REFLECTOR: Crossflow Aero Engine Debacle

[DOHAYES at aol.com]

Dear Reflectorites -

I noticed that Crossflow Aero has been advertising in Sport Aviation with 
increasingly larger and more prominent page space, which is nice, because it 
means they are at least pretending to be in business. Has anyone out there ever 
ordered and received an engine from them, or even know anyone who has? Did 
anyone see their booth at Oshkosh? Do they even have an engine to show, much less 
to sell? Are there any Canadians out there, who live near Toronto, who know a 
way to put pressure on them? I ordered my engine in October of 2001. Has anyone 
else had to wait three years for an engine?

As some of you may remember, I brought this up a few months ago, and have so 
far only received numerous promises that it will be shipped in two weeks. When 
nothing shows up, I call and am very calmly given another date, with no 
mention of what happened to the last one. I tried the firm approach, but it only 
got me shock and dismay at my rude and offensive behavior for a response. My 
current patient approach doesn't seem to be working either, so I need to try 
something else.

I'd appreciate any help or advice anyone can provide in this matter. I'm 
thinking of sending portions of this letter to Sport Aviation's advertising 
department, in case Crossflow is in fact only in the business of taking money. They 
can hardly be expected to make any guarantees about their advertisers, but I 
think they'd like to know if something bad was happening. I suppose Crossflow 
could be experiencing backlogs or technical difficulties, but repeatedly making 
promises they can't keep is hardly the way to handle that.

For those who are interested, here is a little more background: The engine 
was supposed to be delivered six months after placing the order, but there was 
nothing in the contract to that effect, so that's really only a starting point. 
They asked for the second payment in February of 2002, so at that point 
everything seemed to be on track. Around that time, my painter completely ruined my 
Velocity, abandoned half of it in a hangar two hundred miles away, and left 
town. As I had no use for an engine while I was sanding off paint, I didn't put 
any pressure on Crossflow when I didn't hear from them during the rest of 
2002. Once, I called to make sure they were still in business and some tech told 
me that they had lost their reduction unit provider and were building their 
own. As that seemed reasonable, I forgave them for the delay, but not for the 
fact that they didn't bother to tell me. In the later part of 2003, my next 
painter seemed to be closing in on fixing the mess the first one had made, so I 
called Crossflow to check on the status of my engine. No one who knew anything 
was there, but Jorge called back and expressed his surprise that I had been 
waiting for so long without any explanation, apologized, and promised that my 
engine would be shipped in two weeks. A month or so later, Anna, who had taken my 
initial order, told me that Jorge was wrong, but that they would have my 
engine ready in two weeks. She is very pleasant, and we discussed what had 
happened up to that point, including the fact that other than not being told what was 
going on, I wasn't particularly upset about not having my engine, due to 
problems with painters. A couple of months later, after several more two week 
delivery dates came and went, I tried my firm approach, attacking their completely 
lack of communication with their customers and inability to live up to 
numerous promises on delivery dates, in a letter even longer than this one. Anna was 
shocked and dismayed, called my statements appalling, slanderous, and untrue, 
and said she couldn't believe I would say such things considering the 
pleasant and professional relationship we had built up over the years. When she 
calmed down, her only explanation was that she thought I didn't want my engine 
until my painter was finished and that she was waiting for me to let her know when 
I was ready. Seeing that I would get nowhere being firm, I told her I was 
ready, and she asked for the final payment in April of 2004. According to the 
contract, the final payment is to be made when the engine is ready for shipment. 
Once she had the payment she told me they would ship my engine in two weeks. 
She has said the same thing many times since April, and still no engine. The 
last promised shipment date was in July, but she added that they were getting 
ready for Oshkosh and that they were waiting for Velocity to provide them with 
some dimensions. I realized then that she was lying about the delivery date, 
and decided to come up with a new plan before calling her again. Obviously, I 
have made several mistakes in dealing with them, including: admitting I didn't 
mind the initial delay, trusting them, and sending the final payment without 
some kind of guarantee that they were actually going to send me an engine in 
return. But these are hardly mistakes that harm Crossflow, so I don't know what 
they could blame me for, other than causing a misunderstanding or two.

To anyone who has made it this far: any suggestions?

Doug Hayes
Velocity 173FG (in limbo)
Boulder, CO
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20040826/d25952e7/attachment.htm