Is Crazed Pilot a Scam?

dcat127

dcat127

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Normally I do not make purchases on a website that does not list phone numbers or complete contact information. However a certain youtuber had the owner on a live-stream, and after looking at their headsets it seemed to be an excellent value, and I decided to purchase 2 to be used as passenger headsets. It took them about 40 days to ship my order. Each time I would email them they would eventually reply with a new excuse, and tell me to wait a few more days. Alas when the order arrived they had shipped the incorrect item. Per their instructions I mailed the incorrect items back to them. Tracking number shows it was delivered about a week ago. However they claim they have not received the package yet... Apparently they will not ship the correct item till they have that back...

Is this a small company that needs to just be given a few more days of grace.... or should I contact my credit card company and see if they are able to give me a refund?
 
Contact the u-tuber and let him solve the problem.
 
bail out...
 
If they are in business, they should perform the service you paid for. Too many of these fly by night ops pretend to be real but it's just some guy in his garage. Charge back and bail.
 
I’ve bought 2 in-ear headsets on separate occasions before the pandemic. Not a scam. No connection, just my experience.

Wife tried mine, so I bought another. I’ve since moved on, but she likes hers.
 
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Bought a couple things a year ago with no problem. Might be swamped due to “becoming famous”.

Cheers
 
He could be a start up who got in over his head with too many orders. Get your Mandy back.
 
Credit card chargeback time! Just call your card- all the brands will protect you from this.
 
And today a box arrived with 2 headsets in...58 days after the original order was placed.
 
Hi guys, I'd like to address a few of the questions and incorrect statements, and clear up the confusion. This issue had been escalated to me from support, so I know the backstory.

The original poster ordered a set of CRAZEDpilot ANR headsets for Airplanes. The problem was, like almost every industry in the world right now, we have some specific supply chain problems on certain products - metal parts fabricated overseas were delayed and we had a backlog of orders - this took a few weeks sadly but again it was outside of our control. Once our batch of ANR headsets were assembled and ready to go out the door, stock was accidentally mislabeled and he was admittedly mailed the wrong headset model along with another two other customers. Once we found out, customers were promptly sent pre-paid envelopes and we covered all the shipping costs for our error. Yes, there was a little bit of associated delay to get our mixup solved, but the delay was again due to supply chain problems, with no delay resolving the shipping error once identified.

To dispel some of the other comments:

1. We have been incorporated since 1979, in the GA accessories space since 2008 - so no, we aren't fly-by-night as some of the replies clarify from other happy customers.

2. The "made in China" mantra is sadly true about almost every manufactured item sold in America since the year 2000. Everything you buy now has parts from China or Korea, including David Clark's headsets or anything else you might wish to purchase (in fact we purchase parts from the same manufacturers as David Clark). Do we like it? No. Can we get you a headset for under $500 if we demanded all parts were made in the USA? Sadly no - as a nation we have worked ourself out of all those manufacturing jobs involving high volume molding and smell electronics assembly, thus our only source of parts is overseas. We ASSEMBLE a large majority of our products with American hands, as much as humanly possible, but supply chain issues we cannot control, I'm afraid to say.

If anyone has specific concerns or questions please reach out to support@CRAZEDpilot.com - one of our staff typically replies within 24hours or less.

Fly safe!
-Brendan

-----------------------------------------
Brendan O’Mara
Co-Founder
www.CRAZEDpilot.com
-----------------------------------------
Aircraft Audio Interfaces
Headsets and Parts
LED Lighting Systems
Pilot & Aircraft Gear
 
So you admit you took his money knowing you couldn’t deliver right away due to supply chain issues, then shipped him the wrong product, made him wait for the item to be returned before shipping the right product and even then had another delay after the item showed as returned before sending him what he ordered almost 2 months later. That I doesn’t sound like a reputable company trying to do the right thing for it’s customers. It sounds like a company that doesn’t know how to properly handle supply chain disruptions or respect its customers. You claim multiple times that these issues were out of your control yet it’s your lack of quality control that sent the wrong headsets and your lack of admitting that items were not in stock while still openly accepting orders and customers money. Have you done anything for the buyer for all of the inconvenience you caused that he had to endure? If not then why would anyone consider ordering anything else from you? It sounds like an order from your business comes with no guarantee of when you will ever receive the item and no guarantee that it will even be the right item.
 
You gotta do better by the customer. Should have notified them as soon as the first promised by date expired or you knew you couldn’t deliver. Given them the option to hang on or bail. Then shipping the wrong item, and treating THEM like scammers? No Brendan. I gotta call shenanigans on this one. You’re holding the money ransom at this point. Actually well before this point. The “slow boat from China defense don’t cut it. My opinion. Other’s mileage may vary.
 
dcat127 said:
Normally I do not make purchases on a website that does not list phone numbers or complete contact information. However a certain youtuber had the owner on a live-stream, and after looking at their headsets it seemed to be an excellent value, and I decided to purchase 2 to be used as passenger headsets. It took them about 40 days to ship my order....
Click to expand...

lemme guess, you also wear flying eyes? you know, because (a few) youtubers promote those, and everyone does what youtubers do.......

also, 40 days? that doesn't seem all that horrible in these times. not great but not horrible.


kmacht said:
So you admit you took his money knowing you couldn’t deliver right away due to supply chain issues....
Click to expand...

to your point, aircraft spruce didn't charge me for the champion oil filter I ordered months ago which were out of stock. that's how you do it.
 
kmacht said:
So you admit you took his money knowing you couldn’t deliver right away due to supply chain issues,
Click to expand...

where did he say that? Or where did the OP allege that? As noted above, most retailers don’t charge you until they ship. We don’t know what happened in this case. Maybe one of them will come back and clarify.
 
