Trainz customer service. UPDATE

FWIW, I have found them to be responsive and above board in my dealings with them. Give it a bit and try again. I highly recommend Trainz.

John

@John Meyncke posted:

FWIW, I have found them to be responsive and above board in my dealings with them. Give it a bit and try again. I highly recommend Trainz.

John

I know. I've always had great dealings with them and they've always been quick with replies to questions etc.

I'll sit tight for a while.

I've always been happy with them but the last time I asked them a question via email I never got a response. Still haven't and that has been 2 weeks ago now. I went ahead and ordered what I wanted and figured I could return the item if need be. Everything turned out fine but just sharing my story.

Only made one purchase from them. Had some issues but found customer service to be  good.

I’ve bought a couple items from them in recent weeks, one of which I had several questions on. They responded within a few hours to each of my emailed questions including one for additional photos of the item.

In my opinion, their customer service is one of the best I’ve dealt with, right up there with Midge at MTH!

Curt

Scott had mentioned something about a very limited staff due to Covid, .....that was a little while back, ....plus I remember something about him being short handed even without Covid,.....I’ve never had an issue with the two times I had to get him to replace a part,....usually fairly quick to respond,...I’d suggest just keep trying to get a hold of them,...

Pat

They have always solved the very few problems I have had.

No issue on my end... normally get replies in the overnight hours

Placed an order for switch machines and got no confirmation

Numerous  phone calls go unanswered - left messages  no response

After about a month left message saying I am canceling my order  Still no response

Had my cc company reverse the charges and I purchased switch machines from Ross

Got them in less than a week or

But . . .  but. . . their Website still says "Satisfaction Guaranteed."              ( I saw it yesterday.)

I done a fair amount of business with Trainz over the years. Generally favorable, but some very mixed results as well with the condition of what I've received. They take care of things, but it's frustrating when it happens.

My latest problem was something I got from them via Ebay about a month ago. They advertised it as new/mint, and it turned out to be a total disaster, with broken/damaged/missing parts, and some even more severe damage as well. None of this (including metal parts split apart) was due to shipping.

Whoever reviewed and graded this item must have been stoned, or did it as his idea of a joke - it was that bad. To say I was P.O.ed would be an understatement. Got a refund, of course, but noone compensates you for the time and hassle of repackaging and arranging for a return label and delivering it to back to the shipper (not to mention your transportation cost).

Nonetheless, I'd do business with them, but am aware there will be occasional problems. I don't know if they've got more on their plate than they can handle, or don't supervise properly, or what, but people working there aren't always paying attention.

Their customer service has always been pretty good, but I've had issues with them. Once I ordered an American Flyer brush bracket from them. The photo showed the 1948 version, which is what I needed. They sent a different one. So I contacted them, and they made it right by sending another one, while allowing me to keep the one I had received. Well... This second one was wrong, too. So, again I contacted them and again, they sent the wrong one. Eventually, I received the correct one, but I was annoyed. At least I got three extra brush brackets out of it.

I've also had an item damaged by their handling with a piece completely missing that was present in the photos. I don't remember what they did to set it right, but I never did get that missing part. This was an old kit-built car, so finding replacements is very difficult.

I have purchased from them on eBay several times.  Had two problems with them and both were quickly resolved. Over priced shipping refunded and a return that was over 30 days old.

I have contact them this evening about wrong parts being shipped, I notice a lot of errors in part identification. They have someone there that doesn't have a full grasp of the parts. (I'm only talking Lionel parts, don't know about G and HO parts they list.) I'll report my experience with them.

Please do let me know.  Going on 4 days now and several emails and voicemails....

@Train Nut posted:

Please do let me know.  Going on 4 days now and several emails and voicemails....

