Probably the problem is...

... that the original manufacturer does not know if you were sold an original or pirated copy of the product. Is a good thing the original seller made it good, because usually does not.

Piracy? Seriously?

Do we really have to worry about pirated products in the model railroad world?

I suspect that the problem is more that MTH cannot control every aspect of the sale, and their warranty extends ONLY to the original purchaser of their products.  Rather than making sure that the final customer is happy, they make sure their liability is limited as far as possible.

I agree - I wouldn't buy an MTH product either if that's how they treat their customers.

You would be surprised...

.... at the things I've seen counterfeited.

Walthers is the same way...

....so it's not just MTH.  Not sure how many other manufacturer's also have similar policies.

Ken L

Lifelike.

Lifelike P2k gears are prone to breaking and if you have a set that breaks, you must show your original receipt as proof of purchase from an authorized dealer to have anything repaired under warranty.

I can understand that MTH is not able to control how the original purchaser treated the locomotive before they sold it on to you.  For all they know the original purchaser damaged the coupler, repackaged the product, and sent it to you.  They only have your word that the part was broken when you opened the package.

I don't see the problem here

Posting here and bashing a MRH sponsor for not giving you free parts or honoring a warranty for something you bought secondhand is unfair to MTH.

You bought something from ebay. New or not doesn't matter. Warranties typically are granted to the original purchaser from an authorized reseller. I don't have a problem with their response, and I also understand how you feel about it, but bashing them for policy you personally don't agree with is wrong.

Lots of the 'new' items on ebay are seconds shipped here to a secondary reseller. Quite a few of them are purchased as wholesale lots from insurers when packaging is damaged and containers refused.  Many are also stolen from the containers is California or Seattle on the docks.

Your post should have been worded differently, about how you bought an item from ebay that was damaged in shipping and the seller was good to you and gave you the money for repairs.

Expecting MTH to give you free parts for an ebay item is kind of out there...

Ebay has "Stores"

Ebay has "Stores" a lot of which are brick and mortar as well. How is Chuck supposed to know if they are an "authorized" dealer.

I think it is fine that Chuck posted his concern here regardless or not whether MTH is an MRH sponsor.

I'll never buy from MTH either but for different reasons.

Buying on Ebay is like Buying at a Garage Sale

I'm not surprised they didn't warranty it. How many manufacturers warranty their merchandise sold at a garage sale?

ASK don't assume

I shop ebay a lot. I would never assume any of the sellers are an authorized distributor. I would assume just the opposite.

Any schmuck can have an ebay "store". Ebay encourages sellers (all sellers) to open a "store" to increase their sales. 

Some are authorized retailers. They typically tell you that right in the listing, for example look at any of the listings for shafferstrainshed. Right there "We are an authorized retailer for..."

Say you went into your LHS and bought this Loco, got home and the coupler was broken. Would you call the manufacturer? No, you would call or go back to your LHS and they would handle it, exchanging or repairing for you.

Chuck should have gotten hold of the seller first.

I still say it is wrong to bash on MTH for this problem.

If Chuck had bought this directly from MTH I could understand the squabble, but he didn't.

Whether you would buy MTH or not has no bearing. The manufacturer in this thread doesn't matter, it could be any one of the thousands of manufacturers / distributors. Expecting one of them to offer warranty on ebay items is foolish at best, unless (as MTH stated) it was purchased from an authorized retailer, which could be an ebay seller but probably not.

Now I'll wager that someone will mark my comment as spam like you usually do because you disagree with me and I call it like I see it. 

Anyone with a lick of common sense will agree with my point of view.

The Spaminator

"Now I'll wager that someone will mark my comment as spam like you usually do because you disagree with me and I call it like I see it. 

Anyone with a lick of common sense will agree with my point of view."

Personally, I am glad to know this

I am glad this information has been shared with us. I don't think this is an extreme outside of the box situation. I buy the cheapest I can, and for that reason, I will probably not buy from mth. Unless of course they have a model I cannot buy anywhere else. And it is nice to know the risks involved with buying a companies products and policies and customer service before hand. If they are not going to help people with their products then it will be a consideration added to the purchase of one of their products.

If you don't want bad press, do not do things that are bad press.

