A company is known by, not the quality of its products, but rather how it handles those times when the products fail. Customer service will either destroy the company or increase its market share. Bachmann fits the former category. It has been long enough for me to cool off and look at the situation with a bit of detachment. Let me explain:
A year ago, exactly a year ago, mid-April 2008, after due diligence, I decided to “upgrade” from LGB to Fn3 with a Bachmann K-27. I read the reviews in Garden Railroad and Railroad Modeler, I watched the various online videos and read the online comments of early purchasers. I went down to Caboose Hobbies and they ran one for me. And I bought the green boiler 455, added QSI sound, and took it home.
It was beautiful! I began purchasing Spectrum and AMS freight cars to go behind it. As a member of the Denver Garden Railway Society, I took it out to Golden and ran it on the club’s layout at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Oh, the comments passerbys gave me!
Until mid-November. The engine stopped. I took it down to Caboose and Lee diagnosed the problem as a broken gearbox. Under Bachmann’s warranty, the company would not send the replacement to local hobby stores so I packed the engine and mailed it to Philadelphia.
At least it would be back before the grandchildren came for Christmas.
By mid-December I had not heard anything from Bachmann so I tried calling. When I finally got through the pleasant receptionist checked and said James was scheduled to work on it. And it would take 6 to 8 weeks. No Big Engine for Christmas. I left a voice mail for James.
He called me two weeks later – December 30. No, he wasn’t the one working on it, but he checked. When he returned he said that it was being worked on right now, but it would not be mailed back until January 5, because of their being closed over New Year’s. When it had to arrived by January 9, I called again. No, it had not been fixed – it was scheduled for Irvin. I left another message for Irvin.
Two weeks later he called me. There was nothing wrong with the engine – worked fine! I held my temper, did not say, you blithering idiots! You’ve already fixed it! Instead I politely asked him to send it back.
Another two weeks – everything at Bachmann seems to take two weeks – UPS delivered it to my front porch. Thank heavens! I excitedly open the packing case, opened the Styrofoam inner case and carefully lifted out the engine.
And the pilot fell off! The engine had gone from China to my house, with stops in between, to Caboose a couple of times, to the Colorado Railroad Museum, then from my house to Philadelphia, without problem. But Bachmann could not mail it back safely.
There is a flat metal plate coming from the front of the frame, over which the pilot or snowplow slips. And it had sheared off. I was sick. I also discovered they had managed to lose the lower cylinder cap.
I e-mailed, I snail mailed, I called. There was another two weeks before I got a call back. Again the polite Customer Service Representative apologized and promised they would mail me the necessary parts. When the package finally arrived, I discovered that Bachmann’s engineers had decided that this metal plate was a weak spot, and the plate was screwed into the frame. That at least was good news. However, Bachmann had misinterpreted my request and instead of sending a cylinder cover, they sent the long upper cylinder cover. And when the engine was repaired, we discovered that two of the tiny screws that secure the braces were gone. Another e-mail, with the missing part numbers.
And, after more wait, a message was left on my phone: again, very sorry, they did not have ANY spare parts, at all. Please callback in July!
Well, I have a temporary cylinder cover fitted so I can run the engine. And she does sound as lovely as ever, behind her freight train of AMS and Spectrum cars.
I have been trying to think what I should do now. I thought about flying to Philadelphia and picketing Bachmann’s headquarters but that seemed a tad expensive. Wait, the 25th Annual Garden Railroad Convention is here in Denver this July. And my club, the Denver Garden Railroad Club, are the hosts.
When the convention comes to Golden, I plan to run my engine with its cars strung out behind. And on top of the box cars and the flat cars and the Spectrum GRAMPS tank car, and the caboose, will be a series of Burma Shave-style signs. It is a work in progress, but how does “ASK ME ABOUT TERRIBLE BACHMANN SERVICE” sound?
It seems from what you wrote that you have given this company multiple opportunities to "get it right", every one of which they booted down the street. All else being equal, I suppose your "protest train" at a public event would be justified.
After all, it's our individual experiences that most directly impact our purchasing decisions. We can read of other's great opinions of a product, but if the company treats us badly, then those other opinions aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
Why does warranty work always seem to take last priority? I had a problem with spinning gears in my new Bachmann Connie. It was under warranty when it broke but I elected to buy the gears rather than be without my primary loco for the advertised month they said it would take. I paid extra for special shipping but it still took 2 weeks of multiple phone calls to get the gears. Boy am I ever glad I didn't send it back to them given your story of six plus months and the damage they caused in shipping (or perhaps sitting around waiting for repairs).
