Aircraft Spruce pirep

[Amelia]

Wow, am I steamed! What execrable service, combined with sheer blithering incompetence! The above-referenced supplier of parts listed the items as in-stock, my shop ordered them to be shipped stat, next day air. When they didn’t arrive, a call revealed they were, um, back-ordered. Finally in stock, my shop asked they again be shipped next-day ups. Two weeks later, they were shipped... spent several days in sort facilities, and now USPS, if they get out to the airport (3-miles from the PO) anytime soon, will deliver them... maybe as soon as Monday or Tuesday. My non-refundable reservations were for Saturday and Sunday. Yep. I’m angry. My shop swears it’s the last straw for Spruce, having screwed up a number of their orders recently and met with a “not-my-problem” shrug. 
wahhhhhh!

[MooneyMitch]

Wow!  That is so frustrating for you!

Jim Irwin (owner) would more than likely want to know about your issues.  My last contact information:

jimirwin@aircraftspruce.com

[Culver LFA]

What part do you need, maybe one of us has it and can ship to you?

 

[Amelia]

Thank you, dear one. I need four more lifters, seals, rods, and assorted other bits for my io550. And another 8 hours to install the dang things. Would have been easy if Aircraft Spruce had extracted its corporate head from wherever it was stuffed two weeks ago and accomplished what we paid for, including expedited shipping. But that was evidently too much to ask of a gum- chewing dimwit. Yeah...I am still just *a little*  upset. But warms my heart to think there are still good folk like you eager to lend a hand. I fear we are SOL this time. Now must go unpack our bags and x the flight plan. Thanks most sincerely!,

[Amelia]

39 minutes ago, MooneyMitch said:

Wow!  That is so frustrating for you!

Jim Irwin (owner) would more than likely want to know about your issues.  

Thanks, Mitch. That might be true if it were a one-off screw-up. But apparently this idiocy is standard procedure these days. I do appreciate the sentiment, though.

[EricJ]

While my experiences with aircraft spruce have generally been good to acceptable, I ordered the "Mooney" jacks from them, which did not fit under my wings and so were unusable.

These:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/jackj106.php

I left a review on the page, dated Dec. 28th.   It was a pretty miserable experience, mostly due to the poor handling of the issue.   I wound up buying jacks elsewhere.

 

[MooneyMitch]

I am so sad to hear all this.  My previous dealings with Spruce and with Jim Irwin have been positive.  I would still believe Jim would like to know this.  I truly hope I'm not wrong on this. 

[201Steve]

Complete ass holes. I ordered a SkyTec 149NL starter from them. The old starter  failed on the next flight, on the road and my newly purchased starter was back home. We bought another one on the road to get home. 
 

simple enough, just return the starter for a refund. No big deal. 2 weeks later, I received an unexpected package in the mail from Spruce.... my starter! I called them to ask why TF they sent me the return starter back and they said it was not the starter they sold me. Upon further review, the starter they sent me back was for an opposite direction starter, only used on a twin... and it was used!!! No clue where the wrong starter got put in the box but it was royal hell and they were complete ass holes about it like I was trying to rip them off. I’ll bet I had 10 hours or more of total effort to get my GD money back. 

[GeeBee]

I've had nothing but good experience with them as have my shop. We order from "East" at KFFC.

Which store were you ordering from?

 

 

[PT20J]

I personally have had great experience with Spruce, but having run a small business I understand that stuff happens and people get upset. They must be making a lot of customers happy as they’ve been in business for over 60 years and continue to grow. I would second @MooneyMitch’s suggestion to call Jim Irwin and discuss your issues. But, I would add that it might be more productive to wait a bit until the adrenalin dissipates.

Skip

 

 

[GeeBee]

I might also add, logistics is totally screwed up in this country because of Covid and a variety of factors that effect the shippers

Last October, I shipped my gear actuator to LASAR for a no back spring replacement. I spec'd UPS overnight, and true to their word, LASAR turned it around in one day and shipped it overnight. However due to the CA fires, the UPS truck leaving Ukiah had to take a longer route, it missed the airplane in KOAK to go to KSDF. When it got to SDF the following day, half the UPS staff was out due to contact tracing on Covid, so what was supposed to be an overnight, took 4 days. If you notice there are no guarantees on shipping right now. 

