Lionel at&santefe 2-10-10-2 visioline

Hold on Ron. You paid the train store not Lionel. Hold them accountable to get it fixed or give your money back. I’m tired of hearing about dealers not helping. They’ve got your hard earned money. I would fight this one.

Yes I’ll call them tomorrow and try to get refund. I did ask him if he could test run before he shipped it me . He said no, they don’t like taking them out of box.I ask him what happens if there is a problem when I get it. He said i would have to send back to Lionel.back to Lionel.

Hi Ron, it’s sad to hear your issue with your recent purchase, this is actually one of several I’ve heard of, and the true answer, despite what others are saying, is to contact Lionel directly. You must have your sales receipt. Talk with Aaron, Desiree, or Heather, be sure and stay on the line until they answer, be patient on that part. Lionel will issue you an RA, they pay the shipping back and will take care of your locomotive. Yes, it may take a few weeks, but it’ll be fixed correctly. If you receive it back, and it’s not fixed right, call back and tell Lionel you want your money back, they will pay you.
My experience was with the Centipedes, sent back twice, Lionel wrote me a check.
You may look in my profile and get my email and correspond with me directly, it gets old receiving a defective product.
My dealer is a small hometown dealer and simply can’t afford to pay for a BTO error. Recently I’ve had to return two sound cars that were dead on arrival, Lionel is taking care of both. I’m thinking about stopping my BTO orders and simply buying the Lionel engine from a dealers inventory and insisting on pre-delivery inspection, this might eliminate the problem. The larger dealers normally carry extra inventory and can swap out the locomotives a lot easier…. Just guessing that. Again, Lionel and other manufacturers need to beef up there Quality Control. Good luck. Happy Railroading Everyone

Ron, I see you are new to the forum and may be learning which dealers are reputable. There will be some great guys here that will do their best to help you. Not all dealers are like the one that you are dealing with. Good luck.
I don’t mean to sound negative. I’m just sick and tired hearing about good people being taken advantage of with poor customer service.

Thank you Larry for your help and response. I appreciate that Ron

Just a thought you said the locomotives fired up if you only put the tender on does it fire up or will the breaker trip with only the tender on the track?

If I turn off track and hook up tender than turn on track power it till flips breaker on transformer.

The Tender on track is ok as long as it’s not attached to engine. Even if tender touches draw bar  without out being hooked up to engine, it will spark and flip breaker.

Thanks Rod , I appreciate your response.

Ron, whether you go to Lionel or the dealer  please keep our posted.

@romiller49 posted:

Hold on Ron. You paid the train store not Lionel. Hold them accountable to get it fixed or give your money back. I’m tired of hearing about dealers not helping. They’ve got your hard earned money. I would fight this one.

Lionel has told the dealers you cannot repair under warranty trains. If the store will not refund the money and he paid with a Cc it’s time to call them.

I have had similar and even worse problems with my 2-10-10-2. I ordered #3001 and received back in January. Got it on the track and started the usual test run to see if everything is working. Everything was so far so good until it shorted out. Called the dealer and they had heard similar problems and ran out of replacements. Sent it to Lionel and got it back a month later in February. I opened it up to my surprise missing and broken parts caused by the techs. (FYI, the engine had a bad board and that caused the shorting.) Long story short, the engine is back in Lionel's hands, I sent it back in mid February, and have not gotten to enjoy it for about three months.

Sadly, I have to agree with everyone else. Lionel is best option as to getting your model fixed. I would take caution with them and document everything!

Just gotta stop buying this stuff.

Customer service starts at the top, I suspect that Lionel isn't terribly accommodating to dealers either.

Does vision line still come with a 2 year warranty? I know it's bumper to bumper shipping.

Keep sending it back. Usually after 2 or 3 tries, if they can't fix it Lionel will issue a refund.

Good news. The place I bought the engine from is refunding my money and paying to ship engine back. Nice guy. Victory models and trains, Ft Myer Florida. I bought it on line.that vision line is hard to find. Its mostly out of stock. I’m thinking about getting another one but Im a little nervous about getting another, worried there might be more issues. Ron.  It’s a sweet engine, of course when it runs.

I also called Lionel and got right thru. This girl Kristen was very nice and said they would take care of it. But I ended up sending back to dealer. She said you can get thru. Just don’t call on Monday, it is very busy that day.

Vision line does come with two year warranty.

I understand the pains on problems on arrival, there’s been a lot lately, however, I would have gotten the RA from Lionel and had them repair the issue, then if for some reason it comes back with issues, they will do a Boomerang RA Repair, that means another RA, and when it gets back it goes directly to the front of the line for rapid repair, then, it comes back, and If you are  not happy, you get your money back. When this beautiful locomotive works, it’s awesome. Happy Railroading Everyone

I forgot to say, your dealer really helped out, my suggestions were only if you wanted to keep the engine, hopefully you can get one that works. Good luck.

That was a very odd problem, glad your hobby shop took care of you. Lionel does try, I have had an occasional issue after service but it was taken care of and fixed right. Never had any cosmetic damage I do always double box on big die cast locomotives. I even just got a email back today from a repair on a 0-6-0T they took care of the functional issue and even addressed my concerns that the shell was obviously damaged while at the factory then painted to cover it up. Now before anyone goes crazy I personally already accepted the small imperfections and with it already painted over actually gives it some character and unfortunately they have no extra shells but the point is it was acknowledged and my part is done I can only hope this information moves its way up the food chain and sometimes changes.

Good luck with your next purchase and I’ve always been treated well with vision line the 2 year warranty is always a good plus also 😉

Thanks Zachariah, I’m glad they fixed yours.