way to go Walthers!

[Glen Haasdyk]

last weekend I was down in Spokane, Wash. enjoying the high Canadian Dollar and what it can now buy. I found the Walther's Adam's ribs resturant for the same price as I've seen on Ebay so I picked it up. Only to discouver that the back wall was missing.
Fortunetly A quick E-mail to the walthers' help line resulted in a new wall being sent to me as i speak.
Nice to have such good customer service.

 

[Nomad]

Glen, I know exactly what you mean. After being hassled a few times ( do you have a reciet, did you send in a registration card, did you this and did you that ) it is nice to find companys that still care about the customer too.

Loren

 

[ezdays]

There are some companies around that care, and really want to keep you as a customer. Bachmann is another one that treats their customers like they should, and wind up doing repeat business as a result. A real pity that some others don't learn how this works.

 

[jr switch]

Bachmann's service dept.

I realize we all have our favorite manufacturer for one reason or another. Mine is, and will continue to be, Bachmann. First of all, they seem to have a much larger selection than the others and Iv'e purchased many of their engines for a very low and extremely fair price.
Now here is the main reason. I recently bought a new Southern Pacific 4-8-2 with sound from Micro-mark. Had to have it cause the tender is the best looking Iv'e seen. Got it within a few days and when I opened it up, I discovered it was an oil tender, not coal. My mistake for not doing a little checking on it first.
Iv'e converted two others without a problem, but this time, after cutting out the upper forward portion of the tender, I caught a wire or two in the process and that was it. No sound, no running, nothing.
Packed it up, sent it to Bachmann with a note that said " This is not warranty. I damaged wiring due to trying a conversion. Please repair if possible and bill me for repairs". They called and left a message to call them. I did and was told they will send me a new replacement at no charge. I reminded them that I damaged the tender. Fell on deaf ears, they said, " didn't matter, We will send you a new one to replace it at no cost". Would Athearn, Broadway Limited or Proto do this? I don't think so--

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

I realize we all have our favorite manufacturer for one reason or another. Mine is, and will continue to be, Bachmann. First of all, they seem to have a much larger selection than the others and Iv'e purchased many of their engines for a very low and extremely fair price.
Now here is the main reason. I recently bought a new Southern Pacific 4-8-2 with sound from Micro-mark. Had to have it cause the tender is the best looking Iv'e seen. Got it within a few days and when I opened it up, I discovered it was an oil tender, not coal. My mistake for not doing a little checking on it first.
Iv'e converted two others without a problem, but this time, after cutting out the upper forward portion of the tender, I caught a wire or two in the process and that was it. No sound, no running, nothing.
Packed it up, sent it to Bachmann with a note that said " This is not warranty. I damaged wiring due to trying a conversion. Please repair if possible and bill me for repairs". They called and left a message to call them. I did and was told they will send me a new replacement at no charge. I reminded them that I damaged the tender. Fell on deaf ears, they said, " didn't matter, We will send you a new one to replace it at no cost". Would Athearn, Broadway Limited or Proto do this? I don't think so--

One of our club members had to send back his bachmann sound equipted 2-10-2 not once but 3 times , once to Micro Mark for a replacement and then twice he mailed it to Bachmann for replacement or repair.
On receiving it back from Bachmann the last time opening the shipping box there was his replacement 2-10-2 and along side it a 4-8-2 Mountain with a note saying how sorry the company was and for his trouble please except this extra engine for his troubles.

Bachmann Warranty!..... 2nd to none plus Outstanding service.:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[UP SD40-2]

I order from Walther's more then ANY other online train store:thumb: . ANY time i have had a problem with the order(which next to never happens with them:winki: ), it is EASILY fixed with a simple phone call:thumb: .

The last instance that comes to mind, i ordered 5 UP Passenger cars from them, when they arrived, there was only four:eeki: , the receipt had that all 5 cars was shipped:eeki: , i thought, OH CRIPES, i am going to be out of luck:frowns: , i called them right away explaining they hadn't shipped the sleeper, customer service was VERY NICE, and shipped one out to me NEXT DAY MAIL!!!:bravo: Walther's, :bravo:
:deano: -Deano

 

[b28_82]

I've had a good experience with Intermountain. I bought a cylindrical hopper at a show that was missing a catwalk and they sent it totally free of charge.

