Well, I think in the long run, good customer service is less expensive than not, and if your organize and run it effciently and well, not too burdensome to do.
I will also say this. Yes, in some sense, WBB are not top of the line, but they are good at what they set out to be: just as Fords are really good basic cars, even if not Cadillacs.
I also noticed, and commented to my friend DG Jones in a recent e-mail, that upon first looking over the 44-ton switcher, my initial reaction was "This is locomotive is closer to the model make in the past. It's my first WBB product with diesel sound. I think they are dialing up the quality and "model" quality of their products slightly, and I like them all the more for it.
EDIT: Good service also makes customers for life. Thirty years ago, my middle son bought a Bachmann N-gauge Warbonnet F3 that didn't run out of the box. akll of seven years old, he wrote a letter to Bachmann, and I helped him mail the loco to them. Three weeks later he got a new, tested loco in the mail and a nice letter of apology and thanks. He still loves toy trains (still has the first layout) and still loves Bachman: a cusotmer for life.
