My experiance of DigiTrax customer service is excellent, both email and phone. Only had to use the service twice and one time was my fault when learning their system. Could not be more satisfied with their products. Doug
Did you actually load one of John McMaster's 16 bit sound projects on it? The defaults that come loaded are stiull the same old crappy 8 bit SD38 sounds.
I won;t own a UT4 becuase I despise poteiometer throttles, I'm spoiled by the encoders on the DT400/402. Even picked up a cheap DT100 for a basic throttle, but I don;t use it much because I am afraid I will soon break it, trying to click the knobs to change direction - DT100 didn;t have click encoders, you have to use the direction button. Plus they are just stiff free-turning knobs, no click on the turnign either like the DT400/402, I can see why people wouldn;t like that kind of encoder, there is no tactile feedback that you are doing anything. They need to make a UT4E with encoder. Then I'd probably buy a couple.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have 1 Zephyr Extra, 1 UT4, 1 AR1, 2 HO decoders, 1 SE8C, 1 BDL168, 1 PR3-USB.
No calls to Digitrax yet.
Two items did not deliver to expectations (UT4 and the new 16 bit sound decoder) but that was not a product failure or anything.
I've only had to deal with Digitrax tech support one time and they were no problem at all.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I can't tell you how many times my DT400's have hit the pavement. My DB150 is now into its eighth year and hasn't given me a lick of trouble. I called Digitrax once shortly after I got the SEB, spent maybe four minutes on the phone, and haven't needed to call them since.
-Crandell
At my club, we use DB200's. We've returned 2 in the past 10 years, and IIRC, Digitrax fixed one and didn't find anything wrong with the other. And that's entirely possible due to our complex layout. We're running something like 20 DB200's right at the moment, and some of our problems could have been with faulty power supplies we were using from Loy's Toys (remember them?) or bad wiring.
gondola1988,Actually, you're angry at the wrong people.
You sent in two DT400's tethered throttles to be upgraded to DT402R's, right? That's both an upgrade chip ($25 per) and a radio transmitter ($25 per). That's $100 in upgrades.
In shipment to Digitrax, both throttles were damaged through no fault of your own nor of Digitrax. Digitrax charges $25 to fix a throttle. I've sent many in over the past 15 years to know this. In fact, I had a club DT400R throttle that "rattled", too, after a member dropped it one too many times and it stopped working. I sent it in, and Digitrax wasn't able to fix it. Instead, they gave us a brand new DT400R. The charge? $25.
At any rate, you still wanted the upgrades ($100) and now the throttles needed fixed ($25 ea. or $50). Digitrax did not break them, your shipping company did. You should be angry at the shipper. If they were insured, then you should have made a claim against the shipper. You are blaming Digitrax for no good reason. Do you expect them to repair a throttle for free? If you had your car towed to a garage beause the engine died, and on the way the tow truck dented your car, you don't think the garage should fix the damage to your car for free, do you?
You are also under the wrong impression on a throttle upgrade. They re-use the same case you send them. For the "402" upgrade, they just swap out the old chip and replace it with a new one (FWIW, the QSI chip upgrade is $30). For adding a radio, they simply solder on the radio transmitter daugtherboard to the throttle's motherboard. They add a new sticker to the front of the case, and that's it. It's the same case, and if it's broken, then it needs replaced. And that's $25 each.
Paul A. Cutler III
deleted
I've never had a problem with their CS. I've emailed them many times, and get a response in less than an hour, usually with in 10 minutes, on a week day. I have a Super Empire Builder, DB 150, which I think was new in 2007 or 08 ? I'd have to find the receipt to be sure.
Mike.
EDIT: By the way Rich, nice button, even though it says CUBS! (Should be Brewers!)
My You Tube
They do recommend shipping things insured and with tracking. Not Digitrax's fault the US Mail or UPS or Fedex morons played football with your package.
rrinker A booster button? What is that?
A booster button? What is that?
Randy, here is an example of a booster button.
Rich
Alton Junction
I think we've had this discussion before. Their warranty policies are completely in line with anyone elses. Elsewhere we have people bashing Digitrax because they calim it costs $15 to fix an in-warranty decoder. As they fail to notice on the warranty form you fill out that if the item is within the warranty period and you have your proof of purchase there is no charge.
I don;t think we've had any of the boosters go bad on the club layout. The pwoer supplies - but they are usign some oddball 15V power supplies someoen found somewhere. DB150 is pretty tough because it's fairly simple, especially when that Config A to Ground jumper is in place. Don't enclose them in a box of any sort, air has to flow over those heat sinks. Even then, all they do is shut down if they overheat, and I don;t thibnk that's even any srt of special circuitry, it's automatic protection in the chip used for the output. What can and does kill them, especially ina multi booster setup, is an out of phase condition across the gaps between power districs without a heavy common wire between all boosters. This is not optional, othrwsie the only common reference between boosters is in the thin Loconet cable, and you end up with the same conditions as a loco shortign the rails with insufficient feeders adn bus - it's a short but the resistence of the circuit is high enough that the total current flowing is less than 5 amps, so no breakers ever trip. Just sits there cooking things.
Just recieved my DCS 100 from Digitrax they Didn't even address the reason that I sent it in for but they up graded the software and install a booster button. On the invoice they stated that the warranty was now only ninty days this DCS100 is only a few weeks old so much for the one year no worry warranty.Don't know what going on with digitrax but they are sure dropping the ball on customer service lately
Also just sent my DB 150 in for the fourth time, this time it was totally gone. It still has time on the one year but since it had been in so many times they said that it was my problem. Using Digitrax Universal power supply set on 16.8 v on the DB150 and the DCS 100. They told me no one else has had problems on a DB 150. Good one HA!
So I will be paying for this one to get fixed. The funny thing is I have a Zephyr running on the same layout, for the past 4 years not a single problem.
I think they are just tired of me e-mailing them so they are getting back at me