RV-9A Finishing Kit Order

[jerry98b]

Anyone received a RV-9A slider finishing kit recently?

I ordered back in Jan 2022 when the lead time was 12 months and they took my final payment back in March of this year. I was told it was going to crating May - June. Five months later after payment and I'm still waiting and haven't heard anything.

Their lead times when I made my final payment in March were at 6 month and currently they are Sept - Oct for the finishing kit.

I'm at 19 months total now. What gives?

[Rv3Dave]

Same here, final payment made early April with a crating window of may 4 to June 29. After multiple emails I finally was told the holdup is engine mounts.
Beyond frustrating. Really poor business practice to demand final payment and not ship for over 4 months

[CaptPausert]

Paid my 9A wing kit order in December and it didn't ship till June.

[noahhl]

Originally Posted by Rv3Dave

Same here, final payment made early April with a crating window of may 4 to June 29. After multiple emails I finally was told the holdup is engine mounts.
Beyond frustrating. Really poor business practice to demand final payment and not ship for over 4 months

Same timing, same engine mount explanation. After the stated engine mount time passed, was then told last week that it's now cowlings after a batch had to be rejected. Maybe another week or two....

[rsr3]

Wait until it arrives and you realise there’s actually very little you can progress with due to back-ordered parts… brilliant.

[N661DJ]

Understand your frustration, waited for many months for my finish kit after final payment, Excuses, Excuses. I have built a number of Vans kits and never had a problem until this. IMHO, this problem rests solely on managements failure to resolve the problems instead of making excuses.
Perhaps, resources spent on development of new products would better utilized
supporting the customer base that made Vans, number one.
Signed,
Frustrated.

[jerry98b]

Originally Posted by N661DJ

Understand your frustration, waited for many months for my finish kit after final payment, Excuses, Excuses. I have built a number of Vans kits and never had a problem until this. IMHO, this problem rests solely on managements failure to resolve the problems instead of making excuses.
Perhaps, resources spent on development of new products would better utilized
supporting the customer base that made Vans, number one.
Signed,
Frustrated.

THIS! ^^^ I said the same thing when venting to my wife yesterday.

[jerry98b]

It finally came September 8th minus almost $3,000 in backordered parts like canopy frame, nose gear assembly, wheel pants, etc. Not sure how they can show a lead time of 4 months for the last 4+ months when I have been waiting 20 months and still don't have all of mine...

At least the box isn't smashed to bits like the fuselage freight.

[Dan D]

I am guessing at least part of the problem is with the bad laser cut parts. I have some bad parts in my kit, and I've heard that Van's has shipped over 1000 kits with suspect parts. They are putting a lot of effort into fixing this problem.

Of course, an explanation is not an excuse.
Dan