Gaugemaster in the UK are liable for any faulty items bought from them Sale of goods act is available on line. In the UK the seller is liable and not the manufacturer. No idea about Germany but I do not Lippe are very good and they get my business. I never deal in Ebay.

I can't understand companies producing faulty product, realizing they are faulty and getting them fixed under a warranty. I don't think the quality design level is there anymore, instead of making products simpler they get more complicated., more in my post under workbench.
If this would be my company and I have to extend the service department because of increased returns I would categorize the returns and see where the problem lies.

John

Hi Greg,
Is there a commonality between the dealer from whom you purchase the locomotives, and the fact that you might have a disproportionately high number of failures?

My own limited experience is that less than 10% of my purchases go back to Maerklin.

regards
Kimball

I don't think that I have experienced a greater number of problems with products bought in a store versus products bought by mail order or internet.
The main difference is that products bought in a shop can be examined before purchase, which normally eliminates any defects in finish or other visible flaw from eventual returns/claims.
With models ordered on the internet from online shops, the photos usually represent a stock photo, so you have no photos of the actual model that you are receiving and have to depend on the dealer to have inspected the model and not shipped you a model with visible defects.
As far as invisible defects, ie those which cannot be seen on visual inspection. If there is a wiring, decoder or motor issue, many times, that will only be evident with a test run. Some shops claim to test models before shipping, but many times, the first run will occur after you get the model home. One concern that I have had with items that have been opened (either by the shop or by a potential customer at the shop) is that the model may not be correctly repackaged, which can cause damage during shipping. I have had a few models where the dealer has swapped AC wheel sets, but in the process, the repack led to damage during shipping.
As far as ebay, some dealers will provide the original receipt with purchase, meaning that you have the documentation needed to obtain warranty service, but that warranty likely went into effect with the original sale. Used items and NOS without authorized invoice likely will not have any warranty other than that provided by the dealer/seller.
As far as "defects" only, I have had over time start sets where the locomotives crashed through the styrofoam cradle. I have had models where the finish was damaged by the packaging.
In cases where this is due to a defect in the packaging, I think that the manufacturer should honour the warranty.
In cases where the damage is caused by a lack or proper packaging by the dealer (ie insufficient popcorn, etc), the claim should be with the dealer and not with the manufacturer.

The dealer is a middleman. The dealer's job is to represent the company to the customer, but the dealer should also represent the customer to the company.
Too many times, the dealer acts like they are there only to sell the goods, and washes their hands as soon as the goods have left their store.
I have had dealers reference all issues to the manufacturer. This may vary from place to place.

I am buying a Maerklin product, not a Lippe product, not a Lokshop product, nor a Schweickhardt product. As such, there is a business deal between the company and myself of which, the dealer serves as middleman. Maerklin can try to act like they are selling the goods to the dealer who then assumes all responsibility for warranties, but the fact is that the manufacturer still has an obligation to the customer and the use of social media is the best way to ensure that they honour this warranty, whether official or not.

Regards

Mike C

That was definitely the case for me here in the US with an ESU loco. Sending it to the dealer (MSL - A great train shop IMO) was too costly for a return because of huge increases in shipping charges from the US to Europe. ESU said that my warranty was only through the dealer and that they had no obligation to do anything for me, which is exactly what they did - nothing.

I have never had any NA dealer refuse to send Mäklin items to Göppingen for repair, and even though it usually takes a long time, the works has generally been done correctly. Of course you are without you loco and the to/from dealer shipping costs can add up to a good fraction of the purchase price. See once again the dreaded VT 95.9.

Live and learn.

There is a dealer in the southern USA who acted like once the model had left the shop, it was no longer his problem. Every time there was an issue, it was deal with Marklin.
I have to thank the staff at Marklin USA, notably Ken Brzenk, who stepped in to deal with the issues that this dealer would not handle.

If you order something from a dealer (anywhere) and it arrives defective, I would expect that dealer to exchange the item on the spot.
The problem is that if the distributor (Marklin USA) orders 25 from Germany and your dealer receives 3 of those, all being special orders (advance orders) and your model is defective or damaged, the dealer can try to return it to the distributor for an exchange, but the likelihood is that the other 22 that stocked have already been allocated or shipped out to other dealers. If you are lucky, they might still have one or two on hand, but if not, the only option was either a refund or to wait up to 4 months for the model to be returned to Germany and then repaired or replaced and shipped back to America in the next quarterly order. It was only several years later that Maerklin started providing more regular shipments from the factory.

