Problems with Williams by Bachmann Service dept.

Sadly, that is often the case with Bachman. Call Charlie Phillips instead(he sets up at York too). He will gladly help you out with any parts you could need. It won't be free like Bachman, but you won't be frustrated anymore.

Rob

Talk to Larry Harrington. He would love to know about this.

...keep the rails polished...

I picked up a Penn Central semi-scale GG-1 recently, on the second hand market. After opening it up I noticed the entire shell had cracked paint!! Both sides,ends, and the top. I called and emailed Bachmann about the problem. They offered to sell me a replacement shell which I did agree to do because I was not the original buyer of the engine. So the new shell shows up this past week and I unpack it only to find paint chips in the paint. I sent another email to Bachmann this past friday and I am hoping to hear back from them this week?

Jeff

Customer service at WBB is very poor. I spoke with one of the techs about my problem and it was after I left a voice mail to his extension. After out conversation he he called me back about 15 minutes later and did not remember he spoke to me 15 minutes before. I won't mention his name but that tells you how it was. But the main problem is laura that don't really seem to care about the customers. I will write Larry harrington and maybe he can or will sort the problem. But after the two months and like $50.  in return shipping to WBB my confidence in WBB is very low.

I had similar problems with Williams Products as well as their staff. The 4 (yes, 4) S2 671 turbines I bought all had nothing but problems. Each time, WBB ignored my requests, forgot about me, and overall showed no care whatsoever. One of the top WBB folks at Bachmann worked to solve the issue and was quite rude with me and when called out on it and when I reported the experience on two forums, here and the Bachmann Forum, he called me back, rather hostile, with my experiences earlier. 

I spent nearly $100 to ship the things back to Bachmann.  I was told, after the second or third time, they would expedite it and promised to get it back to me within two weeks....that never happened. It was actually nearly 4 months of constant phone calls to get an answer. I asked for a full refund after the fourth engine and they did NOT want to cooperate with that one! 

I bought that engine based on many good reports of Williams Products. What a disappointment on all accounts. 

I have several pre-Bachmann "Williams only" era engines that are excellent runners and never gave me any problem other than one engine starting in the wrong direction with the electronic circuit board. One complaint I have with Williams is the lack of selection in their caboose line-up, only an N5C and most railroads ran something other than an N5C caboose.

Even my Crown Edition Williams hold up better than the new stuff from China, at least with what I am reading here and on the Bachmann site under "Ask The Bachmann."

I have an S-2 cab # 671 by Williams and have no problems with it other than getting it to smoke properly. Either you fill it too much or not enuff.

Before Bachmann the Williams line had great quality. Don't know where the quality went since the Bachmann buy out of Jerry Williams.

The new Bachmann/Williams suffer from a bad circuit board as well!

Is Bachmann favoring monetary gain over quality?

Lee F.

I have been waiting to see how the quality is with the Williams by Bachmann before I lay out any money for a brand new Williams by Bachmann.

Have seen that Bachmann now has the phase V Amtrak diesel engine being sent to hobby shops.

I am considering a slightly older WBB engine, a GP-38(WB-213) in Reading Lines, from Western Depot hobby shop, hopefully it will be a good engine. The GP-38 I am looking to buy is now out of production for almost two years and Western depot has a couple still in stock.

The quality might be decent because these have left-over parts in them from the original Williams production.??

Lee F.

The rare times I have had to send something back to Bachmann for repairs I have had absolutely no problems with the timeliness of their handling or responsiveness to either e-mail or phone calls. 

Larry Harrington has personally responded to me when I have had questions, most recently earlier this year when I questioned the color match of an engine I had purchased.

Having been on this forum for a number of years now, I've seen each of the manufacturers brought to task at one time or another for either perceived or real shortcomings in their service and/or products.  In no way do I intend to diminish the problems experienced by some of the previous posters but, I would submit that the Almighty Himself would be unable to please toy train folks 100% of the time.

