PL Products now Aeroslave

[Gray E Fowler]

I am sure Lance will reply later, but me first. I would to say that Amir 
is the second funniest guy on the list. When I saw his post I first thought that Lance 
had gone beserk......giving answers to questions that are typically my 
type answers...thats when I realized it was Amir's post. Amir is now in 
official Aeroslave "Timeout"  and on double secret probation for bad 
behaviour. I will call you Amir when you can get out.....it may be a 
while.

Seriously....The questions are easy to answer, but the real answer is what 
happens when the real problems arrive. We are a garage shop, actually a 
FOUR (big time expansion) garage shop, depending on which parts you are 
talking about. As a  result we make kits in our FREE time. I have three 
kids and a wifey, all three play soccer which means 3 games on Saturday, 
two are in Basketball right now, and then there is this job here at the 
Salt Mine that kinda pays my real bills. Lance has a similar situation. We 
fly in as many contests as we can....how much free time do think we have?
Because of this, we usually have a 2-3 month backlog (right now it is 1 
month for the Symphony). We do not accept any money as a down payment. We 
saw this as a sore point with many flyers. We keep a list, and when Your 
plane is about ready to ship we then ask for payment. You can back out if 
the time frame was too long or you got something from someone else. We 
hate holding peoples money, which seems to be a standard practice. 
On shipping, we tried to keep the costs as low as possible. We came up 
with packing scheme that was low cost and shipped about 50 planes without 
incident.  Then we ship a Symphony to GA and the crush the crap outta the 
box. Man, that puts our deliveries behind! At that point we had to bump 
the time frame back on the next guy on the list and make a replacement 
plane. We made the replacement, shipped it to GA again and guess what! 
they crunched that one too! We made a third, put it in a kevelar box 
(actually I BLESSED that plane), switched from Fed EX to UPS, and it made 
it!  So when people wonder why we got behind, that was a major reason. The 
other guys on the Symphony list had to suffer because of the FedEx trash 
compactor truck, and our inability to manufacture planes by the hundreds.  


When someone loses a canopy or more likely crushes a chin cowl we have to 
take the canopy or chin cowl molds off line for kit production and make a 
replacement. What we try to do is find a good time to do this. Right now, 
since they crushed those two fuses, but not the other parts we have a 
spare, but you can see how hard it is just to have spares. If we ever get 
ahead of teh deliveries then we can make and stock spares.
On shipping we are going to a more expensive BOX to stop the gorillas. 
This cost we must pass on, but still, it is no where near the cost of 
getting a plane from our wonderful "allies" (sorry-thats a personal 
dislike and not an official Aeroslave policy). 
Our kits are also shipped with probably the most extensive instruction 
booklet in the industry. When people run into problems building either 
real or perceived they can call us. Lance especially spends alot of time 
on the phone talking people though the steps to build the kits. Most 
problems are perceived, some are not and the ones that are real we try our 
best to correct.
The complaint that showed up on the list about us just prior to Christmas 
was a guy who bought a plane had a real problem, which we fixed. He then 
says he had other problems, but failed to ever notify us. He saw us at 
several contests and never said anything. About a year and some months 
after getting the kit, and starting to build it, he posted his version of 
a flame email. I surmise that he expected us to take back his partially 
built kit because his "filler" did not stick. In this case, even though he 
still has NEVER asked for his money back, I would have to say no. This is 
our only case where we have someone who is obviously totally unsatisfied, 
that I am aware of.

Lance's earlier post stated our problems really well. The planes are 
expensive, and as a result, people expect the world, because they ARE 
paying a significant amount of money. People do expect the same type of 
service from Aeroslave that they get from some huge corporation. We really 
try to do the right things when problems arise. Lance and I are obvious 
idiots for doing this business. Pattern flyers are the toughest customers 
in the world. Just look at the majority of peoples gorgeous finshed 
airplanes. Do you think that they got that pretty and are so well taken 
care of by NOT being anal? Of course we know this going in. Think about it 
this way, the typical business will sell product at 3X their cost. This 
means a Symphony should cost $1500, which of course it does not.
Lance and I make enough money to pay for our personal pattern addiction, 
which is nice, but trust me I could make more money as a Butcher or mowing 
grass.

AND by the way....We have AIRES kits IN STOCK, sheeted and un sheeted 
wings. This is an excellent flying plane for any class.

So Mike...Did you lose a canopy? Use a spring loaded mechanism and do not 
fly over swamps......

Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering




"Mike Hester" <kerlock at comcast.net>
Sent by: discussion-request at nsrca.org
01/06/2005 10:38 PM
Please respond to discussion

 
        To:     <discussion at nsrca.org>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: PL Products now Aeroslave


Ok, but here's a good question or two Lance.
 
Let's say I have a Symphony. Oh crap I was doing knife edges over swampy 
Ga, forgot to tighten my canopy bolts (or whatever) and I lost the canopy! 
It's my only pattern plane, and the season is only 2 months from now. I 
call you. What response do I get?
 
That answer alone could be the difference between "Aeroslave is awesome" 
and "Aeroslave sucks". If the quality is there, that's great. From what 
I've seen it looks  like it is. But it doesn't end there. It only begins 
there.
 
If you sold a guy a wing panel sheeted, and it had the tube sockets 
installed, and god forbid it snapped a wing panel because....whatever 
reason, but lets say it's a very rare case of "oops". What is the 
response?
 
I know how you operate, because I have dealt with you personally before. 
You did the right things, even went above and beyond. THAT I can get 
behind and respect. I know that you've had good and bad experiences and 
reviews, it's part of it. But it's how you handle it that makes you or 
breaks you.
 
So answer the questions, enquiring minds want to know. You have the mic.
 
-Mike
 

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