Hi all,

I know we grovel about customer service and communications here often, and I thought I'd share a fantastic experience I just had as a bit of a benchmark for what things should be like.

I have a very soft spot for New York Central steam locomotives, which of course are not a strength of Marklin's lineup I had several in Lionel "0" scale, but the reality was space both for storage and operation did not make this a viable long term option- at least in the scale length dimensions I prefer for my locos and coaches. So, I recently decided to replace the "O" with "HO," so all my trains are at least in one scale! Plus the storage space problem has been solved.

The second loco purchase was this past week, a Broadway Limited Imports New York Central "Niagara" 4-8-4, which for those with time to kill on google is one of the most impressive steam locomotives ever in terms of prototype performance. The locomotive looks fantastic out of the box, and sound/operation back it up. The locomotive is a touch more "fragile" than marklin and no real use of metal details, so maybe its a better comparison to Roco steam. At the $350 I paid (MSRP $499, but very easy to find under $400 anywhere) I would label it excellent value for money: DCC, Full Sounds and a Factory-installed Smoke unit with dynamic chuff!

This morning, after a few days of admiring it on my desk, I noted a glue spot on the cab, definitely a factory mistake. Not a tragedy, but also something I could not "un-see" either. Debating whether to try the retailer or the manufacturer, I called Broadway limited first. What an experience:

1- Phone number for support right on the website
2- Someone answered within 2-3 minutes
3- She noted the problem, and called the parts department directly
4- confirmed the cab (road number specific!) was in stock
5- gave me an order number after taking my info, and a new one will be in Monday's mail free of charge, no need to return the old one

What would have been a multi-month saga with Marklin or Roco (even with good support, I don't think Marklin is "bad." MTH is probably a better comparison, who are not good), this was handled in 20 minutes with a smile and a "congrats on your first one of our locomotives"

I'm totally sold on the brand. Perhaps the thing that impressed me most was the willingness to help a randomly-calling customer direct, I didn't get a "call your dealer" or anything like that.

Anyhow, I thought it worth sharing. I'm off to run a locomotive this evening

When I called Rick Sinclair regarding the problem with my 37325 he answered the phone right away, so Maerklin service in North America can be pretty good.
Maerklin (Goeppingen) sent a pretty quick reply, but not from somebody who had technical experience who could have addressed the specific issue, That would be a +.
Maerklin Switzerland's tech and service man got back to me within 24 hours with a more technical response.

Glad your problem was solved. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't.

Regards

Mike C