A

Akrofan13

I'm New Here
Greetings All,

I am writing to ask if anyone on these forums has had or knows of any problems in dealing with Andair Fuel Valves. I have it on VERY good authority that they are having some very difficult times and have really dropped the ball on customer service and keeping up with orders. I was told that over the winter Sean D. Tucker's (Airshow Legend) mechanics ordered two different styles of 1/2" Andair valves for use in Sean's Oracle Challenger. Apparently they were completely redesigning the fuel system and wanted to see which valve would fit their needs the best. Tucker's plane is completely rebuilt every winter in the span of about 3 months (including new fabric and paint). The valves were not available in the U.S., so they ordered the parts directly from Andair. Thats when the problems began. After about 3 weeks, the parts still had not arrived (adding to the massive time crunch for his mechanics). They then learned that the customs paperwork was not properly filled out and that the parts had been shipped to the world HQ of Sean's sponsor. Additionally, only one of the two valves that they ordered was shipped. After waiting another week for the box to get rerouted, it still never showed up. They ended up ordering a valve from Lancair and modifying it to suit their needs. As of now, Andair still has not given them their refund of over $650.00 U.S. and is telling them that they will have to pay a restocking fee!

I have heard other grumblings that the company is in serious trouble. based on what I have heard about Tucker and a few others, I have decided against purchasing the valves that I originally wanted for now. Rather than risk dealing with a company that may or may not be in business in a year, or putting up with terrible customer service from a company that is half a world away, my suggestion would be to look elsewhere for fuel valves.

I am not sure if his mechanics subscribe to this forum, but it would be interesting to see if any of this is true.

Lloyd
 
If that's all true it's a perfect example on why a retailer or distributor in between the producer and the end user has stood the test of time. One can focus like a laser beam on his product the other can focus on the customer. At first blush it seems the end user would always want to go direct to the source, talk to the man, and bypass the middleman. It just doesn't work so well in practice for many different reasons.

Can't speak for going VFR Direct to get the valves but I will say the Andair valve in your hand, in your plane, and in use is a robust solution and work of art.
 
Last edited:
Andy was at Sun n Fun and happily answered a question I had about the valve I had already purchased. Great quality product, but no supplier is perfect all the time.
 
Interesting first post of yours. So, you don't know if any of this is true but you have decided not to use their product because it might be? And you elude to poor customer service and imply that they might not be in business much longer? Right...............
 
Have you talked to Andy??????

I have dealt with Andair for **years** now and have found them to be what they say they are.

1. They have always said they were a bit slow with the internet and phone stuff. Small company working hard to get the product out. Thus on custom one of a kind products, it will take a bit more to keep the communication tight. That is simply the nature of who they are.

2. They **appear** to be if not the major, a major, supplier of fuel selectors for GA aircraft. Their stuff is used on several **certified** GA planes now as well as our experimental planes. I think they do something for the really big iron people as well.

3. I had a "custom" fuel selector done by them some time ago. It cost some money and some time and it is now "standard" offering for most RVs. That took some faxes and calls to the UK and it took more than a day or two but I felt they were always trying their best to communicate and they delivered what they promised (what I asked for).

What is the basis for implying they may be having business issues other than being overly successful?????

To make such a negative implication about them is not "fair" in my opinion.

If someone wants their standard product right away, order it from Van's. My buddy did a few days ago and we were playing with it a couple of days later. Or try Aircraft Spruce.

If you want something custom, realize that it will take a LOT more time and that you will need to be on the phone or email or fax with them to insure you are both on the same page.

Also, sometimes, things do fall through the cracks. That does not make a company bad.

James
 
Andair - great people

The Andair folks are really great people. Excellent products. I think every entrepreneur would be happy to have "problems" like theirs - too much business!

Any time I've needed something "special" (like when I stupidly stripped out the screws on my fuel valve) I gave them a call, and I had them in the mail in a couple of days. Oh, and they sent them for free.
 
I had an unhappy experience with Andair

While I certainly think their fuel valves are high quality there customer service has been (in my experience) terrible.

They are absolutely terrible about responding to emails and voicemails.

I purchased two fuel caps for my RV-8 at Sun n Fun. Andy promised they would ship within 4 days. Two months went by (with several emails from me asking for a status). Finally after I threatened to lodge a complaint with Visa they answered my email and offered to immediately ship the caps and give me a 10% discount for my trouble. Never got 'em. That was two years ago.

A friend of mine who is building an RV-7 told me that he had a similar experience.

Again, I like the products based on the fuel valve I bought for the RV-8 and the fuel valve in my RV-10, but I think their customer service is among the worst I have ever seen.
 
Bonafide?