I know FedEx and UPS are having cockpit staffing issues due to Covid vaccine "down time" for crews. My own daughter who runs a 9 library system is working 12 hour days, because one staff member at a branch gets Covid, due to contract tracing it can nearly wipe out a branch and supervisory staff has to come in and man it.

The other day, I ordered silicon terminal insulators from Amazon Marketplace. Never got them, because the merchant just could not get them out due to supply chain and manning issues.

I talk to a lot of business people who pay good wages, but can't get people to work because unemployment plus the Covid over-ride pay as much as they can pay. Moral hazard in effect right now.

[Mooneymite]

I have been dealing with AS for many years.  In my experience, it would be difficult to find a company that is more dedicated to furthering general aviation and keeping prices for parts and pieces reasonable.  All the employees I have dealt with, or know personally have been excellent.

In all my dealings with Jim Erwin, he has been fair and forthright.  Ron Alexander, of Alexander Aeroplane, the predecessor of Spruce East was of the same material as Erwin....good people running good companies hiring good people.

In the Covid-crazy world today, AS is obviously operating under tremendous adversity.  To hold AS totally responsible for supply shortages and delays seems unfair.

 

Gus Hertz

 

[Guest]

We too deal with Aircraft Spruce and find them to be a great company to deal with.  Jim is quick to respond to all customer concerns in my experience.  A great company who truly support GA.

Clarence

[Tim Jodice]

I have had a good experience as well. I have had a few problems along the way but they always made good on it. I have been buying from them since 2012.

[0TreeLemur]

Sorry to hear about problems.   Sounds like an inventory control problem.  I too have ordered frequently from them since becoming an owner in 2017.  Ten orders in the past six weeks and over thirty in the past year.   Items I've ordered in the last year include a Superior replacement cylinder for an O-360, OH vacuum pump, master solenoid, tubing, lots of screws, goops and potions.  No problems.   I appreciate the fact that they offer reasonable pricing on pieces-parts.  Stuff I order mostly comes from the Eastern warehouse.

[N201MKTurbo]

Now that there is a Spruce warehouse just over the fence from the home drome. I have a good relationship with them. The one thing that annoys me is when there is one thing on my order that isn't in stock at Chandler. Instead of letting me pick up the parts they have, they will ship them all from the warehouse that has all the stuff. This generally delays my parts a day longer than if I would have just ordered them on line and had them shipped. They say they are trying to get these issues resolved. 

If you didn't know, Spruce recently bought out AeroPerformance and it is a lot of work to merge the companies.

[Amelia]

I’m delighted many of you have had such pleasant experiences. I am still very angry. Not just because my “next-day delivery” to the tune of over $300 shipping charge turned out to be several weeks, shipped by usps, not ups, not only have I missed my trip, forfeited prepaid hotel room, but Spruce’s CS rep says company policy says no refund on their shipping, despite their own acknowledged screw-up. Because Covid. How conveeeeenient. The parts still haven’t arrived. And I’m not done with this. Alas, there doesn’t seem to be an emoji expressing the extent of my disgust with this company!

[RobertGary1]

If it makes you feel better fedex stopped their guarantee too due to COVID. 

[RLCarter]

I’ve dealt with suppliers and shippers for decades, I’m not going to pick sides but reading your post it seems like there were several at fault. 
(1) USPS would be my last choice for expedited shipping 
(2) Once it was determined the parts were on back order I would have found them through another supplier and once the parts were in hand cancelled the Spruce order. The reason for not canceling until afterwards is you keep your place on the B/O list just in case you can’t find them through someone else.

I also find it odd that the shop has had multiple issues with Spruce while the majority have not. 

Generally if ordering parts that I need expedited I do it by Ph not online, the reason is if something shows up as B/O or limited stock their computer screen shows a lot more than you see online, there is generally Alternates that they can substitute on the fly if needed. I have also had suppliers physically go out a pull the part(s) if Qty was limited just to insure the order can be filled.

it is also common for a “Next Day Air” order to have other items added, it’s a flat fee up to a point so adding a few small items for other customers would not change the charges as long as all the items ship from the same warehouse.

