Just a little vent! (Walthers)


grande man

grande man

Bonafied Grande Nut
We've got maybe 8-10 P2K diesels on our layout. I bought 2 ATSF Geep 30s (freight scheme, way cool :cool: ) about 18 months ago and am just now getting ready to put them into service. Between the two, they had 4 cracked axle gears. I love the P2K models, this isn't a rant about them. The older units had the faulty gears, we all know that, and I'm ok with it.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I weathered the second of the two "new" units and called Walthers to get replacement gears earlier today. They don't have just the gears, :rolleyes: but for $3 an axle you can get the assembly. They couldn't see it in their heart to just replace the defective gears without sales reciepts. That's great, but as I explained to them, the newest of the units in question is about 18 months old. I have no idea where the reciept is...

OK, rather than draw this out with them, I order 8 axles (a few spares too, one of our other units is acting like it has a cracked gear) for $24. The lady then explained that there is a minimum $7.50 for shipping. :rolleyes: What a crock.

Well, for $31.50 I have 8 axles on the way. Thanks Walthers. I appreciate you supporting your product line so well.

Rant mode off. :D
 
That sucks. I emailed walthes about obtaining replacement parts for there heavyweight passenger cars. There response was and this is what they wrote back "we'de have to open up a new package and rip the roof off just for you." i was like well i guess i'll order some athearn cars then.
 
NYSW F45 said:
That sucks. I emailed walthes about obtaining replacement parts for there heavyweight passenger cars. There response was and this is what they wrote back "we'de have to open up a new package and rip the roof off just for you." i was like well i guess i'll order some athearn cars then.
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I guess that's really more of my issue than the $31. Both folks I talked to were very to the point in unapologetically stating the rigid company policy. Common sense and customer service had nothing to do with the situation.
 
I have never dealt with their support side of service, but have with ordering quite a few times. When I moved back to GA from AL, I had placed an order with them 2 weeks before the move, knowing it would take 2 weeks to get it to me, with a few days to spare. They delayed my order by a week. They called me and apologised for delaying the order and asked if I still wanted the items, I said yes, but now I'll have to upgrade delivery to 2 day. They offered to do it at no charge to me for their mess up, but they did still charge me for the mail-order charge. I got 2 day air service, for the price of ground, So, I can't complain about that side of their service.:cool:
 
I thought Athearn axles were a direct replacement for the cracked P2K axles. Is that not the case anymore? I say this because I've never seen a cracked Athearn axle (not since I started looking at my Athearn components in 1986), yet all my P2K diesels have had cracked axles. I put Athearn axles on my geeps when I discovered the cracks and they seemed to fit fine.
 
I think Athearn axles would fit. Key word, THINK... Funny that they're all getting to seem this way now. Athearn left out a part from some of my Genesis trucks, I emailed to ask about a replacement, they told me they were out, try again in a month.

Heck, you see Athearn's recall on the F/FP45's? The anti-climers are pulled upwards. They say send it back, we'll get you a new one in 6-9 MONTHS!
 
I've got Athern axle gears in some of our P2K locos. They work fine. I've looked for them at the last several trainshows but no one has them. Since I didn't have an Athern part number and thought Walthers would warranty the defective parts, I called them.

I've got my parts coming, this is just a minor aggravation along the way to model railroad bliss... It is an aggravation where customer service would been the right thing to do. Rest assured, I'll file it away when considering which company to spend money with in the future.
 
Remember the problems I had w/the Trainline F-b units. The 1's w/the wrong shell? Well, that was Walthers. I had a receipt, but, they still wouldn't do anything about it. Said they didn't make those mistakes, it was mine.
I even asked for 2 A unit bodies to replace the B unit bodies. Not w/out paying the full retail price of $35.00 ea. I only paid $26.00 ea. for the powered ones. I went around @ around w/them about replacing either the bodies or the engines. Didn't happen & now I had them to take me off their mailing list. Didn't happen either. Sure won't ever buy anything from them again.

Larry
 
Larry said:
Remember the problems I had w/the Trainline F-b units. The 1's w/the wrong shell? Well, that was Walthers. I had a receipt, but, they still wouldn't do anything about it. Said they didn't make those mistakes, it was mine.
I even asked for 2 A unit bodies to replace the B unit bodies. Not w/out paying the full retail price of $35.00 ea. I only paid $26.00 ea. for the powered ones. I went around @ around w/them about replacing either the bodies or the engines. Didn't happen & now I had them to take me off their mailing list. Didn't happen either. Sure won't ever buy anything from them again.

