I'm having problems getting replacement parts for repair from Walthers. This started when I purchased a undec model and when I was preparing to paint this, I found the windows were glued in at the factory. I tried to remove them and one cracked on me. I contacted Walthers parts and was told that they do not and will not provide replacement parts. The person I spoke with is "Randy" in the Parts Department. He told me that I must be lying about the windows being glued in at the factory. Very disrespectful person, attitude, behaviour and representative for Walthers. I later contacted "Customer Service" and the person said "Call Randy". I'm curious if anyone else is having this type of resposne from them.
My Walthers Alco DL 109 came with the glass glued in. Before I realized that, I ordered undecorated shells figuring I could move the detail parts from the originals. Wrong. Of course, the glass is not available. Poor customer service and lack of parts just plain sucks.
The last time I contacted Randy via e-mail for a part for the Red Wing Mill, I got zero results. He did reply back about a part number and I replied back, end of story.
I had to replace a motor for one of my subway cars. I could not find the part, so I e-mailed Walthers. They did have it, but it was not in the online catalog. They gave me the part number and I was successful in getting it.
On another occasion, I lost the instructions to a kit, the Car Float, as I recall. I e-mailed them and within minutes I had a PDF e-mailed back.
For me, so far, so good. Remember, you are not speaking to the people who are responsible for the lack of parts.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
i have had mixed results from walthers lately, seems that they are not stocking replacment parts after a few years, seems they would reather you buy something new from them rather that sell you a replacment part leading me to either throw out or confine them to the junk yard most of my walthers motive power has ended there,as a result i no longer will buy from them.
A few years ago, I bought an Walthers Undecorated Russel Snowplow kit. It came almost entire disassembled (a kit). The only issue I had was that it was missing the roller bearing truck. I called Walthers customer service, and they sent me another truck. Only, this truck appeared to have friction bearings as well, but was labeled the roller bearing part. I figured it was not a big deal and learned some trucks were rebuilt with roller bearings, but kept the covers. The customer service was very nice though.
Maybe he just had a bad day, I've dealt with Wathers parts and customer service departments many times over the years and have always found them to be great. There have been times when parts just weren't available but if they don't have them they don't have them, not much you can do. These people have always gone out of they're way to please.
"Generally" Walthers has been pretty good at supplying parts that I have requested. Admittedly, the most recent was probably four or five years ago when I needed a whole front-end for a Proto 2000 NKP Berkshire. They sent all the parts, and then some, and maybe I paid for postage, or not, I don't remember.
With the sheer volume of the product lines that Walthers handles it seems to me that it would be asking an awful lot to hold them to keeping a stock of ready parts for products that may have been discontinued some ten-to-twenty years ago.
I recently needed parts for my wife's 2006 Ford. Calling the Ford parts department the manager on the phone kind of chuckled saying, we don't carry parts for vintage cars...
Vintage??? All I needed was a parking brake cable for a 2006 Ford 500! Sorry, we no longer support that old of a car.
Go figure...
Ed
Here is my take on Walthers. When I first entered the HO scale side of the hobb back in early 2004, I bought everything from my LHS which used Walthers exclusively as their supplier. When my LHS closed down, I went directly to Walthers for all of my needs, spending thousands of dollars with them.
When I needed a part, they supplied it, not only on their own products but also on the other manufacturers that dealt with Walthers. I knew for a fact that the Walthers customer reps woudl open boxes and take the needed parts out and send them to their customers. Randy and Amy were simply wonderful.
But, something changed, not sure what, and they stopped supplying repair parts. I am guessing, but I think what turned them off was the aftermath of the acquisition of Life Like and the Proto line. Proto would supply replacement gears for their faulty diesels without question. Walthers continued that practice after the acquisition.
But, my understanding is that Walthers felt that they were being taking advantage of by greedy customers who were stockpiling replacement gears. Once that occurred, Walthers became more selective about giving out replacement parts. Eventually, they stopped altogether. I did not often request replacement parts but I grew totally frustrated with Walthers customer service. Now, I don't even bother to call them.
I stlll think that they are a fine company, but forget about getting replacement parts from them.
Rich
Alton Junction
I agree with Rich,
The P2K parts etc are a weak link with them. If a particular model is in production than you might find something in stock. If it is not than your best bet is a stop at Ebay to see if you can find a complete replacement cheap. Dont laugh you would be surprised.
