Avidyne WiFi/BT Failure General Announcement

[Mcstealth]

8 hours ago, m20kmooney said:

It may be a little different when a customer pays $19.99 for a sandwich he didn’t like vs. one paying $19900.00 for avionics that don’t work. And getting ignored on top of it! 

Uh uh. No difference whatsoever. The The $20,000 airplane part buyer may feel he/she is more entitled because of the dollar amount, but that is all it is. A feeling. There is zero difference in the customer service aspect. $20 or $20,000 has no relevance. Bad service is relevant, as is any service needed to fix an issue. 

Edited January 15, 2019 by Mcstealth

[gsxrpilot]

I'll report more tomorrow, but got a call from Avidyne today and had a great conversation with TJ, head of Support. We'll talk again in the morning when I'm at the airplane and I'm confident of a quick resolution.

Full PIREP to follow...

[m20kmooney]

5 hours ago, Mcstealth said:

Uh uh. No difference whatsoever. The The $20,000 airplane part buyer may feel he/she is more entitled because of the dollar amount, but that is all it is. A feeling. There is zero difference in the customer service aspect. $20 or $20,000 has no relevance. Bad service is relevant, as is any service needed to fix an issue. 

I agree with you. However the customer’s feeling is his/her “reality” and the difference is huge. If I go to a restaurant and I don’t like it I simply don’t go back. But if I just paid 20 grand and I feel stuck  and ignored it’s a “reality” that hits like a ton of bricks. 

[mike_elliott]

On 1/8/2019 at 12:12 PM, Yetti said:

If you need any more information, I am going to need a credit card number to proceed....

What about the rest of the 7 layers of the OSI networking model and how they interact with the Avidyne? As a former network engineer, I would want a complete answer prior to pulling out the card

 

[mike_elliott]

20 hours ago, Mcstealth said:

Being in the hospitality business all my life, I can usually placate a dissatisfied customer within moments. That being said, in the airplane industry that is usually not possible. The owner most likely has to exercise patience in her or his bid for satisfaction.

What gets to the hospitality industry the most, or at least the ones in the industry who care, are the folks that you bend over backwards for but they will not accept anything you say or do. There are people that just want to be dissatisfied and then make sure everyone else knows that they are dissatisfied. Though you can still value that person as a customer, you just have to accept there is no satisfaction with or for them. You just hope the people that they are complaining to, about you, knows there are always two sides to the coin.

Rant over

 

Sounds like I can snivel my way into a free steak dinner

 

[Marauder]

Sounds like I can snivel my way into a free steak dinner
 

Just trip over the door mat and make a scene. Sounds like you’ll get the entire menu.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[afward]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:06 AM, m20kmooney said:

No we are not. But we don't need to be. And I will not click the ignore me button as you suggested. I don't believe we should ignore or shun those we disagree with.  

It's one thing to talk about an issue with a vendor's product and the challenges of getting it resolved.  it is another thing entirely to declare said vendor undeserving of our business.  The former is factual discussion, the latter is just bashing*.

At least I think that's what @carusoam was getting at.

* For argument's sake let's assume the vendor in question is at least trying to be a good vendor.

[afward]

11 hours ago, Mcstealth said:

Uh uh. No difference whatsoever. The The $20,000 airplane part buyer may feel he/she is more entitled because of the dollar amount, but that is all it is. A feeling. There is zero difference in the customer service aspect. $20 or $20,000 has no relevance. Bad service is relevant, as is any service needed to fix an issue. 

I wise person once told me, "In business, perception is reality."   Most people expect a $20k purchase to be handled with more care than a $20 purchase, so for most purposes there certainly is a difference.

Of course, that's the customer side.  On the vendor side, it's completely different and I agree with you: There should be no difference in the care given, regardless of the price point.

[m20kmooney]

26 minutes ago, afward said:

It's one thing to talk about an issue with a vendor's product and the challenges of getting it resolved.  it is another thing entirely to declare said vendor undeserving of our business.

No. The two are intimately connected. I’m not prepared nor willing to let Garmin or Avidyne in this case off the hook. Not for the kind of money we spend on these vendors. We are their consumers and we need to advocate for us. Not doing so is treasonous. I’m in the process of researching and planning a panel upgrade. Reading this kind of stuff is disappointing.

[DualRatedFlyer]

Anyway --- update.  Got an email yesterday morning from the avionics shop.  They walked over to my hanger and swapped out the SD Cards and said the unit is fixed and my logbook sticker is sitting on my seat.  Wont get to verify its working until this weekend or next, but very pleased with how quickly Avidyne reacted in shipping replacement hardware and coordinating with the shop to repair. 

 

[Bryan Kahl]

41 minutes ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

Anyway --- update.  Got an email yesterday morning from the avionics shop.  They walked over to my hanger and swapped out the SD Cards and said the unit is fixed and my logbook sticker is sitting on my seat.  Wont get to verify its working until this weekend or next, but very pleased with how quickly Avidyne reacted in shipping replacement hardware and coordinating with the shop to repair. 

 

Glad to hear we got this taken care of for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out if anything comes up when you check it out this weekend or anytime moving forward. 

