Dapol 'No Quibble' 12 month warranty

Hi everyone,

Here is the press release sent out in full to the press for publication today;

I will slightly elaborate further below the release, and we will be sending out both this release AND a further letter of explanation to all stockists today, as well as putting this information on our web site later too.

Dapol announce another ‘First’ for the railway modeller.

Up to 2 years ‘no quibble’ chassis exchange warranty!*

With the launch of our new N gauge A4 and soon to be here A3 steam locomotives, we are altering our locomotive warranty. This means that every locomotive produced Dapol in any gauge from the release of the A4’s, gets a 1 year ‘no quibble’ chassis warranty.

This is a ‘no quibble’ 1 year chassis warranty where Dapol’s service and spares agents will, upon return of the model directly to them, replace the chassis in your model without fail (where possible to do so) free of any charge.

* What’s more, at the end of your 1 year standard ‘no quibble’ warranty period, you can send your locomotive to either agent who will, for £15.00 plus P+P, service your engine, and make sure it is in tip top running condition. This will then automatically extend your ‘no quibble’ chassis warranty for a second year.

The service and spares agents will also, from this date, be able to service and repair out of warranty locomotives, and as such locomotive spares are being made available to them to be able to do so.

To qualify for this ‘no quibble’ chassis warranty your locomotive must have the letter ‘W’ on it’s box label or stamped onto the chassis, and must be returned to the Agent (no longer the store of purchase) along with a dated proof of purchase. Your warranty card (that will now come with every locomotive), as this will be stamped and dated to qualify for the extra year.

All we ask is that customers contact either agent by phone and ‘book’ the model in for a service / repair and pay for shipping each way (When a service is required). Dapol or our agents will not be held responsible for failure to mitigate against potential loss in the post of locomotives sent for service/repair that are out of warranty.

Please note this warranty, extended or otherwise does not cover damage to the locomotive body caused by rough handling, locomotives with decoders hardwired (All decoders must be removed for return for service/chassis exchange), drive shaft relocation or dropping as these will be classed as lack of care and fall outside the warranty. This warranty does not extend to previously manufactured and released non-‘W’ branded locomotives. Please note this warranty and offer and in addition to and do not affect your statutory rights.

We are also pleased to announce that DCC supplies also become Dapol’s sole official DCC installer for hard wired and socket fitted locomotives.

Main Dapol service/spares agent and official DCC installer (N, OO & O gauge locomotives)

DCC Supplies

Unit 17A,

Top Barn Business Centre,

Worcester Road,

Holt Heath, Worcester.

WR6 6NH.

Phone: 0845 224 1601 or

+44 (0)1905 621 999

www.DCCSupplies.co.uk

Secondary service agent. (N gauge only)

BRLines

97 Park Lane

Guisborough

Cleveland

TS14 6PA

01287 633036

www.BRLINES.com

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If a loco is purchased in any gauge (although this wont affect the O gauge range yet), and is faulty at source, it needs to go directly to DCC Supplies (only) and not to the stockist. The model will then be assessed and either replaced directly to the customer, or credited to the store and the customer notified that this has happened so they can get a refund etc.

We are in the process of setting up a freepost adress for DCCsupplies and this may take up to 2 more weeks for the post office to issue it so please be patient on this issue.

This has an advantage of a quicker than normal 'turn around' for a repair/replacement, and should help the customer and stockist alike.

This truly is a 'no quibble' guarantee for 12 months on the mechanism with no catches except poor handling, dropping, drive shaft dissengaging, mechanism noise etc.

We will fine tune it as we go along, as there are bound to be things we havnt thought about, that maybe you can suggest for consideration here or even PM me.

Basically all we want to do is increase our customer service and make it better, faster, slicker and perhaps even more friendlier.

I hope you approve?

cheers

Dave

yuck what awful text. I hope you can read it ok, sorry but i didnt post at this size or spread.

cheers

Dave

Thats a first class idea. No more chasing your tail with faulty locos trying to get them sorted.

For purchasers outside the UK will it be possible to book in locos for repair/service by e mail or will phone contact be needed ?

What is the first OO gauge loco which will come with this warranty ?

Hmm. In all candor, if I understood all that then it seems I can no longer return to the retailer any duff "W" stamped Dapol loco I purchase (and I've had several duff ones in the past - not so stamped, of course) for refund or exchange. If this is correct, I am not pleased with the change as I live in California and it has been very convenient for me to simply return defective items to Hattons (which gets 90% of my custom) - which refund my return postage as well as send me a replacement at no charge. How Dapol's new arragement will affect its non-UK consumers needs to be explained.

