Does this really take place?
Yes MTH does test every locomotive in Maryland when they come in. You can double check me on this. When you get your new MTH engine place it on the track and program it for DCS, before running the train note the Odometer you will find it is not on 0 because it was test run before it was shipped.
I believe that both MTH and Lionel feel that they have a captive audience and they do not care about their customers.
I know for a fact they do care. I have seen in person their emotional reaction when something comes in that's not up to standards. Why do you think MTH stopped making steam engines a while back? They did not want to ship us inferior products and they didn't want us to pre-order things until they made sure all their issues were fixed. MTH has their own factories. Why? For quality control. Mike Wolf makes multiple trips to China every year to insure that things are done right and when they aren't; trust me he's not a happy camper. Yes they care, but sometimes they miss things. Look at the tremendous amount of product they have put out over the last 26 years...what you don't see on the forum is "I just bought this train/car/track/accessory and it is perfect"...we tend to complain before we praise.
Scott Smith