Best regards and thanks for choosing Avidyne,

Bryan Kahl

Director of Customer Experience

M: 321-506-1541 | O: 321-751-8494

Bkahl@avidyne.com

[DualRatedFlyer]

6 minutes ago, Bryan Kahl said:

Glad to hear we got this taken care of for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out if anything comes up when you check it out this weekend or anytime moving forward. 

Best regards and thanks for choosing Avidyne,

Bryan Kahl

Director of Customer Experience

M: 321-506-1541 | O: 321-751-8494

Bkahl@avidyne.com

Bryan -- thanks for following up on this and being a part of this forum.  Understand that you guys can get beat up every now and then, but please dont let that take away from the value that you have the potential to provide this community by participating on these boards.  It certainly means a lot to us as customers. 

Cheers!

[afward]

11 minutes ago, m20kmooney said:

No. The two are intimately connected. I’m not prepared nor willing to let Garmin or Avidyne in this case off the hook. Not for the kind of money we spend on these vendors. We are their consumers and we need to advocate for us. Not doing so is treasonous. I’m in the process of researching and planning a panel upgrade. Reading this kind of stuff is disappointing.

I'm not letting anyone off the hook.  I am, however, drawing a line between "rational discourse" and "irrational hating*".  The whole point is that bashing is always an emotional, needlessly harmful, and otherwise pointless endeavor.  Instead, present the facts and let the reader decide.

* I really dislike "hating" here, but can't think of a better word offhand.  It conveys the idea well enough, so I'm keeping it.

[Marauder]

I'm not letting anyone off the hook.  I am, however, drawing a line between "rational discourse" and "irrational hating*".  The whole point is that bashing is always an emotional, needlessly harmful, and otherwise pointless endeavor.  Instead, present the facts and let the reader decide.
* I really dislike "hating" here, but can't think of a better word offhand.  It conveys the idea well enough, so I'm keeping it.

I think the frustration aka “irrational hating” comes into play when you feel like they are not working in your best interest or are not showing progress in resolving the concern.

I’ll give you 3 personal examples. Garmin GTN. My unit was exhibiting open squelch issues. Early in the process of troubleshooting, the usual “something in the plane is causing this” remarks came up. Then a few firmware updates started showing up. Clearly there was a squelch issue in the box. Between the firmware updates and adjusting the squelch settings, the problem was resolved after a pretty lengthy period.

JPI 900. I replaced my JPI 830 with a 900. Shortly afterwards I was on an IFR flight and my squelch on my GTN kept opening on a number of ATC frequencies. It was so bad, I couldn’t hear ATC. I was ready to blame Garmin but I decided to try to determine if anything else changed since the problem started. It had. The JPI 900 was added. After troubleshooting the issue to the remote indicator on the JPI 900, I called JPI. They immediately told me that it was not possible that their unit could do this. I sent them this video.

So, I hear nothing from them but a ferrite filter shows up telling me to install it on the lead coming out of the JPI and going to the remote indicator. Problem fixed.

Next JPI issue came up with the RPM being erratic. Immediate response was to return the unit. Decided to troubleshoot the issue. Turned out that the lead coming from the mag was loose.

Aspen. I get an email from Aspen saying that due to some sort of ADS-B signal coding issue I needed to disable the ADS-B In until the problem is resolved. That was over a month ago. No updates, nada.

I’m in the electronics field. I know how disruptive a problem can be for a customer. The best way to handle these issues is to be forthcoming and communicate as much as you can about what you are doing to resolve the concern. The motto we use here is “Take care of the Customer, we can always fix the problem later”.


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[afward]

30 minutes ago, Marauder said:

“Take care of the Customer, we can always fix the problem later”

That's a fantastic attitude to have, and one I think most aviation vendors could stand to learn / learn better.

31 minutes ago, Marauder said:

I think the frustration aka “irrational hating” comes into play when you feel like they are not working in your best interest or are not showing progress in resolving the concern.

No doubt that is correct.  Doesn't mean one should jump on a public forum to vent said frustration in a "don't buy [Company X]'s products" way.  Present the facts, let the reader decide.  It might turn out that one's experience is truly in the minority, in which case no harm will be done by presenting the facts.  On the other hand, "bashing" the company may not turn out so well, for either side...

34 minutes ago, Marauder said:

I’ll give you 3 personal examples.

Those are illustrative.  The GTN issue is of course infamous, but the JPI squelch issue is a new one on me (admittedly a pretty low bar to reach).  They did ultimately fix it (sorta), so there's that.  That said, I'm sure more communication would've gone a long way.

[LANCECASPER]

On 1/9/2019 at 1:36 PM, m20kmooney said:

I'm in the process of researching and planning a panel makeover. This thread is a real eye opener. With all the issues Avidyne has been plagued with makes me steer clear and not spend any money on them. 

Give me a break. Avidyne hasn't been "plagued" with any issues.

