Vendor Questions

[Jason L]

Wanted to get the opinion and experience of the crowd.  Up until this hobby I've never really purchased anything from overseas.  At the end of March I purchased several panels (MIP, Overhead, etc) from flightsimulatorparts.com  I'd seen feedback from people here and on some facebook groups that were positive.  After purchase I got good feedback from them on the process.  It was stated it would take 4 to 6 weeks for everything to be made.  About two and a half weeks ago my order got marked complete, and I haven't heard anything since then.  I've e-mailed them multiple times.  Am I over reacting?  Does stuff standard shipped from the UK take longer than two and a half weeks to get to the states?

Also, I purchased a few items from GLB Products (geremy.co.uk).  One item was out of stock.  They had issues with a supplier.  Then I was told the issues were resolved and they would be shipping out on either the 5th or 6th.  I have yet to get an update and again, another vendor who isn't responding back.

Help!! I dropped over 2k USD between the two and went off others experiences and now I'm starting to freak out a bit.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi Jason, as a vendor myself! Sometimes it is really hard to stick to a deadline, external forces always play a part. I have had let downs with material suppliers, machine failures and family commitments that have made me miss delivery times, it happens. I have posted a $300 item that went missing in the mail and had to remake it, another $1,500 custom throttle did a six week tour of the middle east before it finally arrived for my customer in Kuwait. I am not fulltime at Aerosim Solutions so I have to be careful and very choosey about which orders I accept, I have been at the point of throwing the towel in with it because sometimes the workload is overwhelming. I come home from work, straight into my workshop for another 4 to 5 hours producing sim parts. I removed the contact page from my website because of being overrun with requests, obviously if it was my only income this would be wonderful but my business is an extension of my hobby which feeds my hobby! The word of mouth and my established good reputation keeps the orders coming from a growing number of regular customers. There's also the issue of keeping the missus happy, I can't be in the workshop everyday, unless Masterchef is on of course lol!. In reality most vendors are like me and it easy to get behind on orders, there are only a handful of fulltime vendors. For this reason, I don't accept deposits on small orders under $500. This way I am not holding people's money and disappointments are extremely rare.
I'm not really sure about Flightsimulatorparts.com, I don't know them but Geremy is a good guy and a fellow forum moderator so I doubt very much that you will be let down by GLB!
All the best, Gwyn!

[blueskydriver]

Hey Jason,

You shouldn't worry to much as things do take time and like Gwyn says, sometimes orders do not always go as planned...

I would suggest you email both vendors again and ask for status updates, as well as any problems they're having with completing your order. Try to see this as you're asking them with the understanding that things do go wrong. In other words, there are some folks who get angry when the ship date is not met and that only makes the problem worse when they email the vendor with that some anger.

Also, I suggest to anyone that they always/only use PayPal when making purchases from vendors. Thus, if the vendor fails to delivery, the customer has a recourse to get their money back. I suggest that you do not use bank to bank transfer unless you 1000% trust that vendor. Not being bias, but the only vendor I trust like that is FDS.

Still, hang in there, as you'll likely get an answer soon...

John

[Jason L]

Stuff from Geremy finally shipped, so I'm excited about that.  Still no word from flightsimulatorparts.com however.  Ugh.

[blueskydriver]

Hey Jason,

That is some good news and hopefully the other vendor will come through for you...

John

[Jason L]

So quick update.  Geremy's stuff has finally shipped.  Got the tracking info too which is exciting.  Finally heard back from flightsimulatorparts.com too.  Supposedly I'm in a 'remote location' and it is going to now cost me another $20 to get it shipped.  Said it went into their spam folder by accident and they just found it now.  Not overly convinced, but will see what happens in the next few days.

[Jason L]

And finally tracking info from flightsimulatorparts.com too.  Good Grief I might actually get to start wiring stuff this month!!!

[blueskydriver]

Hey Jason,

AWESOME! We're happy for you that the items are now heading your way! I know it would've been better for you to have gotten them quicker, but that is one of the drawbacks of flight simulation...non stockage of items by vendors.

Post some pics once you get the items...

John

[Jason L]

Will do.  I was expecting it to take a while...just didn't think it would take 2+ months!

[Trevor Hale]

Jason,

2 months is actually short compared to others...  Glad your parts are on the way.

Trev