Why keep buying from a certain manufactures product?

Pretty simple for me. I buy based upon my own experiences and those of friends and acquaintances.  Furthermore, I don't believe everything I read on the internet, or on this forum,  as it is not necessarily representative of the wider world of reality .

I guess I'm very lucky, I never had a problem with anything I bought in a LHS or on line. Right out of the box that is. Yea, I had electronics and such go south on me, but that was mostly due to something I did or failed to do and when that did happen service was always very good.

I've had more new locos than I care to count and with both major manufacturers was only able to keep 2 of them. I know more models have to come together and without issue in comparison to my luck of the draw (or sales would certainly slow). Will give credit where credit is due, in my experience, Lionel's paint was so far superior to MTH's on my 1943 its not even close to a fair comparison. In fairness, the MTH unit came out of the box with 0 broken parts. That being said, the quality I've seen on Atlas parts in the last year has been extremely impressive! Hope they can all turn out top notch products long-term. 

"Furthermore, I don't believe everything I read on the internet, or on this forum,"

"I never had a problem with anything I bought in a LHS"

Both of the above statements are accurate in my experience. Too many "experts" with agendas to rely on much of what is posted here. Just can't trust the forum anymore.

As for my local purchases, 100% satisfaction with product delivered as advertised... can't say the same for mail order.

Charlie

Sorry to hear about your issues, however, I have found that unless your interested in buying only from 3rd rail you will experience issues no matter who the manufacture is.

Its disappointing when things don't work the way we expect.   But in my experience the manufactures are happy to take care of whatever the issues is, if given a chance.

Problems come up when products are criticized even before the manufactures are made aware of the issues.

With all the complaints posted here one would  think that everything manufactured is problematic, which is simply not true.   In addition, all it takes is one person to criticize something and everyone jumps on the bandwagon.  Half of them probably don't even own the item.

My advice would be to give the manufacture the chance to correct the issue, If you find that there unwilling or unable to address the problem, then please let us know.  If I had a dollar for every time someone posted that "I will never buy a (manufactures name) product ever again, or so and so will never get another dime from me" I'd be a multi millionaire.

No manufacture likes selling damaged, defective or otherwise problematic goods to there costumers, Its bad for business. 

 Another thing I noticed, its always the same people criticizing or having a problem with there purchase and from the same manufacture that they swore they would never buy from again. 

90% or more of my trains are without issues.  Of the recent 6 new Lionel locomotive purchases only one has an issue.  Of my MTH purchases, only the Turbotrain sets were total lemons.  I have bought many MTH locos since the Turbos and all but 2 have been perfect.  Those 2 were repaired by my local MTH tech within a week.  I am still sour about MTHs handling of the Turbotrain problems but I do not allow it to spoil new fun products.  

For me it's all about dealer support. I buy some from my LHS (if you consider a two hour drive local) but a lot comes from online vendors. I'll admit that I have only purchased from forum sponsors and those experiences have been excellent.  The purchases from the two shops that I frequent when I can have also been excellent. I bought from every manufacture and had problems from all of them. Some worse than others but the dealer I purchased from made those situations right.

A good dealer wants you happy with your purchases, and I haven't found a forum sponsor yet that hasn't met that criteria.

I don't burn any bridges.  The manufacturer I buy from is the one who is making the model I want.  I've never had any serious quality control problems, only some minor and occasional ones.

NYC 428 stated:

"No manufacture likes selling damaged, defective or otherwise problematic goods to there costumers, Its bad for business. "

If only that were true!! 

I've worked in the auto business as an Engineer with each one of the former big three.  They all put out product KNOWING full well the vehicle will have some issues!  Sometimes they run out of time to correct the issue and in others its a matter of return on investment,   They just roll the dice hoping warranty costs don't exceed the cost to actually correct the issue upfront.  To be fair, this mindset isn't limited to US autos alone.

I believe that to some minor extent this is also true within the Toy Train industry.  I've had very good luck with 3rd Rail products as they have a different mindset, in that they do what is needed upfront to minimize returns, due to manufacturing or technical issues.  This is done to maximize favorable posts which is a great sales strategy for all concerned. 

