I got one of theese for christmas and have about 25 flights on it. I had the same fuel tank problem just went with a smaller tank. the plane has to be one of the smoothest flying planes I have ever had. mine came out at 7#3oz. Great plane you will love it good luck.

Read this thread with amazement and only got one comment to make.

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. HOW CAN Y/A DISAGREE WITH SUCH A BASIC ISSUE. REPLACE THE WHOLE AIRLANE AND GIVE A FREE AIRPLANE AS A BONUS FOR WASTING SO MUCH OF THE CUSTOMER'S TIME. PERIOD.

Personally, I dont care how good an airplane is, if the customer service isnt helpful and understanding, See YA! I go somewhere else.

Just for the record, I have been offline for a few weeks due to business commitments, but for everybody that has asked me, I wanted to let you know that Yellow Aircraft has done absolutely nothing about my issues.

Good thing I decided to get the CG Ultimate, then...

I know this is old now, but I have been away for a few weeks and come back to this. So let me reply to set the record straight, rather than leave this sentence out there for people to wonder!

No, this is not my first interaction with Sean Evans. Actually it is my second.

Last year I was looking to buy a ducted fan jet setup and was seriously considering a Yellow Aircraft Starfire.

I had a large amount of money burning a hole in my pocket and had all but decided to go ahead and make the purchase of the Starfire.

I emailed Sean with a number of questions and he and I went back and forth a few times.

Eventually he said that it was too difficult for him to continue via email and he asked for my telephone number so that he could call me to discuss.

I immediately emailed him my number and sat back to wait for the call. Remember I had the cash ready and just wanted a few questions answered before the purchase.

Well I waited and waited and waited and guess what, no call!

So I went ahead and purchased a complete BVM Maverick Pro setup.

Maybe I should have learned from that experience!

Ok... enough...

Phones do work both ways though.

Thanks Mav for the update. Give us a flight report.

-Juhan

Maverick,

Are you serious? Is that your recollection of events? If so, I can say that I'm glad to have 'dodged that bullet.' Obviously, my recollection is different than yours. I recall spending quite a bit of time on answering questions, then reading a snide reference to me not calling you, a very short time after you gave me your number. Since your snide comment didn't reference any of the time I had spent on your emails and questions, only the fact that I hadn't called you fast enough, I chalked you up as being one of those customers who you just can't do enough for.

As far as Yellow Aircraft not having done anything in your situation, where did it leave off? I did as I said. I forwarded your comments, along with my recommendation, to the company. I found out, to no big surprise, that the way you related the conversation you have with Yellow Aircraft to the RCU readers was--to put it kindly--BS. Are you expecting a new kit to arrive now?

As far as the notion that the customer is always right goes, well, what can I say? Anyone with either a.): A somewhat firm grasp on reality; or, b.): One or two days' worth of experience in any kind of retail or customer service position knows that that motto is just that--a motto. In a perfect world, it would be great. If a retail company TRULY stuck to that, they'd be out of business in short order. I mean, come on--what do you do when the customer is lying? What about when the customer shoplifted the item they're 'right' about? What if the customer habitually has 'problems' with items they purchase from you? The what-ifs can go on and on. The simple, common-sense truth is that the customer is not ALWAYS right. And, please, show me a family-owned retail business that gives exchanges and refunds on multi-hundred dollar items on a 'no questions, you're right' basis--and I'll show you a bankrupt, oft taken-advantage of business.

Maverick can continue to come in here and tell his one-sided, self-serving story all he wants. Truth is, it doesn't take a genius to see what's really going on here. Also, there is a reason that Yellow Aircraft sells an average of 55 of those ARF kits per month. There is a reason that they have literally hundreds of customers with standing orders and credit card numbers on file. Obviously SOMEONE thinks the stuff is pretty good. Apparently, there are more happy customers than Mavericks out there.

Maverick, here's an idea. Has it occurred to you to ask yourself what the difference is between you and the customers who I spend hours on the phone with (on my dime), whether or not they bought their kit from me directly? Has it occurred to you that a customer's attitude plays a little into how much extra effort a merchant invests in him? Think about it.