For orders in Canada, it was Gordon Book & Co and they were even worse, because to begin with, their orders were perhaps 1% of the volume of the US distributor, meaning that in many cases, items ordered were special order and there may have only been 3 or 4 others for the whole country, especially if you were not ordering DB or NS models. At Kangourou, we had perhaps a dozen models in the display case, occasionally we ordered new items to have a stock model, but most of the business was special order for customers.

I can't tell you how many personal models I ordered from Switzerland or Germany because we could not get one from Toronto. Either they had not ordered it or on occasion, it seemed that the one that had been allocated to us ended up going to another dealer. G. Book seemed to have an unusual system for keeping track of who ordered what. Almost like it was ordered for you, but if somebody else wanted it along the way, they got it first.

The plan B was always to check with Walthers, who was then the actual distributor in the USA, to see whether they had the model in stock. A few years later when they set up the Marklin USA joint venture, it became a little easier and by then G. Book was no longer the Canadian distributor and Canadian dealers had to go through Marklin USA as well. A few years after that, dealers in North America were allowed to order direct from the factory and this meant that dealers could now return warranty issue models direct to Germany. The problem was that it would cost us $30 to send each model individually to Germany, so some dealers preferred to wait a while and send either monthly or bimonthly shipments to save money.

As a DJ, when I buy records or CDs, I liked to inspect them before paying. In many cases, I would play them at the shop to ensure that the record was not warped or that the CD would not skip.
Over the same time period as the Maerklin issues I describe, more and more records were no longer available from Canadian sources and we had to rely on imported copies from USA or Europe. I also had the pleasure of working in a vinyl shop. We would order somewhere between 2 and 10 copies of a given record. 2 if it was unknown and 10 if we believed it would be a hit. Often, if a record was well received, we would place a follow up order and hope that we could get another 5-15. Many times, we would scramble and try to locate copies from other distributors because our main supplier was out.
Just like the situation with trains, we developed a network of suppliers in UK and Europe, so we usually made the initial order from NY distributors and the records were shipped to our NY State address. I would pick them up, bring them through customs, we would then listen to them, price them and put them on the shelf and that night, a follow up order would be placed and we would hopefully receive more copies a few days later. I also discovered that if a US record was a hit, it was often licensed for other countries, so if we could not get the US copy, we would start looking for Italian, German, Dutch or UK copies to be released.

Back to trains. If a dealer does not want to be the agent of the company, you are kind of left high and dry. Distributors who don't adequately care about their customers are one reason why people shop online. Why would I buy from a shop where I have a reasonable fear of sh*t service (either from the shop or from the local distributor) if I can buy the same item from Amazon or from Germany and get better service?

A model train today can cost up to CAD$750 (500 EUR) for an average model. To me, the dealer is the agent of the company. He represents the company to me and he should represent me to the company. Too many times, the second part of that relationship is forgotten or even both parts are forgotten, because the moment that item has left the store, his focus is on getting new models to sell, because that is how he makes money. There is no money in it for the dealer in representing a brand that in many cases represents less than 2% of his revenue (compared to plastic models, North American trains, games, etc that would be found in a general hobby shop). It is a sad reality.

Those who are in Europe and have local model train shops should consider themselves extremely fortunate. They have dealers who maintain stock of locally popular models, who invest in their inventory and who are going to be better "brand ambassadors" than what happens in North America.

I would be so thrilled to be able to walk into a shop that had the selection of a Schweickhardt, Kramm, Lokshop, Roundhouse, etc... That is not my reality.

Here is my recommendation:

Step 1: Contact dealer

If not satisfied,
Step 2: Contact distributor

If not satisfied,
Step 3: Contact Goeppingen

If at any time you are not satisfied, return the item and order it from somewhere else in the network.

Not all dealers stamp the little warranty card. Matter of fact, some recent models have come only with the manual and no warranty card.
Some dealers only proof of purchase is a sales slip that lists the amount and the department. For example, toy trains are category 05, so the sales slip would shop

Category 5, $500 plus tax and the date, without specifying the make and model of the item.
If you are lucky, the dealer gives you an order confirmation or invoice that lists the make, model and details of your purchase/order.

I wonder how the law would interpret a sales slip like that in a warranty claim?

Good luck to each of you and hope that all your models are in original condition.

Regards

Mike C

So if M are so emphatic that Gaugemaster is a dealer why dont they list them on the map/directory on their website?. I suspect that many people are put off starting or returning to M by the fact that it appears there is no Marklin presence in the UK