If you dispute the transaction with PayPal or with your credit card company (whichever is applicable), it tends to get their attention a little quicker and garner a response. Don’t get me wrong, I have gotten some fantastic items from them and their customer service did a great job of fixing a damaged vision line challenger I got from them a while back. I think they have grown too quickly. Trainz has a number of people working for them who know very little about trains which has led to numerous listing errors, poorly described items, and poor packaging in the recent past.

Hello Everyone.

Let me address what I have read to set the record straight so you can have the truth and real answers, so you don't have to make stuff up.

Response time. Our internal goal is to respond back to all calls & tickets within 8 business hours 95% of the time. We are currently not answering phone calls, phone calls get automatically converted to text and are put in our ticket system. We typically then respond to these via email. If it is too complicated for that we will call you back. We measure our response time weekly as a key business metric. Currently in February we are at 73%. Not where I want it. We did just add a 7th person to our Customer Service team in December that we had been working on hiring since September. Now this month Jessica has been on vacation for 2 weeks. Last year we were in the 90-96% range from March-October and around 80% the other months, once our new person gets up to speed, we should hit the goal. We also just promoted Jessica to be the leader. But with that said, you should never be waiting days for a response. Email me directly at sgriggs@trainz.com if you don't hear from us and it is really important after 24 hours, please give my team a chance first.

During Covid in April and May our Customer Service staff all worked remote, we didn't have anyone not working. They were more or less back in the office in June. Most of the production team was out those two months. Thanks to PPP they all got full pay.

My apologies to breezinup about the issue with grading your item. That is pretty extreme. I believe you, but that is very abnormal. It was hardly a joke, we run a professional business and we don't want to screw around fixing issues and making customers upset as much as you don't want to receive them. We are constantly hiring and training new people, and yes most of them are new to trains. We do have a great core team of people that have been around 10 years or more that do most of the training and we have a review process that every item goes through by a supervisor, but that doesn't catch everything. We do have a quality measurement system in place where every customer service issue gets assigned back to the department that created it and the to the person. We use it for continual training, and disciplinary action is taken when necessary. Very sorry when these things happen, we are human and a lot of these things are fairly complicated, but we are on a path of continuous improvement, it is one of our core values.

We have 4 full time people working in our parts department now. I am the only person crazy enough to try to do this at the scale that we do it. It is by far the hardest part of our business. For some strange reason, I love parts, I guess it is because always have since I was a teenager and bought my first service station. I now have two Napa parts guys (they love parts too!), Ansley, who has been with me in parts for 5 years and Loni who is fairly new. I am proud of the fact that we now offer over 13,000 parts, with pictures, to help you all get the parts you need. I would love your help - when we mis-identify something, send us an email to customerservice@trainz.com and we will fix it and appreciate it!

Thank you, Scott, for your above post, and for your company being one of our Forum Sponsors.

I just want to take a moment to compliment you and your company, and thank you, for something your company did for me a little over 1 year ago.

I visited your company's website and made an inquiry, probably by email, for a product made by a company that I believe is no longer in business. The product was O Scale baseball figures by Kramer Products. Then, several months went by, and I got an email from your company stating that you had them for a reasonable price. I was thrilled.

Here they are on my layout playing under the lights at my Pospsicle Stick Pologrounds. LOL.

I was very impressive that you/your company kept my inquiry in mind for at least several months, followed up and then let me know that you had found exactly what I wanted.

This is just another example of the outstanding service I have received every time I have purchased something from one of our Forum Sponsors.

Arnold

@breezinup posted:

I done a fair amount of business with Trainz over the years. Generally favorable, but some very mixed results as well with the condition of what I've received. They take care of things, but it's frustrating when it happens.

My latest problem was something I got from them via Ebay about a month ago. They advertised it as new/mint, and it turned out to be a total disaster, with broken/damaged/missing parts, and some even more severe damage as well. None of this (including metal parts split apart) was due to shipping.

Whoever reviewed and graded this item must have been stoned, or did it as his idea of a joke - it was that bad. To say I was P.O.ed would be an understatement. Got a refund, of course, but noone compensates you for the time and hassle of repackaging and arranging for a return label and delivering it to back to the shipper (not to mention your transportation cost).

