Autopilots Central used to be the go to place for legacy autopilots, but they seem to have crashed and burned in the last few months.
I gave up on them in August when they had failed to respond for many weeks. I took a similar item to Straubing for work, where they charged me €290.06 and did the work on the spot.
Today, 2nd November, I got a quote from AC on the same unit which I sent them in early July, for $1,745.85.
Is this, sadly, the end of an era?
Are these the guys in Tulsa, Oklahoma?
AdamFrisch wrote:
Are these the guys in Tulsa, Oklahoma?
Affirm
You may be right, but shouldn’t we also celebrate the rise of Martin’s team at Straubing? They do really good work at reasonable prices, are much closer to home for most of us, and take real pride in solving tricky issues.
I’m just a satisfied customer…
…me too.
But it is still sad that such a well regarded establishment as AC seems to be in such trouble :-(
Are they in trouble? I am making some enquiries.
Comms with Straubing can be extremely problematic, IME, if you are not a German / regular trusted customer. That results in a highly polarised debate whenever that subject comes up here.
Peter wrote:
That results in a highly polarised debate whenever that subject comes up here.
With you on one side and everybody else on the other?
Here we go again. A perfect example.
Timothy – do you have evidence this company has gone bust (as the title possibly suggests) rather than slow to reply to your emails? Have you tried to phone them? They are in the USA so speak English, which makes life much easier.
For example, many avionics service firms don’t really deal with end users; they much prefer dealing with avionics shops. End users are often a lot of hassle.
I have just phoned them. Spoke right away to one of the owners, called Judy. She strongly denied any issues. She said they are really busy. They cannot see correspondence from Timothy.
No suggestion that they are bust, simply that their service has taken a tumble, which is very sad, as they used to be pre-eminent.
Peter wrote:
They cannot see correspondence from Timothy.
That comes very close to calling me a liar, which is inappropriate. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
The formal correspondence has largely been through my engineering company, though I have sent 27 emails. If you think I am fibbing, I could post their quote (today), plus emails showing the date the parts were sent to them (early July), but I really would have thought that you have known me long enough for that not to be necessary.
I will post a picture of my sent items which are either to, or cc’d to them:
I do understand, Peter, if your personal preference is for AC, it was mine until about August, but there must also, I assume, be some self restraint and neutrality on your part, given your editorial position. This doesn’t have to be a polarised black and white debate, but it must be possible, for all our sakes, for information to be passed.
My personal experience with Straubing and Martin, their A/P man, could not be bettered, in quality of work, timeliness and cost.
My personal experience of AC has been poor in timeliness and cost, though I cannot fault the quality of their work.
Your experience may differ, so be it, it doesn’t have to be a fight to the death 
…oh, I missed the bit about phoning them. Yes, I have called them many times. Mostly I have to spend the first few minutes of each conversation reminding them who I am and what the situation is.
