I believe, I speak for a good proportion of model railroaders when I state that, we are passionate about our trains.
Most of us, can hardly wait to get that phone call; informing us that, our new order has come in. Probably quite a few of us, prior to taking possession of our new trains, hope everything will be intact and in good working order; despite previous disappointments. At this point we are filled with hope and anticipation.Sometimes we have been waiting months, even more than a year at times. In my particular case, what follows next is frequently frustration and major disappointment. All too often the magic of our hobby is lost because of poor quality control and flawed products etc.
Recently I purchased a F3 ABA set. I didn’t even get to make one lap of my layout because of an electrical defect; and had to send it back. I also recently purchased a SD 70ACe, on September 29, 2009; which didn’t arrive at my house until yesterday, October 21, 2009. By the time it arrived, I had already gotten my money back from the dealer because I was told, by the postal service, that it was lost (improper entry into the postal systems electronic tracking system was to blame) .
The above happened within a months time. I purposely didn’t mention any company names or which postal service was at fault. The important point here being; these types of, all too frequent, failures erode away at, what is of major significance, my passion for our hobby. The model railroading industry is frequently stating that; they are trying to get new people into the hobby. Without exaggerating, I could have easily purchased a, very nice, brand new, car for the amount of money I have spent, in a short time, on this hobby of ours.
By the way these are not isolated incidents; there has been plenty of similar experiences for me in the past few years.
What you post is true.
Not only isn’t it right that a brand new item, which is costly, does not work right out of the box, but even malfunctions within a few months and the warranty is void, because the item was made a few years back, even if I’m the (SUPPOSED) first owner and the item is only a few months owned by me. The store owner adds to the B.S. by saying it’s brand new old stock and “Yeah! It’s warranted!” In fact I had to send the item to the company and pay for the shipping there and for repair, because-(It’s Warranted!). Also, included is the wait(Time Factor).
Even, the bill of sale does not cover for the warranty, because of the actual age of the item.
What, B.S.!
Another thing to note is that there are only TWO Authorized Repair locations in the area where I live in, where as there used to be plenty. This is another reason for the decline of our hobby.
These are the B.S. things, along with outrages prices, that kill this hobby!
So, now I bide my time,make sure of what I want, save for it and ask plenty of questions and if I don’t get a good and straight answer, from the seller, then you know what they can do with the item!
And yet I’ll still buy this certain brand’s product. Go, figure!
I am going to ask a really stupid question at this point; Doesn’t someone at the factory put this stuff on an oval of track and test it before it goes in the box? Many years ago, Model Railroader published a photo taken inside the Marklin factory of a young german woman running Marklin trains around a test track. Is it too much to ask that they make sure that the stupid thing works before it gets packed up? After all, we buy high tech products all day long at Best Buy or HH Greg made in Asia without a second thought about whether it will work or not when we get it home. If it has a Sony name on it, we’re pretty sure it works aren’t we? Why can’t we have the same assurance with Lionel or MTH? Incidentally, my Williams products have all worked right out of the box. They get an A+ for reliability.
A lot of us agree with you that some of these companies don’t do a quality control check prior to the goods being packaged and shipped out for sale.
I’ts, no wonder some of these companies are doing poorly, then again it’s most of their own fault!
I remember, years ago, about ninety eight percent of the goods worked right out of the box, no embarrassments, no hassles, no apologies, nothing, but a good time and happy feelings.
If you have read my previous posts from today, you will know that I am,once again, returning another defective, high end, locomotive, to the same manufacturer. I’m curious what would you and our fellow forum members would do in my situation?