Aviation Laboratories - 3 Month Delay for Oil Analysis Results

[Noah]

Anybody experienced long delays getting results from Aviation Labs for oil analysis? I sent them a sample in early November of last year, and didn't get any results from them until early February - ALMOST THREE MONTHS! When I called them they claimed that the US Mail can take UP TO TWO MONTHS to deliver the sample, which to me seems a little unbelievable. I can see maybe a couple of weeks for 3rd class mail or whatever their packaging uses, but not the 8 or 10 weeks they are saying. And they also claimed to have a machine down as well which they said explained 2-4 weeks of delay. The whole point of doing oil analysis is to give you timely warning about a problem developing within your engine, and 3 months is not timely.

My next oil sample is ready to be sent off, and I am debating whether to use another lab or take another chance on these guys. Problem is, I bought a bunch of kits from Spruce, which I guess I could return.

Anybody else have any experience with these guys?

[Louise Hose]

I'm not at home and can't provide exact details but my last oil analysis by these folks, about the same time as yours, took months and not weeks. And, I get my results by email/website, not US mail.

That said, I really like their service and can even see the results of oil analyses when Mikey was a youngin', long before I had the plane. This last time was the only time I've had a significant delay in results so I just sent in another sample a week ago. I'm hoping it was a temporary glitch last time. Since Mikey has always had sterling analyses, I haven't worried about the delay. If the results start to show disturbing trends, I would probably be less patient.

[vasrv7a]

Noah,

I have been having the same type of issue... Aviation Labs told me that my recent oil sample took about 1 month to arrive. My sample was sent in March and I didn't receive the results until early May... I had to call them to get the results published on their website.

I will try using Aviation Labs one more time to see if there is consistency in their time-frames. I can deal with one month, but not three (per your experience)!

Victor

[Dean Pichon]

I sent an oil sample in late November and received results in February. Aviations Labs blames USPS for slow delivery. This seems a little hard to believe, and a little frustrating given that part of the analysis kit price include mailing...and Aviation Labs suggests, instead, we pay UPS to ship the samples.

I just sent out another sample last week and am interested to see how long this takes to complete.

[Noah]

I called last week and asked to speak to the lab's manager about this, as I was trying to determine whether this was a one time issue, or whether I should take my business elsewhere. I left a voicemail with the manager, and never got a call back. So I called them again this AM and discussed the issue with the woman who answered the phone. It just seems that this place doesn't "get it". But I will give them one more shot and report my results here.

[loopfuzz]

Same delay problem here.

[az_gila]

I don't know about the USPS delays, but the Blackstone sample cups get processed and reported on - via e-mail - in about a week...

That's from AZ to IN

[ccsmith51]

Are you buying your kits from Aircraft Spruce? If so it might be worth a call to them, too, to alert them of the delays and poor customer service...

[dmaib]

Originally Posted by az_gila

I don't know about the USPS delays, but the Blackstone sample cups get processed and reported on - via e-mail - in about a week...

That's from AZ to IN

Same here. I send my sample to Blackstone via USPS and I have the results back via email in about a week. I don't think it is a USPS problem.

[RV8iator]

In 5 years of samples about every 3 months I've never had Blackstone labs take more that 2 weeks from the day I shipped it off. It's usually with a week. All of the shipments were little black bottles via the USPS..

I wouldn't blame the post office for this one. IMHO