MTH quality assurance?

I believe that both MTH and Lionel feel that they have a captive audience and they do not care about their customers.  I have had pieces made by both companies that were defective and I waited months for repairs, eithr by the manufacturers or at the dealer that was waiting for parts.  WHY?!?!  I gave up and only collect originals that are easily repaired.

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

Well....I wonder why there have been so many problems reported with the Turbotrain.....  This must be another one of those times that "they missed a few things".....

Alan

It's funny, back in the 1990s I started buying some MTH pieces -- rolling stock and buildings -- because I noticed that the quality was very good, better than Lionel at the time.  And over the years, I have always admired MTH for reivigorating what had been a stagnant industry for many years.  My experience with MTH is that they make a good product, and they will stand behind it.  Perfect?  No, no one is.  And as far as Lionel goes, I have never had a bad experience with the modern (Jerry Calabrese led) Lionel either.  Just recently, I had an early 2000s Alco C420 develop a problem with one of the can motors.  Not inclined to mess with a TMCC loco myself, I sent it off to Lionel.  For a very reasonable price -- much cheaper than has been my experience at LHSs -- they fixed it perfectly and sent it back promptly.  Frankly, I've had good experience with Williams too.  Not to sound pollyana-ish, but I think it is a great time to be involved with this hobby and, to the original point, I think MTH deserves a lot of credit for reinvigorating it. 

I've been buying MTH in preference to others for several years, in part because of superior quality control and fewer problems. Recently I've noticed a drop, especially on the tinplate side. The STD-72 switches are by now infamous, and while I love the Super 381, it has a bunch of problems that I frankly consider to be inexcusable. If I weren't handy with tools I'd probably have had to get rid of it. I recently posted a review on the main 0 gauge board of a new set of F7 diesels I just bought; while the review was basically favorable, there were a couple of problems that came from basic errors in production engineering. I'm also having problems with the pantographs on my new electric. They've stopped shipping locomotives with complete instruction sheets. Now it's like computer printers; you get a quick start guide and if you want a manual, you have to download it and print it out yourself. And finally, the box on my most recent locomotive purchase was really, really cheesy - flimsy, low grade cardboard that you could see the corrugations through the purple finish - visibly lower quality than in the past. MTH needs to pull up their socks. 

In response to scott.smith, I alway check the odometer when I get an engine and I have had a few that read 0.0, so it was not checked or maybe they have a way of resetting it before they ship them out.  When it's not 0.0 it's typically 0.1 or there abouts, not much of a check if you ask me.  But, having said that, I have had very good luck with MTH products and will continue to buy them and I do agree that we always hear when things go wrong but rarely hear when everything works as advertised.

John.

Southwest Hiawatha, I was shown by an authorized MTH tech the insides of a Super 381 and he pointed out that it did not have Pittman motors but very cheaply made Chinese motors instead.  Although I don't have a Super 381 I find this to be very disturbing because it seems that MTH is sacrificing quality to make a few more bucks and they are doing it with the engine's most important component.  I would rather pay a bit more to keep the Pittman motors in my tinplate engines rather than keep the prices steady but get an inferior product.

John.

Thanks for all the replies so far! My intent is not a bashing of MTH as I have pretty much only MTH. My point about the "quality assurance" issue is if it is being done.....why make the customer repair this? Why not have the  owners of the Proto 3 old number 6's and 7's send them to MTH at MTH's expense both ways to have them repaired with the proper drive wheels? To me the handling of this is a bigger issue than the mistake itself, especially considering the cost of the units.

OF any of my Tinplate, this is my only beef. If fact most all of my MTH (tin and regular) has run very well and I like MTH for the fine job they usually do. This one just puzzles me, unless pulling wheels on a tinplate piece is easy and all customers (and or dealers) have a wheel puller which I don't have.