First Broadway Limited experience, and it wasn't good


Hank4014

Member
Bought my son BLI's Class J (612 since 611 was sold out). Took it out of the box for the first time this morning at the club, put it on the DC track. It ran beautifully for nearly two hours, and then stopped dead on the track. No sound, no smoke, no light, no motion. Tried their hardware reset procedure with no success. Tried it at home on DCC, same problems. Anyone else have this kind of experience?

[video=youtube_share;HTYQ_UdG2os]http://youtu.be/HTYQ_UdG2os[/video]

PS, the steamer passing in the other direction is a 60+ year old American Flyer NYC Hudson.
 
Yep, brand new BLI Northern. Put it on the track, ran great on DCC, then it just stopped dead. Turned out to be the plug from the tender to the loco came loose. plugged it back in and all is good.
 
When you reset the decoder, did you cycle the power to the track at the same time? If you didn't, your 'reset' is incomplete. If you have done the procedure fully and properly, and it still won't budge or make sounds, I'm afraid you'll have to replace it or send it in for repairs. Bummer, yes I know, but these things are really toys made and sold for about $100-130 each by the factory. They're not really precision items, and even brass has problems of this nature as those who collect brass will tell you. Balance problems, things falling off, bum motors or gear towers, screws backing out and pretzeling the rods on one side, etc.

I have had to send about five locos in to BLI for repairs that were either my fault entirely or warrantable repairs. In every case, they came good. In one of the two cases where it was my fault, they repaired it for nothing under warranty.
 
I followed all the reset instructions on their website. Glad to know their warranty service is good. I figured worst case, I'd deal with my credit card company's warranty policy. Right now, I'm just waiting to hear from BLI.
 
Had one of their Bluelines blow a sound decoder on me. Warranty work was good and had it fixed and back to me in about 3 weeks later. I have long since sold the unit, but it ran great upon its return.

Never had any other problems with the 4 other BLIs I have owned.

Brad
 
Spoke to their customer service today. Very gruff, bordering on rude, but mostly got right to the point of things, so I guess 'average' for my customer service experiences. Shipped via Fedex, so it cost me $$, and a five-week turnaround time. So, the kid and I will have it back in our hands around the time school starts. You know, just in time for him not to have a lot of time to enjoy it.

I hope that when they fix it, we'll have many trouble-free years.
 
Yeah, t'is the nature of the 'sport', ol' sport. I got a brand new Hybrid (almost all brass construction) Pennsy Q2 4-4-6-4 from BLI three years ago, and it ran and sounded well. Only problem was the headlight...wouldn't work. So, I asked for a return authorization, got it, and went without for about four months. I don't know if they had to wait until an expert came over, or if they actually shipped it back to China...not really sure. Happily, it still worked fine when I finally got it back, and the light did work. Whew!! I hate that we have to ship an item that needs repairs. If the item is indeed faulty and warrantable, they should reimburse our shipping to them. It just adds significantly to the price of the locomotive.

I hope you get a lot of fun hours out of it when it comes back. I expect winters are not great where you live, so maybe it's just as well both of you have other things to occupy yourselves with in the meantime, and you can look forward to enjoying it as the weather turns in three months' time.
 
Spoke to their customer service today. Very gruff, bordering on rude, but mostly got right to the point of things, so I guess 'average' for my customer service experiences.
Did you speak to the tech and repair people, or customer service? I usually call straight to the tech/repair department. I say "usually" because I have dozens of BLI engines, and I have had to send a few back for repair over the years. The guy that was (until the last few months) the one and only repair person for several years is probably close to retirement age, and as the only one there, is pretty over worked.
 
I couldn't say for certain who I spoke to, but they were very grumpy sounding; complaining about people not having patience with their turnaround time (5 weeks on a brand-new $300 item and I should be patient?) and that so many people include their life stories when they send in their items for repair, when all they want to know is what's wrong with it.
 
Strange I've dealt with both BLI service Dept and the related FDT service person on occasion and they have always been courteous and friendly.
 
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yea i had to deal with them when it came to the bli big boy & they were helpful & sent me a new harness for free
 
Had a few issues but all were taken care of as fast as they can....overall I am happy with the 10 locos from BLI I own...
 
Never had a problem. Sent a few back under warranty had them repaired or replaced. A few times they sent pre-paid freight label for return. With return you will also get a coupon for $25.00 off refurbished deals.
Found them very easy to deal with.
 
I couldn't say for certain who I spoke to, but they were very grumpy sounding; complaining about people not having patience with their turnaround time (5 weeks on a brand-new $300 item and I should be patient?) and that so many people include their life stories when they send in their items for repair, when all they want to know is what's wrong with it.

You can always tell him/her that their life and problems aren't your concern and their job is to provide cheerful warrantee service. If people can't cope with being in a service job and keep their mouths shut, they need to find another job. We the customer shouldn't get rude service because some jerk can't handle his job and need to dump someone elses rudeness on us. I'd be tempted to write a good old fashioned paper letter to the president of the company. Be polite and share your experience with the customer service, and provide a name if you got one.

Companies need to realize in the modern world, with the internet etc. reputations and word gets around. We can always buy our toys from someone else if we have a bad experience.
 
Just a follow-up to this; we just got the loco back from BLI's service department. The included notice indicated that they replaced the decoder with an updated version. We laid out our track last night and ran it for about an hour (it was just 15 minutes before the copious smoke drove my SO nuts).[video=youtube_share;W6oCXGGOuik]http://youtu.be/W6oCXGGOuik[/video]
 
G'day. A good fiend of mine had exactly the same issue with a BLI SD40-2 a while back..Ran for two hours perfectly. we went and had some lunch came back out to his layout . The loco ran nice for a couple of minutes , then just stopped...A day or two later he re-set it and it ran perfect. Hasn't missed a beat since..but similarity with yours is that it was literally brand new..I wonder is there some sort of special run in method with BLI's... Hope it runs for you soon. I have a couple , thankfully run really well..Cheers Rod
 
Yesterday I received a BLI product and right out of the box pieces are broken off. I sent an email asking them how they planned to fix it and did not receive a reply. Business etiquette requires all messages be returned no more than one business day. As it was getting later in the day I tried to call several times but the calls were not answered. The last call received a message stating they were closed even though it was during published business hours. I will not buy another BLI product and will give them bad press at every opportunity due to the poor response. I believe very strongly that it's not if you have an issue with a company but how quickly and effectively they handle it that determines their integrity. BLI has failed miserably in this regard.


Update: BLI responded and asked that I resend my request to a specific person with assurances that it will be resolved. I have done so and am awaiting the reply. Will keep you posted.
 
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