Another Bachmann K4 bites the dust

[Rich_S]

Man, I don't know what to say.  I hope I didn't steer anyone wrong with my review of the loco for the N-Trak Newsletter.  At the time I wrote it everyone was wowed by its performance save two failures I knew about...my own and another with a thrown crankpin.

Victor is undoubtedly gloating, and he's earned the right to do so.

That said my two K4s are still running like champions.  I really hope they stay that way.

I don't have words when it comes to Bachmann not having parts to honor its own warranty.  They apparently can't send you a replacement K4 either?  WTF?

Dave, I'm not holding anything against you and I sure hope no one else is either, it's a very nice looking and sounding locomotive and when it was running it did run good. There are bound to be production problems with any product. I'm blaming Bachmann for not producing replacement parts for when things go wrong. I told the woman on the phone, MB Klein is showing 17 1361 K4's in stock, why not buy back a few for parts or replacements. She basically said no. I hope I'm in the minority when it comes to defects, but at this point I'm telling everyone, buyer beware.

[davefoxx]

In the long run, spending a five hundred to a thousand dollars to collect $250 is not in my current budget or schedule, it's a nice idea, but I don't think it's winnable and that's probably why Bachmann did not offer to refund my purchase price.

Rich,

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with Bachmann.  Could you be successful in a lawsuit?  I'd like to think so, but, as you pointed out above, is it worth hours of your time and possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars out of your pocket (if you hire an attorney) with no guarantee of winning in court?  I'd take the $250.00 hit and move on. 

That said, Pennsylvania probably has a small claims court that is designed for people to file suits without attorneys.  (If I recall correctly, you reside in Pennsylvania and Bachmann's business is out of Philadelphia.)  I know that Maryland has such a court system in place.

I suggest that you keep an eye on the market and perhaps you can find a broken K-4 on the cheap.  Maybe you (or Bachmann, if you shipped them the parts) can fix yours.  At least then, you would have a running locomotive.

DFF

[mmagliaro]

You mean they said that they will *never* fix it?  Or are they sending it back to you for now, and you can send it back to them in a few months for repair when they have parts?

A Berkshire is not a fair replacement for a K4.  Sending back a Berkshire is in my opinion
sending back a Yugo to replace a Cadillac.

[chicken45]

Offering to send you a Berk is indicative of the greater Bachmann problem. They aren't hard core enough to play in the deep end. They primary market seems to be the casual model railroader and customer support either doesn't understand this (trains are trains, right?), or didn't have any other options.
They muck up the darndest things. We were all stunned when @eric220 'shopped that blueprint over the model and saw how amazingly well it fit...then they go and mess up the sand dome. I find it extremely irritating that they go through so much effort and get so much right, but still miss the little things. Like that sand dome. WTF.
I don't want to bash Bachmann, and I love my K4, but dang this scares me.

[jdcolombo]

Rich, how long has it been since you bought the loco, and where did you buy it from?

You may have some recourse here depending on the facts.  If you bought the loco with a credit card, check to see how long you have to reverse a credit charge.  If you are still within that window, contact your seller, tell them what happened, and that you are returning the K-4 to them for a credit, which they can then work out with Bachmann.  If they refuse to accept the return, tell them that you will then contact your credit card company to have the credit charge reversed.  If they still balk, then follow the requirements for your credit card company for reversing the charge.

Unfortunately, if you are outside the time window for doing this, you are pretty much hosed, at least until Bachmann does another run of the K-4's.  If the credit card chargeback is not an option, hold on to your K-4 until Bachmann does another run (yes, it may be a while - a year or two perhaps, but I've got to believe another run is coming.   When the new run does happen, send your loco back to Bachmann with a request for replacement.   If they don't re-run the exact version, take your shell off the engine and tender, send the mechanism back, and request a new mechanism.

The final possibility is to fix your engine yourself.  The question is whether the locomotive itself is undamaged (e.g., will the loco run without the tender).   You can test this pretty easily by taking the shell off the engine, finding the wires that run to the motor, and using a 9v battery to test (test the headlight, too - the same way).  If the headlight and motor all work fine, then your "only" problem is with the tender.  The tender may be fixable with a new truck taken from an available Bachmann DCC-ready tender and hardwiring a new decoder, like the Soundtraxx Econami in the tender (the Econami is actually a better decoder than the board that comes standard).   I know the idea of sinking another $100 into this loco at this stage sounds crazy, but you've already invested $250; why not try to fix it if it is fixable.   If you want to think about this, post photos of the damage when you get the loco back.  I'm sure one of us here can probably ascertain whether there is any hope . . . and although I don't typically do sound installs for other people (that's turning my hobby into a business, which isn't the road I want to take), in this case I would be tickled to help out a fellow modeler faced with this kind of situation if I can. 

John C.

[wcfn100]

This has been Bachmann's warranty for at least 5 years now.  If they can't or even don't want to repair it, they will replace it with something.


Jason

[towl1996]

Wow, that absolutely sucks. Sorry to hear this, the sucky idea of waiting until the next production run to get it fixed sounds like it might work, if you're willing to wait. It's what I'd do at this point.

