LIONEL - WARRANTY WORK - WORK Completed!! - Train Runs Again

You have a valid complaint. I would advise calling them and not chew anyone out but explain the problems calmly but firmly. Ask for a supervisor if need be. See where it goes from there. 

While I can understand your frustration, you need to chill down a bit.  First, contact Lionel service but remember these folks did not fix, or try to fix your locomotive.  Explain exactly what happened.  They have the record of this service job so I doubt that there will be any issue getting an RA.  Send the locomotive back and let them correct the problems.

My experiences with Lionel have been very good but stuff does happen and it is annoying when it happens to you.

Let us know how you make out.

I agree with everyone.  I will chill out by tomorrow, when I make that call.  No chewing, but will be firm. 

And everybody is ok that has out $44 ? That's really not fair to the purchaser. Cei la vi.

I agree. They are paying this time to return ship it. There is no way I am paying a second time.  

I thought items bought at a train show were AS IS.  Most shows have test tracks available.  Did you test the item at York?  How did LCCA have a selling booth?  Was it their stock or a member's stock?  Thank you, John

I am new to this hobby. First engine I ever bought at a show. I bought the engine from LCCA, new in the box. I was told by the members they had gotten the engine from Lionel. I did not see any test tracks there. There might have been one there somewhere. New in the box, I didn’t want to open it until I got home. 

I don’t understand the Mary Kay box. Could Lionel have sent it to a sub contractor for them to fix?

I've had that happen in the past where I've sent an item in and it was returned in another box. I'm hoping my Boston & Maine NW-2 comes back soon. I sent it in to have the loose truck and motor fixed. Been there since April 19th.

rattler21 posted:

I thought items bought at a train show were AS IS.  Most shows have test tracks available.  Did you test the item at York?  How did LCCA have a selling booth?  Was it their stock or a member's stock?  Thank you, John

I doubt many people test the smoke unit at a show. And if they do, it certainly wouldn't be for more than 20 minutes which is what it took for it to break.

LCCA was selling direct at York in front of the Orange hall with their fastrack modular layout. It is Lionel's responsibility to get the engine repaired right. LCCA is merged with the Lionel Railroaders Club so this is not an As Is purchase. LCCA is a bonafide dealer as well as an operating arm of Lionel.

Keep heart.  Since I started into the hobby in 2014, I have sent 4 new Lionel locomotives out of 7 back to Lionel for smoke unit failures and all were returned within 7 business days and all were repaired.  I have accepted the quality issue since they are manufactured overseas now; just another quirk of the hobby.

Regarding the shipping boxes, I have always double boxed and with original factory boxes and wrappings and packing and gotten the same boxes and packing back.  The Mary Kay box surprises me - would not be happy with that.

There are two things that really puzzle me about this whole situation.  

1. I sent the remote with the train, and when it came today, the remote came complete with batteries.  It took us about 5 secs to realize something was not right with the engine.  When you just slightly turn the remote to forward, what use to be a nice slow speed, is full speed ahead!!   If they put batteries in the remote, they had to run the engine, so there is NO WAY you would not have noticed this now bigger problem.  

2. I sent the train with all of the styrofoam for the hand rails.  I was so scared, I even used the styrofoam out of the only other Lionchief plus engine I own, to help with the shipment.  I wanted to make sure nothing happen to it.  Maybe I was just being to pre cautious.  My train returned with NONE of the styrofoam for the handrails.  NONE!   Now, they are going to hopefully ship it back for me, and I have none of those pieces to ship it with.  Has me worried it will be broken now in shipment.  

This is just so careless, that I cannot begin to even understand.  

I do however want to say the LCCA members at the show were amazing.  I cannot begin to tell you helpful they were, in answering all of my new to the hobby questions.  They were great with my two year old.  Just a great group of guys.  

All companies face the same issues with overseas manufacturing.  It's hard to maintain quality control when you’re producing trains in China.

In addition, no manufacture likes defects, products that have to be returned repaired and/or replaced after a sale costs money, not to mention, the frustration on the part of the buyers and dealers. And it’s just plain bad for business.

Lionel, however, has a pretty fast turnaround time for repairs. If it was MTH you would be looking at 6 to 8 months

You may want to remove the shell and check that all the boards are well seated, as one or more may have loosened in shipping. In which case you can save yourself the trouble of contacting Lionel.

