I'm surprised no one has already posted this

Yep, I'm somewhat concerned about the transition at this point, it was pretty sudden!  I'm even more worried about parts availability at this point, not a good sign!

Chuck Sartor posted:

In my email inbox a surprise from MTH. It seems that the service manager Jason Wenzel has abruptly departed from MTH. They have someone temporary filling in. Not sure if repair service is going to remain in Michigan. I have done a little bit with a man named Sam, but not sure if he is going to stay. Hope delays are not going to get too back logged.

Too bad about Jason leaving.  He was my anchor.  I only have an Aerotrain and J Class coming on pre-order.  Hopefully no issues.

I do pray every evening for Midge.  She is downright irreplaceable.

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

I do pray every evening for Midge.  She is downright irreplaceable.

I thought repairs were done in Columbia.  I agree that Jason leaving is a great loss to MTH.

I'm not entirely sure where they are now, a few years ago repairs were in Maryland.

RJR posted:

I thought repairs were done in Columbia. 

Assuming you mean Columbia, MARYLAND, yes they are. However, Jason's office & home is in Michigan, at the Research & Development offices with Dave Kriebel.

I agree that Jason leaving is a great loss to MTH.

Absolutely!!!!

HO in MI, O in MD, but if you were working something specific with Jason you could send to him.  G

None of the manufacturers can afford to lose good guys.  Although I never had to contact Jason, I wish him well.

Unfortunately no one should ever have to rely on a Midge, Dean, Dave, or Jason but that's just the way it is in our hobby.

MartyE posted:

None of the manufacturers can afford to lose good guys.  Although I never had to contact Jason, I wish him well.

Unfortunately no one should ever have to rely on a Midge, Dean, Dave, or Jason but that's just the way it is in our hobby.

Well there is George, and others

GGG posted:

Well there is George, and others

I'm not sure what this means.  My point is, within a company, no one should need that one person.

I was not specifically talking about your comment.  Frankly, MTH took a path to diversify repairs out to ASC and Hobby shop.  This means there are plenty of resources outside the building to handle repairs and parts. You did not have to rely on MTH alone, unlike other manufactures.  So the impact is reduced.

No company can handle the lost of experience, especially when they are a small company like MTH, or Lionel.  But they do march on.  Look at the changes in personnel Lionel has had.  This is not the first Service manager MTH has turned over.  G

MTH just needs to get a handle on their parts distribution so those outside techs have the means to do the repairs.  

I measure my Lionel parts order lead time in days, for MTH parts I have to use months!  I ordered a batch of PS32 boards in late October, I still haven't gotten them!

John,

I wonder if it is stock vs. out-of stock items.  Last order I received from MTH was ~3 days.  My order was traction tires and some engine trim parts.

Dave, I checked with Jason and he assured me that the boards had been in stock the whole time.  They also showed up as "available".  I have no idea what the parts management process is at MTH, but it's sure not orderly!  The parts have finally transitioned to an "order", but they still haven't shown up.  It usually takes a couple weeks after they move to the "previous orders" for them to actually arrive, I don't know what is happening at that stage either.

FWIW, I've never received anything from MTH in three days, I'd faint dead away if I did!

I tried to order 20 traction tires (some just to have them around) and kept getting a conflict of addresses on the website. I checked everything carefully and my info was accurate and followed their rules. I finally gave up and ordered from Brasseur's. They came in a few days. Later I got a notification that they put a pending charge on my credit charge, but nothing has happened since that...two weeks. So I don't think the order went through. If it does eventually, I'll have plenty of those tires.

I have to admit, I worked with Midge via email over the course of 2 days.  After she identified the part numbers, she informed me of the cost in an email and to also contact Debbie to give her payment info, etc.  Which I did.  Three days later, I got the parts.

People on the retail side get much better parts service it seems than on the tech side.  I'd truly be very astonished if I got parts anywhere close to that fast!

Absolute worst parts department there is.

The lack of quick service and failure to deliver S gauge items as cataloged keeps me away from MTH.

