Bummed at Vans, again

Tonight was to be a great night. Friends were there to mount the new engine. That was until I found out that the engine mount bolts were incorrect. Once home I checked my invoice only to discover that for the forth time since last November Vans incorrectly filled my order. The part number on the invoice was correct; however, the part sent did not match the invoice. Van?s is always quick to get the replacement out, but I always have to wait another 5 days for it to arrive and then pack up the incorrect parts and send them back on my own dime to be credited for the shipping if I remember to insert a note reminding them to. I always have tried to be patent, but four times in a year is three times to many. It?s time for better training in the shipping department

Maybe it's luck....

But over the course of a short eleven years, I only had one "shipping" screw up; which was an incorrect wing skin shipped with the total kit.

In that time, I've had many additional orders with Van's.

L.Adamson

I am getting ready for paint so I am in the at least one order per week phase. To date I have yet to have one screw up on anything from full sub-assembly orders down to the single piece that costs half the shipping and handling cost. Really hesitated making this post for fear of jinxing my luck.

Steve Eberhart
RV-7A slider, O-360-A1A, Catto 3 Blade, Classic Aero interrior, GRT Sport EFIS, House of Kolor Kandy paint

Never had a problem

8 years and 52 orders and never recieved the wrong part from Vans. You can save yourself some time by inventoring the parts when you get them.

Since you live in FT Worth just get those bolts locally. Send the wrong ones back for credit on oil filters or spark plugs etc.

33 RVs

In 33 RV kits to come here at RV Central I have had a few missed orders from Vans. You have had an unlucky amount of mess ups. They are few and far in between.
Vans is a good company and will make it up to you. Try to ck all your orders when they come in, this will help to keep wasting time to a minimum.

Point well taken

Point well taken. The other three times I caught it when it arrived. This time I missed it. Oh well beter luck next time.

wrong parts

L.Adamson said:

Maybe it's luck....

But over the course of a short eleven years, I only had one "shipping" screw up; which was an incorrect wing skin shipped with the total kit.

In that time, I've had many additional orders with Van's.

L.Adamson

Click to expand...

Ditto for me, I got -10 skins for my -9, called Van's and the parts came a couple of days later - as I recall.

Sorry to hear about the problems...

Might be a people problem right now. I placed an order for some aluminum angle on Sept 28th that never arrived. On Oct 10th I called an they completely lost the order. About 8 days later I finally received my order. A nice jesture would have been to expedite the shipping since it was their fault but they didn't. Long story short it stopped the building for over three weeks.

Havng said that, it's like getting mad at a beautiful woman. It's really tough to do.

It probably is a people issue. We have the same problem where I work when there's a new person in Shipping/Receiving (for a short time, anyway). It is a little bit of a learning curve it you've never seen all the parts and pieces, regardless of the business you're in.

I agree that it's hard to get mad at the people at Van's because they're always very nice to deal with, especially in person. And I'm lucky that I'm close enough that I can drive there to pick up parts pretty much whenever needed. I always check my order before leaving their Will Call counter. I have found that over half the time, they've pulled the incorrect parts (usually small nut/bolts/washers).

I always think about the builders that have parts delivered on a routine basis. If I was waiting for parts via UPS or whatever, and they were incorrect or not what I ordered when I got them, I'd be fairly upset! Just part of life, I guess.

I'm thinking the next RV "cottage industry" is going to be someone who lives near Van's who figures they can make a few dollars by going over to the factory and picking stuff up for other people, saving them (a minimum of $4) on handling and charging them only the shipping.

Unless you get charged handling for pick-up orders and then I'll have to come up with another get-not-as-poor-quick scheme.

LOVE THE AIRPLANES.... but

Sometimes my VANs orders had too many rivets, wrong parts, too little, etc., etc., it was always a challenge doing inventory after a Vans order arrived.

About half the time the orders were actually correct, but 50% is not good enough. Eventually, I gave up and used other vendors wherever possible.

Building is tough enough, chasing vendors and having to go thru every order twice requires more patience than this old man has.

Before I retired, I built and shipped entire computer networks for large offices. If I could get those complex, esoteric orders correct 100% of the time, Vans should be able to count rivets.

Sorry if I sound critical but vendors need to know what their customers think.

Barry

I received my copy of the license agreement 1.5 years AFTER I started construction . Other than that, no problems. Good folks.

I've sometimes been critical of Vans over the years. The penny-pinching quality of many of their third party products often dismays me. Sometimes Van gets confused between value for money and just downright CHEAP.

HOWEVER, I consider the quality of their despatch system is exceptionally good. In fact it amazes me that they can send literally thousands of individual components in the various kits and get virtually all of them right.

Some of my builder mates are lazy and they just don't even do an inventory check...but I inventory everything (and seperate out every different component into labelled gladbags). I find that saves me lots of time down the track. And as I'm counting all the little washers and screws and grommets and nuts and a million other doodads I'm always impressed by Vans accuracy. It's not 100%...but it's very very accurate considering the massive number of little parts.

Now if only they would just toss that static system and fuel selector.

In my younger, stupider days, I ordered a pound of 426 3-3.5 rivets. A young, sweet-sounding voice from Van's called and said, "a pound is an awful lot of rivets, are you sure you want a pound?"

Being a guy and all, and she being a young, sweet-sounding thing, I didn't want to admit I am too stupid to know how to order rivets. "Yep," I said.

Anyone need any 3.5 rivets?

Bottom line? Van's customer service was looking out for me better than I was looking out for me. Oh, yeah, I also had given the wrong builders number so they sent the package to the person who had the number I gave, then tracked them down, got them back, and sent them to me.

So if you got that package and you're wondering who the old coot was who ordered a feedsack full of 3.5 rivets... well.....