Amazing customer service

I ordered an Intermountain F7B from Brooklyn Locomotive Works via e-mail on Saturday afternoon and received it TODAY (Monday), one business day later!!!

This is in sharp contrast to a hobby shop that, because they support the TrainBoard, I have placed orders with from time to time. Most recently I placed an order in January and still haven't received in March! The answers to e-mails mostly are automated, explaining why they're too busy to respond/short staffed/off to train shows etc.

I'd prefer to support a TrainBoard supporter, but I know where I'll be doing my future shopping.

 

Pete is very good. I buy from him & Chuck from Feather River. Chuck supports TB :thumbs_up:

 

Bob, it depends on what is on hand at the dealer at time of order, and whether the manufacturer/distributor has stock to send to the distributor/dealer to fill your order.

Whilst I have had the odd email order or two get lost in an inbox but it's been easily sorted with a follow up email

Shipping times can be incredible, eh? I'm talking 4.5 days from the US stamped date and time to my doorstep in Oz, and these are orders from a couple of TrainBoard's advertisers.

 

Chuck sent my Challenger last Saturday (my time) and it arrived early Tuesday morning. That's quicker than mail here in Aus.

 

I find all of the N scale vendors that do or have advertised on Trainboard have consistently outstanding service. I am very happy with Wig Wag who has saved me from myself several times when I duplicated orders and things like that.

 

I also had a similiar good experience with Brooklyn Locomotive Works. I order three Atlas locomotives last Friday and think I went with the cheapest shipping possible. Expecting them to maybe be here by this coming Thursday/Friday time frame.

Any way I got them yesterday being Monday as well. Very impressed! I have not tried Wig-Wag yet but I have heard good things.

Mr X

 

Speaking of customer service, I thought this was worth mentioning as well, being on the same subject.

I bought a slightly used Micro Trains FT A/B set. It was from an idividual and not from a retail place. As much as I love this unit, it was missing the detail sprues (horns, diaphram frame parts,) as well as parts of the rear coupler missing. I emailed MT and explained my delima, and asked if those parts were available, and if so, could I purchase directly from them. I explained no retail outlets would help me, or order them for me seeing I purchased it from a private party. The rep responded pretty quick to comfirm the parts I needed, then promptly dropped them in the mail, along WITH extras. No charge for any of it.

Cuddos MT.

 

...answers like this one maybe ?

"We really do wish we would have already completed your order."

Stay cool and order from FRTS Chuck...... :shade: :shade:

 

Not saying we are all going to get free stuff from MT becasue it is like anything if people abuse it, it will get taken away. I had ordered MT couplers (about a 100 pairs of them) in all different shapes and sizes for locos and rolling stock.

A very tiny piece of one of the couplers was missing and I called both the vendor and MT about the problem. The vendor could not sell me just that piece alone. So after the call to MT they sent 4 of them out immediatly at no charge, only needed one.

After providing an update to the original retailer, which was Walthers in this case, they also refunded back the entire purchase price of that coupler set. I told them they did not have to but they did any way. We are so lucky sometimes!

Going back to Brooklyn Locomotive Works which was the vendor at hand. I just received three locomotives from them. One of which had a slight issue with the gears in one of the trucks. I called them back and asked them how to take care of it. Very apologetic and sympathetic he let me know how I could exchange it. I still have to ship it back them but hey...

I am most certainly going to shop with Brooklyn Locomotive Works in the future!

Mr X

 

What I think is odd.

Bachmann, for the most part thought of as a low end source for N scale (even though not many can match their Spectrum Steamers) has the best customer service. They have sent me countless parts for my stuff to keep me from having to pay the return fee, and wait weeks for transit both ways of my locomotives. I just tell them what the problem is, and they drop the part I need in the mail. Alot of the times a missing part. I needed a detail part for a tender on one of my steamers, and they sent me an intire tender. On another I needed 2 traction tires, and they sent me a bag of them. Bachmann has awesome customer support.

On the flip side, Walthers, considered high end, I couldn't get them to give me the time of day when I needed help on a LL Proto steamer. Granted, it was a model before Walthers took over, but still was disapointed that I pretty much got the message "your on your own with it".

 

hey bob i know the feeling. being new to the TB i thought that i would support some of the vendors but it seems like i used the same one that you did. first it was 10 to 14 days then after that it was "sorry, but its going to be at least 2 more weeks. i placed my order on feb.2 and well you know the rest. on the other hand i ordered a tap kit from onestoptrainshop.com and 4 days later it arrived. what a difference in customer service. i think maybe someone got too big too fast and couldn't keep up. if that is the case at least when you go to order tell us that part is NOT in stock unlike what really happened. i would have been happy to either order something else or just not order that particular part. now a $3.00 item is holding up an $18.00 item. lesson learned.

 

All of the Vendors that I have purchased items from have showed up on time except for one and then they did not let you know that it was on back order for awhile. So now when I call them I always ask if it is in stock. You really want some bad customer support try to get your home eletronics fixed using a waranty were they have to come to your home and fix it. It has been a month and half TV still broken and finally they are going to replace it:angry:

 

Unfortunately BLW don't ship to foreign addresses so they're not much use to me. There's some nice stuff on their site, especially some of their special runs, but all I can do is drool over it and take my business elswhere.

 

If you know someone in the US, you can always have BLW ship the item to them first. I was searching for a UP Gas Turbine a year or so ago and it turned out that BLW had the last one on planet earth. I had it shipped to a friend in Maine who then sent it on to me. Worked like a charm!

 

Absolutely! I broke the tender ladder on my Spectrum 2-8-0 and called up Bachmann. They were busy but the lady on the phone took down all my info and before I had a chance to pay for it, she hung up! 3 days later it was in my mailbox. I was floored!

 

I know who you are talking about. I ordered from them once due to rave reviews but no more. Took a long time and I was not kept abreast to the delay. I had to called them a few times to find out the status of my order. It's hard to send things out if you are on the road all the time.

 

Bob, I think I know who you are referring to. I made the mistake of ordering twice from this outfit. I'm not kidding, months had passed and I thought my order was cancelled due to availability or something...no emails, no nothing. I buy the item somewhere else only to have it show up at my door from this place. To be honest, it has made me weary of on-line shops. From now on, if an item is available at Walthers, I'll buy direct from them and pay the much higher list price, but at least I know I'll have it in a day or two.

BLW is excellent.

 

Being a dealer who supports TrainBoard, these kinds of posts give me the chills...As a dealer I always try my best to provide 110% effort into customer service. That being said, I realize that it is impossible to always get it right. For any of my customers who need an issue resolved all I ask is that you be sure to contact me and give me the chance to make it right for you. I feel confident that 99.9% of my customers have been happy with both the pricing and service they received from my store. After all, without customers all I would be is an overstocked model train storage facility...customers are what make me a hobby retailer.

Note: I know this post isn't about my store, as the problem does not happen with my sales process. I use an online shopping cart for direct orders, and I never ship special orders or backorders without a buyer's confirmation. Still, the thought that there may be an unhappy customer out there makes me work even harder to keep them happy!

 

Kevin, do you have a store in Bakersfield, or are you limited to internet sales? The reason I'm asking, my daughter and son in law live in Bakersfield and I couldn't find a local train store when we went to visit last summer (we went to Tehachapi so I could get an "authentic" SP boxcar . We'll be out again this summer and I'd make it a point to stop by if you have a "bricks and mortar" site.