COVID has definitely screwed up almost every industry, the biggest problem is it’s too easy for a worker to call in and say they have a fever or might have been exposed and there is little an employer can do, personally I think it’s being used as an excuse by a large percentage of the workforce and is crippling our economy 

I know this is of little help to you and is after the fact but in the future if your needing something NOW, phone it in and use UPS or FedEx, rarely do things go wrong this way. Some do not/want to handle ordering items on their own but it is the only way to insure that it did get ordered on time and shipping was correct, this won’t eliminate the shipper dropping the ball but it takes other people out of play... if an order comes in wrong or doesn’t come in on time it was either you/them or sometimes both at fault. 

As a side note, Red Label (over night shipping) has a cut of time to have it ship that same day, so if it was late in the day I could CALL in an order and have it shipped from a warehouse on the west coast and have it the next day 

 

[GeeBee]

I am one of those, "if it has to be there", I go get it myself. Sometimes you have to help your shop out. Maxwell will tell you I drove to Dallas to pick up parts at Aviall so he could get my ship out of his shop that I desperately needed. He very kindly ordered the parts, had them sent to Will Call and I drove my rental to DFW and picked them up. I have also flown down to KFFC to pick up parts at Spruce for my mechanic at GVL when I needed the airplane pronto. 

Amelia, I wished I had known as I would have been glad to fly down to KFFC and pick up your parts and deliver them for fuel. If you are that desperate, next time, drop me a line and I will try to help you out. Spruce is walking distance from the airport.

 

[carusoam]

When something absolutely positively needs to be lost over night....

 

Trust FedEx... they can track it exactly right to the point where they last saw it...

That part never showed up again...  

 

This week... I got a box fedex’d to my house... by a company I never heard of...  with a name that is unfamiliar... address is perfect...

Wonder if that person got my engine sensor..?

-a-

[RLCarter]

Years ago there were a few shops we dealt with in the San Antonio area and we used the Bus lines to deliver parts between us... way cheaper than Red Label and often would come in the same day... only kicker was the shop would have to send someone to the Bus Station luckily all the shops were with blocks of the stations. This was in the late 70’s not even sure it’s an option anymore 

[RLCarter]

8 minutes ago, carusoam said:

When something absolutely positively needs to be lost over night....

 

Trust FedEx... they can track it exactly right to the point where they last saw it...

That part never showed up again...  

 

This week... I got a box fedex’d to my house... by a company I never heard of...  with a name that is unfamiliar... address is perfect...

Wonder if that person got my engine sensor..?

-a-

I use to receive shipments from multiple vendors daily and usually multiple boxes from each, it didn’t happen often but there were times when they would drop of a box for someone else or another shop, if I didn’t know them a quick call to the shipper and then a call to the intended customer to let them I know where it was and that they could pick it or I would deliver it after I closed on my way home(if it wasn’t too far out of my way)

A few years ago Pizza Hut delivered a Lg Pepperoni and a Pasta dish, paid for it and went an told the wife the Pizza is here, she hadn’t ordered Pizza...oops, I called Pizza Hut and told them they dropped it on the E end of the street instead of the west end and they should probably get it reordered and delivered, 30 minutes later they rang the doorbell again...  I was full so I sent the driver in the right direction 

[PT20J]

I remember when I used to get the Sporty's catalog and fill out the order form in the middle and send them a check in the mail and eventually (usually after I'd forgotten that I ordered something) it would show up in the mail. Amazon has trained us all that stuff should come in the next day or two. Bezos gave in to paying sales tax in order to build distribution centers in more states because he correctly guessed that speed of delivery was more important to Amazon customers than price.

Skip

[Amelia]

16 hours ago, GeeBee said:

I am one of those, "if it has to be there", I go get it myself. Sometimes you have to help your shop out. Maxwell will tell you I drove to Dallas to pick up parts at Aviall so he could get my ship out of his shop that I desperately needed. He very kindly ordered the parts, had them sent to Will Call and I drove my rental to DFW and picked them up. I have also flown down to KFFC to pick up parts at Spruce for my mechanic at GVL when I needed the airplane pronto. 

Amelia, I wished I had known as I would have been glad to fly down to KFFC and pick up your parts and deliver them for fuel. If you are that desperate, next time, drop me a line and I will try to help you out. Spruce is walking distance from the airport.

 

GeeBee, you dear! Next time, if EVEr I’m desperate to allow my mechanic to order from Spruce, you’re on. Not only gas, but dinner, too!