# Wow! Walthers responds to customers with Sarcasm



## DJ Iron Mike (Jan 17, 2011)

I wrote to the Walthers company requesting information on some cover plates for their 86' cryogenic refer cars. I was having some problems with the cover plates on the coupler pockets and someone from Walthers wrote me back. The tone is his message was made to sound as if I was stupid or something. The person told me that seeing how these units have not been released yet, how could I possibly be having problems with them? I promptly responded back telling him that this is not the first time that Walthers has released these, they are not the first run of them and I included photos of my units. To my knowledge Walthers is the only ones that ever released these units and I even still have the boxes. I don't know but giving me flack as opposed to customer service makes me wonder if they really have the right people working in their customer service dept. I found their response condescending and lack of follow up to very unprofessional on their part. As a consumer I believe that I deserve the best customer service a person should have. Walthers has not responded to me to follow up yet. I offered to pay for the parts as I needed 8 of them, 2 for each of my units. 
What I don't understand is that why as a paying customer, I would be treated with sarcasm? I felt that it was a legitimate request.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

Judging from the caliber of people that I see coming to work in the plant where I am employed, the quality of the American work force is on a rapid downhill slide.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's pretty disappointing, sadly it seems about par for the course for many companies.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

I've found that the worse the economy gets, the better service gets, because the customer is not taken for granted as much as in good times. 

You should see my bank... greeters at the door, free bottles of water, lemonade, cappucino machine, candy suckers. Pretty soon they'll be serving all you can eat buffet! :laugh: 

It makes me wonder *what *is scaring them? I'm a long time customer of the same bank, and have always thought their normal service was just great.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

probably just got a new kid. hope you didnt get too cranky at them in your reply.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

Bachmann has poor service two. All I can get from them is an auto reply. The Spectrum warenty is useless when they refused to reply to email and do not answer their own phone.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I've had great luck with Walther's Customer Service. I've asked numerous questions of them and have always received some kind ofan adequate reply within a week. They've never been rude or condescending.


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## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

I am surprised that you ran into such a response. My experience has been positive.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

I suggest you write a letter (with clear explanations) directly to Phil Walthers and/or Stacey Walthers Naffah, and ask for their direct response.


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

WOW!!!!! YIKES!!! If I had been that guys manager he would have been out the door for that! I don't play when I worked in the customer service industry for Apple computers I made sure all our CS was top notch at our place!!




DJ Iron Mike said:


> I wrote to the Walthers company requesting information on some cover plates for their 86' cryogenic refer cars. I was having some problems with the cover plates on the coupler pockets and someone from Walthers wrote me back. The tone is his message was made to sound as if I was stupid or something. The person told me that seeing how these units have not been released yet, how could I possibly be having problems with them? I promptly responded back telling him that this is not the first time that Walthers has released these, they are not the first run of them and I included photos of my units. To my knowledge Walthers is the only ones that ever released these units and I even still have the boxes. I don't know but giving me flack as opposed to customer service makes me wonder if they really have the right people working in their customer service dept. I found their response condescending and lack of follow up to very unprofessional on their part. As a consumer I believe that I deserve the best customer service a person should have. Walthers has not responded to me to follow up yet. I offered to pay for the parts as I needed 8 of them, 2 for each of my units.
> What I don't understand is that why as a paying customer, I would be treated with sarcasm? I felt that it was a legitimate request.


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## DJ Iron Mike (Jan 17, 2011)

I sent this:
[q] I am having a problem with the drawbar/coupler pockets on a couple of
refridgerated box cars that are Walthers branded units 932-60903 The
pocket covers are causing me issues and I am having trouble getting
them to stay on. I need to replace them with new ones. I don't want
to replace the whole units, just these covers that go over the
drawbars on these things. I am needing about 8 of these things to
make the Kadee # 5's work. Please tell me what I need to do to make
this happen. -[/q]

this was the response:

[q]These cars are on advanced reservation status as newly announced items and
we have not even gotten a shipment of them in stock as yet. How could you be
having a problem with parts for this car?[/q]

Did I read this wrong?

I responded with this: [q]This is not the first time that Walthers has released these cars. Walthers has released these cars before and I have 4 different types of them bearing the names "Simplot" "McCain Articar" and "Cryotrans". Many of these cars were in production in the late 1990's I believe that production was halted and then picked back up again. The ones you speak of are not new, just re-released. I can include pictures and unit numbers if you like including part numbers. I still have the boxes and everything. I would like to obtain these cover plates if you have them. These are HO scale 86' cryogenic refers manufactured by the Wm K. Walthers Corporation. If you would have these I would like to even pay for them. These are very decent units and I would like very much to keep them operating. These units have a difficult time keeping these cover plates in place. They have to be glued. 
Included are a few pictures of them on my club's layout at the Greenberg Show this past January. [/q]

I sent the pictures and everything, and have not even got a follow up. Last message was sent 8-13-12 the first message was sent the day before. All I wanted was some car parts and was willing to pay for them. Simple request.


