I'm curious about other people's experiences with NCE. I bought a PowerCab 7 weeks ago. The manual was missing. I contacted NCE to request a printed manual, which they assured me would be in the mail in a couple of days. 3 e-mails and 7 weeks later, still no manual. They never even responded to the last e-mail. I was looking at buying their Intermountain N scale FT decoders, but now I'm very hesitant to do so if this is how they normally respond. Digitrax, even though more expensive, is looking to be a better option. Is what I'm experiencing unusual or are they frequently this unresponsive?
NCE have suffered a reduction in response time due to the main contact near killing himself falling off his second story roof whilst attempting repairing a hole above the layout in his attic some months ago. Larry is still not back full time at present. Most have better success calling directly rather than emailing, which has been the case for some time. So, Option 1 - contact the vendor you bought the PowerCab from. They should fix it, or if it was a private purchase, Option 2 - call NCE direct 585-265-0230 - the phone lines are open from 9AM to 4PM Eastern time, or Option 3 - The manuals are downloadable from the site. I had two A4 size copies printed and spiral bound from this download which proved better than the A5 original. I wouldn't consider changing decoder brands for this reason. My view is it's the vendor who is the first stop with faulty decoders. Those you blow up yourself will be replaced for a set fee plus handling by NCE themselves.
Ouch. I have had a few contacts with NCE over the years, partly because until recently there was no UK distributor, and they always dealt well with my queries. IIRC Larry was the name who responded, so I wish him a get well soon.
I had a bad Lenz decoder and used there "swap any brand decoder" service for $12, and I got a NCE D13SRJ for it in about a weeks time. I have also had a bad D13SRJ, my fault, they replaced it in about the same time also.
Between your answer and some PM's I received, it appears NCE usually has excellent support. Most people have suggested calling them, which I'll do. Thanks mods for not deleting this. The hope was finding out whether or not my issue was unusual, which it appears is the case. So I won't give up on them yet, but will call and talk to them.
