I’ve noticed lately that when someone feels they have been wronged by a model railroad manufacturer or hobby shop, they immediately post their bad experience here and inevitably bad mouth the manufacturer or store.
Please remember, model railroad manufacturers and hobby shop owners are not like General Motors, Ford, General Electric, Westinghouse, etc. – these companies and other large corporations deal with bad press all the time. If you bad mouth a mrr manufacturer or shop here, it could adversely effect their business. Remember, they make mistakes just like you do, and for the most part, are willing to bend over backwards to correct a problem. Additionally, use the phone first to resolve an issue rather than e-mail. Talking with someone directly on the phone will help to avoid miscommunication.
Many of us tend to have a “knee-jerk” reaction when we feel wronged. We should give the business the opportunity to correct mistakes or work out customer disagreements. Even some of the well known “Good Guy” businesses have bad days.
There are, however, occasions in which some businesses have engaged in poor practices. These are marked by many customer complaints and an overall bad reputation. In the past, some thoughtful forum members have posted warnings about certain hobby dealers. I remember the “red alert” posted about a certain dealer in New York City that also sold on Ebay. Turns out the warnings were justified as the feedback record was not good. Was helpful to me since I almost purchased an Atlas locomotive from that place.
Good idea to do our homework on a business we’re unsure of before purchasing an expensive item. Contacting the Better Business Buearau can be helpful.
Most communities in the U.S have a BBB. Businesses that are members often post a sticker on a door or window showing membership.
Consumers with legitimate issues of poor customer service can lodge the complaints with the BBB. They keep it on record. Anyone calling in will hear how many complaints the business had. It’s not 100% since consumers that are wronged must take the step in calling, and of course some get frustrated with their own situation and forget to call. But for the most part it is a decent point of reference.
I have noticed a recent trend to ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ around here. We must remember that there are two sides to every story, and we usually only hear one side. In most cases it’s pretty obvious that someone didn’t first exhaust all avenues in an attempt to work out the issue before firing off a ‘warning’ on this forum.
It’s always best to first try to work out the issue using all means before reporting anything here. Then present your experience in detail so that we can all see what has transpired, and maybe offer some good advice to help.
We all like to be warned about bad apples, but I think we need to first be very careful about who we are calling bad apples.
Here’s a link to a list of model railroad manufacturers. This page has links to their websites. Finding contact information is now no further away than a couple of mouse clicks.
I’ve made mistakes in my job, it’s certainly going to happen that now and then an engine is going to slip out the factory door with a part missing or something not done correctly. With one exception (20 years ago, with a company that I think is no longer in business) I’ve always found model rail companies very helpful and willing to correct the problem.
I say post
you get a lot of good advice here
communication is the key
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While I agree with much of what was said on the subject, like knee-jerk reaction and bad mouthing a certain Mfg, and or dealer on the forum, My thought is if only one person is reacting to a bad experiance, then its not a good idea, however if you see more than one post about said mfg. or dealer and the issue was not resolved to anyones satisfaction, then perhaps a word of warning is a good thing. I don’t believe we have to go into a total out of control rant, but it would be good to state the facts of the situation, how it was or was not resolved, it could be helpful to others in dealing with the Mfg and or internet dealers, hobby shops etc. and thats my,[2c]
radioman2 said:
While I agree with much of what was said on the subject, like knee-jerk reaction and bad mouthing a certain Mfg, and or dealer on the forum, My thought is if only one person is reacting to a bad experience, then its not a good idea, however if you see more than one post about said mfg. or dealer and the issue was not resolved to anyones satisfaction, then perhaps a word of warning is a good thing.
The only problem I see with that is how many chips in on a topic that has never seen the model in question or have dealt with the dealer in question?
All to sadly anybody can post as they will on a forum and we have no way of knowing what really happen or if the model in question is as bad as stated due to the copy cat posters wanting to up their post count or feel equal to their peers in knowledge.
True … a little negative press can have a huge impact.
However, I’d also like to see more people post their good experiences on here. For some reason we all tend to focus on the negative. Most of the model RR companies I know of are cottage industries (or cottage industries made good, for the larger ones) – which means they generally treat the customer well.
Most companies in the hobby will send you replacement parts and bend over backwards to fix what’s wrong for free if it’s their mistake, no questions asked. If it’s a warranty issue, again, you’ll generally get very good service.
But because the companies are small, if someone has a sick day, a half or a third of the company can be out that day – which can cause service to grind to a hault that day. That explains how several people can report great service and some guy says their service sucks cuz he contacted them and he just went into a black hole.