I thought I'd pass along a review of how not to run a company.
Back in January my mechanic and I decided to pull all 4 cylinders due to high oil consupmtion and send them to ECI to rehone the barrels. These cylinders fell into the Group A of the recent AD for barrel separation which only require 50 hour inspections of the head/barrel joint. When ECI received the cylinders they stated that since they had them in hand they would treat these cylinders as group B which require reworking or replacing the cylinders. We agreed. No problem there.
According to ECI the turn-around time is 3 weeks. It's even stated in the recent article on the ECI AD in Kit Planes by Eric Golden, president of ECI. No problem there either.
The problem lies with ECI customer support and service. It's been 3 months with virtually no response after repeated calls to find out what the delay is all about. Now, I can understand problems with manufacturing, product backlogs etc... as long as it's relayed to the customer in prompt and expeditious manner. But absolutely poor communication to the customer. I even went so far as to stop by the ECI tent at Sun n Fun and speak with Eric Golden and get an explanation. Apparently it's a problem with the nickel plating process of the threads which join the head and barrel. At least let me know instead of being in limbo.
It will not be 3 weeks as stated. It will be greater that 3 months. That should be stated.
In summary: Good product, noble attempt to resolve a product deficiency, very poor customer communication, mistrusting of delivery dates. Would I recommend ECI? Probably not if you've got any customer service issues.
I kind of hope someone at ECI reads this. It may help the consumers here.