Man, this is the oldest trick in the book. Invent an online persona and post some **** about somebody, maybe even your competitor.:rolleyes:

I don't have a dog in this race, but thought you all might like to know that the name under the public profile of the original poster "Akrofan13", which is "LLOYD BONAFIDE:rolleyes:" - does not exist under any FAA database as a mechanic or pilot - despite the public profile saying "Pilot & Mechanic".

Merriam Webster:
Main Entry: bo?na fide
Pronunciation: \bō-n-fīd, b?-; bō-n-fī-dē, -fī-d\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin, literally, in good faith
Date: 1632
1 : made in good faith without fraud or deceit <a bona fide offer to buy a farm>
2 : made with earnest intent : sincere
3 : neither specious nor counterfeit : genuine

Bonafide? Ummm, perhaps not.:eek:
 
I can tell you that they have not gotten better recently. I ordered a fuel valve extension from them a couple of weeks before Sun-n-Fun, on the order page on their web site. No acknowledgement, so I sent a couple of emails requesting order status, and to date have not gotten a reply. Problem is I have have their fuel valve which I got from Eggenfellner, and am now stuck. We'll have a friendly conversation at OSH.

update 5/14/08.....I got an email from Chris at Andair today, asking if I wanted to continue with the order...I did. He then responded saying everything was in process.

I guess that they follow VAF, and hopefully are concerned about their poor customer, and are taking steps to rectify it.

Thanks to Chris ([email protected]) for the follow-up.
 
Last edited:
I always had good experiences with Andair. I have ordered a couple of items directly and received them fairly quickly. In one case, I had an item that I wanted to swap for a different version. I gave the one I had to them at OSH last year and a couple of weeks later I had the replacement in the mail, with no shipping charge. Can't beat that. They do admit to being slow in responding to emails, but I generally call them if I have a question.
 
Akrofan13 said:
Greetings All,

I am writing to ask if anyone on these forums has had or knows of any problems in dealing with Andair Fuel Valves. I have it on VERY good authority that they are having some very difficult times and have really dropped the ball on customer service and keeping up with orders. ...
Lloyd
Click to expand...

Well, Lloyd, you're lucky you don't live in England as you might find your a**e in court for libel! I suggest that you should check your facts more throroughly before posting statements that you don't know to be true. Posts like your's can be very damaging to small companies. I've know Andy for more than 15 years. He and Owen run a small family business that supplies many of the World's manufacturers of light aircraft.

While I think they would admit that they can be slow turning things around I wonder if you friend ever picked up the phone and talked to them? We all speak basically the same language! Andy got into fuel systems through homebuilding (an RV-6) and is keen to continue to support the homebuilt market - even though I believe his certified sales are worth significantly more. I think we should applaud manufacturers such as Andair for continuing to supply the homebuilt community when they could avoid the hassle (with posts such as this) and concentrate on just the OEM market.

Peter
 
$0.02

I bought a valve from Andair about 1.5 years ago, when I ordered the Fuse. When I got to the point of installing the fittings about three months ago, I couldn't find the screws that went with them, so I emailed Andair support. I had a reply in less than 24 hours. In my experience, that's better than average.

I have absolutely no concerns with Andair. I think they make an outstanding product for a fair price, and the support I got was more than adequate. I would buy from them again based on this experience.

(With their assistance, I found the screws, and felt like a mental giant for not looking where they were in the first place.)
 
Good Experience here

I've delt with Andair on a few issues and had no problems. Asked for a few extra screws, and they promptly sent them, along with the other stuff I needed. I'm very happy with their customer service. Just my opinion.

Greg
 
From Team Oracle, Re: Andair

It has recently been brought to my attention that a posting was made about our dealings with Andair Inc, of England. While all of the details are correct about the long road that we have traveled since January with Andair, I do not see how it is fair to question the longevity of their company. I have been privy to some communications that have hinted that they are aware of their reputation for poor customer service and that they are trying to correct it. We still have not been issued any sort of refund, but I am still holding out hope. In the last month, all of my e-mails to John and Chris have gone unanswered. The reason why we orederd direct from Andair was because nobody in the U.S. had the exact valves that we wanted to try. We were under an enourmous time crunch to get the Challenger flying by Feb 15th. John assured me that he could get the valves to us in plenty of time and that we could then return whichever valve we decided not to use once we were together at Sun N Fun. It is my opinion that Andair makes a first class product, but I would also suggest to anyone out there that they deal with an American distributor rather than the manufacturer. In the end we purchased an Andair extension valve that is no longer in production from Lancair (Aerocraft Parts 866-659-AERO) and modified it to meet our needs. My dealings with Lancair have been amazing to say the least. In contrast to Andair, their customer service is fantastic. I am hopeful that we will someday see a complete refund of the money spent with Andair, but so far its not looking good. If anyone does decide to buy direct, I would simply suggest that you agree ahead of time that you will not pay the full amount until you have the exact parts that you ordered in your hand. Maybe only pay 50% upfront and the remainder on delivery. Rather than post all of the gory details here, if anyone ever wants to contat me directly about this or anything else for that matter, my e-mail address is [email protected].