NYC 428 posted:

All companies face the same issues with overseas manufacturing.  It's hard to maintain quality control when you’re producing trains in China.

In addition, no manufacture likes defects, products that have to be returned repaired and/or replaced after a sale costs money, not to mention, the frustration on the part of the buyers and dealers. And it’s just plain bad for business.

Lionel, however, has a pretty fast turnaround time for repairs. If it was MTH you would be looking at 6 to 8 months

You may want to remove the shell and check that all the boards are well seated, as one or more may have loosened in shipping. In which case you can save yourself the trouble of contacting Lionel.

Excuses...

Request an RMA with Free Shipping or send it back to the LCCA for another one

I agree, this thread should be deleted.  If one of us bought a used Chevy from Bob's used cars and the transmission went out, would we expect GM to fix it?  Come on guys!  This was  a used item bought for (retail- x) and it was not perfect.  Let's quit the Lionel bashing!  Heavens!!!!!

hokie71 posted:

I agree, this thread should be deleted.  If one of us bought a used Chevy from Bob's used cars and the transmission went out, would we expect GM to fix it?  Come on guys!  This was  a used item bought for (retail- x) and it was not perfect.  Let's quit the Lionel bashing!  Heavens!!!!!

But when that Chevy is still within its factory warranty period, Yes GM would be expected to repair the broken transmission and not return the vehicle in worse shape than it was shipped to them.

Here’s my experience with LCCA stuff. They set up a table two shows a year in Western NY. The locomotives they sell at the table are refurbished units from previous club offerings. They do claim they have a warranty. However, I was going to buy a B&M GP7 LC+ locomotive for a great price. I tried one on our clubs layout set up next to their table and politely said “No Thanks”! It ran horribly.

H1000, 

Jim Z makes the point- the item was apparently not "under warranty."  There must be 100 threads on the forum about what is and what is not under warranty.  I would propose this was probably not under warranty!  

PS- if you buy one of those non "certified" use cars (i.e. not from a chevy dealer) , all bets are off.  

hokie71 posted:

H1000, 

Jim Z makes the point- the item was apparently not "under warranty."  There must be 100 threads on the forum about what is and what is not under warranty.  I would propose this was probably not under warranty!  

PS- if you buy one of those non "certified" use cars (i.e. not from a chevy dealer) , all bets are off.  

I can't currently get Lionel to take out of warranty repairs right now so this item must be in under warranty if Lionel accepted it for repair. 

My neighbor drives a non-certified used car and it does come with a factory warranty. It is still within its bumper to bumper warranty period  that was included by the manufacturer when  the car was new.

This thread has merit.  Not Lionel bashing - just a man stating , in effect: "this is what I bought" - "this is what happened" - "this is probably the result of Lionel mishandling"!  We should "always" feel free to discuss our "LEGITIMATE" problems with manufactures/dealers on this forum! 

So explain the poor packaging when shipping?  Anyway you slice it this is poor customer service.   Lionel has earned the criticism.

-Greg

hokie71 posted:

PS- if you buy one of those non "certified" use cars (i.e. not from a chevy dealer) , all bets are off.  

Factory warranty is a factory warranty it should be included regardless of who the owner is or who sold it. If I am the second or third owner on a vehicle that is still within its factory warranty for the drivetrain or Bumper to Bumper, then the manufacturer should honor that warranty until it expires.

Heck even MTH will honor a new engine warranty sold by a dealer that is 2 or 3 years old and still repair it for free under factory warranty even though they only offer a one year warranty on their locomotives

Want a little cheese with that whine whine whine!!!

I think that the loco was Sold as new, so the repairs should be done and shipping should be on Lionel.The Mary Kay box is interesting as well as the missing foam for the handrails.

Mikey

hokie71 posted:

I agree, this thread should be deleted.  If one of us bought a used Chevy from Bob's used cars and the transmission went out, would we expect GM to fix it?  Come on guys!  This was  a used item bought for (retail- x) and it was not perfect.  Let's quit the Lionel bashing!  Heavens!!!!!

hokie71,

 It's  guys like you that disgust me. Did you read the op? He bought the engine from a legit arm ( dealer ) of Lionel trains. It was represented as new. Sorry but it is the responsibility of Lionel to fix and fix it right. 

I am a Lionel fan and have many Lionel engines but guys hokie71 and NYC428 are nothing but LIONEL FAN BOYS who think Lionel can do no wrong no matter what.