CRAZEDpilot said:
The problem was, like almost every industry in the world right now, we have some specific supply chain problems on certain products
Click to expand...

Nice write up, and everyone certainly is feeling the shortage of certain items these days, but communications are very important.

As soon as you know there will be a problem, communicate. Let the customer know ASAP.

I have ordered things only to get an email a week or two later saying that item is currently out of stock and we won't be able to ship for 30 days. Do you still want to continue with the purchase?

Again,communications are important in sales.
 
A lot of assumptions are being made that we didn't communicate with the customer, which is inaccurate - our helpdesk system tracks all of our emails per customer, so I went and reviewed the entire exchange with this customer step by step to make sure we're keeping up our level of customer service our customers deserve.

For backorder items, the website clarifies at the time of the order that there's a delay. A few days later the customer inquired about his backorder and was informed "very sorry but it will take a few weeks". Like any other vendor, we would have happily cancelled his backorder immediately on request - these things happen, no big deal. Customer never replied to our inquiry until he received his shipment 4 weeks later explaining he received the wrong items, which we then resolved as previously described.

I'd be happy to discuss this in person with anyone having concerns about the integrity of our staff, our customer service, or our products at OSH next week.

Fly safe,

-Brendan
 
eman1200 said:
lemme guess, you also wear flying eyes? you know, because (a few) youtubers promote those, and everyone does what youtubers do.......
Click to expand...

I really like cloudbase lenses. I have found cloudbase does a great job of cutting through haze.
Screenshot_6.jpg
 
I paid for a custom shower pan and vanity top the first week of April. The pan finally arrived last week, the top intalled this week.

I guess they were running a scam too.
kmacht said:
So you admit you took his money knowing you couldn’t deliver right away due to supply chain issues, then shipped him the wrong product, made him wait for the item to be returned before shipping the right product and even then had another delay after the item showed as returned before sending him what he ordered almost 2 months later. That I doesn’t sound like a reputable company trying to do the right thing for it’s customers. It sounds like a company that doesn’t know how to properly handle supply chain disruptions or respect its customers. You claim multiple times that these issues were out of your control yet it’s your lack of quality control that sent the wrong headsets and your lack of admitting that items were not in stock while still openly accepting orders and customers money. Have you done anything for the buyer for all of the inconvenience you caused that he had to endure? If not then why would anyone consider ordering anything else from you? It sounds like an order from your business comes with no guarantee of when you will ever receive the item and no guarantee that it will even be the right item.
Click to expand...
 
Waiting weeks still for my MP/FF gauge to be repaired at a reputable shop in Michigan. Or at least I assume they are reputable.
 
Went through a long waiting process when I ordered some Michelin Commander tires for my motorcycle. They sent one from one state but the other had to come from the land of fruits & nuts and was being held up due to labor, supply chain & delivery issues.

After several months of waiting I sent an email requesting a refund so I could order from a different vendor. They took care of it right away ...
 
Some vendors don’t honestly list an item as “back ordered” or they indicate “in stock” when they actually order from manufacturer hoping for JIT processing. How does this crazed handle it?

I ordered a big ticket renovation item from a big box home improvement store. Was delayed almost two months even though they have 10 day delivery window. Wasn’t charged until it actually shipped. Charging just before shipping is the way to do it.
 
Van Johnston said:
where did he say that? Or where did the OP allege that? As noted above, most retailers don’t charge you until they ship. We don’t know what happened in this case. Maybe one of them will come back and clarify.
Click to expand...

From the original post

“Is this a small company that needs to just be given a few more days of grace.... or should I contact my credit card company and see if they are able to give me a refund?”
 
This exchange makes me sad. I see a disgruntled customer with whom communications were not great and a frustrated supplier who was struggling to deal with circumstances beyond his control and felt the communications were adequate and not paid attention to. No win for either. One of the hard truths about human nature is that the message sent is not always the one received. I don't know any details, but expecting a customer to look at one's website for more information about delays of his specific order is unrealistic unless a link was sent with something like "For more information about why your order was delayed, please see <link>." In my experience, the vendor who communicates well, personally, and often is forgiven for all kinds of problems. And I hate to say it, but the onus is on the vendor when things like this happen because the vendor is the one with all the information, not the hapless customer. Yes, personal and frequent communication is time-consuming (i.e., expensive), but it pays off in spades by bolstering the vendor's reputation. In my experience, poorly managed communication has cost vendors more business than just about any other problem.
 
kmacht said:
From the original post

“Is this a small company that needs to just be given a few more days of grace.... or should I contact my credit card company and see if they are able to give me a refund?”
Click to expand...

We still don't know if the OP's card was charged when he placed the order, or only when the item was shipped. You alleged the card was charged when the order was taken, and we just don't know that.
 
Van Johnston said:
We still don't know if the OP's card was charged when he placed the order, or only when the item was shipped. You alleged the card was charged when the order was taken, and we just don't know that.
Click to expand...

and also...in today's world of you're either the greatest or cancelled, big deal, this guy 'maybe' had a questionable transaction, big whoop boo hoo. to call the company a scam because boohoo you had to wait a month? please.....
 
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