Also, with regard to the replacement of defective items, I noticed the little parenthetical "where possible to do so." Unless Dapol will have real time stock information about all its items available to consumers contemplating returning an item, I think this is also a step backwards. Dapol is renowned for its small batches, but - for instance - were I to receive a poorly performing loco in a particulary livery or name I really want, I can see from Hatton's website its stock level and I can decide if Hattons has enough in stock to make an exchange practicable (given the shipping time back to the UK), or if I'd be better off fiddling with the loco to improve it instead to ensure I'd at least still have the desired livery or name rather than miss out. I would truly be suprised if Dapol still has stock of its initial batch of A4s 11 months after the release date! This concern of course can be made moot if Dapol will be willing to take off the body shells of returned locos that are in the consumer's desired livery and install them on a replacement chassis, but this has not been made clear. Can it please?

Also, "booking" a service by phone is not very practical from California given the time difference. Would an email booking be acceptable?

I appreciate Dapol's efforts to serve its customers better, and to the extent QC might improve to keep the rate of returns down I welcome this change. But while I have been excited by Dapol's new products, to the extent these changes might inconvenience or cost me, ironically I am actually now wary about purchasing them! Perhaps additional information from Dapol will mitigate this.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Lets see if i can clarify (not in any particular order)

Yes booking in by E-mail will be fine, please make sure you get a responce and save it just in case (as e-mails do go astray from time to time)

QC problems are the lowest its been ever for Dapol. less than 1% for the class 22 for instance so i cannot see how we can get better as there's a 'human element' in there that cannot be taken into account.

Basically we have for some time now had chassis (not all) available to buy from our website shop for anyone who wants one. This is now being ramped up further for new items. Older models are mor problematical and can only be made when locomtives are being made. As such models like the 45xx and Ivatt might be problematical. Also, if we cannot supply a replacement chassis or spare part for some reason it then becomes 'Where possible to do so' scenario for this eventuality.

I will chck but i assume our soon to be implemented freepost address will ..................................address (sorry) those fears about shipping and postal charges.

No plans at all to show stock levels of spares, as our system isnt set up for it.

Not sure why you wouldnt be pleased with direct access to the service/repair agent instead of therough a third party? Indeed Hattons have been insisting for a good few months now that customers send their faulty loco's directly to the manufacturer and not them! (please feel free to check on this). The service/repair agent will be quicker and with every 'W' labelled loco your also getting a 12 month warranty. Is that so wrong?

Sorry but i dont understand your body shell comment. The 'W' warranty is for chassis replacement on the whole loco, ergo you send the whole loco back to the service and spare agent. Have i read that wrongly?

Please come back to me if i have missunderstood anything here.

cheers

Dave

Hmm. In all candor, if I understood all that then it seems I can no longer return to the retailer any duff "W" stamped Dapol loco I purchase (and I've had several in the past - not so stamped of course) for refund or exchange. If this is correct, I am not pleased with the change as I live in California and it has been very convenient for me to simply return defective items to Hattons (which gets 90% of my custom) - which refund my return postage as well as send me a replacement at no charge. How Dapol's new arragement will affect its non-UK consumers needs to be explained.

Please note this warranty and offer and in addition to and do not affect your statutory rights.

Also, with regard to the replacement of defective items, I noticed the little parenthetical "where possible to do so." Unless Dapol will have real time stock information about all its items available to consumers contemplating returning an item, I think this is also a step backwards. Dapol is renowned for its small batches, but - for instance - were I to receive a poorly performing loco in a particulary livery or name I really want, I can see from Hatton's website its stock level and I can decide if Hattons has enough in stock to make an exchange practicable (given the shipping time back to the UK), or if I'd be better off fiddling with the loco to improve it instead to ensure I'd at least still have the desired livery or name rather than miss out. I would truly be suprised if Dapol still has stock of its initial batch of A4s 11 months after the release date! This concern of course can be made moot if Dapol will be willing to take off the body shells of returned locos that are in the consumer's desired livery and install them on a replacement chassis, but this has not been made clear. Can it please?

Up to 2 years ‘no quibble’ chassis exchange warranty!*

Looks clear enough to me - I read that as the Dapol agent will repair/replace the chassis in your loco body...

The service and spares agents will also, from this date, be able to service and repair out of warranty locomotives, and as such locomotive spares are being made available to them to be able to do so.

That for me is the key bit: making a larger/wider range of spares available to the repair agents...

Paul

Your Statutory Rights (under the Sale of Goods Act) are not affected as stated in the post.

