Question about " Lionel's factory trained service station"

It's LIONEL's term; have you asked them what it means?

They will sell you parts or get them for you but most don't want to repair bought somewhere else products as they receive little or no pay for warranty work.

I'd call and ask.  It's hard to "read" all the meanings in e-mails.  

Maybe it's "we only service what we sell" but trained by Lionel.

quote:

Please let me know the meaning of a "factory trained service center"

I suggest you ask Lionel.

I can tell you that during the Postwar era, Lionel service stations were paid (poorly) and were REQUIRED to repair trains under warrantee regardless of where they were purchased.
According to my conversations with folks who were involved with service stations, the main reason for being one was to get people in the door. Once they were there for service, they were likely to buy something for their train set.

Have you called the LHS?  My experience has been that a phone call is better than email when seeking service for any number of products.  Also, there is a good chance that 10 days or so before Christmas the LHS is swamped and is directing you to the shop who sold you the train where you may get preferred service.

To be blunt no local service center is obligated to service something you bought elsewhere. They are independent businesses and can do what suits there business needs. Only the national centers are obligated to repair under warranty as long as you by it from an authorized distributor of their product within the warranty period. Lionel has one national service center, MTH has around 6 NASC's.

It is the opinion of both Lionel and MTH that the service at a dealer is a valued added service for the LHS's customers that will keep customers coming back and buying local. It's not to support the guy who buys online cheap and they tries to get the local shop to repair it.

Last I checked Lionel pays about $12 and parts to a dealer for a warranty engine repair. MTH gives parts and a hearty handshake. They can however do all the customer pay jobs that they want and they do get a break on parts

 
So if it was your business, would you fix something for free that your competition sold?

The majority of Service Stations primarily do the less complex postwar type stuff, i'm guessing thats what the issue is with yours.

Your best bet ( unless your comfortable doing your own repair) is to ship it to the folks that know the new stuff best in North Carolina.

Email Lionel via the "service Repair question" link on the website and they will send you an RA# and instructions on sending it to them.

I am on the west coast and the nearest dealer to fix my trains is back logged more then a month.  I just send it to lionel in NC and get it back it three weeks.

with you being on the east coast that time will be even shorter imo.

with lionel fixing it you know it should be right.

Most if not all Lionel Service Stations have to have sent someone to school in the last 6-8 years or whenever Mike Reagan took over. Those who did not are no longer listed as Service Stations. The course covers Legacy but we were instructed all Vision items go back to Lionel. Some shops are now taking on Vision items but that is their own call.

I suspect lack of compensation is the main factor for someone not wanting to take on a warranty repair. Consider that most shops don't carry the complete inventory of parts that Lionel has. If you find something wrong and don't have the part then you have take time and order it. Then there is more time to pack and ship. It becomes a lot of work and hassle for little in return.

Pete

Either he only wants to do customer pay on out of warranty items or is not going to be in business long.

Either way it goes back to the second line above "They are independent businesses and can do what suits there business needs." They are not employed by Lionel, to be an authorized center they had to pay for their own training and tools. All that the title means is that they are trained on the newer Legacy engines and can buy parts at a discount

Any Service Center than did not send a tech back for training was removed from the service center list. Those buy who were Postwar only types of places weren't using Lionel for parts anyway and Lionel didn't want the guy who has been fixing engines the same way for the last 50 years to touch the new engines unless they had been through training

When Mike Reagan took over as head of Customer Service, he was on a mission to create a system of people who are trained on current products.  This relates to TMCC and Legacy.  He wanted everyone who purchased current Lionel products to be able to get products serviced by qualified people in many parts of the country. Many hobby shops were just not up to speed.  If you did not know what you were doing, you would not succeed. 

This course was very intense.  Three sessions each day.  Months before I attended I received my school packet with data on every modular board Lionel uses and it stated the pinouts had to be learned before starting the class.  Lionel uses a great many 24 pin modular boards as well as others that had to be learned before school started.  I have been to many schools in my day from the Navy to my Masters Degree after the Navy.  This was a very well taught course and I felt I was competent to work on Lionel Trains after the course.  Mike Reagan taught every class and did a world class job.  The man knows his trains.  On the final day of the course a practical exam was set up on a one tech-one student basis.  If you passed this part you get to take the written exam.  This was essay style. No A-B-C or D.  After the written exam, Mike goes over the test on a one on one with each student.