Rex
Hi Bob I live in England, you will find Bridget very helpfull. When you ring Bachmann get the receipionest to try Ex 304 for Briget to make sure she is at her desk dont let any one else try to help you I did and in the end had to ring Bridget from UK to sort out what I wanted Hope this helps
Age is only a state of mind, keep the mind active and enjoy life
Jack,
Thanks for your assistance! I called Monday afternoon - forgot about the time difference! - but I left a message. I also sent an email to Brenda. Tuesday afternoon, Jennifer called to confirm what I needed - I had screwed up and duplicated the part number on one of the parts! She assured me the stuff would go out Tuesday or, at the latest, today.
Let me add some thoughts on improving Bachmann's customer service. It is, after all, not good for the manager to have to get involved! I am offering this based on my having spent most of my career in some form or other of customer service, the last before retirement, as a CSR for United Airlines. You ain't seen angry customers until you have to tell someone that they are not going to get to the wedding tomorrow because of a thunder storm half way across the country!
I do appreciate the problems of sending an item in for repair at Christmas time - I was upset, but not angry, when I could not get Big Engine back for my grandson (let alone me!) to play with over the holidays. Indeed, I recognize that you face a problem when hiring and training repair staff - if you have enough that my engine is immediately fixed the day it arrives, then you have a bunch of folk standing around twiddling their thumbs if no one happens to send something in!
My problem is two-fold: the failure to keep me adequately informed of what the status of my problem is, and the failure to proactively respond when Bachmann failed to safely pack the item and it broke in transit.
Most folk have email - set up a location on Bachmann.com/repairs and email me with a polite message, acknowledging receipt of the engine, and providing the repair order number, referring me to the web site for updates. If you think it will take a month to fix it, tell me that it will take 6-8 weeks. I will be pleased at the quicker than expected service. And if I do not have e-mail, then a postcard will do, referring me to the web site. With any sort of luck, that will remove a lot of inbound telephone messages, as well as the need of the repair technician to spend time returning my calls.
As for the second complaint: I did not mention how the K-27 was mispackaged. Someone had run a strip of clear packing tape across the bottom Styrofoam shell, locking in the pilot. I assume there is a certain amount of give in the packed engine, but this prevented the cowcatcher from shifting when the rest of the engine did, probably causing the break.
When I received it, I was furious! I sent a snail mail, certified, an email and left a voice mail. Bachmann should have gotten back to me immediately - the next day, not a couple of weeks later, and made certain which parts I needed. Then put them in the mail. The final straw, that precipitated my rantings here, was the telephone message telling me they did not have any of the four parts I needed, and, then, instead of saying we will mail them as soon as we receive them, telling me to call back in a couple of months!
I still think Bachmann has great products - I love "Big Engine" and the grandchildren are coming in June and we will be able to enjoy it, pulling its string of Spectrum and AMS cars, waking the dead with its whistle! And I hope that there are many years of service in it!
Again, Jack, thanks for your help. I will let the group know when the parts arrive.
Bob Huddleston
303-451-6376
Huddleston.r@comcast.net
"Customer service" Yeah, that's what it's called nowadays. It goes like this- the Chinese made product failed to work as advertised, a call goes out to customer service, a non-english speaking person tells you there is no problem, customer insists there is a problem, non-english speaker transfers the call to 4 other non-english speakers who also claim there is no problem and the non-problem cannot be fixed because it does not exist, then the call is lost.
Truth is B'mann is not alone. With very, very few exceptions, the above scenario plays out millions of times a day. I gladly pay more for a product if I know the service department is based in the US and staffed by people who have a vested interest in the company and it's product. And yes, there are companies like that, few and far between, but they are there.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Service departments are usually "overhead" - non-revenue producing entities, at least as far warranty issues are concerned. It's natural to try to keep those costs as low as possible. Problem is ..... after the sale, that's the department that your customers are likely to judge your company by.