I buy from my local hobby shop, of over 20 years, and any issues are quickly and professionally taken care of. It’s actually a 2 hour drive through beautiful country, Tennessee /Kentucky/Indiana, usually with Good railroad buddies. We call it our Train Day and visit a layout or two. In buying BTO, My dealer does a thorough inspection before he lets me take it home.  This way, I have very few issues. ABC HOBBYCRAFT, Evansville, Indiana. Happy Railroading...

In the last 10 years I have had one engine go back and it had to go back twice,it was the Vision Challenger and it has run without issues since it came back.I read about problems with LIONEL AC 9 and mine came out of the box and has performed flawlessly.No MTH issues at all.

Mikey

Yep, we all come here to lie about the problems we've experienced, just to keep you guys on your toes.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep, we all come here to lie about the problems we've experienced, just to keep you guys on your toes.

Agree on the .....

I cannot mathematically comprehend how it could be statistically possible that my luck streak over the last few years  could be comparably so bad vs. those who "never have an issue".  I'll grant not all issues I've experienced are "DOA" or total non-functionality, but I have had a pretty bad series of what I consider significant decorative flaws (though one recent observation car was combined with functional defect - the marker light not only had extra glue/goop all over the outside, but also didn't light - call me crazy, but that's a problem!)

I'm convinced many people just don't review things with as fine tooth a comb as I do.  Having worked in a somewhat QC intense industry in the past, I very well may notice things others do not. 

That same set with the observation car had another car that looked like a screwdriver was dragged across the surface under one of the windows.  Took one of the rivets plain off, in addition to scratching the paint.  2 of 4 cars in a set having a significantly noticeable problem is not a great thing, IMO.  I was able to swap the 2 cars for ones that were "better", but not "defect free" to the level I expect on a new item.  The observation car I swapped for has one slightly crooked marker light, but it does light and had no where near as much extraneous goop on it as the dead one.

On the plus side, the engine was seemingly close to flawless, I could not find anything aside from some slight marks along one of the sharp edges of the tender, and these were not scratches (paint was unblemished right over over these marks), but inherent in the die casting tool, I think.

-Dave

I've definitely had my share of issues but I think 90% of them is due to poor handling in shipping. I think all shipping cartons should be double boxed for locomotives coming from any dealer. I wish I could pick all my stuff up in person but online shopping is where it's at for me.

Landsteiner posted:

Pretty simple for me. I buy based upon my own experiences and those of friends and acquaintances.  Furthermore, I don't believe everything I read on the internet, or on this forum,  as it is not necessarily representative of the wider world of reality .

Yes. Now, I do take note of Forum comments, but it also matters how it's phrased, who it's by and, of course, what the problem is. And, obviously, those with no problems, or genuinely small problems easily resolved on the workbench, are less likely to post.   

Hey, I buy used, mostly (when I buy at all these days). Whole different mental place to be, anyway.

"I cannot mathematically comprehend how it could be statistically possible that my luck streak over the last few years  could be comparably so bad"

In cases like this one needs to look for the common denominator.

"I'm convinced many people just don't review things with as fine tooth a comb as I do"

True, I don't take a magnifying glass to everything I buy.

I've never gone as far as a magnifying glass, I agree that would be overkill.  And I'm about as far as you can be from a Rivet Counter in terms of wondering why a detail is slightly in the wrong spot, stuff like that won't bug me (at all, really).

I do pick up each item, look over all visible surfaces and look for any defect that is bad enough it draws my eye to it.  Something like paint that is one color from detail painting that somehow ends up on the roof that is a different color, or something that looks like it was either handled or chipped while the paint was still wet, and then touched up with something resembling a similar shade of that color (but an obvious touch up - which still draws your eye to it.). 

Some of these problems I've seen look like the comparable equivalent (to me) of attempting to fix a scratch in the clear coat gloss finish paint on your car by using a 3 inch wide bristle brush and applying any generic flat paint over the scratched area.

Part of the point (though I did not state it in the earlier post) is that these scenarios have noticeably been increasing in frequency in the last few years (maybe more than a few - could be approaching 10 at this point).  I am not getting more picky, there are just more occurrences than I used to experience across the random sampling of items from various catalogs that make it onto my order lists.

-Dave