OK, now here's my tale. My Santa Fe had the original "loosing ID" issue so it went in right away. Got it back quickly, great! Powered it up, now it would not even take a loco ID at all. Called and they said try the universal #99. Did that and #1. Both worked, still nothing else. Back in it went.
A couple of days before leaving for York I got a call from Lionel Customer Service. "I have bad news for you" They had (finally) gotten around to my unit and found FedEX had crushed the box (it was even in the original Lionel outer carton). It was destroyed and Lionel has no more in stock. A refund will be sent. Oh, and by the way, we only send them out on a quarterly basis, so it will be December before you get yours.
So, a call to Charlie Ro where I bought it, sorry no more in stock. The same with Trainworld.
Well, I am going to York, so I will check with the dealers there. One after another, "sorry don't have one". Last stop was at Nassau Hobbies. "Do you have one left?" Answer, "turn around and look". They had just set an ABA on their table! And it was on sale! It only lasted there about 30 seconds as they started reboxing it up.
After telling the good news to my wife, her reply was "how do you know it will not have the same problem?" And of course, with my luck it will and we will start over with Lionel.
But right now, let me enjoy my delight in finding a replacement.