I think you could minimize your customer complaint problems by essentially eliminating that department in the warranty resolution process. Why not just ask the customer to return the product to you (assuming the problem is greater than a simple missing marker light or something), replace it with a new unit fresh from production, then repair the returned item at your lesisure and offer it for sale at a reduced price as a "refurbished" item with limited warranty. Or, for non-warranty repairs, ship out the refurbished item as soon as you receive an item for repair and then repair and restock the defective one. Your turnaround time would essentially go to zero and your company would gain a lot of customer loyalty.
Bachmann needs to think about it's new status in the market. The days of "yeah, I know B'mann stuff breaks easily and takes forever to get fixed but what the hell, I got it for cheap" are over. The new Spectrum line is right up there with the other players in quality as well as price so the customer now expects more from the company and after-sale support is more important than ever.
Walt
Hi Walt,
I agree with your comments, living in the UK my problem is on spares that they do not stock a lot of them over here, so we have to order from across the pond. the excuse is that in the UK they can not get the spares from your neck of the woods IE you can not let them come to UK as you need all you can get from the far east to fix problems. A big problem is that Bachmann do not have the right people in the right jobs. Some are very good Bridget in customer services always goes the extra mile to help with a problem. But as you have said they need to up thier game in the service section, and on going training in customer face to face IE telephone assistants to customers on both saide of the pond. I find it so frustrating to be put over to an extenion when the person you want to talk to is not available, Front desk should always ask customer to wait while we check to se if Joe Bloggs is there not put you though to a dead end. This is just my comments some may not agree
How about this. Do not sale a product unless you have the ability to provide necessary parts and service for repairs. Based on the review in Garden Railways I purchased a Bachmann 2 6 6 2. When I unwraped it and began the lubrication process, I found 7 missing screws. When I called Bachmann, they said they had no parts for the 2 6 6 2 and to contact the dealer to have them change it out. What a waste of time and money. This is not the dealers fault. It is Bachmanns. I would say do not buy a 2 6 6 2 until Bachmann says they can properly provide service and parts.
I might as well add to this. Not with a complaint about Bachmann but about all the big manufacturers and sellers as a whole. I'm convinced that we mean nothing to them because they have us by the short hairs and know it.
On April 21 I sent via UPS to USA Trains my EMD GP30 Diesel engine for non warranty repairs. My letter was quite clear in "Please advise as to cost." The engine came back yesterday repaired and they had billed my VisaCard account from the information from an online order some months ago.
A few months ago I made one of quite a few online purchases from WholeSale Trains. A Napa Valley Passenger car. It came via Fed Ex with no outside damage to the boxes. Opened it up and found the car damaged. Called them and got an RMA number and sent it back. Waited three weeks and sent them a fax saying either replace it or refund my money.Waited two more weeks and called them. What a coincidence as they had repaired it and were sending it back to me that very day. Say they can't replace it back because someone had obviously worked on it. Must have been one of them slaves in China as it was not me.
This list of inept uncaring stores, companies and repair shops can go on and on but I'd bore you to death if I listed all the inepts I've dealt with during the last three years.
RUDY JAGER, CEO OF THE LONE WOLF RAILROAD
TRUST ME--I USED TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT!
I recently purchased a Spectrum G scale 3 truck Shay that "with DCC" in the ad. when I got it it was only DCC ready. I called the supplier as she said all advertizing blurps are from the manufacturer and had had numerous callls on no decoders. Called and emailed service andwas told they did not have decoders for installation and the ad was in error. I could have ordered a DCC ready for $150 less!!!!! It also says they have noway to fix any of the electronics with their new line. And SoundTraxx stated they are discontinuing the sound/ motor decoder they were suppling Bachmann. Thus, noway to get Spectrum engines fixed in the future, Did not leave a good taste in my mouth for any future business with Bachmann.
If you paid with a credit card and the purchase was made less than a month ago, you might be able to get your credit card company to stop payment on the sale. They often will do that for you if you claim that you've been badly treated by a merchant. And I would say that you certainly have been. Return the engine and buy that other one for $150 less and have another DCC/sound system installed by a third party.
Who knows, Bachmann may be going through a bad time right now, different management, different manufacturing site, different distribution channels, etc, etc, etc. But none of that is any excuse to mistreat a customer by asking hm to pay for their shortcomings.
Fisrt let me say I joined this forum to learn from others so as not to make additional expensive errors Vendors have been most helpful in many cases, but some manufacturers appear less than helpfull as is in this case.
