Buying Junk from Aircraft Spruce --- Or Putting Money Down a Rathole

1. If you buy something defective from ACS, watch out. That 1-year
warranty on a Mitchell cylinder head temperature gauge is worthless as the
teats on a boar hog. Run-around time today: 45 minutes wasted. Their
customer service manager, Carolyn Lyon, in Atlanta will put you on hold and
leave you there.

2. Their alternative trick is to send you to the manufacturer for handling
the piece of junk you've paid good folding money for. But your purchase
contract is not with the manufacturer; it's with Aircraft Spruce.

3. Buyer bewa Mitchell cylinder head temperature gauge. I spent an
hour installing it to monitor one new Superior cylinder out of six and the
needle wouldn't even rise off the peg. And yes, I've installed these
before, quite a few of them. Some are good, some rotten. This one was
rotten.

4. Buyer bewa buying something like this from Spruce if it is
defective is like putting money down a rathole. They will squirm like the
devil to get out of paying your money back.

5. If you're tempted to buy anything more complicated than nuts and bolts
from Spruce, don't say you weren't warned when you get screwed.

And by the way, at our chapter breakfast last Saturday, our chapter news
editor, good friend, and A&P (who is building his 4th aircraft) announced
that he recently ordered 4130 steel plate (that's chrome molybdenum steel
alloy) from Aircraft Spruce as shown in their catalog, and instead received
a crappy plate of soft carbon steel, with 60% of the bearing strength of
chromoly. So don't just take it from me these are shady characters.

Then another dissatisfied customer popped up at the table, then another ...