Larry
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It seems like customer service would be even more important in the internet age. ;)
 
GM

I have the same problem on my GP30 and 4 of my GP7s and 2 GP9s. Are theses all the same axel system? As far as the gears?

I need to order some too. What number did you use to talk to these people on ordering the replacement parts?

I have to bite the bullet on this one I gotta get these into service. Knock on wood the SD7s and SD9s have not given me any trouble yet....

thx
Alco out!
 
Sorry about the runaround you got, Eric. When I have problems like that, I ask to speak directly to the repair department and then talk to Steve. He is always willing to help. I had warped handrails on my SW-8/1200 and he sent me a a whole new set in three days. I called him about cracked gearboxes in my SD-7 and he asked me how many P2K diesels I had. He sent me enough axle sets to replace them all with a few left over. Seems like the repair department can go around the normal customer service people and do what they want if they feel the customer has a legitimate beef. So far, Steve hasn't let me down.
 
UP2CSX said:
Sorry about the runaround you got, Eric. When I have problems like that, I ask to speak directly to the repair department and then talk to Steve. He is always willing to help. I had warped handrails on my SW-8/1200 and he sent me a a whole new set in three days. I called him about cracked gearboxes in my SD-7 and he asked me how many P2K diesels I had. He sent me enough axle sets to replace them all with a few left over. Seems like the repair department can go around the normal customer service people and do what they want if they feel the customer has a legitimate beef. So far, Steve hasn't let me down.
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i wonder if they can help with a roof for a heavyweight too. gotta call and find out.
 
It could be worse. Here's my experience with Lifelike pre-Walthers.

I had an F a-B unit that had problems with running erratically and not matching in speed. One engine was twice the speed of the other. They told me to send the engine in. I did.

They sent the engines back in the same condition I sent them in. They wrote a note that told me how vaguely to fix the problems. They also pulled and kept my decoders (They said they lost them.)

One of the two was fixed with the problem they said it had. The other was mis-diagnosed. I replaced the decoders, and found the real problem, a solder bridge that fried one of the new decoders.
 
I guess I was pretty lucky...I contacted Bachmann through a customer service email last year and they sent me free of charge 5 sets of axles for my GP30's in less than two weeks. I must admit I have always had good dealings with Walthers, perhaps this is an issue they did not see coming when they took over the Proto line....
 
Alcomotive said:
GM

I have the same problem on my GP30 and 4 of my GP7s and 2 GP9s. Are theses all the same axel system? As far as the gears?

I need to order some too. What number did you use to talk to these people on ordering the replacement parts?

I have to bite the bullet on this one I gotta get these into service. Knock on wood the SD7s and SD9s have not given me any trouble yet....

thx
Alco out!
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Alco, the paperwork I recieved with my parts shows the number to be 922584408. I'd go with the Athearn gears that stokesda posted though if I were ordering again.
 
Evening. Eric,you think you had it bad with Walther's? Here's one to top what you went through. I placed a parts order through my local hobby shop to Walthers, guess what,It took almost a whole two weeks to get my parts, to my LHS,:eek:, and I still didn't get everything. But get this, I placed a direct credit card order,with Walther's,got my second Proto L&N U-30B in about 5-6 days. I don't know what Walther's problem is with customer service,but I wouldn't call it Customer Service,more like, Service when it suits us:rolleyes:. William.
 
Eric have already replaced the gears?
If not can you do a pic of the before and after?


thx
Alco

post edit ~

I just ordered the parts on ebay @ $2.00 a set of 6 gears. I bought 8 sets.
 
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Well I got my package in today of the Athearn Loco Drive Axel Gear-sd40-2 ATH60024 (6 per pack) I bought 8 packs...

Next step is try some gear work excahnge with my protos GPs....
 
L&N Castle said:
Evening. Eric,you think you had it bad with Walther's? Here's one to top what you went through. I placed a parts order through my local hobby shop to Walthers, guess what,It took almost a whole two weeks to get my parts, to my LHS,:eek:, and I still didn't get everything. But get this, I placed a direct credit card order,with Walther's,got my second Proto L&N U-30B in about 5-6 days. I don't know what Walther's problem is with customer service,but I wouldn't call it Customer Service,more like, Service when it suits us:rolleyes:. William.
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William, some of the hobby shop's delay may have came from them waiting to fill a minimum order for shipping from Walthers. This happened to me once and after I waited a week with nothing coming in, I asked and the guy said he was still waiting for enough to order to meet the minimum. I was P.O'd.
 
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