Mooney Tours... Edited-updated

[TWinter]

For anyone that was thinking of taking a tour of the Mooney factory...FORGET IT!

I had this special trip planned with my father scheduled for next week. Heading from Tennessee to Kerrville for a Mooney tour (lined up and scheduled), scheduled time away from work, hotels and additional plans for touring Fredricksburg.

This afternoon I get this email:

Mr. Winter,

     It is with great apologies that I must notify you that all tours of the Mooney facility have been cancelled.  Therefore; the tour I has scheduled for yourself and your father is affected and has been cancelled.

If you would like to express your disappointment to this new policy directly to the CEO of the company, I have been given permission by our VP of Customer Focus  to provide you with Mr. Vivek Saxena’s e-mail: vsaxena@mooney.com.

The email was from Lori and she sounded very sincere and apologetic. It seems to me like this decision came from up the ladder, she was just the messenger.. The VERY least he could have done was finish the scheduled tours and not schedule additional if they were changing SOPs. I  spent a great deal of time making plans, car rentals hotels, not only for Kerrville, but Fredricksburg as well... Thanks for your consideration Mr. Vivek Saxena !!!.

 

-Tom Winter

 

[rbridges]

Dang Tom.  I sure hate it for you.  Not only the cancellation, but all the anticipation and planning that went into it.  

[TWinter]

12 minutes ago, rbridges said:

Dang Tom.  I sure hate it for you.  Not only the cancellation, but all the anticipation and planning that went into it.  

I know..I just opened emails tonight and saw this..still can't believe it. I was really looking forward to it...Very frustrated, he and I were just talking on the phone earlier about what all we would do while there. He was as excited as I was. I have not even had a chance to tell him yet, dread passing it on.

 

-Tom

[tony]

you should reply with:

Dear Mr. Saxena,

It is with deep regret that I must inform you that the new Mooney Aircraft I was thinking about purchasing, I am no longer considering.  I will be purchasing a Cirrus instead. 

[TWinter]

1 hour ago, tony said:

you should reply with:

Dear Mr. Saxena,

It is with deep regret that I must inform you that the new Mooney Aircraft I was thinking about purchasing, I am no longer considering.  I will be purchasing a Cirrus instead. 

Just sent a email to Mr. Saxena expressing my opinion about discontinuing the tours. I'm obviously disgruntled about cancelling mine, but the overall experience of actually seeing these being built is going to be missed by so many others as well. It can't be that costly to conduct tours, heck I would not hesitate paying a reasonable fee. I doubt highly it's a insurance issue (Bowling Green does Corvette tours all day..I know apples and oranges). As owners of Mooney's we don't get a whole lot of factory promotional support and media coverage is fair at best. If it were not for MAPA, Mooney Ambassadors and the various social media sites we would be pretty void..I would think tours are a very viable way to promote our brand. Just my .02.

 

-Tom 

[Zwaustin]

Really too bad as they don't seem to be producing that many planes (or blowing up with sales) and need all the positive publicity they can get. Too many buyers are going with other aircraft for the money and Mooney really does make a quality product in my opinion. Sorry to hear they cancelled on ya last minute. 

[aaronk25]

What's going on down there? The Chinese guy that revived it left, right? They got a new leader now I heard? So has the new leadership had any new communications with the marketplace since the last CEO?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Raptor05121]

Is this permanent?

[TTaylor]

Generally companies that are trying to grow, embrace the loyal fan base and use them as ambassadors for the brand.   

[DonMuncy]

The story we heard at MAPA was that Jerry Chen was the guy they needed to get the business and factory updated, and he did it. Now they need a guy who can get production going, and they think this new guy is the one.

[Jerry 5TJ]

If not Kerville, are tours available through the Chinese factory? 

[Jeff_S]

This all sounds very fishy and I suspect there is more to the story. Rather than rushing to judgement and publicly trashing the company in an open forum, why don't you wait and see if you get a reasonable response from the company? Maybe there is a valid rationale that this "Lori" didn't convey. Or maybe not. But it seems to me that it's a bit premature to drag them into the mud without some more facts.

By all means, give us the rest of the story once you get it.

[aaronk25]

Seems pretty legit, twinter has been around for several years and post frequently. The gal at mooney knew it was just him and his dad going and the new leader cancelled the tour. It's apparent by the tone the lady thinks this new, presumably permanent policy blows.....yep not smart.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bob_Belville]

1 hour ago, Jeff_S said:

This all sounds very fishy and I suspect there is more to the story. Rather than rushing to judgement and publicly trashing the company in an open forum, why don't you wait and see if you get a reasonable response from the company? Maybe there is a valid rationale that this "Lori" didn't convey. Or maybe not. But it seems to me that it's a bit premature to drag them into the mud without some more facts.

By all means, give us the rest of the story once you get it.

