Well I received my VIper this morning after I placed the order 8 months and 3 days. Here is my tale of woe.
Placed the order with Brett on 11/26/14. I was told it was in stock but a day or two later they either called or emailed me saying no it was not. If ordered it the delivery date would be mid February. I thought they would be ok as I live in Michigan and we don't fly our good stuff in the winter. In mid Feburary I called and was told Chinese New Year would postpone it another month to late March. As if nobody knew the New Year celebration hasn't happened every year during this month.
Comes late March and again another delay now late April
Comes late April and again another delay now late May
Comes late May and again another delay. Now they say some 1/5 F-16 are waiting for parts. Meanwhile mine has been done for a while according to Brett. I believe they are just trying to fill up the container with the later orders.
Call again and ship should be leaving in June sometime and take about 4 weeks on the water with another week or two to get off loaded and sent to Chief in Florida.
Was called last week and told the container would be arriving the next morning and mine would be sent our later that day. Looked at my credit card statement and did the math with the deposit I put on it and found shipping a 2m Viper was $450 from Florida to Michigan. Emailed Brett and asked where is the savings. I could have had it sent from china direct for that much probably. Brett emailed me back and that had changed the invoice price of the plane to the new higher price and it also included wing bags for 79 which I didn't order. He told me at first they would take off the wing bags and get them sent back to Chief later. A bit later I received an email telling me they turned the shipment around so they could open the box and take out the wing bags. I wonder how much that cost them to do that.
A side note every time I called and could not speak to Brett I would leave a message with the girl that answered the phone, I never got a call back. I always had to all them.
After they fixed the invoice the final shipping from Florida to Michigan was $183. For about 3-400 I could have had it direct maybe shipment. Not much of a savings with the long delays.
I think for the 100 class size aircraft its best to forget this method of buying. Maybe for the bigger aircraft it might make sense if you are not in a hurry, Maybe chief should think about having the container leave the factory on certain dates with whatever orders are done for customer and fill the rest of the container with planes for stock.