AMS-Flight - Unethical and Unprofessional Business Practices

Time for an update but first a summary:

Case 1:
February 2009 – Ordered and paid for a canopy gas strut modification for a DG-505 and a tail skid for an LS4 (€639).
November 19, 2010 – Ales sends e-mail to customer stating “Can you inform the gliding club that we will finally send them ordered parts. Inside the coming December.”
February 2011 – Still no delivery after 24 months!!!!

Case 2:
May 2010 – Left and right ailerons and aluminium pushrod ordered and paid for LS4-B (€4785). Delivery terms 4-5 weeks.
May to October 2010 – Many e-mails requesting update and status.
February 2011 – Still no delivery after 9 months, numerous e-mails, and childish taunts from Ales (November 2010) that they are built but he will not deliver due to going public.

My Case:
January 2010 – Horizontal stabiliser for LS3 ordered and paid for (€3165). Delivery terms 3-4 weeks.
March 2010 – Ales supposedly builds an horizontal stabiliser for an LS4.
June 2010 – Final agreement by Ales to refund my money.
June to August 2010 – Numerous unanswered e-mails requesting return of my money
August 2010 – first forum posting made in the hope of getting Ales’ attention. A small success!
October 2010 – initiated forum thread with full details and found other people who had been ripped-off (see two of these cases above).
December 2010 – Ales advises that court proceedings will be required to recover my money and that no further correspondence will be accepted.
February 2011 – Still no refund


So here you have three examples of how AMS-Flight and Ales Cebavs in particular treats his customers with complete contempt and disregard. There are more. His last excuse for the delays was the effort in moving his factory and office and yet again, he has not followed through on his commitments to deliver old orders. What is his excuse now?

I have current information that Ales is a ‘one man band’ with no employees. This has been the situation since his office move. How he expects to run his business, build his Carat orders, support his Carat customer base, manufacture LS parts, or supply anything else is a mystery. DG Flugzeugbau no longer does business with AMS-Flight so I would say that the LS side of his business has dried up. In spite of this, I would bet that he continues to take orders and money from people.

I would strongly suggest that you do not do business directly with AMS-Flight and Ales Cebavs in particular. Go through a dealer if you must and do not provide any funds up front that are accessible to either AMS-Flight or Ales. There are options when doing bank transfers where the bank will not release the funds to the target account until given the approval. If Ales does not accept these terms then take your business elsewhere.

This story is not over yet…