, in my PM Box, to remind me. If I have a spare, I’ll put it in an envelope and mail it to you.
Correct would be “Die Welt” - the world is of female gender in the German language… [:D]. The other word that Grizlump mentioned I cannot identify to be of German origin - maybe you mean bark n´ pant-something?
First, we take Milwaukee, than the world - heavens, no - that´d mean we would have to rely on Walther´s service also at this side of the Big Pond!
Well, to look at it from Walthers’ point-of-view, I’d agree with the earlier poster who said they could see Walthers not being that excited about replacing something on a very old engine just on the word of the buyer that it hadn’t been opened and so was still in some technical sense “new”. It’s always a good idea to open up the box and test run the engine a little before storing it away.
Second, keep in mind Walthers bought Life-Like, in many cases the engines with problems are ones made before Walthers owned the Life-Like/Proto line. I can see Walthers saying that they’d do things like replace the cracked gears on the old Life-Like units for X amt of time, but then after that they’d have to charge for them. To complain about Walthers not giving you a free part for your 15 year old engine, built before they owned the company, doesn’t make much sense IMHO.
My opinion on warranty work is that if a manufacturer receives notice that an item on the model malfunctions or breaks the manufacture should repair or replace for the period of the warranty however long that is. They should also replace a missing item or item broken in shipment to the place of it’s original sale, even if that item is not covered in the warranty discription for a reasonable period of time say 30 days as just a number. However 6 months or a year or whatever the time, is not reasonable to expect a manufacturer to replace a missing or broken item, unless that item is mentioned in the warranty, for the entire length of the warranty. How do they know it wasn’t lost by you. or broken when I handled it.
Most all warranties that I have ever seen start from the date of sale. Not from the date the package was opened. To expect a manufacturer to take a limited time warranty and extend it to an unlimited or quite possibly a life time warranty is unreasonable. If the manufacturer does, then that is great for them, kudos all around, and that might be something to brag about CS for that company. But to complain of a company that won’t honor a warranty well past it’s expiration is not fair. It may seem reasonable to the customer after he realizes his mistake in not inspecting his purchase. But if you were the manufacturer, even the most honest manufacturer in the world it would not seem reasonable to you.
Thank you to the members that offered to send me a replacement, however the good news is that Walthers had the part and will be sending it to me.
I appreciated the opinions expressed relating to the time period a manufacturer should resolve non warranty issues from past purchases. My feeling is that as a consumer, I expect the product purchased to be free from defects period.
Granted I should have performed a full inspection, but past purchases with the exception of an E8 mentioned in my original post from the Proto product line have been trouble free. I make it a point now to test each new acquisition whether or not it will be used right away. I’ve still got a dozen or so engines that never left the box.
Issue is also taken by the so called lifetime warranty that when excercised results in a service charge, I don’t mind paying for shipping but why hit me with extra fees?
I see your reasoning. Yes most times people, myself included, if past dealings with an item have resulted in no problems most will slack off a bit. I’m glad to hear Walthers is sending a replacement.
I also agree with you on the lifetime warranty issue. With the exception of the shipping. I understand the point of them wanting to see the item and determine what caused it, we all have “friends”. However, if the item is found to be a warranty item, then I feel shipping should be refunded to the owner. It isn’t our fault the item failed and should not be expected to be out anything but a reasonable amount of time. We have already bought their product and expect it to be of good quality. I understand things happen and perfection throughout the entire run may be expecting a little much but it’s their reputation and future sales at stake, not mine.