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## Midnight85 (Jun 2, 2012)

It never ceases to amaze me, these young people today cannot get it through their heads that we, the customer, are the reason they have a job. Our phone calls, no matter what the subject is job security for them. I would be all over upper management until I got a direct answer from one of them.


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

Sad to say, but the service industry has forgotten why they're even there. I'll give them a clue "service" they should be thankful they have a job and do whatever it takes to keep it. 

Carl


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

From Walther's Website

_Contact our Customer Service Department at 1-800-4-TRAINS (1-800-487-2467). Because they're real people who have to go home at night, our Customer Service reps are available Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, Central Time. If you're calling internationally, please call 414-527-0770._

Talk to the service rep and calmly explain what happened and offer to forward the entire email chain to them. Tell them that you'd just like to get your cars back into service. I bet the person you talk to on the phone takes care of it.


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## Midnight85 (Jun 2, 2012)

Obviously the OP called at a time the "Customer Service reps" were available but he still got the answer he did. I stand by my response above.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

DJ Iron Mike said:


> this was the response:
> 
> [q]These cars are on advanced reservation status as newly announced items and
> we have not even gotten a shipment of them in stock as yet. How could you be
> ...


I'd say yes, you might be reading more into it. That's not as harsh as you first indicated, in my opinion. I think the rep asking for clarifying info, though I'll agree that the choice of wording is poor. I don't see intentional sarcasm in his response.

See how the follow-on response goes ... assuming that happens promptly.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Midnight85 said:


> Obviously the OP called at a time the "Customer Service reps" were available but he still got the answer he did. I stand by my response above.


I don't pass judgement so quickly. In any job there are a large variety of skill levels in the people doing the work.

In your response you say "young people" I didn't see where the age of the Cust Serv rep was stated.

I doubt that every person in Walther's Customer Service knows every single product they've ever sold. They made a simple mistake. Could they have worded their email better? Certainly, but it's also hard to convey tone/intent via email (hence why I recommended a verbal contact)

All I can see as fact is that an error was made (a pretty small one) and they haven't yet replied to the OP's clarification email.

I stand by my response above. 

People get uptight over the TINIEST things these days.


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

DJ Iron Mike said:


> this was the response:
> 
> [q]These cars are on advanced reservation status as newly announced items and we have not even gotten a shipment of them in stock as yet. How could you be having a problem with parts for this car?[/q]
> 
> Did I read this wrong?


Short answer, possibly. Now in truth, their correct response *SHOULD* have been more like "These cars are on advanced reservation status as newly announced items and I'm going to look in to this further. We will contact you shortly with further information." A response like that does 2 things 1) lets the customer see they're important and (most importantly) 2) allows for a proper response. This part "we have not even gotten a shipment of them in stock as yet" should never happen period. It shows a clear lack of training, had that been a phone call and not an e-mail, it'd be forgivable. "How could you be having a problem with parts for this car?" that line all by itself shows a lack of product knowledge or even a reasonable search. They saw only "advanced reservation status" and stopped as if they did not exist prior to that date. That confusion is why Lionel changed part #'s on re-issues, perhaps they need to as well.

I may be being a bit critical, but some (myself included) look at that type of response as if it's saying "you're an idiot who can't possibly know what you're talking about" yes, that's a bit of an exaggeration but the point remains. 

Scott, I can agree with this comment "People get uptight over the TINIEST things these days" as I've been on both sides of it too many times. After spending 30 some years dealing with people I've seen all kinds. As a general rule everyone wants everything done yesterday and at prices from 1512 on top of it.


Carl


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## jjb727 (Apr 13, 2012)

And I noticed they don't always take your suggestions seriously enough. I've seen many people post suggestions on their facebook page and all they get all the time is "we'll forward this to our superiors" or some stuff like that (but they never give us feedback -___-). I'm starting to turn to athearn or bachmann for trains (not Broadway limited or MTH because they are out of my budget).


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## Mrs.NIMT (Aug 17, 2012)

I would call them for a follow up. Given that in this day in age everything is electronic, text messaging, email etc... I personally don't like "typed" customer service because you can infer the tone of their written words differently - just as you have seen from the variety of responses. In the world of customer service, "perception is reality".

When in doubt and still in need of a good response... I would call and speak to someone! And as a final note, I would share your experience (feedback) with a supervisor at Walthers. How else can they improve what they are doing?!

Good luck!!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Another point about email responses, many times they're "canned" responses, not even original text from the originator.  They just pick them from a list. I don't know about this particular response, it seems a bit more personalized...


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