I don't think we know nearly enough to be jumping to conclusions and speculating. Folks like Jolie Lucas, the Maxwells, Trey and Lela Hughes, Richard Simile talk almost daily with folks like Tom Bowen, Stacy Ellis, Mike Miles and other managers, If there's something big coming down or if there's a new plant tour policy we'll hear about it pretty quickly. (For myself, I've toured the plant twice and I've been surprised how open the factory has been. But it's possible that Monday is a bad day - employee meeting, OSHA inspection, delegation from PRC, who knows, and that there's no big change just a bad day for visitors.)     

My advice is we give this thread a rest for a few days and see what comes out. I have no intention to call the folks I've come to know. 

[kortopates]

Although I feel bad for Tom and anyone that may have had a tour scheduled. But I was really surprised the factory was doing this. Let's be reasonable, this cost them time and money that the company can't afford right now. They are spending far more money than their current revenue working to get the M10 through certification. Can you really blame Mr Vivek for wanting to keep their overhead cost down? I really don't know, but I'd bet anyone that was seriously considering a new Mooney purchase could get a tour. The rest of us can always go at Homecoming. Just my 2 cents on wanting to see them survive.

2 hours ago, Jerry 5TJ said:

If not Kerville, are tours available through the Chinese factory? 

They do tours for prospective buyers and company's they are looking to team with and and government officials - both Chinese and US. if you are going to be in China , I'd be happy to put you in touch. But there really isn't much to see yet but the 3 Mooneys, an M10 mockup, Red Bird Mooney Simulator etc. There is no production at the Chinese factory.  

[MyNameIsNobody]

So it is JUST BUSINESS then?  O.K.  Can I "blame them" for making a business decision?  No.  Can I question that decision's true impact and think to myself...Self, Mooney is doing pretty poorly if they can't afford a minimum wage tour guide once a week...once a month vs. cancelling pre-scheduled tours to save $15 bucks in labor...

Self thinks it was a poor business decision that likely has greater ramifications regarding the "Mooney Brand".

Sad.  

Sorry you and your dad are missing out on the experience that involved flying your Mooney and "Supporting the BRAND".

Actions have consequences.  Thank you for sharing.

[TWinter]

I'll let you know if I get a reply. Since they did not offer any alternate dates or suggest that it might start again at a later time I'm assuming it's permanent. I'm certainly not dragging them "through the mud", I just said I was mad about the last minute cancellation (this trip was actually a Christmas gift from my mom to my father and I), good ole' mom was planning on paying for the trip for us as a Christmas gift.

I thought it was crappy decision on the part of the new CEO and it was a poor reflection of customer relations.

 

-Tom

[rbridges]

5 minutes ago, TWinter said:

I'll let you know if I get a reply. Since they did not offer any alternate dates or suggest that it might start again at a later time I'm assuming it's permanent. I'm certainly not dragging them "through the mud", I just said I was mad about the last minute cancellation (this trip was actually a Christmas gift from my mom to my father and I), good ole' mom was planning on paying for the trip for us as a Christmas gift.

I thought it was crappy decision on the part of the new CEO and it was a poor reflection of customer relations.

 

-Tom

And it may be a 100% legit reason, but that doesn't change the fact that it was cancelled on relatively short notice.  Why couldn't they extend it for just a few more days and start cancelling a little farther down the calender?  Next week is not very far away, and it's not like you were simply driving across town.  I'm not faulting mooney bc it may be unavoidable for them, but does ruffle feathers for those involved.

[gsengle]

We don't know enough to jump to conclusions yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MyNameIsNobody]

If "those involved" means those that care about "the MOONEY BRAND", I could not agree more.

I too am disappointed in Mooney today...

[Bob_Belville]

Sorry to repeat myself guys but I'd counsel we reserve judgement on this public forum until we at least have the whole story. This reminds me of news coverage of an off field landing. 

[Ron McBride]

We took the factory tour at the MAPA Convention this year.  It was very interesting. Mooney had staff to take us on the tour on a Saturday.   Stacey Ellis was our tour guide.  There is a lot that goes into building our planes.

Mooney should give tours, as stated above, our money could go else where, maybe a Corvette etc.

Ron

[Bob_Belville]

1 minute ago, N803RM said:

We took the factory tour at the MAPA Convention this year.  It was very interesting. Mooney had staff to take us on the tour on a Saturday.   Stacey Ellis was our tour guide.  There is a lot that goes into building our planes.

Mooney should give tours, as stated above, our money could go else where, maybe a Corvette etc.

Ron

When we toured in May Tom Bowen, COO, was taking a tour through because there were too many folks for Joe Schmerber who's the retiree/volunteer guide to handle! We talked to Stacy and had lunch with Mike Miles. (I had the good sense to bring MooneyGirl with us, she's a rock star in Kerrville.)

[Bob_Belville]

Okay, I have it on good authority that public plant tours were out of hand, it was becoming a full time thingy. Tours by special arrangement and for prospects are not prohibited. It's the open to the public, even non pilots that's discontinued.

 

[jkhirsch]

Tom, I hope you included all of the details that you posted here in your email to Vivek.

If the business is so damn poor, maybe they should charge a fee.

The Elvis company seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make money doing that...

Really a piss poor situation Tom and I'm very sorry to hear about it.