Nonetheless, I'd do business with them, but am aware there will be occasional problems. I don't know if they've got more on their plate than they can handle, or don't supervise properly, or what, but people working there aren't always paying attention.

I’ve never had an issue with customer service, they’re always great. Other than rolling stock and parts, I’ve made two purchases from Trainz recently and both went like the above. One was a switch described as like new and had broken guide rails. The other was a vision line CC2 described as like new and had pieces broken/missing, paint chips, and Legacy issues. It was clear it wasn’t test run or inspected. They were great about the returns, but that doesn’t make up for my time and effort. Trying to fix it before giving up, packing it back up, and taking to Fed Ex.

I was just looking at a TMCC engine on their site and asked if it had been tested. I was told no it wasn’t but it was listed as like new. How can something be like new but untested? Customer service is great, but my “issue” is with this business model of selling highly complex engines untested as “like new”. Creates a poor customer experience in my opinion, regardless of a money back guarantee.

Have to applaud the response from Scott,  there aren't many organizations that would take the time to respond.  I grade vendors on hiw well they do service recovery since mistakes happen. Good faith efforts are always rewarded with additional business.

I have to say, I was happy to see the lengthy reply from Scott, nice to see someone at the top take the time to address the issues.  I have purchased a number of things from Trainz, and I've had some issues with a few shipments.  I'm sure shipping is one of the significant problem areas, I receive and ship a lot of repairs & upgrades, and I've seen some ugly stuff!  I never had a major issue getting issues with shipments or incorrect items sorted out, so I wouldn't have any trepidation about buying from them again if they have what I need (or want).  Nobody's perfect, but it sounds like they're at least making a concerted effort, that's a good sign.

Over the last 5 years or so I have purchased a number of items at very reasonable prices with the last order about a month ago. Never an issue and I have no problem recommending them.

John

I'm going on day 4 now with no response. Appreciate the reply above  but wonder why they don't mention on their recording on the phone or with a text response that they are behind and sorry for the delay but they will be in touch. Nothing worse than sending emails and leaving voicemails and feeling it's falling on deaf ears.

My situation was a locomotive I purchased that was packed very poorly. It was put in minimal bubble wrap,  put on the bottom of the box and some paper was put on top of it. No paper was put around it to keep it from shifting back and forth in transit. Needless to say it shifted back and forth as it got moved around in transit and the back truck is shattered.

This was definitely something that they had control of and was just careless on their part.

I wish more companies would respond to issues mentioned on this forum like Scott did.. Customer Service is a large part of all businesses. Its a good idea to stay in touch with your customers. Sometimes a simple phone call is all that is needed.

I bought four items from Trainz website and they did ship the following day two were delivered as scheduled by Fed Ex last week and two are in transit via Fed Ex now and hopefully will be here tomorrow. They ship Fe Ex Smart Post but Fed Ex Home delivery has been delivering them most likely due to the USPS being so slow. I really can't complain about Trainz CS. I had a couple of issues with items I bought in the past but they did sort the problem and it took 2 or 3 days for a reply to my email but considering they probably have one or two people working CS and they probably get hundreds of emails a day. The company that ignored my email the most was MTH.

I'm sure no one is perfect, I know I'm not.. I will say that I have ordered numerous things from Trainz directly or an online bidding site over time and have had no problems with their products and services.. Unfortunately,  I cannot say that about everyone else's service.. I try to support Forum sponsors and members when I can.. Since I live in South Carolina, I don't have the luxury of LHS in my area.. Scott is probably one of the closer ones, approximately a 2 1/2 hour drive one way.  These are indeed trying times for shippers, business owners, suppliers and all the rest of us, IMO.... 

I purchased a Lionel tank car from Trainz on e-bay last month.  Price, including shipping, was more than reasonable.  Item arrived as promised and was well packaged.  Very satisfied.  Glad to see scott@trainz respond.  I would definitely buy from them again.