Gunny

My January parts order was just placed.  I submitted the order for ps2/3 boards, ps3 engine boards, ps3 tender boards, couplers, speakers misc screws, springs, and other items.  All parts were listed as "available" except the ps3 tender boards.  Guess what is shipping?  misc screws and springs only.  Where are the other 'available' parts?  As John stated, parts processing and shipping to certified techs is very poor.  And us techs are "MTH family".

Figure that out!

Bruce

Same thing was happening to me Bruce.  My PS32 boards sat there while other parts were added to the order later, and then the later parts were shipped!  If the the PS32 boards were available as they say, what's the deal about putting them in the same box as the other stuff and shipping them???

I honestly don't get it.

Look what happened to Atlas after Jim Weaver died. Their O Scale output has never been the same.

Dick

Well if that don't just take the cake. I have been waiting 3 weeks for a slave board. I need to order some smoke fan motors but it was suggested by an MTH Service Tech not to ammend the order until it processes or it will be dropped to the bottom of the que. Jason was the main reason I got back into repairing MTH trains as there was a ray of hope that maybe he could improve the parts shipping situation. This crap all comes from the top.

One person doing all tech orders while trying to find parts for products without parts diagrams to determine what the part number is and then locating it holds things up a considerable amount of time. There should be one person just to find the undocumented parts so Debbie or someone else can get the common documented parts out in orderly fashion.

One major problem is the way the order queue is handled!  Let's have a contrast.

When I order Lionel parts, I just add parts to my cart as I encounter the need, and when I get enough to have a decent order, I fire off the order.  Typically, within a week I get the order.  Sometimes I'll have parts sitting in the cart for weeks before I actually "need" one immediately, then I kick off the order.  Smooth and painless.

When I order MTH parts, I add a part and that delays the entire order.  There is no "cart" and a "finalize" function.  I just got parts that I "ordered" in late October.  When Jason told me how they handled parts, I asked the shop to stop adding to the order until it was kicked off.  Still took almost a month, but finally my parts came in!  It's like a bad joke!

To add insult to injury, they actually do have a "finalize order" button, but it doesn't do anything!  When I went to the school, the process was described that you use the Quit if you just wanted to add parts, but used the "finalize" if you wanted to kick off the order.  Sounds like a decent system...  Surprise, it doesn't work that way!

------------

If you want to get in to finding a part number in the first place, that's another raindance for MTH! 

Lionel has most of their stuff on-line in easily searched databases with pictures and a convenient list with one click to add the part or parts to your order.  It's quick and painless for the most part finding a part number and even a picture.

MTH has a smattering of their stuff on-line, mostly you have to go searching or begging for the part number.  There is no convenient order process, you have to take the part number from whatever source you got it from and transcribe it to the order.  BE CAREFUL, if you modify your existing order, you'll get dropped to the back of the line again!

John, That is not the same thing.  Putting something in a cart while nice is not sending the order.  I write parts I want on a sheet of paper.  That is a cart but it is not ordered.

There is no adding to a lionel order once you send it.  At that point it is what it is.   Same with MTH to a point.

I have actually amended an MTH order several days after the first, and while they came with separate order numbers, they did ship together.  But that does vary depending on timing and time of month. 

None of the above have to do anything with the delay in filling the order and delay in shipping.

None of this really improved during the last 2 service managers from my perspective.  G

George, my point is simple. 

Lionel ordering

I have a finite action to commit an order, and when I commit it, it ships promptly, so I can "build" it in the cart for days or weeks if I like.  When I commit the order, it ships in days, not weeks or months!  I also get it promptly, when it "ships", it actually "ships" when they say it shipped.  The operation is very logical and transparent as to what is happening.

MTH Ordering

With MTH, you put one item in the "cart", and that supposedly starts the order process.  There is no way to "build" the order and then commit it.  My problem is we have multiple people adding stuff to MTH orders, so keeping the discipline of only adding at one time is pretty difficult.   However, we stopped adding stuff to the cart, I then waited over a month before anything shipped.  When they shipped a partial order, stuff that was placed in the cart after the boards I was waiting for shipped, but the boards remained "on order"!  After another couple weeks, they finally were moved to the "shipped" side.  Even then it took about two weeks before they arrive!