What is it with the lack of spare parts? I don't like the way this trend appears to be heading, not good for model railroading. The idea of having to buy two locos to keep the second as a parts donor is insane.

[basementcalling]

Sorry to hear about this outcome.

What you can do depends on the language on that dang card they cram in the box.

Credit card reverse charge might be your best bet, but if you want to pursue the warrantee idea further, DONT take the engine apart yourself. In almost all cases, doing so invalidates any claim you have.

[Dave V]

Yet it does sound like we're on our own for mechanical repairs.  I've only ever fixed my own before, but there are many problems beyond my skill set.  You start talking about melted stuff and there's not too many home remedies for that.

[peteski]

Man, I don't know what to say.  I hope I didn't steer anyone wrong with my review of the loco for the N-Trak Newsletter.  At the time I wrote it everyone was wowed by its performance save two failures I knew about...my own and another with a thrown crankpin.

Victor is undoubtedly gloating, and he's earned the right to do so.

That said my two K4s are still running like champions.  I really hope they stay that way.

I don't have words when it comes to Bachmann not having parts to honor its own warranty.  They apparently can't send you a replacement K4 either?  WTF?

Your review just came out few days ago - hopefully, there aren't too many of those locos left for sale.   

But on a more serious note, Victor is not the only one gloating - believe me!  And while I can't speak for Victor, I know that my feeling is more of a "Bachmann just made another Bachmann model" and  instead of a gloating "I told you so".  I say move along - nothing new to see here. 

So, are you now ok with all the Bachmann-bashing that went on earlier and was which was highly discouraged?  I don't even think Victor visits here anymore after he was being closed to banished for his very detailed evaluation of the poor construction methods that Bachmann uses in their models (K4 included).

The warranty thing is weird, but I think if you read the fine print they say that they can substitute models if the original is unrepairable or replacement is unavailable.

On a positive note, if Bachmann has none available for warranties that means the loco sales exceeded Bachmann's expectations. They might run another batch.  Maybe wait until then and try to send it for warranty repair at that time.

[davefoxx]

The warranty thing is weird, but I think if you read the fine print they say that they can substitute models if the original is unrepairable or replacement is unavailable.

If this is true (I haven't read the K-4 warranty), then consider getting a Berkshire, sell it, and recoup some of your losses.

On a positive note, if Bachmann has none available for warranties that means the loco sales exceeded Bachmann's expectations. They might run another batch.  Maybe wait until then and try to send it for warranty repair at that time.

This is not a bad idea, either.

[djconway]

This is and continues to be one of the major problems with the make just enough to fill the orders manufacturing model of production that ALL of our current suppliers are running.  At some point even the Atlas level manufacturers are going to say -- sorry we don't have any parts for ________.

Maybe if Bachmann runs these again they will offer a replacement.

[Dave V]

Your review just came out few days ago - hopefully, there aren't too many of those locos left for sale.   

But on a more serious note, Victor is not the only one gloating - believe me!  And while I can't speak for Victor, I know that my feeling is more of a "Bachmann just made another Bachmann model" and  instead of a gloating "I told you so".  I say move along - nothing new to see here. 

So, are you now ok with all the Bachmann-bashing that went on earlier and was which was highly discouraged?  I don't even think Victor visits here anymore after he was being closed to banished for his very detailed evaluation of the poor construction methods that Bachmann uses in their models (K4 included).

The warranty thing is weird, but I think if you read the fine print they say that they can substitute models if the original is unrepairable or replacement is unavailable.

On a positive note, if Bachmann has none available for warranties that means the loco sales exceeded Bachmann's expectations. They might run another batch.  Maybe wait until then and try to send it for warranty repair at that time.

I don't think any of us mods are okay with pre-bashing things before they're out, regardless of manufacturer.  The intensely negative environment created in the K4 threads--before anyone ever had one in hand, mind you--elicited a wave of complaints.  You and Victor were caught up in that, and it was less the message and more the delivery.  When many long-standing members talk of leaving because of such strong negativity, we have to take action.  There's making a point and moving on, and then there's being pendantic and not letting go.  If you still feel like the line isn't clear then please feel free to PM me.

For the moment though I see discussion of Bachmann's failure to honor its own warranty as fair game.  It's now a known quantity (versus bashing construction and performance of a loco that no one owns yet...see the difference?).

[wcfn100]

For the moment though I see discussion of Bachmann's failure to honor its own warranty as fair game.

Except that is their warranty.  At this point people are complaining that they don't like the warranty given by Bachmann, which I have no problem with (the complaining part), but Bachmann did try to honor it by sending a different locomotive.

Jason

[Dave V]

Except that is their warranty.  At this point people are complaining that they don't like the warranty given by Bachmann, which I have no problem with, but Bachmann did try to honor it by sending a different locomotive.

Jason

That's equally bad...  PRR modelers have no use for Berkshires, and vice versa typically.

I'm out of the loco review business I think.  Even though my K4s are still running perfectly, I feel a profound sense of defeat.  Defeat for what I wrote not knowing these things were time bombs (which Victor in his not-so-diplomatic way was saying) and defeat for thinking that a company that has produced junk in the past is not doomed to do so for eternity.

See you guys around...