Over the years I've had many conversations with consumers wanting to return merchandise that they made bad buying decisions on. I was a retailer and involved in retail management for over 30 years, in one form or another.

The one thing that all that has left me with is that once I buy it, it's mine. I'm 53 and I can count on one hand, the things I've returned due to my bad buying decisons. Oh yeah, I've made many bad decisions but have only had recourse to want a refund or exchange, rarely. In modeling? I've returned a 2-56 pull-pull for a 4-40 and that's about it. The idea of sending a kit or ARF back because of shipping damage only gives the boys in brown another crack at it, lol... In fairness to those that use the return option regularly, I would have filed a freight damage claim had the wing been crushed but that would have been with the carrier, not the supplier, (or maybe the supplier would have to file since they were the ones that shipped it).

I realize I'm not mainstream on this. Today's economy and mindset is, "take-it-back"...mostly perpetuated by large retailers insecure in their marketshare. A lifetime guarantee is good for who's lifetime? Yours, mine? Oh well.

My knee-jerk rebuttal was simply a reaction to what seems to be the primary thread that runs through almost every post regarding any ARF...money. Value is a perception enjoyed only by the person doing the investing. The rest of us can agree or disagree as we see fit. At the end of the day, the fella what wrote the check makes the final call.

I truly wanted to keep my post away from "good deal-bad deal", cheap vs value and the like. Something was broken and I figured out how to fix it, nothing more. I just gotta think that I'm not the only one that has faced a similar condition out of the box. It's hard to avoid a similar scenario when the guy driving the truck uses your carton for a footstool in his truck, :-)

What brand is the P-51? AK, something or other. I tossed the pretty, 4-color carton last year. The construction manual is in English but has no manufacturer's info on it. I shelved the the airframe because I had 2 other building projects going and didn't want to divert energies away from those. "Marie" was not a priority as I knew I would be stripping the basic color scheme to change it to my own liking eventually anyway.

Thanks for lookin'...

PM