Curt

I had two repairs to Lionel several years ago during the Kuhn era and both repairs were returned in about 2 weeks. One was warrantee and one was out of warrantee and to my surprise it was returned no charge and two with MTH which took much longer one a LO-V which they replaced a defective board was repaired very reasonable and A Z-4000 over a year ago which the problem started again and they will repair it at no charge but I had to pay  shipping to MTH which i think it fair since it was out of warrantee. I know how customers can be I was slapped across the face by a woman when I worked in a gas station in havertown Pa in 1971 when I told her there wasn't anyone that could do a state inspection that day a Sunday lol.

Customer service should be the top priority of all model railroading companies. Great customer service, builds great customer loyality. I read posts like this one, from time to time and I just shake my head.

Customer service is important in any business or service. I admit The williams trains are much better today than ever bit this one incident with service left much to be desired. I'm sure if they had a  service manager that would work with the customers it would improve. The people in there parts department are awsome at least every time i dealt with them they were.

I did contact Larry Harrington, he did personally call me and he did resolve the problem and he was most helpful. He is an asset to Bachmann. I'm sure he will sort out customer service to prevent other issues with other customers.

Hi phillyreading, I have the Reading GP38 you are looking for, as well as the matching

dummy unit and a k-line caboose, all in matching green and yellow. These items are

all perfect near mint. I'll take 250 plus shipping for all. You can call me at 732-873-

1008 and ask for Mike.    (k-liner)

K-Liner

Nice B-western shirt with the Smiley pockets.

Thanks Charlie, I perform vintage country around central jersey, hence the shirt. Mike

Thanks for the offer of the Reading GP-38's and K-Line caboose. Would have saved me a few dollars if I had waited. If finances were better, and I do mean much better, I might take you up on the offer for another GP-38 combo, but I am in a foreclosure here in south Florida.

Bought the GP-38 powered from Western Depot, and the GP-38 unpowered from Marty @ MA & PA Junction.  The K-Line caboose I already had.

I guess I did overlook this post for a few days though.

Lee F.

yep, you guys are not alone!!!

My wifie bought me a ABA

santa fe texas cheif F7 set about 3 yrs ago

for christmas. Ran it at two train shows,

she ran like a top. went to a 3rd train show

and she wouldnt pull worth beans. noticed

the wheels on one truck would turn by hand,

it should not.  pulled shell off, took motor

off truck and the drive gear was striped.

(of course its outta warrenty by now)

emailed WBB and told them I need the drive gear.

No deal!! they have no parts as everything is made

over seas. I had to buy the entire truck for $30.

So I put the new powered truck on the dummy A

unit, robbed a motor outta the powered unit, attached

a rectifier to it and now have two powered units that

will run together and I can run them seperately and run two

different trains. Also in servicing the powered unit, there was

NO grease in the wells of either truck, thats why the 1rt drive

gear striped. so I greased the other truck and keep an eye

on them after long running sessions. chck your grease wells

on new WBB locomotives.!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always check and they always have grease but it is possible for one to get by without it. The very early Williams locomotives used to get shipped without grease at least the 4 I bought back around 1982 when they were just getting started. But you can't compare the detail of today's Williams and Williams by Bachmann to the early years. Like the old Cigarette commercial for ladies in the 60's said, you've come a long way baby. I'm sure the people old enough remember it.

I would think excellent customer service would be imperative to smaller companys marketing to the O gauge community. Many do provide fantastic service in order to complete. I am reminded of my thoughts - I had problems with the original manufacture tires on my 1965 Ford when it was new. In all the years since then,  I have not deliberately avoided this manufacturer, but I have never had a positive thought to consider their products. The consequences of our experiences can be very subtle in our buying preferences.

I went through a bad experience with WBB 2 years ago - and yes their customer service now leaves alot to be desired. Which is really confusing since Bachmann used to have the best warranty service in the industry. In 1998 sent Williams a diesel for warranty service and it was returned in less than 7 days and I was kept on their mailing list for a decade.