What's the deal with poor customer service in aviation maintenance?

rframe

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I've recently had contact with several aircraft owners who've gotten annual inspections done all with different shops and IA's in the area. In every case, the aircraft owner has had to repeatedly follow up, ask for updates with no returned phone calls, and got their airplane back later than is reasonable... is this a local phenomena or is there some inherent lack of basic courtesy and customer service skills in the aviation maintenance industry?
 
Sorry to hear. I liked Jay but he's not around anymore. The only guy I can really recommend is Matt at Deer Park. The state of GA in this area is really sort of amazing. The economy isn't THAT bad. There are really no legit places to rent small planes in the 3rd largest town in WA state. I still like the guy doing my annual but it's a special case. It's supply/demand. Just not enough going on around here to attract anything better. I'll be doing my annuals down in Cali from now on. I know a good guy down there and it works for me to go south for the winter.

I feel for you. I once did something similar to your operation and I found an A and P willing to trade wrenching for flying. It was a great deal for me. He did 100/hrs and an overhaul. He went far enough with his flying that he's a 737 F/O at US Airways now. Go figure...
 
Alpine Aviation is a new company here, three mechanics that were out of work since Executive Flight downsized. Great service....but a little far to go. They travelled to Othello recently to do an overhaul on a 206.
 
I ended up using Heli-Prop in Coeur d'Alene and in the end I was very happy with their service, labor estimates were right on, they gave me some spare serviceable parts they had on hand for free so we wouldn't have to order and wait for new ones, and I had my plane back in a reasonable time. Good people, just hard to get on the phone once in a while.
 
Phone? I like to sneak up on my bike and see if they are working on my plane. Western just needs more than one mechanic. The guy has been pretty busy so maybe that will prompt them add another mechanic at some point.
 
Sorry to hear. I liked Jay but he's not around anymore. The only guy I can really recommend is Matt at Deer Park. The state of GA in this area is really sort of amazing. The economy isn't THAT bad. There are really no legit places to rent small planes in the 3rd largest town in WA state. I still like the guy doing my annual but it's a special case. It's supply/demand. Just not enough going on around here to attract anything better. I'll be doing my annuals down in Cali from now on. I know a good guy down there and it works for me to go south for the winter.

I feel for you. I once did something similar to your operation and I found an A and P willing to trade wrenching for flying. It was a great deal for me. He did 100/hrs and an overhaul. He went far enough with his flying that he's a 737 F/O at US Airways now. Go figure...

Gee imagine that a grease monkey to airline pilot say it isn't so.. I have more than my fair share of airline pilots wanting me to do their annual for nothing no thanks. Considering most car mechanics make far more than an A@P I really find it incredible that any GA mechanics even put their A@P on the line for such crappy pay.
 
I did have someone call every two hours once and ask questions like "Is it done yet?" "How come it isn't done yet?" and finally "How many people are working on it?"

To the last I finally got fed up and said "Every time you call me from now on, I'm going to pull one person off of it."

Myself, when I'm looking for a status update I simply call and say something along the lines of "I'm just looking for a status update, and wondering if there's anything you need." It hasn't failed so far.
 
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