But isn't excluding mechanism noise a "quibble"?

Hi Mike,

Got to be honest i dont know but will find out. It may be that Dapol's agents or Dapol will reimburse shipping costs from overseas but i'll check.

Hi O.A., The thing about noise is subjective, and in general customers with this problem dont lubricate or dont run in enough as the mechanisms do quieten down Although given a fair crack of the whip some dont . Also you'd be surprised at how many just cannot be bothered to push the drive shaft back into the loco after poor handling. We have to have something to protect us although if a loco continues to be excessively noisy then it's open to the customer and the service centre to agree on and not 'cast in stone' per se.

cheers

Dave

Having had a couple of tempremental locos from Dapol over the past couple of years which had put me off some models I shall now be casting my eye over the current and future Dapol range and writing up a birthday / christmas list in order to expand my fleet of locos.

Very impressed.

I was wondering if the £15 +p&p service was available for locos that pre-date the above anouncement?

Hi Blacksheep,

Yes the £15.00 per service is available to all models irrespective of age, however it wont cover spares or repairs, and believe it or not (as i get models sent back for this) , bad running due to dirty wheels and pickups!!!

You also dont get to qualify for the extra year on warranty as this is only for anything branded 'W'.

cheers

Dave

I appreciate the warranty changes with the W prefix on the model number (or however it works)

the loco that's giving most problems is an Ivatt that's been run in, cleaned and now quite tempremental, although given that I was last trying to run it on a layout that's under construction it may just need another clean.

What's the recommended way of cleaning Dapol's N gauge steam locos?

Will the spare parts be available to buy for those of us who wish to repair models ourselves? Particularly spares like motor brushes which should be easy for most of us to change ourselves when the need arises.

Cheers,

Alan

Hi Alan,

Spares will be available to purchase directly from DCC Supplies, and i know at the moment they are collating the list and prices ready for their website so that might take a few more days.

cheers

Dave

So what happens if a customer (Using their statutory rights) returns a model to the retailer for refund? do they than have to absorb the loss, do they send it to Dapol for a credit? it certainly won't be going for repair.

There will have to be some very clearly defined ways of working for stockists. The Retailer can't insist that they send the model to the Dapol approved agent if they want a refund.

Also, is Dapol still running the policy of voiding warranties if a DCC decoder is installed by someone other than the Dapol approved DCC installer?

Also you'd be surprised at how many just cannot be bothered to push the drive shaft back into the loco after poor handling.Dave

Forgive me, but you're assuming that ignorant customers like me even know what a "drive shaft" is. With apologies to everyone who will be astounded by my lack of even the most basic mechanical knowledge, it's not that I can't be "bothered" to do what you have described, it's that I have literally no idea what I'd need to do. The instruction sheets that come with models are, in my pathetic experience, worse than useless since they assume a degree of knowledge that I, at least, don't have. And that's before I think about the number of pieces of equipmenet I've broken for not, somehow, knowing the "correct" amount of force to apply. So it's a bit galling when the person trying to sell me things accuses me of not being "bothered".

I should add that I may be prejudiced since having previously had what I consider a bad experience with Dapol customer service (I bought the vacuum track cleaner thing; the flimsy plastic "tool" to remove the different heads snapped within about a week, Dapol's unehlpful response was to offer to sell me a bag containing loads of plastic bits I didn't want (but including the one thing I did) for, if I remember correctly, more than a tenner (ie, about 20% of the original purchase price). The cost to Dapol of the badly designed "tool" must have been pennies or even fractions)...

But I think the proof of all these things is in the doing. I have deliberately avoided buying anything by Dapol since my "bad" experience, though I've been hugely impressed by Dave's approach to designing their new Western. But in general I think things which are "no quibble" should probably not be caveated with "quibbles", let alone casting aspersions about whether or not customers can be "bothered".

Paul

Forgive me, but you're assuming that ignorant customers like me even know what a "drive shaft" is. With apologies to everyone who will be astounded by my lack of even the most basic mechanical knowledge, it's not that I can't be "bothered" to do what you have described, it's that I have literally no idea what I'd need to do. The instruction sheets that come with models are, in my pathetic experience, worse than useless since they assume a degree of knowledge that I, at least, don't have. And that's before I think about the number of pieces of equipmenet I've broken for not, somehow, knowing the "correct" amount of force to apply. So it's a bit galling when the person trying to sell me things accuses me of not being "bothered".

 

I recall having had to replace one, it's not the easiest task even with mechanical knowledge. Took over an hour in the end.

