I bought a Polar Express set at a hobby store after Christmas. It will not be opened until next Christmas. Will it still have a warranty if it is not smoking properly or if it has other issues. I may have lost the receipt… Will I be able to get any issues covered under warranty if something isnt working properly??
I would probably recommend asking the dealer who sold you the set for a duplicate receipt, if possible. I’m not sure how strict Lionel is these days with warranty service, but I would try to have all my ducks in line before seeking such help.
My local hobby store is also a Lionel service center. Their policy is to fix items under warranty they sell from the date of the sale, not from the date the customer opened the item. Any one can say they just opened it yesterday, even though the receipt says it was purchased over a year ago.
I bought a PE set in February and didn’t open it until May. So right off the bat, my warranty is only 10 months, not 12.
Jim
jdoll,
As Jim said, the warranty starts from the day you purchased it.
Although Lionel is known to give breaks on certain items, It is best to open it up and test it first.
In your situation, I would definitely advise opening and testing the set sometime soon for 15-20 minutes. Not only will you avoid worries about something being out of warranty, but you won’t have to worry about having a non-working set on Christmas morning with no way of getting it fixed for a couple of days. You’ll save yourself money by not having to pay for repairs, and you’ll save the lucky person that the set is going to disappointment of having to wait.
I didn’t do this with the Polar Express I bought for my daughter, but normally I have the dealer test run everything before I take it home. I still wonder why I didn’t do it with the PE???
You really should check out the CW80 transformer that came with it, I had a bad one with a starter set I purchased around the same time you got the PE, and got another bad one for the replacement! There were a lot of other people with the same problem around that time.
Good suggestions guys. I think I will go ahead and check it out. I do recall the transformers having a lot of problems.
If I remember correctly mine (CW80) had a few “dead spots” on the throttle at low voltage. I noticed it when trying to uncouple/couple cars at low speed. So give the throttle a good going over. Raise and lower the voltage very slowly and see if the power cuts out.