Shemp,

While I appreciate your comments, I hope you appreciate my right to disagree with them. No, I have no intention to 'be a hero' for Maverick--LOL. As I previously stated, between his propensity toward creatively and selectively telling a story (slamming and flaming) and his tendency toward biting the hands that try to help him, I have been left with no desire at all to deal with him. I've got plenty of good guys out there need and appreciate the help to waste any more time on this guy. I HARDLY think I need any redemption here (at least not in this case)! What I do need, however, is an Advil after reading some of this nonsense. First of all, my example of customers that lie about what happened to the merchandise was in reference to my experience in retail hobby sales. It was in reference to the "the customer is always right" crap. I've talked about that at great length. If Mav took that to mean him, specifically, that's his business. Why didn't he also take the example of the shoplifter who wants to make a return of the stolen merchandise to be in reference to him, too? Maybe because he's taking things out of context? What's new.....

I spoke to Charles again today about this issue. He offered to replace the fuselage from the get-go. That's what I mean about people twisting the stories around. After the customer demanded a $50 refund (?????), Charles told him he'd rather replace the fuse. Now, I don't understand why that wasn't good enough.....

A long time ago, long before I was ever connected with Yellow Aircraft, I ordered an F-18 single kit from Charles. When it arrived, there was damage to the fuselage. I called him and asked what I should do. He asked me how the damage occurred, and I told him 'UPS'. He asked how serious it was, and I told him that it was just a few spiderweb cracks near the hatch, and that there was a footprint on the box. He sighed, and told me that there were two immediate options he could think of. He asked whether or not I was in a hurry for the kit (because a claim would take forever), and then offered me a $100 discount on it, because that would be what UPS offered on non-insured items--plus I wouldn't have to wait. I agreed, feeling that it was a generous offer since the 10 minutes it would take me to glass the inside of the fuse was worth way less than $100. Now, in that case, Charles ATE $100 on the deal, based solely on MY ACCOUNT of what happened. So, obviously, it's not a matter of simply not wanting to satisfy the customer. Since I've been associated with Yellow, I've handled MANY merchandise issues, and they've all gone smooth as silk (exchanges, returns, missing parts, etc).

Now, let me repeat this: Charles offered to replace the fuse in the first place. That's it. Pure and simple.

You know, in some cases, just getting loud, calling names, jumping up and down or whatever can get you what you want--whether or not it's fair and just to all parties. It's easy to be mad because you didn't get what you considered 100% satisfaction, 100% on your terms, then come in here and try to flame a company because of it. Heck, it may even work with a couple of people, but overall, people see through it. Fact is, though, Yellow Aircraft has literally thousands of happy customers out there. We do a ton of business--and we wouldn't if we treated people badly.
Charles made a good-faith effort to solve this particular customer's problem, and it's still 'up in the air', so the ball is still in the customer's court. Charles tried to deal fairly with the guy, and explained his options. Now that he's done that, he's gotten back to work, because he's got lots of new kits coming out, new shipments coming in and lots of orders to fill. When Maverick gets ready to, he can call back and tell Charles what he wants to do.