I have spent some time visiting my good friend "The Mayor" at Spruce Creek and have been amazed at the number of RV's based there. They are all fanatical about their planes, and after seeing the quality of the kits and the planes, I can see why. They are all beautiful machines and very worthy of the pride displayed by their owners / builders.

Respectfully,

Brian Norris
Operations Coordinator - Team Oracle
www.teamoracle.com

PS - I have an idea who "LLOYD" is and will have a seperate talk with him (her actually) asap.
 
1-, 1+

When I first contacted Andair in 2003, their responsiveness was not good. I bought one of their 6-way valves and it was missing a screw. I emailed them several times about it, and received no reply.
http://brian76.mystarband.net/FuselageNov03.htm#nov8

In 2006, I needed to order an extension for their valve, so it would work with my console. While I was apprehensive about dealing with them after my first experience, the second time around they were very responsive, and dealing with them on getting the extension was a pleasure.
http://brian76.mystarband.net/FuselageOct06.htm#oct18

The quality of their work is quite impressive. I've even seen posts on the net where people thought these valves were made of cast plastic - because the machining on them was so fine. Their products seem to me to be of very high quality.

brian
 
I agree that they made a superb product. I think it is very high quality.

What upsets me is that they NEVER delivered the products I ordered (they shipped them to the wrong address). They then said that we had to pay a shipping and restocking fee and now they have both the products ordered AND our $700.00. On top of that they refuse to answer any of my e-mails or give a refund. I have been dealing with this since January.

I met John at Oshkosh a couple of years and he seemed very nice and polite. He seemed genuinely impressed that we would want to use his products on Sean's airplane.


Brian Norris
 
Despatch in need of complete revamp.

I don't think ANYBODY doubts the quality of Andair's products. I have purchased 2 fuel selectors from them at different times in recent years and they are top notch (infinitely better than the nineteenth century bathhouse tap that Van's supplies).

And I believe Andair are people of good integrity. And when I have phoned them they have always been polite and courteous.

However my experience has been that their despatch system is in commercial chaos. And I told them so myself earlier this year. I sent them an email saying their product was fine but their service was "abysmal" (that's the exact word I used). I was purchasing products from Australia so I was reluctant to phone them in the UK (in the middle of the Australian night) but in the end after perhaps 4 or 5 emails over a couple of weeks or more would go unanswered I had to bite the bullet and phone them.

And then the wrong components would turn up and it would all start over again with no answers to emails followed by eventually another desperate middle-of-the-night phone call to the UK. In the end it took me over 4 months to get what I wanted when I ordered my second fuel selector from them.

However in the end when everything seemed totally out of control they sent me a completely new fuel selector at their own expense instead of just the ancillary components I required so that was a very nice gesture on their part.

This is not a whinge...it's a dispassionate statement of absolute fact and I have tried to be totally accurate and very fair. I make the comments in a constructive sense in that I hope Andair can now re-structure their despatch system and move on to a bigger and brighter commercial future.

Sometimes when small companies are product development orientated the directors can struggle to find the time and enthusiasm to upgrade the more mundane areas of the business (such as the despatch system) as the business grows.

In the final analysis I would recommend Andair's products purely based on the quality of the components.....but I would also recommend that if RV builders continue to have delivery problems that they report back to VansAirforce and that way Andair can see that they have ongoing despatch problems that still require attention. That would be in everyone's interest.
 
Last edited:
This all made interesting reading and its true.I have one of his gascolators and needed the ports changed.Sent it to them and that took 6 weeks to get back.Every phone call was met with aagh yes just finishing it off,will be in the post tomorrow.They hadnt even thought about it and this continued every time l phoned. Must have a word as l know him! Problem is v small company and just a few staff and Andy is here,there and everywhere doing things. They are doing very well so no chance of them going t..ts up in the near future.
 
I sent an email asking some questions about a fuel valve and after about 8 weeks with no reply...I ordered the thing anyway via their web site. Some reasonable length of time later, I got a call saying it was shipping.

About 6 months after that, I got a reply to my email. So they fixed the barn door after the horse came home.

HOWEVER...the product is flawless and was well worth the wait, and the expense.

Clear skies,
 
Great response from Andair.

I recently received the Andair fuel selector valve I ordered from Vans. I may have gotten a bad batch, but the 3mm SS counter sunk screws with the hex heads were not good. Many of the hex heads were not formed, and the ones that were were very loose and I could not tighten them down without fear of stripping them out.

Long story short. I emailed Andair requesting some new screws, and they came in the mail six days later direct from England, at no charge.

This is my first experience with Andair, but I have to give them A++ for response and customer service.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.