It's pretty hard for me to believe that process can't be optimized to speed it up a bunch!  They were promising a better order system when I went to class in 2013, and seven years later we have the same system!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

George, my point is simple. 

Lionel ordering

I have a finite action to commit an order, and when I commit it, it ships promptly, so I can "build" it in the cart for days or weeks if I like.  When I commit the order, it ships in days, not weeks or months!  I also get it promptly, when it "ships", it actually "ships" when they say it shipped.  The operation is very logical and transparent as to what is happening.

MTH Ordering

With MTH, you put one item in the "cart", and that supposedly starts the order process.  There is no way to "build" the order and then commit it.  My problem is we have multiple people adding stuff to MTH orders, so keeping the discipline of only adding at one time is pretty difficult.   However, we stopped adding stuff to the cart, I then waited over a month before anything shipped.  When they shipped a partial order, stuff that was placed in the cart after the boards I was waiting for shipped, but the boards remained "on order"!  After another couple weeks, they finally were moved to the "shipped" side.  Even then it took about two weeks before they arrive!

It's pretty hard for me to believe that process can't be optimized to speed it up a bunch!  They were promising a better order system when I went to class in 2013, and seven years later we have the same system!

I think I understand where John is coming from.  If you go on a lot of sites and load a shopping cart, it stays until you remove the items or add items.  Always there until you pay for the cart.

I will put something in a cart on Mr. Muffin and it will sit until I remove it or execute.  It can literally be there for weeks.  Taking a step further, I will get emails from Mr Muffin reminding me that I have a cart with items.

I have had an order in since very early in January.  Motors, side rods, a motor mount. All available. Still sitting there for over a month. I don’t get it. Customers get mad you try to cover things over but I just don’t get it. Losing Jason is a major blue. The guy was very good and knowledge. I hope they get their act together. I know when order parts from Lionel it sure isn’t this slow. 

I ordered an assortment of rubber traction tires and got them in about a week. But, I remember that I had to keep restarting the "buy parts" or whatever it was to build a list of parts. Anyway it was really clunky compared to a reasonable store web site. I get the impression that some of these web designers were the "brother in law" of the owners wife or somesuch. For a time, my son had a business repairing and redesigning web sites that suffered like the MTH site. 

I think your all missing the point. None of the Lionel or any other site "shopping cart" has anything to do with filling the order or in a timely matter.  Your talking apples and oranges.  I need to change the brakes in my car, I go to rock auto and put them in the cart so what?  I do not get the brakes, there not ordered.

Or, I write myself a note that say, I need brakes.  A shopping list.  I still do not get brakes.

A shopping cart is just a convenient way to record what you need on the website your working on.  Until that website is down due to problems or maintenance.  I have seen plenty of that on DK as example.

So now I order them and pay.  Boom done my brakes or lionel part are coming.  Oh poop.  I forgot to order the shim kit.  To bad, go back and reorder and incur another shipping fee.  Or one week later you need brakes for the other car.  Another order.

MTH web site works different, you load it up like a cart and press accept.  It is now in the computer.  Theoretically each morning they print out what was ordered.  But that goes into a stack as they work to fill orders.  In the mean time I add more parts sometimes a week or more later.   Then low and behold one day they get to my order and actually processes it. That means it comes off the website and onto the previously ordered site.  Many times, my full order done over a week or two period is picked up all together and then it gets filled goes to shipping and then comes.  So back to your shopping cart experience, where your order 4 lug nuts at rock auto and press send.  Oh poop, it has 5 lug nuts I need another.  Too bad, go back and order 1.

MTH, oops, well in the  same day you can go back and correct your order and it would be filled at 5 not 4 and 1.  May even get lucky up to a few day.