By the way, have you seen how Bachmann supports it customers. I have sent absolute disasters to them, and $25 later, my engine is back in service. Not a warranty, but support of the product.

BLI is another company I have very good customer service from. Although it may take a while.

My proto 2000, if I can't fix them, then they are parts. I won't even bother sending them to Walthers.

I am glad MTH is a sponsor, but that does not mean they get a walk.

And I am glad I know this bit of customer service policy.

Jim Lowery

A Mixed Reaction.....

On one hand, I agree with those who think MTH has no responsibility,  legally or morally, for repairing something once the product gets beyond the original purchaser from an authorized dealer.  Their responsibility ends when their ability to at least monitor their supply chain ends.

On the other hand, there's something called "customer service" and good customer service pays off.  I don't know what the actual manufacturing cost of the replacement part was, but if they charged $10, it was probably, at most, half that amount and they might have been wiser to explain that the warrantee didn't cover problems after the original buyer, but that they were willing to replace the part for shipping costs only (or at least discount the replacement part cost by about half - probably somewhat in line with actual production cost).

Rule 1: A happy customer (even indirectly) is a repeat customer; an unhappy customer is not.

cameras and New York City

I don't know about every camera store in New York City but there is at least one that you can count on for dealing with their customers honestly. B&H Photo. I've never had a problem ordering from them off their website -- bhphoto.com. They do sell gray market gear if you want to take the chance and save a few $$ (I don't do this), but all their gray market gear is clearly marked as such. They deliver what they say they're going to deliver, when they say they'll deliver it. They don't try to up sell you or use other scurrilous practices, such as taking the accessories that come with a camera out of the box then selling them to your as "extras" for extra money. They're rating on reselleratings.com is very high. Their prices aren't unbelievably low, but I deal with them when mail ordering camera gear because I don't worry about whether they'll send the right stuff or rip me off.

FWIW

Charlie

What Charlie said

Title suggestion

May I suggest what I think would be a better title for this thread...

EBAY buyers beware!

Good info btw.

EBay Buyers Beware (MTH item)

How about this one...

Couple of months back I bought an MTH SD70ace from an authorized MTH Ebay seller. On arrival I found out that it had a defective volume pot (turns loose both ways) having to re adjust the final sound setting on every start up of the layout. (I like my sound way down on the layout).

I contacted MTH parts department by e-mail, explaining the problem, giving them the defective parts number ( # BC-0003001000) together with the manufacturing number of the unit, mentioning I was willing to pay for it all. Explaining that sending the engine itself back and forward would only add (un necessary) costs, since living in Belgium (Europe) (cfr. custom clearings, etc). I didn't even mention warranty. 

Until today I am still waiting for an answer, knowing that I am sending the same request e-mail on a weekly basis.

If a company doesn't even have the decency answering their e-mails then you have to wonder. Even a negative answer would have cleared up my request. But here I am just left in the blank.

Needless to say that my MTH collectors SD70ace line up has come to a full stop.

So Chuck, you are not alone thinking that way.

Always going green when I see the MTH banner " MTH Ho trains that do more"....thinking....." and where the MTH people do less..."

Emails

In any case, no response from email isn't acceptable in this day and age, but I believe there are still a lot of organizations out there that don't understand the technology they are using, such as spam filters. And it will cost them customers because of it. I have several places that are on my "blacklist" because of non-response to inquiries or their websites are so archaic and/or unorganized that I won't waste my time on them.

We have retitled this thread

We have retitled this thread since the original purchased was gray goods off eBay and MTH is within their rights to not support such products. Some vendors will still support such products, but the warning is buyer beware when it comes to gray market goods.

We have retitled this thread

...and so did I in my comment to this post. 

Re: Website forms.

That depends on the script behind the form.  With an e-mail, you always have a copy.  With forms, some scripts will send you a copy, but too many sites do not send a copy of the message to the submitter, leaving you without any record of sending the message or what you said in it. 

Saving the online form

If you want to save a copy in the absence of there being a "Send copy to my mailbox" option, then get one of the FREE software packages that act like a printer driver to produce an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file. One that I use is PrimoPDF and you can find it with Google or other search engines and download and install. To save the form (the current web page), select Print and then select the PrimoPDF (or other) item as the printer. It will then prompt you for where you want to save it and name it.

Forms