"Pretty small" is a relative term in the model RR industry. I believe that almost all of the DCC manufacturers are similar in size to NCE (which is one of the bigger ones), and that they all are relatively small. You can say the same about most model RR manufacturers. I can tell you that the 4,674 member Yahoo NCE-DCC Group believes that while no manufacturer is perfect, that the NCE team is a top-notch group of people, that they make very good products, have done so for a very long time, and stand behind their products very well. Most on that NCE-DCC Yahoo Group (I am acquainted with several of them who live/work in the San Francisco Bay Area), I have seen first hand how NCE has been responsive, powerful, well supported. And clearly, NCE seems to be in it for the long run (same can be said of Digitrax and Lenz). IMHO, the big North American 3 (NCE, Digitrax, and Lenz) are all good and you can't go wrong with any of these 3. It's more a matter of preference - NCE for best user interface, Digitrax for Loconet and it's techie-capabilities, and Lenz for being just plain European/German rock solid. I chose NCE PowerCab and have been super happy. I know of both Digitrax and Lenz friends that are super happy. I even know of a few MRC Prodigy users that are happy, albeit without the MRC giving ability to talk to Decoder Pro computer DCC software, that factor can cause many to bypass the MRC Prodigy. NCE users who have used NCE for a while in my area, think the NCE service is in their opinion very good and quite personal. In many cases, using the phone is said to be better in reaching NCE, as they have too many emails to get to every one every day (like most of us!). Hope this helps, just my 2 cents worth.
Thanks, that's good to hear. I was kind of sold on the NCE but reading some of the complaints in this thread I got the feeling they might be having some kind of business or health problems. Jeff
Not at all Jeff, they are just very busy and do make time to talk to people which takes time, of course. And they also have their on-going product development, both for themselves and others.
What happened is NCE had a release of several new products, had to fix some bugs with one of them, and came out with upgrades for the radio's. I sent 2 procabs and an RB02 in for version 1.5 radio upgrades that give 100 times the sensitivity. Also I had internal antenna's installed, new back covers with custom radio transmission LED holes drilled, and custom purple 2mm led's instead of the 3mm red led's, to be different than the rest of the guys in my club. NCE service is fantastic, in that they are willing to do all these mods on my 10 year old procabs. Try to get any other DCC company to do custom work like internal antenna's and custom LED's, and new plastic cases for your old equipment. You will probably get insulted just for asking. I came home from work yesterday, and my stuff was there, looking like brand new and customized beautifully! NCE is second to none in service. That's why it's a bit slow at this time of year, as everyone is taking advantage of their great service! yes, I was concerned too, but now that I got my stuff back, I am overjoyed!