Wait a week or more and try to up the order that will reset the clock on that part.  Not the order, just that part.  This is the issue I have with MTH.  As many times I go through parts faster then I expect. BUT NO SHOPPING CART PROCESS FIXES THAT.  The only way you could correct it is a call in to Rock auto or anybody else and hope you can interrupt the process before it is processed. 

The real problem is time to process and ship.  IF it was down to about 2 weeks, MTH system would be far better, allowing you to correct and add to orders in a window without penalty.  Unfortunately it is a one person job with occasional help.  As Marty would say, "it is what it is".  I keep a spread sheet color coded with order limits. I just anticipate based on the historical levels of use.  When I go to a website to order something it actually gets ordered, not just put in a shopping cart.  My shopping cart is on my computer.  G

GGG posted:

Wait a week or more and try to up the order that will reset the clock on that part.  Not the order, just that part.  This is the issue I have with MTH.

Wrong George, my example was right on point.  Jason specifically stated that anytime you add to a pending order the whole order goes to the bottom of the queue, not just the added parts!  If they just pushed that part or parts down the list, that would be totally different, but I was specifically told that's not how it works.

The fact that even if I don't add additional parts it still takes forever is yet another issue!  I agree that the time to ship is a major factor, but after I've waited three-four weeks and have a list of stuff that's waiting for parts, I want to get them on order.

You heard Jason Wrong, I have modified orders many times.  You were told to delete a part if you needed to update the quantity.   If Deb runs the print out every day like they are suppose too, how does changing a part order change that paper print out?

Again, you were equating a "cart" as some solution, but it is not.  It is just a tool for storing info before an order.  Once ordered your stuck with what you ordered.  That was my main point, and the "cart" has nothing to do with the speed of filling the order.  2 different systems if used properly work fine.  You just have a little more forgiveness with MTH system since they fill slowly.

If they filled every order with in 5days of processing (daily) and shipped the next day, what would be the complaint of the MTH system as far as fulfilling an order?

Heck on line they started adding pictures and stuff.  G

Hey Guys....take a deep breath....  Got a couple of alerts on this thread.....

GGG posted:

You heard Jason Wrong, I have modified orders many times.  You were told to delete a part if you needed to update the quantity.   If Deb runs the print out every day like they are suppose too, how does changing a part order change that paper print out?

FYI, here's the actual email from Jason, which I'm pretty sure didn't confuse me.  What part of this do you find confusing or at odds with my understanding?  Does he not say that altering the order starts the clock fresh, or am I suffering serious reading comprehension?

Note: Red emphasis added.

====================================================================================

The Finalize button is window dressing. It does nothing. Which is very, very unfortunate and fight I have been dealing with for a few years now.

If you go in and edit an order the clock starts again on it as to when Deb pulls her reports on open orders. So avoid that if you can. Same day; sure, no problem. Over the weekend; same deal. But if you have an order sitting out there for a week I would avoid messing with it if you can.

Again, I am NOT a fan of of our ordering system and have made many suggestions as to what needs to be done.

--

Thanks,

Jason Wenzel
Product Support Manager
MTH Electric Trains

I ordered a drawbar, a couple brackets, and 10 traction tires on Sunday Feb. 2nd. Shipped Tuesday Feb. 4th and arrived to me Thursday Feb. 6th. So from the consumer side that's pretty decent. 

Now I recently had to order a part that's not listed on MTH's site (the locomotive doesn't have a parts breakdown on line). That took about a month of back and forth emails to get, but that could have been because I emailed MTH about a week before Christmas. Bad time to need parts research. 

End users get faster (and better) service than us Service Stations - Truth!

I've had customers give me **** that it takes months to get parts, and they don't believe that's really how it works - but it is what it is and been that way for 15+ years that I know of.

Jim

No doubt that end users seem to get faster shipments, people are talking about getting parts in a week or ten days.  I'd be totally pumped if I could get parts in twice that much time!

With Jason gone where does the Zinc Rot issue on the P5a Shells stand? All my emails from MTH on the issue were from him.

I just checked my online order. Untouched for 5+ weeks. I have a circuit board at Jason's Michigan outpost, hope it doesn't get lost.