Hi Paul,

Sorry but i think your taking this a little too personally. i didnt say all, i did not mention yourself personally and i am not trying to sell you anything. It was a generality that maybe could have been phrased better.

Dave

So what happens if a customer (Using their statutory rights) returns a model to the retailer for refund? do they than have to absorb the loss, do they send it to Dapol for a credit? it certainly won't be going for repair.

 

There will have to be some very clearly defined ways of working for stockists. The Retailer can't insist that they send the model to the Dapol approved agent if they want a refund.

 

Also, is Dapol still running the policy of voiding warranties if a DCC decoder is installed by someone other than the Dapol approved DCC installer?

Hi Gareth,

If a customer wants a refund then it's status quo, you refund the customer then return the loco to Dapol. Dapol will then credit you for your outlay to Dapol.

Whilst i realise that a retailer cannot insist the model is sent to Dapol directly, it is an option that should 'if' the customer wishes help both them and you.

As for decoder fitting by non approved Dapol DCC installers (and i think we are really taking about hard wiring here rather than plug in, then yes. Warranty is void. This is because these models have not been designed to be converted and by doing so you have to dissassemble the loco to facilitate fitting. We do not recommend DCC installation in these locomotives and cannot warranty them if they have been converted no matter how competent the installer is.

After all, to use a loose analogy, fitting non standard parts into a car may work well, except when somethng goes wrong that affects the cars engine or ignition system.......the car may still be under it's warranty period, but will the manufacturer honour it due to the non standard part fitting proving to have caused either directly or indirectly the other fault?

cheers

Dave

Thanks, Dave, for your response.

Yes booking in by E-mail will be fine, please make sure you get a responce and save it just in case (as e-mails do go astray from time to time)

- This is good to know.

 

QC problems are the lowest its been ever for Dapol. less than 1% for the class 22 for instance so i cannot see how we can get better as there's a 'human element' in there that cannot be taken into account.

- I have no reason to doubt this. Unfortunately, until I received my Class 26 (which is brilliant), every Dapol loco I ever bought (a half dozen or so) had something wrong with it and had to be returned. I appreciate and understand others have had better luck that me.

 

Not sure why you wouldnt be pleased with direct access to the service/repair agent instead of therough a third party? Indeed Hattons have been insisting for a good few months now that customers send their faulty loco's directly to the manufacturer and not them! (please feel free to check on this). The service/repair agent will be quicker and with every 'W' labelled loco your also getting a 12 month warranty. Is that so wrong?

- Because I live overseas when something is wrong, paramount to me is the convenience, expense, speed and reliability of the service. While I've no doubt it would prefer customers to send their returns to the manufacturers, Hatton's has had a perfect track record of quickly exchanging any problematical items free of charge while refunding me my return postage costs. If Dapol can match that, I will have "no quibble" at all! :-) To be honest, while the warranty is nice to have (and I commend Dapol for backing up its products with it), in my experience one can tell if a loco is a good one or a bad one that will need to be exchanged within a matter of days after its received and as such I'd just as well return the bad ones it to the retailer. I've never had one go sour on me later if it ran well from new.

 

Sorry but i dont understand your body shell comment. The 'W' warranty is for chassis replacement on the whole loco, ergo you send the whole loco back to the service and spare agent. Have i read that wrongly?

- My apologies here as I did not understand the replacement was for just the chassis. The concern I was trying to express was what if a loco was sent back in, say 11 months after purchase, and by that time Dapol no longer had in stock the exact same loco so that any replacement would have to be made with the same class of loco but with a different livery. My misunderstanding moots the concern - if only the chassis is being replaced, then obviously the customer's original body will be fitted to the new chassis and returned to him.

Many thanks again for your quick reply.

Matt

Hi Matt,

No problem.

the ways its working at the moment is that we are finding our feet with this.....some comments made here (thank you all) have made us look at things again. However some things , like a supertanker, take time to change course. But for example, while not ideal, i can tell you that we currently have 25 chassis of the later build 26's and 25 chassis of the early build 26's for stock / replacement. This will give us an overall 'pool' of 50 chassis for replacements. The 26 now stands at 12 sent back because of faults, and 3 of those were easily repaired.

I'm not saying that 50 chassis will be enough, but the learning process will help us no end as we go along for each new model.

cheers

Dave

At the end of the day Dave, it's much more than a step in the right direction and I personally hope it's a smooth change for Dapol, possibly enough to snag the manufacturer of the year next time arround!

Hi Blacksheep,

Thanks for that. I have no doubts we will make mistakes, but we will listen.

cheers

Dave