(05/10/22) LifeSavers and Tide Tank Cars from Menards!

Good Morning Menards,

Did you produce more of these tank cars or are these left over from the initial run? Also, is it my eyes or is the chrome in the middle of the Life Saver tank car getting funny looking?

@jim sutter posted:

Good Morning Menards,

Did you produce more of these tank cars or are these left over from the initial run? Also, is it my eyes or is the chrome in the middle of the Life Saver tank car getting funny looking?

These say they were made in 2022.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Both new tank cars are a little different. The Life Savers tank car had silver metal  trucks on the first run,this has  black trucks with metal  wheels. The Tide has a different  date on the tank, its dated 2022...

@cabinet Bob posted:

Both new tank cars are a little different. The Life Savers tank car had silver metal  trucks on the first run,this has  black trucks with metal  wheels. The Tide has a different  date on the tank, its dated 2022...

Thank you!  (I, too, was looking for the differences because of the whole "All runs are unique & never repeated" marketing Menards does, and knew I was missing something but couldn't catch what that something was.)

Now that @cabinet Bob pointed out the new date on the Tide tankers, I'm debating on getting more of the Tide tank cars. Picked up a few of the last run directly from Menards and off eBay. Of course the ones from eBay cost me almost double.

If Menards does bring stuff back,  I would like the Cow Abduction UFO.   It could have Holsteins instead of Jerseys.

shorling,

You should place a ad on this forum looking for that item. There are several stores selling Menards products.

Maybe some tank cars with 50s oll company logos like Cities Service, ESSO or ENCO to name a few.

@Gene H posted:

Maybe some tank cars with 50s oll company logos like Cities Service, ESSO or ENCO to name a few.

Pretty sure Menards did a green Cities Service tanker 4-5 years back.

Got mine the other day. Disappointed that on one of my cars both couplers do not work.

I guess you get what you pay for.

I would consider exchanging, but the last time I tried that it turned out to be a disaster. Ray was NOT cooperative and insisted I only need one working coupler. By the time we had our back and forth, he told me to send them back and he would refund my money. I told him - and clearly stated it in my return packaging - that I wanted an exchange; NOT a refund.

Returned them and did get a refund. Then had to find 2 more cars at much more than the Menard's price.

Maybe I should not look at Menard's announcements?

Menards, should find Ray another job. They need someone in his position with excellent customer service skills. The other thing Menards needs to do is improve the quality of their trains. I don't think they have any quality control.

@jim sutter posted:

Menards, should find Ray another job. They need someone in his position with excellent customer service skills. The other thing Menards needs to do is improve the quality of their trains. I don't think they have any quality control.

At one time when I contacted Menard's, the response was what I expected - exchanged. I don't know when Ray started and whether he took care of my first exchange.

And yes, their QC seems to be on the lower end. I wonder how many others have problems with couplers. If it's a lot, then they should fix the problem. I realize you get what you pay for but don't think it's too much to ask to have 2 WORKING couplers. Not too long ago I received a car from one of my online dealers. While they have an RMA process in place, all I wanted was a new truck since the coupler was attached to the truck and I didn't see a way to separate the two. I asked - and received - a new coupler. Fortunately the truck was only screwed into the car. Easy peasy replacement!

I just opened my order.  The Lifesaver cars are NOT chrome plated, they are painted silver as is the Hershey tank car.  Out of 5 cars ordered (4 tank cars and one flatbed with a tank), 2 of them have issues with the couplers and 1 has an issue with both the coupler and the truck being warped.  I'll be sending them an email.  I thought that these looked like something unique for my collection.  That being said, I like most of you have more than enough trains.  I'll see what reply I get back.

@jim sutter posted:

Menards, should find Ray another job. They need someone in his position with excellent customer service skills. The other thing Menards needs to do is improve the quality of their trains. I don't think they have any quality control.

1. Is this the same person who used to do such good service?

2. I mean, they are $20 (well, $25) cars.  We get what we pay for and if they cost much more I would not be able to personally afford them, or if I did it would be with far less regularity.  IOW, if the price was much higher they would lose me as a customer.
Despite my gripe about the "missing" brake wheel in the other thread, over the last several months, my family has ordered 4 sets of ore cars, one skittles hopper, and two Ford V8 Flat cars --the second Ford V8 was before I noticed the missing brake wheel was a feature, not a bug.  All but two of them seem to be in good shape (one set of ore cars might have misaligned couplers because of the packaging or one coupler arm is a bit bent, and 2 of these 11 cars each have one minor flaw (not worth sending for a replacement/exchange) in the paint scheme.
I think they remain good cars for the price.  Not necessarily as good as say MTH's or K-line's used cars in an auction (depending on how used those are), but those cars are twice (or three times) as expensive even then.

As long as people continue to buy their products with the defects in place, they will have no reason to change their process. 

As the same time, if they introduce better quality control but increase their prices to account for that how many people here are going to complain about that?

@BenLMaggi posted:

As long as people continue to buy their products with the defects in place, they will have no reason to change their process.

As the same time, if they introduce better quality control but increase their prices to account for that how many people here are going to complain about that?

Exactly (people accepting items with defects as the "standard").

As for price increase, depends upon how much. Depending upon the item, I'd pay more if I knew the product had no defects.

@RadioRon posted:

Pretty sure Menards did a green Cities Service tanker 4-5 years back.

Check out the Lionel versions. No. 9277 (top) and No. 36146. Really nice cars. (These 8,000 gal. tank cars are actually scale sized.) Not sure why folks looking at Menards cars don't check out these older Lionel cars for other choices. They are readily available - and don't have any coupler/truck/tracking issues!

Two very nice Lionel tank cars. I love the top one the most.

@jim sutter posted:

Two very nice Lionel tank cars. I love the top one the most.

Yeah, I like that one, too. It was part of the Milwaukee Road Limited set from 1978. Has diecast sprung metal trucks, too.