BLI time to repair

[propmeup1]

Well i bit the bullet and sent in my one of my T1s and One E7 units to have repaired. They replied with a time of 12-13 weeks. I about fell off my chair upon reading that.  It use to be 2 weeks, then went to 4 weeks and 6. Now we're at 12-13. That tells me they sell many more items that run crappy and need to be returned. That should tell them to get their sh-t in one sock as my CC in bootcamp use to say.  Not a happy camper right now.   It will be like receiving two Christmas engines.   ARRRRRRR-----

[Nato]

       That is why their refurbished items are nearly new products, sound equipped water tanks, bellowing livestock cars and some locomotives. I hope I do not see any refurbished 2-8-2 locomotives any time soon. That would be a bad sign. Nate Goodman. (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.   

[mmagliaro]

I wouldn't assume that the increasing repair time is because they sell crappy products.   They keep adding products to their product line and it is expensive to keep repair people on a payroll.

Adding just the PRR T1 and M1 would significantly increase their repair workload, I would think.  N Scale steam locomotive models are intricate, and those are two very complex ones.  Did they hire an additional person to account for that when they released those models into the wild?  Probably not.   It could just be a matter of not hiring enough additional repair people to keep up with their expanding customer base and product line.

[wazzou]

I wouldn't assume that the increasing repair time is because they sell crappy products.   They keep adding products to their product line and it is expensive to keep repair people on a payroll.

Adding just the PRR T1 and M1 would significantly increase their repair workload, I would think.  N Scale steam locomotive models are intricate, and those are two very complex ones.  Did they hire an additional person to account for that when they released those models into the wild?  Probably not.   It could just be a matter of not hiring enough additional repair people to keep up with their expanding customer base and product line.

Well said and more likely the issue.

[wm3798]

I've always quipped that Bachmann always had excellent customer service when it came to repairs and replacements... because they had so much practice doing it... 

Hopefully BLI will find their feet and get the situation sorted.

Keep in mind, the more advanced our technology gets, the more fragile it is, and more expensive to fix.  Remember when you could get your car tuned up with a couple of $2 spark plugs and a belt?  Now it's a $900 mother board.  It's sort of like that.

Lee

[dougnelson]

I just received my T1 back from BLI.  I dropped it and the drawbar and front coupler exploded.  It was repaired and returned to me no charge.  Took about 4 weeks.  In my experience they are committed to good customer service (if not the fastest).

[propmeup1]

This isn't my first time repair with them, #7. My engines are right now at around 60-40%. 60 having not made the trip back to FL.  The 2-8-2s have been excellent so far.

[CBQ Fan]

They were much faster than what they told me.  They also fixed something that they had no obligation to fix under warranty. Very pleased. 

[Maletrain]

My  experience with BLI is that they actually do fix things that they make.  My experience with Bachmann is that they don't fix anything; they just send you a new one so long as they have one still in-stock.  But, that doesn't last long with Bachmann, so more typically, they just send you some new locomotive that you have no interest in to replace the one you actually purchased - and claim that satisfies their guarantee.  Not to me, it doesn't.  I would love to see Bachmann perform repairs as well as BLI - on any scehdule.

[peteski]

Maybe they specify 12-13 weeks lead time so that when they return the repaired model sooner, the customer is happy? 

[greenwizard88]

That sure beats the 26 weeks MTH had my H10s once.

When I had warranty service from BLI it took them 2 or 3 weeks (quoted something like 7 weeks though). The repaired item failed in the same manner, so they expedited a replacement for me. I wasn't too fond of the model, but I can't hate on their service department.

Last time I contacted them for a replacement truck, we had 2-3 day delays emailing each other, so it took about a week to get to the correct person and place an order. Once the order was placed the part was mailed that week to me.

BLI usually hits it out of the park, or fails spectacularly (see: T1, P70 lighting, respectively), but their service department is pretty decent IMO.

[brokemoto]

I have purchased three BLI products; two Penn centipedes and one B&O USRA light 2-8-2.  One of the centipedes had a problem:  the flexing wire came unsoldered from a pivotting truck. 

I e-mailed for the return authorisation.  Per the instructions and applying the lessons of Complaint Letter Writing that I learned in sixth grade English class (which the public schools in that part of California, at the time, called "language"), I stated that it was still under warranty, stated where and when I had bought it, price paid, described the problem and told them what I wanted done to remedy it.  Within seventy two hours, they e-Mailed me back with an invitation to effect the repairs myself.  I responded with a statement that I was clumsy with a soldering iron around plastic and really did not want to risk melting plastic thus rendering an expensive locomotive useless.  After forty eight hours, they replied with a return authorisation code, an address, instructions to enclose a copy of the receipt and an advisory that it would take twelve to sixteen weeks.

I was somewhat less than delighted, but, as it was doing nothing sitting in its box and would do nothing if I took it out of its box and put it onto the track,  I had to accept what BLI told me.  I packed up the thing, took it to the post office, mailed it.  Several days later, BLI acknowledged receipt by e-Mail and included a reminder of the turnaround time.  It came back fourteen weeks later.  It was repaired correctly.

I can complain about the long turnaround time, but, other than that, I can not complain.  They honoured their warranty.  They did what they said that they would do.  Everything that occurred was in line with what BLI told me.  Still, I consider the turnaround time excessive, especially when I consider what I paid for the thing,  but, as others have pointed out, it could be due to a small number of personnel in the Repair Department.   Model railroad manufacturing is not exactly a high profit margin business.  A Repair Department likely would spend more time on warranty repairs than on paid repairs, so it would not exactly be a  "Profit Centre" (I believe that this is the Newspeak term for iit), either.

I did not like it, but, I simply ran other equipment until I got the thing back from BLI. 

What is really funny is that my modelling directions changed shortly after that, so I ended up selling both centipedes.

[thomasjmdavis]

The "gospel" on repair estimates....

/>

[Steveruger45]

Yep. Scotty has some good advice.  I’ve used this technique often in real life and it works.   The trick is to make the exaggerated repair time estimate at least plausible.

[R L Smith]

Let's also keep in mind that in might not be the volume of repairs.  Their supply of spare parts may not have been very large and they've had to re-order certain items.  If those have to come from overseas, or if there are minimum order quantities, that could be impacting their quoted lead time.