Walthers Track Bumpers (933-3511)

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I

ianacole

Well-Known Member
I sent this email to Walthers this morning:

Over the weekend I received product #933-3511 (Cornerstone Series Track Bumpers) which I had purchased through a retailer on eBay. Unfortunately, I must say that I am quite disappointed in the product as it does not look like product pictures included in the packaging. Specifically, the forward support is not flat nor do the main support look like I-beams as is pictured on the package. The completed unit looks nothing like the photos on the packaging.

While I understand there is no recourse through Walthers as I purchased the product through eBay, this misrepresentation of the product on the part of Walthers severely disappoints me. I have built numerous Walthers products with great satisfaction, but this experience gives me reason to pause when looking at future products.

Sincerely,

Ian A. Cole
Click to expand...

The website image has been changed to:
09330000003511.gif


Here is an completed (unpainted) example of the kit:
358v4ms.jpg
 
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perhaps it is painted to look like I beam.
with that why buy this? get two pieces of rail for the main supports and a strip of styrene or aluminum (pop can) for the flat pieces. epoxy it together and carve/file the centerpiece out of that epoxi blob with needdle files.
 


tankist said:
perhaps it is painted to look like I beam.
with that why buy this? get two pieces of rail for the main supports and a strip of styrene or aluminum (pop can) for the flat pieces. epoxy it together and carve/file the centerpiece out of that epoxi blob with needdle files.
Click to expand...

Effort vs. cost ... at $13 for 12 pieces delivered, assuming the product is something I'd put on my layout, the value proposition is definitely in favor of buy vs. build, at least in my book ;)
 
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ianacole said:
Effort vs. cost ... at $13 for 12 pieces delivered, assuming the product is something I'd put on my layout, the value proposition is definitely in favor of buy vs. build, at least in my book ;)
Click to expand...
then there is no reason to complain ;) :rolleyes:
 
The Walthers bumpers break real easy. Especially if your car hits it to hard. It will break off.
I've removed almost all of them off my layout & plan on building my own out of scrap rail.
A little bending & soldering will make a lot stronger bumper.
 
Thanks Larry - I'm unfortunately learning that this isn't the product I had hoped it was. These won't be seeing any time on my layout.

I've updated the original post with a picture of a completed kit item.
 


ouch, that must have been some crappy run... still probably can be salvaged by filing it thinner. or how about paint this into old wood ties? in either case i would be disappointed as well.
 
Ian, I don't blame you for being disappointed. The contents of a kit should have some reasonable agreement with what's shown on the box or packaging. That bumper bears no resemblance to the picture. I'll be interested to hear if you get a response from Walthers.
 
Walther's don't care about the product looking like crap,
or fitting the way it should. The same thing happened to
me with a N scale rolling mill the floor pads were warped and
bent. I e-mailed Walther's a pic of the problem and asked what
they could do about it along with the invoice from THEM
About 3 days later i got a reply stating that they know about
the warped floor and sorry for the inconvenience
 
While I don't really expect anything other than an "oh, sorry" from Walthers, I will definitely keep this thread updated. My primary goal with this thread is to let anyone that is looking at this product know that what you see is definitily not what you get.

Anton - I like that idea. Old wood ties may look perfect.
 
You are right, it sure doesn't look like the picture on the box.

At least you didn't spend a whole lot of money on them. Now if it was a $200 loco it would be a different story.
 
QUOTE: "The Walthers bumpers break real easy. Especially if your car hits it to hard."


Thanks for the warning. I think I'll build my own now. They need to function or what's the point - other than "looks good". And they seem to fail there too.
 
Not surprisingly:

Walthers Rep said:
Ian, I can understand your disappointment in receiving a product that you feeldoes not meet your expectations of the advertized product. As you are awarethat there is no recourse for item sold through Ebay auction you must surelybe aware that authorized Walthers dealers are not allowed to sell at Ebayauction. We cannot take responsibility for any product sold through anunauthorized source. The distinct possibility exists that it was not evenour product that was sent to you but rather someone else's product that wassold as ours. I would suggest that you contact the seller and ask for arefund or some other recourse if you are unhappy with the product. As afrequent user of Ebay myself I know that are avenues for recourse throughEbay. I would suggest that you pursue this course of action and be very waryand ask questions of the seller if need be (including asking for a productguarantee) whenever you are bidding on items sold through an online auctionin the future.

Randy
Wm. K. Walthers
Parts & Warranty Dept.
Click to expand...
 
My reply:

Ian's Response said:
Thank you for your reply Randy. For reference, I've attached a photo that I took of a completed track bumper with the packaging image behind it. Are you able to confirm that this is indeed what the current run of product #933-3511 looks like, or does it look like the photo included in the product description on the Walther's site.

To further clarify, what I understand your email to say, is that there is a distinct possibility that the product I received was a repackaged non-Walthers product. I'd refute this statement as I was at my local hobby shop today (Caboose Hobbies in Denver, CO), and found that they have this very same product in their inventory and looked exactly like the package I received from the ebay seller. Is your email stating that if I were to order this product directly from Walthers it would look like the image displayed on the website page for the product discription?

This is not a failing of the ebay seller, this is a material misrepresentation of the product on the part of Walthers. Having built a number of Cornerstone kits, I understand that there is a significant level of modeling skill and additional products to accurately represent the images as their appear on the package, but this can be accomplished by someone willing to invest the time and effort. However, no matter of effort would transform the product #933-3511 as delivered into what is portrayed on the package and the website.

At a minimum, I think a disclaimer should be placed on the websites product page identifying that the images are not representative of the actual product.

Thank you,

Ian A. Cole
Click to expand...

Attachment was the completed kit from the first post of this thread...
 


Interesting. Did you open the package while you're at Caboose? Maybe if you tell them that you want to inspect it to make sure it's what you want, then they should open the package for you.

Just a thought.

No support from Walthers. I guess that's the risk you take when purchasing on ebay.
 
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