Kato japan parts from kato usa

[cteno4]

Last JRM she my m250 got stuck on a point and shorted. Before anyone noticed or the power pack breaker kicked in both trucks of the power unit melted down... Contacted all the usual sources in japan and no joy for the part. Katousq has said they can order kato japn parts, especially for kato japan trains that they have brought over to the us, so I decided to give them a whirl to see what the scoop is. Called them up and they asked for a fax or email of the kato instruction sheet for the train with the needed parts circled. Did this and it took about 3-4 weeks to get a response that came last week. It said $24 for the part that I knew was more like $18 and $6 shipping and to call in to pay for it. When I called in I got a guy on the phone with a very thick Japanese accent that seemed to not understand much English. At first i thought I had run up japan thru illinois. He handed me off to a lady with a heavy japanese accent but that understood English well and found my order and nicely told me the part was only $18! Actual kato price turned out to be 1440 yen so $18 was good. The $6 shipping for a tiny part that was $1 first class was a bit of a bummer, but I got the part with a minimum of fuss so I'm reasonably happy with the experiment and I'll have the m250 running this weekend!

Cheers

Jeff

[KenS]

That's very good news on the M250, and useful to know that Kato can order parts like that.

[Webskipper]

The $6 shipping for a tiny part that was $1 first class was a bit of a bummer

Yeah, $6 is the minimum shipping for them. They did the same to me for some coupler springs.

[cteno4]

Yeah, $6 is the minimum shipping for them. They did the same to me for some coupler springs.

good to know, and i do realize it takes them time to do the processing etc, but its a direct part (ie they get all the profit) and its supporting their own product so i dont see why they dont drop that down to like $2-3, where psychologically i would think hey nice/fair of them rather than $6 which (especially for a tiny part) makes you grumble. also at $18 for my part they made a good profit with no middle man. of course inventorying a lot of parts is costly, but not as bad for the manufacturer (they can easily do overruns) and part of the cost of doing business with anything with a lot of parts that can break to keep your customers happy!

i was just glad to see they are back to supporting parts for the kato japan stuff as in the past they have cycled in and out of doing this for the kato japan stuff they sold in the us and that really pissed off folks in the us who bought stuff thru katousa distributors when they did not support any parts.

cheers

jeff