Factory Part Sales, A recommendation to use Dugosh

[moosebreath]

The short version of my story is that I wanted to purchase two new main gear shock links.   I have in prior years bought parts from the factory by calling them directly.  The current policy is to order through a MSC only.  

My service guys had in the past just called Lasar for price and delivery of factory parts.  This time the phone went directly to an answering machine when they called.  The same happened when I called.  The message said to email parts requests.   I did this but was a bit unsatisfied with this method given my plane was sitting on jacks in the hanger at the time.

While awaiting a reply I discovered Dugosh had one of these new old stock on eBay.  I called to ask if they happened to have a second one.  They answered the phone on the first ring and told me they had only one.  They checked factory stock for me while I was on the phone and gave me a quote.   Further they offered to walk across the ramp to the factory to pick it up for me and ship it in the same box with the one they had available.  You can't ask for more than that, I thought.  The new one cost $1485 plus a bit of freight which is a lot.

Lasar sent me an answer four days after my inquiry.  They offered to sell me exactly the same part (as in the same exact physical one sitting on the factory shelf) for over $1800!

So my experience was this:

Lasar took four days to answer and marked up the factory price more than 20%.

Dugosh answered instantly, shipped the part at once, and charged me a bit over the factory list price.  They even apologized for not being able to box it up in time for UPS pickup the same day.

Given the above it will be an easy choice who to call first when I need factory parts next.  To be fair, I did not call every MSC for a quote and I would hope there are others who answer the phone.  Don Maxwell was nice enough to tell me that both that the part was heat treated and not repairable and that he did not have any in stock.  I only called Dugosh because they had one advertised.  It does seem to me that they have a huge advantage over other MSC given they can see the factory from their hanger.

Your experience may be different but I would suggest you consider Dugosh if you need factory parts.

 

[Guest]

You have to remember that there is no discount on parts for an MSC,  we add to the factory price a mark up that covers the shipping costs, (in my case international) plus a reasonable profit.  Through my Diamond and Cirrus service centres there is a discount off MSRP.

[Fly Boomer]

15 hours ago, moosebreath said:

Your experience may be different but I would suggest you consider Dugosh if you need factory parts.

Thanks!  As I have observed a decline in LASAR, I have been wondering who the go-to MSC would be -- now I know.