 

[trainnut65]

Well i have to say walther's has been a good one in my book to. I had a older proto GP30 that was still in the box. now this was built before walther's took over the company. I got it out of the box put the shell on and all the detail parts set in on the track and let it run. About 5 mins of running i started hearing a grinding noise. checked it over and found one of the gears on the axle was broke. called walthers to BUY a new wheel set for it. They said this was a problem with some of the older GP units and they would send me a set of axles for the unit. Now to me that is taking care of your customers

 

[brakie]

Walthers has always stood behind what they sell with a "no questions ask" policy.

I lost the side handrails to 2 of my GP15s.I sent a e-mail requesting the price of the railing spur..I recieve 2 complete spur sets free of charge..:thumb:

 

[Santa Fe Jack]

I'll chime in for Mantua, who sent me a handrail detail set for an old engine I had (I can't even remember where I got it) free of charge.

 

[DrGeologist]

I'm still waiting on two kits that I ordered off of the Walthers website... that was the last week of November. How long in your expeience does it take to get orders from them?

...yes I do live in Australia, but postage rarely takes more than two weeks from the US; three at the most. So if you back calculate that back from now, and give them the benefit of the doubt and say three weeks delivery, we're looking at them taking at tleast two weeks to 'procees' my order. Is this normal?

It did take about four weeks, total, to get some stuff that I odered direct from Woodland Scenics, but this is my first time buying from Walthers.

 

[PWRR-2207]

Walther's Order Status

If you created an account, you can login to Walther's and check the status.

www.walthers.com -- login page

I had stuff back ordered that showed up on their website as "undetermined" for a shipping date. A week later while I was checking on a shipment I noticed a new shipment to me consisting of the back ordered stuff.

As for shipping times - once Walther's delivers it to the local Postal Service, it gets to me in 6-8 days. (I do not know why but stuff seems to like to sit in WI and MA for a day before moving on...)

 

[DrGeologist]

yeah I've done that. The status has been "completed" since Nov 29. I guess the fate of my kits lies with USPS and Australia Post...

...oh well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[PWRR-2207]

Nov 29! Did Walther's have a tracking number listed? Even the cheapest option, plain old UPS Mail that I used had a tracking number... The UPS number should at least show if it made it to a US west coast city...

 

[rogerw]

:thumb::thumb:Two thumbs up for central valley.

 

[DrGeologist]

There's no tracking number. Its says ship via INT-ECONOMY PP. Four weeks to have something come from the US isn't out of the question, which means it was due here between Christmas and New Years. I'm sure that's a busy time for the postal services so I'm not too worked up yet that I don't have it. Maybe next week.

 

[CCT70]

I have a pair of OLD Atlas S-1's that I custom painted, one for WP and one for Tidewater Southern that I really liked. Problem was, the TS one had a truck screw that kept backing out and when that happened, usually in a tunnel (figures) the tiny bone shaped drive shaft on that truck would fall out. Usually, I found it (this happened four times, each time I tightened the screw even more but was heistant to torque it down too much as it needed to swivel obviously). I called Atlas Customer Service and talked to a lady (I think her name was Julie) and explained the problem once I had lost that drive shaft for good. I wanted to order another. I surely didn't expect them to *give* me one, I was content with having to buy one, no biggie. She insisted on sending me out a complete set for the engine (two). But once I explained that they had fallen out four times, she asked me if I could change the truck if a new one was sent. I told her "sure, that's not a problem", so she sent an entire truck, TWO sets of driveshafts (4) and an extra screw and spring on top of the set that came with the truck. I asked her how much to send them and she said "nothing, we'll take care of it". I even explained that the two units were bought used from a friend of mine and I was happy to pay, but she insisted on sending them out free of charge.

THAT is great service! I buy a lof of Atlas as a result of their service and their running qualities.

 

[ocalicreek]

I've received great service from Jaks, regarding an old SS Ltd kit I found on ebay. Two of a righty part when it should have been one righty one lefty, and a broken piece of stripwood. Both were replaced in a very timely manner and great courtesy via email.

 

[DrGeologist]

As a point of interest, my two blast furnaces that I ordered from Walthers arrived today. Total delivery time was seven weeks. This goes to show how the Christmas holidays can really slow down international deliveries.

I'll stop hijacking this thread now.ops:

 

[scubadude]

I had missing pieces replaced promptly and with outstanding customer service from Blair Line Models.....started a thread about it a while back....I am glad to see so many replies of good service, all to often we only reply with the negative experiences......:thumb: