Model Railroading > Chinese Quality Strikes Again

I received a Tangent Scale Models Gondolla today. When I put it on the layout it would not track well. I checked the wheel gauge and it was fine. As it turned out, one truck was out of alignment. This was very noticable when I took the truck off the car and put it on the track. One of the wheels was up in the air while the other three were on the rails.

I have sent them an email for a replacment truck and am sure they will comply if they have spare parts. I would have sent them the whole car but ended up breaking off one of those extremely delicate stirups in the process of removing the truck! I really like the fine details and want to keep it that way but would suggest they use flat wire for the stirups instead (if that would not raise the price too much).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/10 14:38 by wabash2800.

They more than likely used the metric system to take the messurments.

Or a yard stick.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I received a Tangent Scale Models Gondolla today.
> When I put it on the layout it would not track
> well. I checked the wheel gauge and it was fine.
> As it turned out, one truck was out of alignment.
> This was very noticable when I took the truck off
> the car and put it on the track. One of the wheels
> was up in the air while the other three were on
> the rails.
>
> I have sent them an email for a replacment truck
> and am sure they will comply if they have spare
> parts.

So everyone on this board knows, we, like other brands who take the time to communicate with their customers, take product quality very seriously and have already requested an address to send this customer a new truck. Since the wheels on our gondolas are CNC-machined all metal (they are really no different than other brand's designs, in fact), this is an extremely rare problem. Again, we are more than happy to make this right for you.

Also, for what it is worth, this problem has not come up with any of our other gondola customers.

I will make sure we send you new stirrup steps as well.

Thank you for your business.

David Lehlbach
Tangent Scale Models



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/10 20:05 by TangentScaleModels.

Dave and I have been in communication and he is making it right which I thought he would. Dave, it has nothing to do with the wheel sets. It is the truck frame that is twisted.

As a follow up I may be a bit sensitive about Chinese products. I and a number of folks are unemployed now because of the outsourcing of our work to China. We worked for a small company and if we even had one bad part among thousands we were beat up by the customer and told to shape up or lose the job. We also had to come up with reasons why it would never, ever happen again. Our customer outsourced anyway but not because of lack of quality. They made the Chinese build a warehouse in Mexico and hire folks to sort out the good from the bad parts they made...It was a good way to bypass the so called quality system. I was not in production but in the financial end.

I do think the Tangent Scale Models products are very nice and will buy again but do think that flat wire stirups would be better. It would not be the first time that a model manufacturer switched over.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/10 20:49 by wabash2800.

Hmmm! This is merely a mistake. Seems like this could have been dealt with best by communicating with Dave Lehlbach direct. Most companies are very good and reputable importer/manufacturers who will stand by their product and Dave definitely stands at the pinnacle of this group. Please be careful with people's reputations on open forums.

I can say one bad injection molded truck gettng through is the exception. I recently asked a company (who makes excellent rolling stock and "so-so" motive power) if I could purchase the upgraded variation of their trucks. Their old ones used to be snap together that fell apart randomly with little brake rigging hanging down that did get caught on frogs from time to time. As an early purchaser of their product *I was willing to pay* for the upgraded pieces but they wrote me back and said they would give them to me free (!) ... how many do you need?

93 pairs was my answer.

(Gulp) ... silence was the response

A second offer was made to pay for the truck frames only and not the wheels.

... more silence (!)

It would seem that someone who re-engineers their product like this should make an upgrade possible for their early customers who are willing to pay for it. That (to me) is someone not standing by their customers or product. And by the way (just to bring this to the subject line), the product's original truck engineering of piece assembly was done in the lower 48 - not China. Why they shyed away from the one piece truck that has been around since Noah was a Lad, I'll never understand but at least they have corrected the truck for the multitudes of product they announce.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/10 21:02 by rschonfelder.

I am very happy to call Rich Yoder my friend, and yes it's brass and O scale but my most standards
very affordable. Rich's policy is send it back until they get it right! A few companies might take notice
of that and yes by and large the little guys seem to care more and do a better job.