Dave

Such performance on the part of Lionel service is pathetic and the technician who performed the service should be addressed by their management.

I recently had a similar experience with MTH for a new engine that was DOA.  Two attempts and five months later it was finally fixed.

There is a lot of competition vying for our leisure money and brushing the issue of poor service under the rug is a negative for the hobby IMO. 

There are no excuses for how he got his engine back.  Let's wait and see what happens now once he contacts Lionel back.  Maybe I'm an optimist but I'd like to think this can be corrected without anyone getting overly worked up.  Again I would advise him to call again and if need be ask for a supervisor or even Dean in service.  I believe you'll get better results than to call up angry. 

Ugh, not what I want to hear. My train arrived yesterday from Lionel warranty repair (I sent it in on the 4th, arrived yesterday ... super fast turn around which is appreciated, just need to pick it up from FedEx). I hope I have a better result!

Gee whiz, everyone makes mistakes and has a bad day. Contact Dean and Dave and have a margarita.

Gee whiz, everyone makes mistakes and has a bad day. Contact Dean and Dave and have a margarita.

And when one of their representatives impacts a customer because they had a bad day, it's up to the company to put it right. Let's see what happens.

Think about this fella comments for a few.

He is new to the hobby and has a 2 year old, and was excited to share this new toy with his son. 

Then it didn’t work, was sent in for repair, with a cost of $22, and now doesn’t work again.

That is not a reasonable early experience, if you feel as many of you have said that is totally reasonable, and he just needs to get over it, let me be the first to say it — I hope this man and his son find a more rewarding experience in a different hobby. 

Lionel, MTH, Whoever’s Trains, it does not matter, that there is an expectation that something may or may not work new out of the box is unacceptable.

Wow, this went downhill pretty quick.  My initial post, like MartyE and a few others, was to suggest that the original poster contact Lionel to resolve his problem.  This, apparently, has irritated a few people and makes us Lionel Fan Boys, which is fine by me since I have never really had an issue with Lionel that wasn’t handled properly.

To be somewhat fair to Lionel, the original poster took his rage to the forum but had not contacted Lionel to find out what happened.  Lionel can track this service job through their operation from arrival to departure; that’s the purpose of the RA number.

I joined the OGR because I wanted to share information with people who have the same interests.  Frankly, if I wanted posts like this one, I would be sharing on yahoo.  I expect fun reading here not controversy and rage.  To that end, I agree with the webmaster closing threads like this one.

Yeah, its a hard reality for the youngsters. I can relate. I purchased a couple of Menards flat cars with the race cars on them for my 3 year old son to play with a few years back, and he ended up more frustrated when they would not couple up to any other O gauge cars...so I just pulled the cars off of the flat cars and gave them to him to play with and tossed the flat car under the layout.

Gettle08

Please contact me .

SAL GAMBINO/DIRECTOR LCCA

Its frustrating. I sent my PS1 sound car back to Lionel last year for the sound upgrade. Got it back with a dead short. Sent it back again and they made it right except it was missing a brake shoe and had a loose screw rolling around inside the car. Lionel sent me the brake shoe in the mail - gave up on where the screw is supposed to go - the car works so all ended well. Three years ago I sent my Zephyr train to Lionel for lighting problem - got it back and it made grinding noise. I requested my money back on that. I had a problem on a Railking steamer - back and forth three times to MTH. Had it happen to a 3rd rail steam engine as well. You have to be patient and courteous to the customer service people - as long as you have receipt you're covered.

My take-away: Some repair techs are better than others - same holds true for every occupation. Also, some engines could be lemons - not knowledgeable enough to know for sure.

From what I've heard, Dean is the only repair tech working. Lots of other people have had items come back, damaged and not fucntioning correctly. I have an engine back their right now just nervous about what will happen when I get it back because the stories I’ve heard.

SDIV Tim posted:

From what I've heard, Dean is the only repair tech working. 

Sounds like the first repair of the day was to the Lionel Rumor Machine.

No first hand knowledge, but I am betting that the Mary Kay box was because the sender's original box was damaged in shipping, and the Mary Kay was the replacement.  Lionel tells you to send it with the RA # written on the outside.  I have never had a return not in my shipping box.  I have seen some boxes that were more tape than box.

The loose screw and missing rail foam are serious oversights.  The tech who worked on this should have signed or initialed the paperwork.

Does anyone know if Lionel still offers free shipping for Veterans?  Or did that leave with Mike Reagan?