I was an early adopter and installed an IFD540 when they were first certified in 2014. No system is perfect, but Avidyne's continuous improvement of their products and listening to the customer's wants and needs have made me a customer for life. Being invited to their customer appreciation events at Oshkosh  and Sun N' Fun and being around all of the satisfied Avidyne customers further convinces me that I made the right choice. They are an innovative company that has caused Garmin to add features to their products to try to catch up to Avidyne's innovation.

[Bryan Kahl]

3 hours ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

Bryan -- thanks for following up on this and being a part of this forum.  Understand that you guys can get beat up every now and then, but please dont let that take away from the value that you have the potential to provide this community by participating on these boards.  It certainly means a lot to us as customers. 

Cheers!

Thanks, I appreciate that. To be honest, I welcome the feedback even/especially when it's an area for improvement. It forces companies like us or our competitors to up our service and focus on continuous improvement. I can't guarantee we won't make mistakes but I can guarantee we'll do what we can to make it right! 

 

Best regards

Bryan

[m20kmooney]

4 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Avidyne hasn't been "plagued" with any issues.

Well they seem to have a lot more issues and glitches than Garmin. I’m not a fan of Garmin necessarily but there are some dark clouds over Avidyne for sure. Not too long ago there was someome on here who was grounded due to an Avidyne issue with his G500. I don’t know the reasons why but it makes me think long and hard about my panel upgrade. Whatever happened with your issue @thinwing? Are you still grounded?

Edited January 15, 2019 by m20kmooney

[LANCECASPER]

2 minutes ago, m20kmooney said:

Well they seem to have a lot more issues and glitches than Garmin. I’m not a fan of Garmin necessarily but there are some dark clouds over Avidyne for sure. I don’t know the reasons why but it makes me think long and hard about my panel upgrade. 

There are no dark clouds over Avidyne. Respectfully you don't own their products, your comments are negative hearsay with no foundation.

I've owned two IFD 540's, one IFD 440 and one IFD 550 plus a couple of their transponders. From the perspective of someone who has paid the money to buy their products, they make great innovative products and take excellent care of the customer. Garmin also makes excellent products but I'm glad we have more than one choice.

[m20kmooney]

7 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

There are no dark clouds over Avidyne. Respectfully you don't own their products, your comments are negative hearsay with no foundation.

As I said I’m researching. But to say negative hearsay with no foundation is being disingenuous. There are issues reported on both Garmin and Avidyne. It just seems there are disproportionally more on Avidyne. 

Edited January 15, 2019 by m20kmooney

[LANCECASPER]

14 minutes ago, m20kmooney said:

As I said I’m researching. But to say negative hearsay with no foundation is being disingenuous. There are issues reported on both Garmin and Avidyne. It just seems there are disproportionally more on Avidyne. 

I wasn't being disingenuous. I was completely sincere in saying that you didn't know what you were talking about . . lol.

You don't own their products and you are making ridiculous statements that there's a dark cloud over Avidyne based on a anecdotal comment from someone who posted a problem they are having on a public forum before contacting customer service who can do something about it.

I've owned products from both companies. Neither company makes perfect products but both companies are responsive when they are made aware that a customer is having problems. That's all you can hope for.

[thinwing]

2 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

I wasn't being disingenuous. I was completely sincere in saying that you didn't know what you were talking about . . lol.

You don't own their products and you are making ridiculous statements that there's a dark cloud over Avidyne based on a anecdotal comment from someone who posted a problem they are having on a public forum before contacting customer service who can do something about it.

I've owned products from both companies. Neither company makes perfect products but both companies are responsive when they are made aware that a customer is having problems. That's all you can hope for

[thinwing]

3 hours ago, m20kmooney said:

Well they seem to have a lot more issues and glitches than Garmin. I’m not a fan of Garmin necessarily but there are some dark clouds over Avidyne for sure. Not too long ago there was someome on here who was grounded due to an Avidyne issue with his G500. I don’t know the reasons why but it makes me think long and hard about my panel upgrade. Whatever happened with your issue @thinwing? Are you still grounded?

Hi there..m20k...Avidyne completed an software update that completely resolved the issue....I have since been completely satisfied with both IFD 440/540 units since software 10.2.2 came out....the entire transaction of trading in 530w/430w for the Avidynes plus 11 k or so was for the bang for the buck the most valuable AMU s in aviation I have ever spent.I wanted to invest in this company as I have done in Garmin...no go...Avidyne is privately funded...

[m20kmooney]

3 hours ago, thinwing said:

Hi there..m20k...Avidyne completed an software update that completely resolved the issue....I have since been completely satisfied with both IFD 440/540 units since software 10.2.2 came out....the entire transaction of trading in 530w/430w for the Avidynes plus 11 k or so was for the bang for the buck the most valuable AMU s in aviation I have ever spent.I wanted to invest in this company as I have done in Garmin...no go...Avidyne is privately funded...

Good to know thinwing. Thank you for your valuable opinion and input. I had no idea they were privately funded. That explains a lot. Their funds are limited and we don’t know their financial health. They’re here today and may be gone tomorrow. Unfortunately that uncertainty makes it a no go for me.

Edited January 16, 2019 by m20kmooney

[gsxrpilot]

@LANCECASPER, @afward, @carusoam, et. al. 

A very basic rule of etiquette online is...