The best reason to use Partains!
 

This is how my finish kit arrived on ABF Freight. The box was clearly marked with arrows and verbage as to how it was supposed to be positioned. This truck was mostly empty with only what you see inside. I took the picture as soon as the door went up at my local terminal before anything was removed. There was absolutely no reason to turn the box up on it's end. I had the terminal manager note the receiver that there could be internal damage and accepted the box. On inspection I found the clear plastic membrane covering the canopy was ripped by the fiberglass cowl in two or three places. I just knew the canopy would be scratched. When I peeled the plastic back around the tears I was amazed to find the cowl had not touched the canopy, just the clear plastic membrane. I really dodged a bullet on that one. I talked to Tony Partain about delivering the finish kit when it was ready to ship and was waiting on Van's to call or Email me telling me the kit was ready to ship. I was then going to call Tony and see if he had a truck coming this direction anytime soon. I guess because I paid for the finish kit in full when I ordered it they felt there was no need to contact me before shipping. I initially marked on the order form to ship by ABF so Vans called ABF and headed it my way. This was my mistake for not calling Vans and advising them I might be using Tony Partain instead of ABF. BTW, Kudos to Vans for shipping two weeks sooner than promised. It never ceases to amaze me how some companies can show so little regard for customer service.


Is this not plain enough?

ABF damaged both shipments I used them for, will never use them again. Used Tony for the finish kit and all was well as expected.

On my fuse kit, I walked into the terminal warehouse and saw my fuse kit standing on end like that. Before I could screem "STOP" the towmotor driver walked over and pushed it over and let it free fall (upside down as well) to the ground. That just about costed me a trip to the local jail.

ABF is like playing Russian Roulette :mad:

Another dodged ABF bullet
 

When my wing kit crate arrived it had two big holes in the side apparently caused by a over eager fork truck operator. The truck driver might have known something he wasn't telling because he insisted I open up the crate right there at the delivery site in the middle of a parking lot where I work.
Unbelievably there was no damage other than some dirt smudges on the wrapped parts bundles. The forks went in about two inches over the aluminum sheets. The warnings painted on my grates looked more like graffiti than shipping instructions. I'm surprised Van doesn't use a little more official warning notices considering the value of the shipments.

No problems with ABF
 

I am within a couple of months of the first flight for RV-7A #70362. All kits were shipped to Evansville Indiana by ABF and I had absolutely no shipping problems. I did pick everything up at the freight terminal rather than have it delivered to my house or hangar.

I have seen other posts about ABF but my experiences (and my hangar mate, RV-7) have been without problem.

whew, i dont want to jump on a band wagon but ABF caused my left spar, longerons and several other parts to be damaged or lost.boxes stacked as shown above and man do they get testy when you take pics and make them sign the bill for possible damaged or missing parts due to the busted open box with foot prints and fork holes in it.:eek: i never got anything from abf that didnt show signs of abuse, even the replacement parts. still their record is less than 3% for damaged or missing goods.:confused: mine cost them 15-1700$. got a little news flash for ya, they will only pay so many pennys per pound for a damaged shipment. i wonder what i would have done if both spars were damaged.:confused:
the second spar i picked up at the terminal, it was broken into with a fork hole as well. no damage though.

This was my third shipment with ABF. The empennage arrived fine. The second was the fuselage kit and the longerons were in a piece of PVC pipe with the ends capped. It was bent like a pretzel and had to be replaced. I bought my wings second hand and did not get the longerons with them. I picked up all three shipments at the terminal and the people were very accommodating and eager to help in any way they could. To be honest none of the problems were the fault of our local terminal. Everything that was mishandled or damaged came to them that way. It's too bad all of ABF's terminals aren't as good at their job as the Harrison, Arkansas terminal.

This seems common, my shipment arrived from ABF same way as yours, put on the truck with no regard for the markings on the crate. Why does Vans keep using them???

To be fair, Vans give's you your choice of I think three truck lines and you can specify your own if you want. They use ABF because their rates are very competitive. They are just trying to save the buyer a little money and I'm not sure the others are any better except for Tony Partain.

Since I can't get anyone from Partain to answer emails - do they only ship QB kits, or will Partain ship my Slow-Build fuselage kit for me? Are the prices comparable to those of ABF/Yellow/Etc?