I chose the vendor as it advertized DCC included as I wanted to use my HO controller. It did not come with it but I did not know that immediately as I do not have a setup yet. Only found out when going to a club to check it out. Called vendor, she stated the spec/detail portion of ad was down loaded from Bachmann. Checked several ads from other vendors, They had EXACT wording and format.
When I received the Shay (chosen as I am to build an Adirondack logging) It came with out any directions, spec, or DVD. Phone call got me a schematic and DVD. I still do not know the ampreage needs to drive three motors or any information on voltages. Vendors tell me the 1 amp decoders are for HO and will not work in G scale due to amps needed to drive the large and multiple motors typical of G scale.
I have an interest in using Aristorcrats RCC in My set up. Asked about their decoder to drive the three motors in Shay(amp limitations). comment back was Bechman has supplied no info to Crest so they are waiting for user feed back as to what is needed and or problems.
I would expect a response similar to competitors such as " the engine runs 0 to 21 v it will need about 3.7v to start. There are three motors that draw up to 1.8 amps each thus you will need a decoder capable of handling 8-10 amps." Why can't I get this simple info?
Although this is worded as a whine, it is to state my needs, limitations on knowledge, and plea for help. I have the greatest fear that the three engines (same manufacturer) I purchased to mimic the Rich Lumber Co. will be a headache with constant fustrations vs enjoyment. Also, Garden scale is vertually unheard of where I live and have to drive over 250 round trip to the nearest vendor thus rely on mail order.
Post deleted due to removal of orginal posting by Kalmbach.
Post deleted due to removal of original posting by Kalmbach
I would be suprised if the exact advertising copy came from Bachmann. I think the vendors grab something and are not always careful.
When you called service, they told you they did not have any decoders, because there were never any extra "Quasinami" units made as spares. A strange but unfortunate situation.
Your beef is with your vendor. Whether or not the ad copy came from Bachman, your purchase was from your vendor, and they sold you a loco with a decoder and you did not get it.
A poor decision (in my opinion) by Bachmann was to not have any technical support or spares or repair capability for these special electronics, so when they told you they have no way to fix it, that is true.
Soundtraxx apparently made a special run of decoders for Bachmann, and the cost did NOT include support or repair parts. Bachmann did not budget to support these decoders, nor did they (apparently) have any technical information on them.
This was a very poor situation in my opinion, and all of the responsibility rests on the shoulders of Bachmann for making these decisions and NOT informing people of the situation.
Who in their right mind would purchase a loco from a vendor and NOT expect support for any component of the loco?
Anyway, I would try to get your money back from the vendor or a rebate in price to the loco without the decoder, since that is what you (apparently) received.
I feel badly for Soundtraxx, since there were several instances I know of where the Bachmann people told their customers to contact Soundtraxx.
The only silver lining here is you can bet your bottom dollar that Bachmann will not make this same mistake twice, they have lost a lot of business and customer confidence over this one.
Regards, Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
Deleted due to removal of original post by Kalmbach
Greg, you have hit a lot of points that i found when attempting to resolve my problems except the purchase. A lot of reputations are at stake. I have received numerous emails from Bachmann blaming me the vendor and everyone else. Notice not on the public forum.
I ordered a Bachmann 3 truck shay with DCC and soundtraxx from a vendor for $670.11 in Dec based upon their ad. I could have purchsed a non encoder one for $529.56. It was shipped in a Big Hauler red box with part number 82699 on the unopened box. Invoice stated BAC82699. I opened to box and it was the shay. but as stated earlier I did not have a setup to test it. I took it to a club in April to see it run. Club member could not get it to run on DCC. they opened it up and said the encoder card was missing. As 3 mo. went by from purchase to notification the vendor doesn't want to know about it.
Bachmann is now infering the ad for this model 82699 was in error by the vendor. that model does not include any decoder even though it is printed on the boxes white spec sheet beloe the part no.. AS Buckco has inferred it is the vendors problem, He needs to resolve this by printing the Bachmann specifications for this product here. He should also assist with specs in amperage and voltage min and max. He states this will run with their 1 amp decoders. The vendor and other vendors state no. I have received a few emails about other purchasers who have received this model with no decoders in them and are just as upset.
Who is right here. It would be helpful of Bachmann would set an official record as to specs and the issues with SoundTraxx you noted.
Get the Garden Railways newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month