Complaints about Churchgoer Jim Irwin and Aircraft Spruce --- Just the Tip of the Iceberg--- They Go On and On and On

I got tired of being on hold with Aircraft Spruce so I calle*d Wicks.
Wonder of wonders, a live person picked up the phone on the *second
ring! I will never deal with AS again unless it is absolute*ly
necessary.
Scott


I sent them a complaint and eventually got a response. Inst*ead of just
admitting to anything they tried to turn it arround and tell* me it was
my fault that they never called back or shipped my faxed ord*er, etc.
Not a great way to warm up to the customer.



Now, for the fun, I called the customer service line at 3:3*0 PM
Pacific
Time, and was told that if it was between 7 AM and 4 PM, cu*stomer
service
would help me shortly, or so the recording repeatedly goes.*.....
At 4 PM I decided they weren't going to help me shortly....*It appears
that
Aircraft Spruce doesn't answer the phones between 3:30 and *4:00 pm on
Friday....Especially when it's my nickel from Massachusetts* to
California...half hour holding pattern ..... then give up a*nd
divert


I can assure this [bad] experience, but by not quoting a wrong pri*ce. There
are
several automatic circuit breakers in their catalouge. I ord*ered the Klixon
type ones with long button. I received of a order of 10 7 as* long button
type and 3 of them as short button typ, which were useless, *since I have to
operate most time with gloves. So I send the useless ones ba*ck and
requested
to exchgange them. I shortly after received a new shippment *containing one
long button and again two short button circuit breakers. - I* have no idea
why !? - because they have a different stock number. I compl*aint at them
with no response. Time had gone by and I need the parts for* test flying so
had to built them in.
Since I live in Europe I have alsway exchange rate and VAT o*n top. This
wouln't cause any problem, but I'm a homebuilder and not a c*ompany. This
means all VAT plus shipping cost lost for exchanging them.
Christian
P.S.: It might be wrong to blame them, but I think everybody* should know
what's going on in the scene.



I asked for a price on some dzus fasteners last September fr*om Aircraft
Spruce and Specialty in CA. In response I received a written* quote by fax
from them of 0.20 each. I needed 40 of these so ordered them*, and paid by
giving them my Mastercard number. When they arrived I took t*hem out of the
packet and used them. Later when checking the invoice, I fou*nd that they
had charged me $2.10 each instead of their quoted price of 0*.20 each. This
amounted to an overcharge of US$76.00.
I'm from Australia so this amounts to approx $125.00 in Aust*ralian dollars
due to the exchange rate at the time the order was placed. A*fter repeated
requests to them to refund the balance, I have only now rece*ived a response
which basically stated I should have known that the quote mu*st have been an
error because it was too cheap,
[To be fair to Spruce, later, after several exchanges in usenet, Spruce
refunded the overcharge.]


If you search DejaNews and compare the number of folks
posting that have had a "less than satisfactory" experience *with
Aircraft Spruce, I think you'll find they out-number the "ha*ppy
customer" posts. Are all these people that posted negativel*y just
folks that like to complain? If I were a betting man, I'd b*et not....
FWIW, I've ordered stuff from A/S before and was happy with
the service/prices. This time I wasn't so I posted my
dis-satisfaction. Sorry to all for sharing my point of view*....





In a thread discussing a multitude of grievances with Aircraft Spruce:

If you **** a customer off, he will tell, on average, 11 of *his friends,
neighbors, and absolute strangers.
If you provide him exemplary service and cater to his every *need, he will
tell 2.
Here endeth the marketing lesson for the day.
:-)




My experence with AS&S FWIW is about 75% of the time the ord*er is
correct and on time. The other 25%......#@%&&*&*&^!!!?!
Ric Lee



If anyone has a telephone number or a URL address for Wicks,* please reply
with
it. I have had enough of AS&S.
ocbb


Subject: Been ripped by AS&S deceptive freight pricing???

On a recent shipment AS&S charged $55 for a shipment that sh*ould have cost
approx $31-35 according to UPS. AS&S can't explain the charg*es nor admit
they are wrong. I suppose they feel UPS is mistaken.
Anyone else experience this deception?
RD, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

I am considering action against such deception and I si*ncerely wanted
to know how extensive is this practice by AS&S. Unfortunatel*y, I have not
saved the shipping details from the thousands of dollars I h*ave spent with
AS&S and aside from the recent incident, have no data of my *own to
determine
the past history of the dishonesty. I am sorry it does not m*eet with your
approval....... No, not really.


Juan E Jimenez"wrote in messag*e

As to the $55 for a $31-$35 shipment, I doubt very much th*ey would not be
able to explain the charges. That is not the way Jim Irwin* runs his
business. There must be something else not disclosed here.

Not how Jim Irwin runs his business, now there's a laugh. Ji*m Irwin was by
no stretch of the imagination the pinnicle of customer suppo*rt. It is
fortunately that AS&S has better people in those roles. It* was Jim who
countered legitimate complaints about AS&S here in the past *by disclosing
people's personal information on the group in an attempt to *publicly
humiliate
them into not telling the truth about his company.
ASS certainly has done dunderheaded customer service things *in the past
like quibble over credits that were under $5. In the past *they would simply
backorder things forever because the "computers" said it was* in the
wearhouse
but the order pullers couldn't find it and nobody would do a*nything to
resolve
the issue without a bunch of complaints. They also would r*efuse to take
order inquiries or other issues over the 800 numbers.