I've ordered from AK before and had a delightful experience. Even though one of the main carbon fiber gear on my Giles-202 1.40 was broken, Alex sent me a complete set within a week or so, as soon as it got to him from China.

I bet if Nitroplanes put up numbers of good transactions vs bad transactions, we'd see that the bad transactions are by far in the minority. This is a particularly bad time to get baseline numbers due to the holidays, but it would certainly be their worst case scenario. I would expect that as things slow down from January - April, their percentage of satisfied customers would increase as they have more time to QC their deliveries and HOPEFULLY ESTABLISH SOUND QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES in this slow period so that they drastically reduce the number of missing parts and suspect packaging more prone to abuse. Once the box leaves their dock in as good condition as possible, it is out of their hands just like it is for every other vendor. However, when the package arrives, if every part that is supposed to be in the box is in place, even if the contents were damaged due to abuse of the courier, we would be less likely to put blame on Nitroplanes. At least that shows the customer that they did everything possible to get us our complete order and if the quality of the packaging is what I hear it is, then the only one we have to blame is the courier. Hopefully that will reduce the total number of bad transactions (some of the bad transactions are due to poor QC and some are due to courier damage) which will give them more time to handle less volume of complaints, which results in shorter response times for us, the customer. It can be very simple.

It is admirable that they are working long hours trying to do everything they can to please everyone. They have no choice if they want to stay in business, and that's part of being in business. Poor QC has gotten them into such a big hole right now that there is nothing they can do to appease everyone. As a result, they have lost customers, they have lost money, sleep and everything in between. They have accepted that and have continued to move on knowing that if they improve, things will turn around. Right now, they are taking their lumps as are many us. Once the dust settles and if they are still breathing, many of us will try them again to see if they learned anything and were able to streamline their process which is currently in horrible disarray. One big advantage of our relationship with this company is our ability to influence the manufacturer as far as design goes. Granted, proper testing and evaluation (budget permitting, which will take time) will solve the majority of design flaws, but some things still leak through the cracks. Apparently the manufacturers in China have learned that by making very small design changes which cost very little, sells more crates of airplanes. We've seen it through AK-Models (Alex also has a forum similar to this one, but it has been inactive lately, perhaps due to less things to complain about because this worked for him), and we've seen it with Nitroplanes. Feedback is a great thing and benefits all of us.

Anyway, just my thoughts. I personally will likely wait until the dust settles to see if things improve. I don't want to add to the current mess, although that's the last thing Nitroplanes wants to hear. But, you must sleep in the bed you made, that's business and that's life. Show me some improvements, show me less complaints about QC issues that are in your control, and I will SHOW YOU DA MONEY!

Sincerely,
Gary