The background: The smoke unit in my MTH Premier Erie Geep suddenly stopped working. I took off the shell to assess the situation, and within minutes had the smoke unit working again. I put everything back together, put it on the track and ughhh...the only things now working were the smoke unit and the lights! No sounds and no movement. I charged the battery overnight and tried it again the next day...still no sounds and no movement.
I contacted MTH Service and we did some basic trouble-shooting over the phone. After checking for all the obvious things like loose connections, pinched wires, etc., I decided it needed to be looked at by someone more experienced than me. I don't have any MTH authorized repair locations close to me (several Lionel, no MTH), so I decided to send it back to MTH. I got an RA # and when I asked about how long it would take, I was told that since it was non-warranty, it would be about 8 weeks. MTH received it on November 30th, so I expected to get it back by the end of January. I did put a note in with the engine explaining what had gone wrong and politely asked if there was any way they could move it along a little faster as I was hoping to run it for the Holidays.
Fast-forward to today. I received a call from MTH Service telling me that the problem(s) were identified and repaired. Only 21 days...what great news I thought! Until I was told the cost of the repairs. As it turns out, both the processor board and the power board were fried, and both were replaced. Here's the itemization...
$45 labor (one hour)
$120 processor board
$80 power board
$20 shipping back to me
$265 total
Ooouch...I truly appreciate the fact that they turned it around rather quickly, but this was not exactly the present I was hoping for! I had no idea that it would ever cost this much. You see, I have only had to send one item (MTH crossing gate) back to a manufacturer in about 25 years of accumulating trains, so granted, I've been one of the very lucky ones. They say payback is a b*&%$!!
Before anyone jumps on me, this is totally my fault! I'm soooo upset with myself for not asking more questions up front, BEFORE I sent it to them, such as "if the boards are fried, about how much will it cost for the repair?" At least I would have known what to expect. Maybe it would have motivated me to shop around, or broaden my geographical search for someone else to repair it, possibly at a lower cost. What is even more maddening is that I don't know what I did when "fixing" the smoke unit to damage the boards. I certainly don't want to make this same costly mistake again.
Assuming that MTH properly diagnosed the problem(s), I was hoping that some of you trained repair techs and/or experienced DIY'ers on the Forum could tell me if $245 (leaving the $20 shipping out) is about the going rate for this type of repair. Your comments will be much appreciated and will either make me feel better 
...or worse 
! Bring it on...either way, I deserve it!! I will admit that just writing this post makes me feel a tiny bit better.
