Received from Lionel LLC:
A MESSAGE FROM LIONEL SR. VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER HOWARD HITCHCOCK
CONCORD, NC (February 27, 2014) – Beginning early this summer, Lionel will begin to relocate its Customer Service Facility currently in Canfield, OH to Concord, NC. This decision moves us one step closer to our goal of operating the company from a central location. While this transition will be ongoing this summer through the end of the year, the Service Parts Department will be the first group to relocate to NC - followed closely by the repair and call center functions.
The move from Ohio will begin to take place in June with operations being fully restored at the Concord, NC location in August 2014.
We understand this move will briefly interrupt the Service Parts Department's operations and also impact the timing of repairs. Therefore, we encourage our customers to place any part orders no later than May 10th, 2014. Both warranty and non-warranty repairs will be accepted up to May 5th, 2014. Our Customer Service Call Center will remain open during the relocation period with minimal interruption in phone operations.
I want to personally thank the Ohio staff for their hard work and continued dedication to Lionel. We are indeed fortunate that many of them have chosen to make the move to North Carolina. Their expertise and knowledge will be invaluable in the coming months as there is a lot of work to be done to make this transition successful.
In the end, relocating the Customer Service Facility to North Carolina will allow Lionel to function more efficiently as an organization, more closely integrating engineering, production and service, which will ultimately benefit our customers and our products.
We appreciate your patience during this process.
___________
Carl Swanson, editor
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
So what happens to the employees in Ohio that replaced the employees in Michigan? Are they out of a job or do they get to disrupt thier lives to move around the country for the second time? What a horrible way to treat your workers just so you can put out a press release.
I'm not on Lionel's payroll, I'm not here to hold the water for them, but like any other business if they find they can improve the profit margin in another part of the country than where they are now, what do you think's going to happen? They're going to move.
Business goes where it's made most welcome.
Like all good and wise Yankees, headed South and NC is the tops of the South.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
As well as those in NYC and New Jersey! Prior to MPC and Fundimentions.
BigAl 956 So what happens to the employees in Ohio that replaced the employees in Michigan? Are they out of a job or do they get to disrupt thier lives to move around the country for the second time? What a horrible way to treat your workers just so you can put out a press release.
https://brentsandsusanspicutures.shutterfly.com/
This discussion is turning political and north verse south and by CTT own rules should be banned. I don’t care to hear the left or right of the subject! It is what it is.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
KRM This discussion is turning political and north verse south and by CTT own rules should be banned. I don’t care to hear the left or right of the subject! It is what it is.
KEV, lighten up. It is done with humor. No one wants a person's company to suddenly up and move.
I don't know how North/South becomes political (except for reminding everybody who won, of course ).
Lionel has made this transition many times (New Jersey to Hagerstown, MD; to Michigan, splitting the HQ back to NY, operations to North Carolina, and Service to Ohio, then trying to reconsolidate in North Carolina. Perhaps the focus of comments (if any) would be the impact to service or parts distribution. I'm just saying' as the saying goes.
Bob Keller
If you goto lionel's actual website it states most are moving with them. They still have there jobs so I imagine they offered them a package to help with the move. Most companies will do that if the employee want to move with the company.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
The press release says "many". I went to the website and found no mention of the move. Can you post a link or a direct quote?
Bob Nelson
lionelsoni The press release says "many". I went to the website and found no mention of the move. Can you post a link or a direct quote?
Bob, many is a word that can be interrupted in MANY ways. It is like "similar to" or "like". We had that come up years ago in a vehicle bid. When legal interrupted it, it can mean different things to different people.
Lets not squabble over this.
Bob,
We posted the full text of the official press release sent by Lionel, as did OGR. I could not speculate why there is no mention of it on their website.
I learned about this at NYC Toy Fair granted I have not kept up with things for one reason or another but still...........
called a friend and he was just as shocked
Now NASCAR is also in the mix and I KNEW They were based in NC
Since tri-state area is getting WAY to expensive any way and since I somewhat have family in NC may consider a move
" I somewhat have family in NC may consider a move"
We'd love to have you.
Lot's to do here.
http://pandw.org/
https://www.carowinds.com/
http://usnwc.org/
http://www.nascarhall.com/
http://www.panthers.com/index.html
http://www.nba.com/bobcats/
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Last year when I was struggling with Lionel to get a reimbursement, their customer service was already in NC. Canfield, Ohio was the old location of Train America Studios (TAS).
Don't worry about those staying in Canfield. The oil/gas boom is taking good care of everyone who wants to work in the area. CareerBuilder.com currently list 891 jobs listed in Canfield.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
Buckeye Riveter Don't worry about those staying in Canfield. The oil/gas boom is taking good care of everyone who wants to work in the area. CareerBuilder.com currently list 891 jobs listed in Canfield.
I have a locomotive that has lost all of it's sound. It still runs but is totally silent. Is now a good time to send it in with all the disruption?
George
Seems like they're really hitching their wagon to nascar.
Pete
"You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light." - Edward Abbey -
We have train stuff, too:
http://www.nctrans.org/
http://nctrans.org/Events/Streamliners-at-Spencer-%281%29.aspx
We even hosted the only time the entire collection of NS Heritage engines have all been together in one place.
ChiefEagles Buckeye Riveter Don't worry about those staying in Canfield. The oil/gas boom is taking good care of everyone who wants to work in the area. CareerBuilder.com currently list 891 jobs listed in Canfield. Since they are Buckeyes, the large number a job vacancies is because they are not intelligent enough to fill them.
Hey hey hey! Watch it! There's more than one buckeye around here!
Buckeye Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
No hand wringing required. A versus B, same result for customers. Corporate hopscotch due to tax incentives, etc is old hat. Having it all under one roof makes sense. A good number of my neighbors here in NC are from Ohio...so much so I was beginning to think I was in a Twilight Zone episode and they were aliens in disguise.The saying around where I live is everyone is from someplace else. Right now its going to be 70 degrees on Saturday. I look homeward to the Siberian North and realise there are other advantages as well.It is what it is.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
Becky, Roseyville is made up of you Yanks seaking the land of pleanty. NY, NJ, PA and Ohio. A few MI, WI, IN, IL and others. You all have made us the fastest growing town in NC for 7 years now. I do have to give my brother Frank the Buckeye a hard time or he gets right sassy.
The more the better.
ChiefEagles Becky, Roseyville is made up of you Yanks seaking the land of pleanty. NY, NJ, PA and Ohio. A few MI, WI, IN, IL and others. You all have made us the fastest growing town in NC for 7 years now. I do have to give my brother Frank the Buckeye a hard time or he gets right sassy. The more the better.
Don't forget all the half backs, too.
Quite a few bail-outs from the Northeast here in Virginia too. I should know, I'm one of 'em.
All are welcome here but do us a favor, leave your bad voting habits back where you came from. It's those habits that made the messes you're all running away from now.
Sorry to get political, but it's the truth.
Then don't get political. It's against the forum rules for a good reason. And that's the truth.
I know. I've said all I care to about that subject.
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