Heljan Railbus Problems

[cessna152towser]

I seem to have been unlucky with the Park Royal Railbus.   Purchased brand new from Olivia's Trains and received by parcel post on 31st October.   It has only been up and down my small end to end layout a few times.   The running was a bit sluggish and surging, which I assumed would loosen up once it had been run in.   On Sunday I damaged the steps on one side when removing it from the box.   Attempts to repair turned into an utter frustration with the hooks on both sets of spare plastic steps where they should slide onto the metal strips becoming broken.  I eventually managed to re-assemble the steps with super glue which was rather messy.   Today I took it out to clean off the excess glue and give it another run.    It ran a short distance then ground to a stop and filled with smoke.   I'm minded to raise the matter with Heljan but concerned that although I have never removed the bodywork from the chassis, I may have invalidated the warranty by doing a botched DIY job on the steps repair.  I'll e-mail Heljan and see what they say.   Any thoughts?

[pwr]

I don't see you would invalidate the warranty. After all you would surely need to remove it to fit a decoder and speaker if you were converting it to DCC

 

Paul R

[Ray H]

I believe you first course of action is with the retailer not the maker.

[Ouroborus]

41 minutes ago, Ray H said:

I believe you first course of action is with the retailer not the maker.

 

Normally, you'd be correct, but in this case he bought it from Olivia's, so he get less aggro going to Heljan

[cessna152towser]

Thanks for your responses.

My reasoning in choosing to approach Heljan rather than Olivia's is that the instruction sheet gives an e-mail contact for spare parts.

I would want to pay for replacement steps (which I broke) but to have the motor repaired or replaced at maker's expense since a new mechanism should not fail after a few short runs.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by cessna152towser

[charliepetty]

5 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

I seem to have been unlucky with the Park Royal Railbus.   Purchased brand new from Olivia's Trains and received by parcel post on 31st October.   It has only been up and down my small end to end layout a few times.   The running was a bit sluggish and surging, which I assumed would loosen up once it had been run in.   On Sunday I damaged the steps on one side when removing it from the box.   Attempts to repair turned into an utter frustration with the hooks on both sets of spare plastic steps where they should slide onto the metal strips becoming broken.  I eventually managed to re-assemble the steps with super glue which was rather messy.   Today I took it out to clean off the excess glue and give it another run.    It ran a short distance then ground to a stop and filled with smoke.   I'm minded to raise the matter with Heljan but concerned that although I have never removed the bodywork from the chassis, I may have invalidated the warranty by doing a botched DIY job on the steps repair.  I'll e-mail Heljan and see what they say.   Any thoughts?

Just happend to me too, Heljan cannot help as they have no spares.  Charlie

[Wheatley]

Gaugemaster now hold Heljan spares but they don't do repairs and their instructions for warranty claims are to contact the retailer. If you don't want to go through Olivias you might be as well just ordering a motor and some steps from Gaugemaster

[Michael Hodgson]

So what's the problem with this Olivia?  I have never had any dealings with them

Does the firm have a bad reputation?

[charliepetty]

1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

Gaugemaster now hold Heljan spares but they don't do repairs and their instructions for warranty claims are to contact the retailer. If you don't want to go through Olivias you might be as well just ordering a motor and some steps from Gaugemaster

No motors are available from Gaugemaster either.   Honest. I have tried.

[TravisM]

Would Peter’s Spares be worth a try?

[truffy]

9 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

So what's the problem with this Olivia?  I have never had any dealings with them

Does the firm have a bad reputation?

Relatively expensive. IIRC they only sell at MRRP, no discounts...take it or leave it. Also a bit of a Marmite outfit in terms of customer service, apparently; I’ve never used them personally. 
 

There’s a thread in the Model Shop Guide. 

[cessna152towser]

1 hour ago, truffy said:

Relatively expensive. IIRC they only sell at MRRP, no discounts...take it or leave it.

Pros and cons to that.    

I'd planned to buy the Heljan model  of the Dalmellington-Kilmarnock railbus as soon as it was released as my mother was born in Kilmarnock, and I often saw the real railbus while it was still in service and I've been down the Dalmellington branch on railtours a few times after it became freight only.   I somehow missed its release and only found out on RMWeb recently that it had already been released five years ago.    It was out of stock at all the usual box shifters but Olivia's still had three in stock, due to their pricing policy.   I was very grateful to be able to buy one, even though I had to pay full price.    If it still been in mint condition I may have approached Olivia's about a possible replacement but as I have damaged the steps and got glue on the bodywork I cannot reasonably expect them to take it back and replace it.    I'll see what Heljan, whom failing Gaugemaster or Peters Spares have to say and if there are no spares available it may need to became a static item.

[Hal Nail]

8 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

If it still been in mint condition I may have approached Olivia's about a possible replacement but as I have damaged the steps and got glue on the bodywork I cannot reasonably expect them to take it back and replace it.

Your decision but as people have pointed out you can reasonably expect that because that's the arrangement Heljan have put in place with the retailers in the event of a fault. I doubt Olivias suffer - they would indicate they have had a return to Heljan who will have costed a certain number of failures into the price we are all paying in the first place!

 

These days of batch production duds are probably not repaired anyway so the condition of the steps is irrelevant but even even if that was an issue, Olivias could just replace the motor in yours with one from one of the other two. So either way you are better off contacting them.

 

I fail to see what you have to lose by asking.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Hal Nail

[cessna152towser]

An update.

I wrote to Olivia's Trains explaining the situation and pointing out that I would have been returning the Railbus for replacement under my consumer rights if I had not got glue marks on the body when attempting a DIY repair of the very fragile steps attachment.

I also contacted Heljan regarding possible repairs to the motor which failed after only a few short runs.

Neither Olivia's nor Heljan gave me the courtesy of a reply so that is two businesses who will get no more trade from me.

I'll shop around and see whether anyone is able to replace the Railbus, otherwise it may eventually go on eBay as a non-runner.

[Hal Nail]

1 minute ago, cessna152towser said:

An update.

I wrote to Olivia's Trains explaining the situation and pointing out that I would have been returning the Railbus for replacement under my consumer rights if I had not got glue marks on the body when attempting a DIY repair of the very fragile steps attachment.

I also contacted Heljan regarding possible repairs to the motor which failed after only a few short runs.

Neither Olivia's nor Heljan gave me the courtesy of a reply so that is two businesses who will get no more trade from me.

I'll shop around and see whether anyone is able to replace the Railbus, otherwise it may eventually go on eBay as a non-runner.

Now someone on a thread here had contacted Heljans ceo and got a reply. There was some chat about when it is appropriate to escalate so directly - this seems like one of them.