At this time, we must inform you that if you placed an order for the Aurora Miniature HO SD60F locomotive, you will not be receiving it from PWRS.

As many of you are aware, Aurora Miniatures scheduled their release of the HO SD60F in the US about a week prior to the Canadian release.  As soon as the locomotives were delivered to US dealers, we began hearing comments as to their reliability, customers in the US were posting their complaints on social media regarding a drive train issue.  

Aurora also posted a note saying they were aware of the problem, were unsure how it could be fixed, but they would find a solution and the next run of engines would function properly. Understand, this is not an issue of esthetics, it is a serious problem regarding how the engine performs on the track.

On the morning of January 13th, emails went back and forth between Credit Valley Railway, a store in Southern Ontario, and Aurora Miniatures.  The first email was sent by Credit Valley asking Aurora about the reliability of their engines. We, and other Canadian stores, were sent a copy of the email Credit Valley sent. In the email, they told Aurora that they could not accept the delivery of engines that had a design flaw.

The reply from Aurora was immediate.  It said that they were trying to determine the cause of the problem but correcting it would take time.

A few minutes later Credit Valley replied asking Aurora to delay shipment of the engines they had on order until they were able to ensure their reliability.  Credit Valley's email explained to Aurora that the store, and their customers, should not be the ones testing the engines to determine which units were faulty. Credit Valley also pointed out that if Aurora fixed the problem prior to shipping them to the stores, they would not have to incur the cost of either replacing the engines or refunding the customers when the locomotives were returned to them.

And again, Aurora swiftly replied back.  They demanded Credit Valley accept delivery the of the engines "as is" or else their order would be cancelled and the units sent to other stores.

The following day, January 14th, we at PWRS, sent an email similar to Credit Valley's asking Aurora to not ship the engines until the design issue had been addressed and corrected.  In our email we also asked Aurora what percent of the engines were having an issue, the normal acceptable limit in manufacturing is 2% or less.  Aurora did not respond.

Four weeks went by before we sent another email to Aurora asking if they had an update on the locomotives. They replied on February 10th telling us that there were not enough models to go around so they sold those we had ordered to other stores willing to accept delivery regardless of the existing problem.

Credit Valley is a reputable Canadian dealer and although they are one of our competitors, we cannot sit by idly watching a new manufacturer bully that store, or any store, into accepting engines that the manufacturer admits have a serious design flaw.  That is why, to clear up any misconception our customers may have, we feel it necessary to let you know what has actually transpired between Aurora and its dealers and recognize there was nothing Credit Valley, PWRS, or any dealer did to cause Aurora to arbitrarily cancel orders.  Aurora Miniatures cancelled the orders simply because we questioned them after reading their own comments on social media and listening to customers in the US, who had already received their engines, complain about a running problem.   

As dealers, we believe in ethical business practices.  We will not force a product with a manufacturing defect onto our customers or threaten them, in any way, to accept an item that we know is defective.  And we will not carry a product just because the manufacturer demands that we do so.

Customers need to know that if we, as dealers, take delivery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in defective merchandise which we could not, in good conscience, sell, nor would be allowed to return to the manufacturer for a refund, we would effectively go out of business.  We cannot be expected to pay for the mistakes of a manufacturer and neither should you.

In the nearly twenty five years we have been in business, never have we seen the kind of tactics Aurora has employed to move its product.

Below you will find the last email sent to Aurora Miniatures by PWRS.

Thank you,

PWRS

 

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Feb 14th 2023