There is an old saying,
Good Customer Service will Retain Good Customers
How does this sound for service (N Scale):
Sent them a new locomotive that had a drive line issue, in this case it was a new GP-38. They returned it soaking in oil, and the drive line issue was never addressed.
Returned 6 new locomotives that had several problems, SD-50's and
60's. I had one that would bind up and die on a 15 inch radius curve. Another would not move until it had 6.5 volts of power. The others had similar issues. All 6 were returned with a note that they were all within specification. So 6.5V starting voltage for a 12V system is within specifications? The inablilty to negotiate a 15" radius is within specification?A recent order from my favorite shop had a 60% failure rate, still no word about the failed locomotives. It has been well over a month. My shop is thinking about dropping Atlas because of this and many other similar incidents.
Finally, I contacted them concerning 2 more new locomotives that were not working very well. The first one sounded like metal on metal brakes after 20 minutes of sustained running. The other would not move in reverse through a curve. The issue here is that the copper strip making contact with the wiper was mal-formed and does not stay stay in contact with the wipre or even inside the truck itself. The frame design on the C-628 has the power pickups captive in the frame so they can not be easily removed to be fixed. It has been over 2 weeks and still no word from them at all. I even sent an e-mail to Paul Graf and never heard back. Not even the courtesy of an acknowledgement.
So is this just that Atlas does not care about N Scale customers? It is obvious they do not care very much for quality control and assurance. It seems they are more concerned with quantity than with quality.
Has anyone else gotten this kind of treatment from Atlas? I for one will not do anymore business with them; with Red Caboose, Deluxe Innovations, Intermountain, LifeLike(Walthers) and Kato making decent products, I guess there is no reason.
I also think it is time to liquidate all of the Atlas product from my collection, at least I won't have issues with Accumate couplers any more. So there are 250 locomotives and 1600 freight cars up for grabs. I would donate them to charity, but I do not see Atlas doing anything for them either. And that would not be fair to the charity.
Respectfully,
David