Going into the school I prepared myself with long term studying as I was an MTH guy.  This was an intense week but the end result was Lionel (Mike Reagan) created a few more people that are able to properly repair modern trains.  I thank Lionel and Mike Reagan for the training I received.

Back to this post BNSF started, if someone claims they are a "factory trained service station" and they are, you should do well to contact them to help you with your train issues.  I do know many dealers claim to be a service station and they are not.  Many people will tell you they know what they are doing and do not.  Go on the Lionel site and get a list of current Service Stations.

Having been a long time friend of Charles Ro, I ended up doing his TMCC, Legacy, and DCS repairs.  Charlie sells a few trains and I get to see many different situations.  Charlie has other in house guys to do postwar and older Lionel.  He also has Michael who is a top shelf mechanic on older American Flyer.  The newer Legacy Flyer goes to me. 

There is a Maryland store near me that is an authorized Lionel (and MTH) service station.  New locos (always purchased elsewhere) have issues (problems) right out of the box.  This service station ALWAYS fixes my locos (and accessories) as long as I have a receipt and the item is in warranty.  They also fix out of warranty product at my expense.  This is not that Kensington store which will fix your stuff if you bought it from them.  That's baloney!

Three desriptions come up on Lionels website when searching All Service Stations

Some are Authorized Dealers. Some are Factory Trained Authorized Service Stations.

Some are Authorized Service Station Drop Offs, they send your loco to NC for you

Some are one, two, or all three of the titles mentioned above. Sounds like theres a bit of a grey area with a little confusion thrown in for good measure Why be a "dropoff" if your "factory trained" and can fix it at the store?

Since I'm not fortunate to live close enough to any of the well known/knowledgeable dealer service folks like Marty, anything I can't fix myself will go to NC.

Awhile ago I had a 'Run' problem with a Lionel diesel locomotive and took it to a close by hobby shop, at a later time and to my unfortunate luck, I found out that they 'USED' to be a 'Certified Lionel Service Center!!!!'

They not only were NOT qualified, but their GREAT technician screwed-up my locomotive even further!!!!

Fortunately the owner returned the full repair cost, to me.

I called Lionel, at the time when they were in Michigan, and told them the problem and what I went through.

They sent me a return label, I shipped it to them, but I had to pay the repair, etc., bill, as the locomotive was not covered by 'Warranty,' due to the age of the locomotives.

Lionel shipped it back to me free of shipping charge and the baby works as brand new.

If, I was an OGR Forum member, at the time, I would have listen to the folks on this Forum, especially Marty and save myself aggrevation!!!

Ralph 

When my father was younger he not only knew how to repair and maintain phonographs, radios and B.&W. T.V., but had to learn how to build them, knew electrical theorem, etc.

BUT, to know the new fang-dangle color T.V. system, he knew not to touch them, without getting trained on the color process, first!  The rest of the color T.V. set guts, he knew.

The two T.V. systems were almost like apples and oranges.

NEXT, Robby The Robot will do the repairs!!!!!!!!!!!

Ralph

RickO is correct in his categorization of Lionel dealers and service. Being a "drop off station" is what you have when an LHS has a factory trained tech doing repairs (warranty and otherwise) on its behalf, but not employed directly by the LHS. If said tech is actually an employee of the LHS, then the LHS becomes a "factory authorized service center". There are many trained techs in the former category, but for some reason Lionel does not promote them. That's why you may see only a couple listed

service centers an area, but there may actually be more trained techs lurking nearby, invisible due to the lack of Lionel support.

Speaking of that, the companies' reimbursement is very chintzy indeed, and a lot of paperwork is involved for little payback, so therefore it isn't unusual to run into the "didn't buy it here" snub. Seriously, do you really think it is reasonable to buy something online then expect the LHS to fix it for free? Would you do it?