By the way, you're wrong about something else. You don't have the right to say whether or not it would benefit me (or Yellow Aircraft) down the road, financially, to have simply taken your word about the split on the fuse and just replaced it carte-blanche. How can you say that? Even if I made ten times what I do on my meager margin, I wouldn't willingly do business with your kind of customer. Why? because it's not my livelihood (neither is it the owner, Charles'). It's supposed to be something we ENJOY. I truly enjoy dealing with 99% of our customers. They make it FUN to be a Rep. They are happy and appreciative to have good help at their fingertips, and they make me feel good to be one of the ones who provides it. I'm not compelled by need, or anything else, to waste time on impatient, unappreciative, rude, yippy-yappy customers who only turn around and trash you after you try to help them. Why waste the time?


Jsonin,

I apologize for making your head hurt with this discussion. I'm through talking to Maverick in here.

Maverick,

You were offline for a while. To what do we owe that blessing? If you don't like Yellow, don't buy it anymore, if you must moan and bellyache, write your congressman, and spare us the rhubarb from now on. Thanks!

They do when you have the other party's number, which in this case I didn't. I only had an email address and at that time he didn't publish his phone number in his signature block like he does now.

OK. Now we get to the real bottom line! Yellow Aircraft believe that I am lying about my issues and they have no intention of ever dealing with them, or replacing the damaged goods that they shipped me.

Thank you Sean for making that information public and letting us all know where Yellow Aircraft stands with regards to Customer Service.

So you admit you received my phone number and did not call me as promised. You didn't email me, call me or in any way contact me to tell me what was going on. You just left me hanging waiting for your call that never came.

Great Customer Service there!

BTW the only comments I recall making about you not returning calls were after I had already made the decision to buy the BVM kit.

It certainly wasn't straight after I sent you my phone number without giving you any time to call me! I gave you plenty of time. You never responded, so I spent my money elsewhere.

But the bottom line is, and i'm glad you publicly admit this, is that you choose who you want to deal with. You don't represent Yellow Aircraft unequivocally and on equal terms to all customers.

We are really starting to see who and what you really are Sean!

There is that word again! What you don't do is write the person off and ignore them and hope the issue will go away. Exactly like what Yellow is trying to do with me.

How do you 'know' the customer is lying? What effort has been made to verify the situation? Why would a customer waste their time trying to get a replacement product if the original was not damaged? It just makes no sense!

If the person has a legitimate complaint then the issue will not go away.

There are laws that protect the consumer from exactly this type of treatment. Laws that protect consumers from vendors who ship damaged goods and won't replace them.

I see a legitmate complaint on the part of a purchaser.

I see plenty of lip service from a YA rep but in reality it boils down to a "we're not responsible for anything we're actually responsible for" atitude. Obviously he can't and won't do anything to rectify the problem.
Actually, in the end, he has made it a bit worse.

I see that many on RCU have been following this thread. This will undoubtedly result in lost sales for YA as no solution has been reached and it would certainly be in Yellow's best interest if they took care of the problem immediately rather than letting it fester and hope that it would go away on its own.

Did I miss something here? Is it
not normal to fully expect to get what you pay for? Aren't YA ARFs supposed to represent quality planes at a premium price?

Once, long ago, I had some similar issues with a Hangar 9 ARF. After several phone calls and arguing with several different people moving up the corporate ladder we finally reached an agreement and solution to the matter. I foolishly purchased another Hangar 9 ARF which had similar shortcomings and then decided to stay away from all ARFs until someone built them better and stood behind them - all the way.
They are usually claimed to be better built and covered than what you could do at home or at least sold on that basis. Available ARFs are quickly reaching that point but are they there yet? - almost for some companies and some still have a way to go.

YA - Replace the fuse and be done with it. How simple to resolve this problem.

One-sided? Sean you have certainly been very vocal about this!

But anyway if it is such a truly one-sided story, doesn't that tell you something?

Doesn't that mean Yellow Aircraft has done nothing as far as replacing any damaged items or dealing with this Customer Service disaster in any way?

What's really going on here is that Yellow Aircraft's business practices and Customer Service policies are being exposed for what they really are!

They have a customer who has a legitimate complaint with problems on one aircraft and damage to another aircraft (that was present on delivery) and they have chosen to do nothing about it.

They have now publicly declared (through a company representative) that they believe the customer is lying and that they have no intention of doing anything whatsoever about it.

That is what is really happening here. End of story!

Come on Shaun - here's your chance to redeem yourself and YA and be a hero at the same time.

Send Maverick a new fuse with a pre-paid return UPS shipping label so he can return the damaged one to you and you can settle up with Chucky. Seems fair to me.

The thread view count stands at 440 views to date. Lost sales add up fast.

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.

I think we've heard lots... uggh. No more on this please.

Thanks folks for contributing on this YA issue.

-Juhan