You lost me on that one dude. Buy through BVM, ship through BVM, and the jet should cost less? Charging USA prices while building at China costs? If the Skymaster jets that BVM sells were being sold at BVM prices (or what you call USA prices) they would all be double the money easily. An Ultra Bandit sells for what, just under $12,000USD? Skymasters biggest most complex jets don't sell for even half that price. BVM's F100 kit was around $7000, for a KIT, Skymasters F100 is what, around $4000 as an ARF with the gear, pipe, tanks etc?

I hardly see the chinese charging USA prices, but then you're not getting USA quality either. Having said that, you don't always get USA quality with USA kits either.

I don't have an issue with waiting for a product or paying for it up front IF there are a couple of conditions met.

1. You do have a clear idea of WHEN it will ship period.
2. IF there are delays, THE MANUFACTURE CALLS YOU to let you know the expected wait increase.


When I ordered my JMP Firebird, it was paid for in full up front. I know JMP is a small operation and money up front helps immensely for both their manufacturing costs and their confidence that a buyer isn't going to back out half way through manufacturing. I also know Tom Cook to be just about the most stand up manufacture in the industry.
Anyway, I ordered the Firebird and was told approximately 4 weeks. Tom kept in touch with me to know how things were going, and nearing the 4 week part he had to call and tell me that the company that does the spun aluminum bell mouths for the pipes had sent him the wrong ones. I was disappointed because I was super excited about the jet, but the fact is, Tom CALLED me to tell me that the parts were wrong. It then took longer than expected to get the correct bell mouths, but again, TOM KEPT ME IN THE LOOP. I didn't have to call him to say "hey, have you heard anything?"

The simple fact is, in life things happen, I am guilty of falling behind on Paint projects from time to time, there is typically a very valid reason when I do fall behind and I TRY to keep my customers notified when things happen. The difference between custom work and manufacturing though, is in my game, you can run into problems just when stripping the paint and you find rust, or damage etc, when manufacturing new, everything SHOULD be sorted, and known how much time it will take to build. However, even then, problems arise. In my business, I would say 80% of my projects are finished on schedule or ahead of schedule. I think if the Chinese jet manufactures could even claim an 80% efficiency rate there would not be that big of a problem when things go wrong.

If I ordered a plane from any manufacture and accepted their terms on delivery, that is when I would expect it. If the manufacture has a problem and keeps me informed of the issue, I can be extremely patient. If I have to hound the manufacture for information that is when I will cancel the order, or be very upset about it.

It's not just chinese, the absolute worst service and most ridiculous wait I've ever had in this hobby was from a US manufacture, I won't name name's, but I'll certainly never use them again. I've even been waiting now for over 3 months for replies to an airplane I was interested in from a US manufacture, but they can't even be bothered to respond. As such, I guess I'll never buy their product either.

I'm just glad there are still some manufactures out there like JMP that still know they will not exist without happy customers and they go out of their way to ensure that their customers are happy!