kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
I'm a little disappointed with how Soundtraxx handles potential warranty issues.
I purchased several sound decoders this year, from my LHS and one by one, have been doing the millwork on the chassis of several Proto GP9's. I started the last one at the end of summer, purchasing the Tsunami for that one at the same time. Well, as things go, life got in the way and I was forced to wait for cold weather to resume. I would have had it done by November 30 (more on the signifigance of that date later) but on November 15th, as some on this forum know, I suffered a stroke. This kept me out of the basement until Mid-January. When I finally got to install the Tsunami (millwork was completed prior to the stroke) it installed normally, but when on the program track the readback was "Manufacturer 255" " decoder version 255" then my NCE was unable to read back any other CV's.
Knowing Soundtraxx decoders have problems sometimes programming on NCE, I place the engine on the main and called up address 3. The chassis started up, moved about 6 feet, reversed fine and came back, then released a large puff of smoke from the top of the decoder and died~!
Back to the workbench the chassis went, out went the decoder and just for giggles, I installed another (non sound) decoder and tried it. The chassis performed normally!!
So off to Soundtraxx it went, with the obligitory receipt, description of problem,etc. Weeks went by, finally I recieved a call from a nice young lady starting there would be a $45.00 charge for repair, because the decoder was out of warranty. See, I bought the decoder on August 28. The warranty is for 90 days, so November 28th the decoder went out of warranty. No buts,no if's, no excuses. Every day it just sat in he package on my workbench was another day of warranty gone. I tried to explain the chain of events, but to no avail. No amount of pleading would get me any help.
Well I got the decoder back today. Actually they sent a new decoder, saying the other couldnt be repaired...
Lesson learned?
#1 Treat sound decoders like fruit, don't buy one til you are ready to use it.
#2 The warranty cards you mail back are a joke. They are for market research, not warranty. If I would have mailed it in when I opened the package, it would have been covered.
#3 Loksound is not a bad alternative.
Rant over!
I purchased several sound decoders this year, from my LHS and one by one, have been doing the millwork on the chassis of several Proto GP9's. I started the last one at the end of summer, purchasing the Tsunami for that one at the same time. Well, as things go, life got in the way and I was forced to wait for cold weather to resume. I would have had it done by November 30 (more on the signifigance of that date later) but on November 15th, as some on this forum know, I suffered a stroke. This kept me out of the basement until Mid-January. When I finally got to install the Tsunami (millwork was completed prior to the stroke) it installed normally, but when on the program track the readback was "Manufacturer 255" " decoder version 255" then my NCE was unable to read back any other CV's.
Knowing Soundtraxx decoders have problems sometimes programming on NCE, I place the engine on the main and called up address 3. The chassis started up, moved about 6 feet, reversed fine and came back, then released a large puff of smoke from the top of the decoder and died~!
Back to the workbench the chassis went, out went the decoder and just for giggles, I installed another (non sound) decoder and tried it. The chassis performed normally!!
So off to Soundtraxx it went, with the obligitory receipt, description of problem,etc. Weeks went by, finally I recieved a call from a nice young lady starting there would be a $45.00 charge for repair, because the decoder was out of warranty. See, I bought the decoder on August 28. The warranty is for 90 days, so November 28th the decoder went out of warranty. No buts,no if's, no excuses. Every day it just sat in he package on my workbench was another day of warranty gone. I tried to explain the chain of events, but to no avail. No amount of pleading would get me any help.
Well I got the decoder back today. Actually they sent a new decoder, saying the other couldnt be repaired...
Lesson learned?
#1 Treat sound decoders like fruit, don't buy one til you are ready to use it.
#2 The warranty cards you mail back are a joke. They are for market research, not warranty. If I would have mailed it in when I opened the package, it would have been covered.
#3 Loksound is not a bad alternative.
Rant over!