Like many of you I have had more then my share of bad experinces in this hobby so when I have a good if not great one I like to share it and give credit to people who deserve it. I purchased 4 of the Wlathers Double track truss bridge kits two form an LHS and the other tow at a trains show. Well we build three out of the four without a hitch. The forth one had some warped twisted girdres and deformed end plates. I was going to attempt repairing the pieces but thought better of it and decided to call Walthers C/S. They rep on the other end of the phone who’s name escapes me never even faltered or hesitated. He was very appologetic for my problem and asked me for the part numbers of the malformed pieces. True to his word the parts arrived in todays mail exactly as he promised. It’s nice to see that a company as big as Walthers hasn’t forgotten what the word customer service means. This is not an isolated case for me either. It happened once before on another kit with the same results. When I asked the rep the first time this happened if I could pruchase some replacement parts he said no I’m sorry you can’t but I will gladly send them to you for free I almost dropped the phone.
Good job Walthers thanks for being a good company to deal with.
While we’re on the topic, I’d like to also put in a good word for Sylvan Scale Models. I have a number of their HO resin car kits and enjoy them very much. After such a long dearth without many cars and trucks from the 30s, SSM is filling that void quite well. [:)][tup]
Anyhow, there were a couple of instance where I needed some spare parts for one of their kits. One time there was a tire missing from a truck kit. Another time I damaged a hub during assembly on a car kit. Each time I contacted Sylvan and told them the situation. Both times Sylvan replied, asked me for my mailing address, and mailed me the replacement parts - FREE! (Even for the hub that I damaged.) For me, THAT’S service - above and beyond.
Even apart from their great service, Sylvan has my devotion and I will be buying more car and truck kits from them as the need arises. Oh, and BTW: In the case of the missing tire? Sylvan sent me an entire SET of tires (6) as a replacement. [:O]
So, kudos to manufacturers like Sylvan Scale Models, Walthers and others for their great service. [bow] I’m hoping that this thread can keep going and serve as a sorta “BBB” List for MRRing companies.