John

Clearly this is not a mom and pop operation. I have had good luck with trainz. Thanks Scott.

I've had a couple of transaction where the item wasn't as described but they took good care of me and promptly. Only one bad shipping experience. Other than that, I think they do a good job.

I just now got a response from Ervie in customer service.

They seem to be on it.

Update -  using the link above I got in touch with them and they are taking care of it for me.

I have had a great experiences with them in the past and are usually top notch. I will continue to do business with them.

I bought a American Flyer Royal Blue from them. It arrived with a broken and wrong coupler on the tender. I contacted customer service who told me they could not do anything about that. I would not buy anything from them.

When I've ordered from them, the transactions were always satisfactory.  There was one instance way back in the mid- to late-2000s where the item I ordered didn't meet expectations (what I received had rust on some of the metal surfaces while the picture in their listing showed it was rust-free).  But they made good, apologized, and sent me a good one along with a return label to send the other one back.

To Jerry Rubin - I just looked up your case and not sure why we didn't take you up on your idea of swapping trucks with your extra tender to fix the Royal Blue one. We will send you a label and get it squared away. Sorry for the miscommunication there.

Just want to say to Scott that I am impressed that you have taken the time to respond directly to folks on the forum!  Those in the hobby business have had to work with reduced staff and interruptions in product and services as well as not being able to have regular hours.  In some cases, sales have been fine but getting the product shipped and in the hands of the buyer has been very challenging.  Hopefully folks will keep some of this in mind while we all are trying to do our best.

I met the Trainz folks at Trainfest several years ago in Milwaukee.  They were enthusiastic about the hobby and a pretty southern gal there was super nice,  knowledgeable about trains, and made me want to do business with  them.  I have purchased several items since via EBay and I can honestly say they are always priced fairly and their customer service is professional.  I've had to return a few items, one with shipping damage, and they accept them without question, give a prompt refund and that makes me always feel comfortable buying from them.

Trainz Customer service folks have always been top notch. Willing to solve an issue quickly should one occur. Their goal seems to provide complete customer satisfaction. Pleasant, professional, and helpful people. If they don’t know an answer, they seek others on the staff to provide one with returning an email.

I think they often take a hit due to uninformed buyers who didn’t take the time to research the item carefully.

Observations - I have requested taking bottom truck photos on every Weaver. The last item quoted LD which should contain die-cast T&C’s, I got plastic resulting in a free car I could strip for parts I guess? Since I buy 5 -10 used cars as a lot at a time, I need them to be correct. I also have noted some photos are duplicate stock items, not the actual item for sale which can result in returns or refunds. I received a similar looking car with broken parts.

I did not like having to wait 12 days for my box to go one state away as they had used Fed-Ex Smart Post. Partnering with USPS caused the box to remain in Atlanta 3 days before going all over the country prior to getting it. I get the box in 2 days using straight FED-Ex lately.

Thanks to Trainz staff for all the great work and being there for us!

Ok. as far as my experience, They refunded my money. Fine. Said they don't have the part in stock. My question is why did they go through the effort to photograph the part, write a short description and post it on their website with a price if they don't have the part??

Just my 2 cents worth....... I purchased a MTH Railking 2-8-8-2 USRA Mallet steamer from them late last year, and I am over the moon with it!!!!

The price was the best I'd seen (been watching "The Bay" for one of these monsters for a while) and the transaction was seamless. Paid my money and then went into the "waiting mode" for it to arrive.

I live on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland, Australia, (the land down-under) and the postage cost was well within reason. The loco turned-up about 3 weeks later, and the packing for its long international journey was superb. Nothing was broken, and the loco ran straight out of the box, and all the features worked as they should. Swapped out the original battery for a BCR and installed a TVS and I sleep well at night!!!

More than happy to buy from Trainz again, with confidence.

Peter (Buco Australia)