GOOD NEWS!
This is what I got from my push and begging from Horizon. It took me constantly pestering and making phone calls, and I know some of you are doing the same. Please don't give up people. I'll start with my first letter and I write:
From: PCD [mailto
[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 7:58 PM
To: Horizon Hobby Sales
Subject: Hanger 9 60 Fokker DVII
Parts are selling fast just like the ARF from everywhere. Will you be back ordering the cowl soon? I think it wasn't a smart move to discontinue both the Camel and Fokker DVII because every ARF has been sold out, and parts are flying off the shelves. (pardon the pun) Please make a deal with the Chinese to send you a batch of these fine ARF airplanes at a resonable price even if it's limited. I'm sure most of us would spend a little more than they did originally for this ARF if they upped the price on the bulk order.
Peter Dowling
And this was their response:
From: Horizon Hobby Sales
To:
[email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 3:35 PM
Subject: RE: Hanger 9 60 Fokker DVII
Peter, the cowl has been discontinued and we are not getting any more in at this time. Your comments have been forwarded to the Hangar 9 team for review and maybe sometime in the future we may have something to help you. Hope it helps and have a great day.
Thank You,
Dennis Davenport
Horizon Hobby Online Division
800-338-4639
My response:
From: PCD [mailto
[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 3:24 PM
To: Horizon Hobby Sales
Subject: Re: Hanger 9 60 Fokker DVII
Dennis,
Thank you so much, and please do move it up the chanel because I would have wished to discuss this with the people who make the decisions on what to have Hanger 9 make in your company.
I found the a cowl on the internet, however it was their last one. I will be needing another soon for back up. Maybe one might pop up on ebay- if not I will make one out of a blue foam mold or have it made.
Again this plane was in production for only 4 years. Everywhere I go at shows I see a Hanger 9 Fokker and we need the parts to keep them flying. The cowl is the first thing to go in a crash and just over time the cowl can crack from the vibration.
It is sad to see the Hanger 9 Fokker and Camel go along with the parts. The Camel was in production way longer than the Fokker, so many including myself is out of luck. I hope that your company would continue product support for a discontinued ARF a little longer than you do. I'm not asking you to do it forever, but maybe for a few years longer? We pay a lot of money $300 on up for some of your gas/glow planes and we hope that our loyalty means something deep down- that's why it seems I'm giving you a hard time.
Again I'm sorry it starts from the bottom up, I would have wanted to discuss this with the upper managers. You Customer Support people have to put up with too much in my opinion and I'm sure you get enough grief from the top down as well.
My Hanger 9 Fokker DVII made page .82 in Model Aviation March issue, and the editor has one with him in his main picture.
I have people always asking where they can get this plane and I have to tell them,"sorry it's been discontinued." Even if you people come back with the ARF for a short time, I know I would buy another one. If you restocked some of the parts I would even be happier- then I would be even more loyal to Hanger 9 and Horizon.
Thank you so much for your time and response and I love your products.
Peter Dowling
#AMA 865404
And this was the fantastic email I got from one of the higher chain of command:
Peter,
We are very happy you love the planes so much and we too are always sorry to see planes go away and get discontinued. Our product developers have so much passion and personal stake in our product that often times we hold out as long as we can before making the decision because we too love the airplanes that much.
Often what will drive a product to be discontinued is reduced selling rate, price increase, and sometimes maybe a product has just lived out their life cycle. When ever we decided to discontinue an item we do order enough replacement parts to support the demand for a multiple years (two to three) so we can continue to service customers needs, but when parts run out we usually cannot order more. Our vendor often destroys the cowl plugs, wood building fixtures, etc so they no longer take up space as they make room for the new items. Unfortunately for whatever reason people seemed to buy up all of our cowls even though we expected to have enough to fulfill a much longer demand period.
The sad part is usually when parts run out we have to live by our decision we made before for what quantities of spares we thought would last us for a few years and often things are unpredictable. You think you ordered plenty of spares only to find for unknown reasons the demand doubled and you find yourself running out much earlier than you planned. Even at the point of two or three or four years down the road when you sell your last part that is still left, customers still will complain and in most cases there is just nothing we can do when a vendor will not make more. We understand the frustration from our customers and empathize.
Today our purchasing person did email our vendor to ask if there was anyway they still had the plugs to make additional cowls since these ran our so much faster than we had planned for support. I can let you know once I here the answer
Patrick Brown
Category Development Manager, Hangar 9 & E-flite
So people, if they start making a batch of parts for the Fokker DVII, buy them up! They too were supprised how fast this plane and some of the parts like the cowl sold out. Keep the emails going, I'm doing my part- and any of you are doing the same, well I thank you very, very much.[8D]
Pete