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Post by rockymountaineer on Dec 15, 2023 4:14:34 GMT
I just wonder why the defective cars were sent from RMT to the distributors without any quality control inspections. Drop shipping from China? It seems a logical step (quality control inspection) is being skipped by most train manufacturers… Tom Just passing along some information I gleaned at York from a VERY reliable source. Apparently Emery Distributors (based in Easton, PA) now owns RMT. Not sure what percentage -- if ANY -- Walter has in RMT now. So product goes from China to RMT/Emery (Easton, PA)... then out to hobby shops who work with Emery. That's why the RMT website "suggests" buyers contact their hobby store to purchase products. Because RMT is now essentially Emery Distributors who sells wholesale to hobby shops.
So it appears Emery got a sharp poke in the eye as to how things work with the RMT brand in China these days. Don't get me wrong, they're big boys... and they know the muddy waters they're swimming in. But nonetheless, I'm not sure anyone here in the States has a clue anymore what's going on with products manufactured overseas. Of all components to chintz on... trucks and couplers? Seriously... does it get any more basic than that for products that have been produced for DECADES. Yet nothing is safe when the bean-counters are looking for corners to cut.
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Post by rockymountaineer on Dec 23, 2023 2:59:50 GMT
I too received an email TODAY from Brady's Train Outlet. Apparently, I ordered some of their "special run" Westinghouse Electric RMT ore cars back on May 17, 2022. To tell you the truth, I'm embarrassed to say I nearly forgot about this pre-order -- which, by the way, is why I absolutely DEPLORE MTH's new idea of announcing new products practically every day via email... many of which are also custom-runs that take MONTHS and sometimes over a YEAR to see the light of day. Just too darn difficult to keep track of all these special-runs, and I'm tired of these ridiculous delays. My sixth sense has always told me not to prepay for pre-orders, and that's the way it's gonna be going forward for me -- regardless of who's importing product.
Anyway... getting back to these RMT ore cars. Apparently the situation is so bad, Brady's isn't just sending the cars back. They've decided NOT to carry the RMT line at all moving forward. So their email offered me a full refund... or a store credit that in this case amounted to slightly more than 5% of the amount I paid. Not sure if this was a gesture of good will (i.e., the bump-up in store credit) or an acknowledgement of having been paid in full over 18 months ago, but still having no product to deliver. Either way... EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE on Brady's end.
Timing for this offer was perfect, because I had been eyeballing some goodies on Brady's webstore. So I opted for the store credit. I called the store late this afternoon, and within minutes I received an email with the "gift card" code for their online store in the amount of the store credit. And it was easy-peezy to use the gift card AND a Christmas discount code on my purchase. Doesn't get any better than that.
So I guess my next step will be to check in with Henning's Trains after the Christmas Holiday, to see what position they're taking... and if it will be as drastic as Brady's (i.e., not carrying RMT at all anymore). I also fully prepaid for a handful of these RMT ore cars in the New Hope & Ivyland livery at Hennings, because these looked to be something really special for such a small, local livery here in southeastern PA. But cheap overseas material and cost-cutting measures has to ruin everything. Very disappointing.
At this point, I'm ZERO for FOUR, when it comes to prepaying: Brady's Westinghouse ore cars, Henning's New Hope & Ivyland ballast/ore cars, METCA's Lionel milk cars, and even our own forum's MTH TOFC's club car -- which as I predicted we wouldn't see in 2023, because MTH has been telling us for months that "they're on the water". At this point, that ship could have sailed around the globe a dozen times. So I'm not even sure how they can look themselves in the mirror if they tell us that again.
The one saving grace with MTH is the product tends to be high quality when it finally arrives. And another point worth mentioning is the outfits I've mentioned who've sponsored special-runs have all been top-notch organizations to stand by their offerings and making things right with their buyers, when the situation(s) go bad.
But RMT has really dropped the ball on this, because the car graphics were VERY well-executed. And it's a darn shame that chintzy materials used in the trucks, axles and couplers on these new pieces of rolling stock are causing lots of bad blood in what was already a strained relationship that some dealers had to overcome in order to even carry the RMT line again. So I wonder how many other dealers are gonna drop the RMT brand altogether once again. Time will tell.
Sigh… such is the nature of our toy train landscape these days. While there are lots of grand slam offerings being delivered that we can enjoy, there are also far too many faux-pas that continue to lurk in the shadows — seemingly around each and every corner we look. That's gotta change, but I don't think it will anytime soon.
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Post by bobthetrainguy on Dec 23, 2023 19:34:40 GMT
Well said Rocky. Same goes for Atlas and Lionel. I don’t think these uninformed marketing people really knew the innerworkings of Weaver products and scale buyers. They took a proven design, cheapened it and made it worse. Main stay common cars slowly made it back into the marketplace but with very limited offerings. No one wanted Lionscale after seeing the downgraded changes they made. I think a few models never made it back into market as well. Probably discovered these top-heavy companies couldn’t match Weavers low-cost formula. Wagon top box cars (now Atlas) were all bought by the Weaver modelers when originally offered. Bad risky move by Atlas being the roads that actually used them are very limited. We all have them already. Now 95 bucks plus tax & shipping to buy one, I doubt there’s many who will pay that price. Same for Lionel cabooses and gondolas now selling in the 120.00 price range. Insane! It’s the end of the line folks. I don’t think it’s fair to lump Atlas in with the others. Their products are typically excellent quality. They’ve had a few zinc pest issues, like everyone has in this industry, but their models are often more accurate and more detailed than the competition.
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Post by bobthetrainguy on Dec 24, 2023 14:53:39 GMT
Obviously, your not familiar with Atlas. Ex. quality in the carton only. They are the worst breakable cars out there. Great to look at, not operate. I can provide a list of issues for each model but the post is about RMT. Many cars don't even navigate their own 036 curves. They don't supply common spare parts anymore to repair the problems. I am having replacement parts 3d printed. I know it’s hard for children to handle delicate detailed models. Maybe you should switch to Marx postwar or Brio.
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