N gauge returns saga

Elvinley · September 11, 2015, 07:19:20 PM

To those that rightly say that a faulty loco should be returned here is my latest saga:

1. A Farish LMR WD from the Longmoor set didn't run properly as the drive gear was loose and was slipping. The tender wheels didn't turn properly and the loco was sent back.
2. The loco came back to me no fault found.
3. After I rang the service dept to say the loco was not fine, it was sent back to Farish.
4. The loco was replaced this time and sent with a wagon to cover postage costs. The loco ran jerkilly at slow speeds and had sticking tender wheels.
5. The loco was sent back and a replacement new loco was sent.
6. The new loco ran like a dream until it was run in for a couple of hours. There is barely any pick-up from the loco wheels - ok pick-up on the tender. The loco now makes a horrible grinding noise at slow speeds.
7. The loco will now be sent back with me being down by 6 quid again. Where does this end?

I had a similar experience with a Dapol Q1 which ended up as faulty on ebay in the end as I had had enough.

austinbob · September 11, 2015, 07:30:25 PM

Quote from: Elvinley on September 11, 2015, 07:19:20 PM
To those that rightly say that a faulty loco should be returned here is my latest saga:

1. A Farish LMR WD from the Longmoor set didn't run properly as the drive gear was loose and was slipping. The tender wheels didn't turn properly and the loco was sent back.
2. The loco came back to me no fault found.
3. After I rang the service dept to say the loco was not fine, it was sent back to Farish.
4. The loco was replaced this time and sent with a wagon to cover postage costs. The loco ran jerkilly at slow speeds and had sticking tender wheels.
5. The loco was sent back and a replacement new loco was sent.
6. The new loco ran like a dream until it was run in for a couple of hours. There is barely any pick-up from the loco wheels - ok pick-up on the tender. The loco now makes a horrible grinding noise at slow speeds.
7. The loco will now be sent back with me being down by 6 quid again. Where does this end?

I had a similar experience with a Dapol Q1 which ended up as faulty on ebay in the end as I had had enough.

Your experience is very disappointing but, I fear, not unusual.
I have had problems with both Farish and Dapol locos which I always send back if they don't work out of the box. I worked out that about 20% of my locos (mostly kettles) have had to go back to the retailer or the manufacturer. Some of the problems I've had may seem trivial like missing couplings or broken wires but, as I've said many times before (members of this Forum must be getting used to this response from me) we don't accept dodgy mobile phones or TVs or computers or whatever.... what's different about N gauge locos. If they don't work then send em back - that's what I always do now - I am not a fettler - I wouldn't try and fix a dodgy mobile or TV or computer and neither would anyone else I suspect.
Send it back - Send it back - send it back....

Elvinley · September 11, 2015, 07:36:23 PM

To be honest I would have got a refund by now if it wasn't one of the locos I had been looking forward to for years. It makes me think they are all the same even though the old WDs were fine, and I have four of those.

austinbob · September 11, 2015, 07:59:37 PM

Quote from: Elvinley on September 11, 2015, 07:36:23 PM
To be honest I would have got a refund by now if it wasn't one of the locos I had been looking forward to for years. It makes me think they are all the same even though the old WDs were fine, and I have four of those.

I know exactly how you feel! Some of the locos I've wanted have been on pre-order for months and then you receive a pile of

Shiney Sheff · September 11, 2015, 08:42:08 PM

I too have had the same problems with the said loco and fully agree with what you say.

BUT, an observation I made while looking at the front of the Longmoor box says,

SPECIAL COLLECTORS EDITION.

Now, does this wording mean that it really is not made for running on ours tracks, but should be placed in a glass cabinet and just observed

If that's the case then it's a rather expensive piece of art :'(

Elvinley · September 11, 2015, 09:02:49 PM

It should work as well as the others. The 4F and Duchess of the other collectors editions have been good in my experience, but the newspaper set with the blue 24 tended to be a worse runner than the non-set loco. Very odd.

EtchedPixels · September 11, 2015, 11:46:15 PM

You should not be down anything. It's the retailers job to deal with the fault, and for faulty goods its the retailers job to pay the return costs. As it's their legal duty to sell merchantable goods pedantically speaking you could probably charge them for your time and travel for the returns too

Also as they've failed to fix it repeatedly you are well within your rights to go back to the retailer and say "manufacturer guarantee hasn't fixed it, money back please" (and if they are assholes about it trading standards and your bank)

Elvinley · September 12, 2015, 12:09:07 AM

That may be the only option in the end. Such a disappointment as the loco looks stunning. I have asked if anyone else on here has had the same issues with the set version of the WD loco but not had much response apart from what Shiney Sheff said. If I knew it was possible to get one of these that works as it should (like the faultless running of the N Class, 4Fs, Merchant Navy and Duchesses I have) I would keep persisting. I hate sending things back and for really simple things I will correct stuff but this is beyond me. Thanks goodness for forums like this where we can at least report these issues.

Elvinley · September 18, 2015, 04:22:44 PM

An update to this: Bachmann have refunded the cost of the loco. Not sure if this means they can't find one that works properly, they are sick of dealing with me or think I am being too fussy.

Newportnobby · September 19, 2015, 07:14:36 PM

Quote from: Elvinley on September 18, 2015, 04:22:44 PM
An update to this: Bachmann have refunded the cost of the loco. Not sure if this means they can't find one that works properly, they are sick of dealing with me or think I am being too fussy.

A great shame but at least you have your money back

Elvinley · September 20, 2015, 12:14:07 AM

Yes and they refunded my postage without any quibbles.

Les1952 · September 21, 2015, 09:04:26 AM

At the GCR show in 2014 I bought a new Farish Deltic from Sherwood Models and took it across to the layout to check. The lights were brilliant and illuminated correctly under power. Sadly the motor made no effort.

Showing it to Neil on the stand a replacement was summoned from Ian in the shop and exchanged the following morning. Neil took the dud to the Bachmann stand with a return form (to save postage) and demonstrated that it didn't work.

At the Grantham show a couple of weeks later Neil told me they had got "the" loco back from Bachmann's service dept marked "no fault found". Apparently there are a lot of returns come back so marked.

Compare this with Hornby- one of Sherwood's customers dropped a new Hornby loco and damaged the body beyond repair. Ian suggested to her that she wrote a polite letter to Hornby explaining what had happened and asking if they could fix it and send her a bill. A couple of weeks later she was back in the shop- Hornby had sent out a free replacement.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm dabbling in OO again....
Les

Dr Al · September 21, 2015, 09:23:17 AM

Quote from: Les1952 on September 21, 2015, 09:04:26 AM
At the Grantham show a couple of weeks later Neil told me they had got "the" loco back from Bachmann's service dept marked "no fault found". Apparently there are a lot of returns come back so marked.

To be fair to Bachmann, there could also be genuine reason this happened - the motor connections for instance could have been intermittently making contact and bumped back in place in the process of shipping back to Barwell.

Cheers,
Alan