The other area is the new search engine on Walther's. It takes a lot more steps to find a specific part. Many times there are no pictures of them. I know they wanted to make a more secure website but the search feature is not the greatest.
In the past I had recieved great service ordering parts and items. They may have good service now but I have gone elsewhere to find P2K and other stuff I used to go to Walther's for.
Chris
I think a big part of it is today's business model. In the old days, manufacturers made essentially the same products for years and years. Since they were still making the products, parts were always available.
But now products tend to be made in runs, some of which are never repeated. That means the manufacturer has to decide up front what percentage of the run is going to go into the parts bin and what percentage will be assembled for sale as the complete product. Doing this is a bit of a black art and sometimes they get it wrong. This can be made worse if certain parts have a high failure rate and the spares are soon depleted. Think Bachmann.
The US military faces this problem when they buy things like fighters, bombers, and cargo aircraft which are built on contract in specific quantities. Provisioning spares has to be calculated before the contract is let. In a lot of cases, the aircraft has a longer service life than anticipated, so additional spares have to be contracted for later, often in small quantities. That makes them expensive, sometimes very expensive, which is usually ends with the acquisition becoming politicized. Kind of like what happens to, um, Bachmann and Walthers.
CG
gmpullmanVintage??? All I needed was a parking brake cable for a 2006 Ford 500! Sorry, we no longer support that old of a car. Go figure...
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
As to finding parts, I had good luck asking for parts on the nscale.net forums. Perhaps you might try searching on some of the various model railroad forums.
gmpullman "Generally" Walthers has been pretty good at supplying parts that I have requested. Admittedly, the most recent was probably four or five years ago when I needed a whole front-end for a Proto 2000 NKP Berkshire. They sent all the parts, and then some, and maybe I paid for postage, or not, I don't remember. With the sheer volume of the product lines that Walthers handles it seems to me that it would be asking an awful lot to hold them to keeping a stock of ready parts for products that may have been discontinued some ten-to-twenty years ago. I recently needed parts for my wife's 2006 Ford. Calling the Ford parts department the manager on the phone kind of chuckled saying, we don't carry parts for vintage cars... Vintage??? All I needed was a parking brake cable for a 2006 Ford 500! Sorry, we no longer support that old of a car. Go figure... Ed
Ed, something seems off about your FORD story on the dealer side. Sounds like you had an inexperianced parts person or a small dealership. While they may not have that part in stock at the dealer, the brake cable for 2006 500 should likely also be the same as one for a 2008/2009 Taurus since they were built on the same chassis. That not only makes it a part used on a wide range of vehicles but updates the service part requirement to 2019 or beyond. They should be able to get that part.
Sheldon
And as to this issue of Walthers service parts, yes, it has gone from great to poor.
I purchased some of the first Proto F7's from them years ago. Only to find the undecorated version came with the 1960's modified shell and snowplow pilot, not the 1950's as built shell. I model 1954. I called them - no spare shells, not even to sell to me, nobody cared that the model was not what I thought I was buying. I sold them off (one of the few times I've done that) and will not buy any Walthers production Proto from here on out.
I buy less and less Walthers products as time goes on, very selective about their rolling stock, no more locos, structures remain the only thing they have that interests me much.
When LIfeLike still had Proto, you could get any part you needed, no problems.
And Bachmann is getting better about parts...what a flip/flop........
Just another example of how this hobby has shifted from a "craftsman" hobby to a hobby of collecting expensive toys. I don't say this to get everyone stired up about how people model or kits vs RTR, but the fact is that in the old days these manufacturers would have gone out of business fast for not supporting repairs - welcome to the disposeable world......
But the models have become so complex, and the interests of those buying them have shifted to where few people are willing to take them apart and fix them - so why worry with parts? Just replace models under warranty and say "tough luck" for models out of warranty.......
I agree about Walthers.
Kato, Atlas and Bowser have excellent parts support / web listings. Always have.
Back when I purchased the original Walthers SW-1 and FM, they had good parts support but sadly that changed.
However, I was unaware Walthers has a repair service.
https://www.walthers.com/parts-warranty
From this page:
* A repair service is available for Walthers brand products. For all other brands and warranty claims, please select "Customer Service".
Anyone used this service yet?
Jim