Maintenance shop customer service

[ArrowFlyer86]

My biggest complaint over the years has been over communication. I work on all kinds of mechanical things myself and I fully understand that you often run into issues that can’t be predicted until you’re in the thick of it. I’m very patient with people as long as they’re making an honest effort, but for the love of god tell me what’s going on. Send a quick text or email at the end of the day, even every other day. Just update me.

Especially if my airplane is at a remote field where it may take some coordination and planning on my end to go get it.

Not long ago I had my plane in an avionics shop for some work- they ran into an issue and what was estimated to be a week turned into a few months. They didn’t communicate what was going on until maybe a month in. I asked about it on POA and got info that would have saved them days of frustration if they’d only talked to me. My god, if I’m paying you thousands of $ you can take the minute to send a brief email or text. That’s just ridiculous. In fairness to them they stuck to the original quote for labor so they only cost themselves time/money I only had aggravation to deal with.

I’ve also in previous years needed work done by the(then) mechanics on field. I always had to call repeatedly to find out if they’d started the work or not and if it had been completed. On a couple of occasions they completed the work, put my plane back in the hangar, and never notified me it was done.

It’s not just aviation maintenance where I see this kind of thing but it’s definitely one of the worst offenders.

Absolutely. This was precisely my original complaint, the lack of communication. I won't shoot the messenger for just delivering bad news to me, it's when they just say nothing at all that I start to get frustrated. And for the first month there essentially was 0 communication. There would be no information flow my direction unless I badgered them. It seems kind of ridiculous when they're going to turn around and hand you a bill for $10k+ when even the service writer at a car repair shop that gives you a bill 1/10th the size keeps you better appraised of the situation.

Thankfully now that we're at the tail end of the annual I'm getting phone calls directly from the A&P, which has helped a lot. We're getting stuff sorted out on the phone in 5 minutes rather than playing telephone through the office admin who doesn't understand the topics well enough to give a meaningful description of what the issues is or what my options are. It also has chopped out the inherent latency in emailed responses where you can easily go 1 day without getting an acknowledgement.

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

<continued rant>

Good lord.
I was supposed to get the plane back on Friday but that fell through. Since then we've been playing a whack-a-mole for excuses on why I can't pick up the plane. I just need to share this...
(1) last friday: they couldn't find the employee with the part they needed... but once they get that, it's plug and play and I'm good to go! Funny, I've never lost an employee before.
(2) Monday: oh yeah turns out it wasn't the part that was slowing us down, the interior hasn't been put back in yet
(3) Tuesday: stormy day we can't open the hangar (OK, it did hail pretty good for an hour or so)
(4) Today: first because they didn't "have the manpower" to reshuffle the whopping 3 single engine piston planes they have in the hangar to get mine out... THEN they call and tell me they can't because it's too windy to open the hangar door.
(5) Tomorrow: preemptively saying they likely can't do it tomorrow because it's going to be too windy (TAF suggests 12-18kts)

I literally had to ask the shop what their personal weather minimums were for opening a ******* hangar door.

At what point do I just show up, open the hangar door myself, and take the plane back?

 

[schmookeeg]

all of those amount to the same thing. "we didn't get to yours, other wheels were squeakier"

shops have this amazing ability to over-commit their hours and see nothing wrong with it. You likely aren't the only customer from that hangar with this issue.