Recently , I have contacted MTH,Atlas,and Blueline. I must say Blueline has been very responsive. Atlas somewhat so and worst of all MTH. The latter responded to the first e-mail and then failed to or ignored further replys. What has been your expierence ? Good or Bad. Who has been the best in helping to solve problems ,replacement,problem solving…
I have two Proto 2K GP-9’s, made back in the Life-Like days. Walthers bought Life-Like, and I needed replacement parts for the cracked axles, a known defect with these engines. I contacted Walthers by e-mail. They were still “digesting” the Life-Like acquisition when I contacted them, but they got back promptly and gave me an estimated availabilty date, even though it was months in the future. I waited a while, sent another e-mail and they sent me the parts, free of charge, just for asking. They also answered other questions about other engines which might have been affected. I’d give them very high marks for being responsive, and making things right once things settled down.
There is a thread within the next page or two about this very subject. It seems that most of the common suppliers that most of us deal with get decent marks for responsiveness and responsibility for deficiencies. In all such threads, someone chimes in with a disgruntled view of one of them, but this is to be expected statistically.
Between MRC’s decoder problems in the big steamers and Life Like’s cracked gear issues, the two that stand out for me, it seems that some patience and gentle determination usually win the day.
The BLI/PCM responses have been very good overall. at least in the cases I have contacted them for service. They have sent parts to me and offered help in some way every time I have contacted them.
My experience with MTH was good also. I have one of the #1 Scale Challengers and returned it back to MTH for a repair that turned out to be the DCS unit instead of the locomotive. They were very good about it and repaired the DCS unit after checking out the locomotive and paid the shipping back on both items, which was not cheap for the #1 Scale Challenger.
Most companies try to help when you need help, providing you get the proper RMA and send it according to their requirements.
Cheers