GEEDUBBYA

Howdy Guys and Gals,

Ok, I recieved a reply from Ms. Sharon Blackwell, Operations manager at minicraft, she offered to replace the missing parts from the Liberator kit only. Having read my first posting on this topic, do you see a problem here?
Thats right, the Liberator was a model I bought some six months ago and threw away! Talk about not paying attention to Feedback.
Anyway, I thought I would post the correspondance thus far between myself and minicraft. So below, you will see my original email, then her reply, and my reply to her reply. (Whew, this could be kinda' long).

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My original letter to minicraft:

Dear Sirs,

I would like to take a few minutes of your time to discuss an issue that has come up twice within the last year concerning your models. The issue I am reffering to is missing parts.
I am not sure if you are aware or not, but some people take their modeling fairly seriously, painstakingly painting parts as they go along, adding weathering to not only the overall model, but to the individual pieces of the model as well. This is a process that can cause many hours to be invested in one kit.
Now imagine spending all those many hours on a B 24 Liberator model (11612) and realising that all the parts were not in the pakaging, well that happened to me about six months ago with the aforementioned model.
Now, once again, I have purchased another model by your company and once again, missing parts. This time it is the "early version Vega PV 1 Ventura, kit number
11638. In this instance, no nose cone, no clear plastic parts, no decals either. Well, last time I thru away the model in a little bit of a "fit", there is nothing like spending all those hours on something and then realizing that no matter how good the work you did was, or how much painstaking detail you put into it, it could never be completed because of missing parts.
So, here I am, somewhere about $50 (US) poorer than I was before I started buying your kits, my trashcan recently filled with yet another partial model from your company.
Now I would like to talk to you about unhappy customers. I work in an industry that also deals with injection molded plastic, however, my factory produces Power distibution transformers which provide electricity to most of the civilized world.
When my company "leaves out" a part, or doesnt include a decal (such as "HIGH VOLTAGE 18" CLEARANCE REQUIRED"), then my company may have an unhappy customer....or worse yet, my company may have a dead customer.
Fortunately, we have never had the latter of the two, but we have had our share of "unhappy" ones. But, we have always remedied the complaints to the customers satifaction, sometimes the customers would stick with us, other times, customers would leave. I know that I have been on the recieving end of an angry customer letter before and its no fun what so ever. I can tell you now, that my letter to your company is much more pleasant than letters I have recieved before at my company.
So, why am I telling you all of this? You know what? I dont really know myself. Maybe its to pass along some of the shame I felt when I was on the recieving end of an "angry customer letter", or maybe its to see how "other people" handle this type letter/problem, or maybe because I am so frustrated at being "taken" again.
In closing let me say I wish you and your company a nice day, but until such time as I am assured of your companies quality improving, I will go out of my way to steer clear of your products.
If you feel that this would be an error on my part, please, by all means let me know why.


Again, have a good day and thank you for your time,


Greg Worsham

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Now Ms. Blackwells reply:

Mr. Worsham,
Thank you for your letter, we are always interested in what our customers have to say. First of all, I want to apologize that you received an incomplete kit. Inspections are done at the factory but sometimes one will 'slip through'.

Minicraft's policy has always been to replace any missing or defective parts at no charge. We can be contacted thru our website or at 800-322-3692.

In regards to the parts missing from your Liberator, I will have our parts department pull them for you have them mailed to you by Friday.

Again, please accept my apologies for the missing part. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Sincerely,
Sharon Blackwell
Operations Manager

>>>>>>Note how they are always interested in what their customers have to say, but, dont pay attention to what is written, its the ventura I have, the Liberator got thrown away! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<


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Now My reply to her reply:

Dear Ms. Blackwell,

I appreciate your offer to replace the Liberator parts, However, the liberator was thrown away some six months ago, there was really no need in keeping 2/3rds of a model even though I had put several hours into the detailed painting. So as you see, the Liberator was a complete loss
The Ventura model, I decided to save lastnight after writing my original letter to you. It is missing the sprue with the nose of the plane as well as the clear sprue with all the windows AND the decal sheet. But it was also destined to the trashcan had I not thought about waiting for your reply to my letter.
So I am only $30 in the hole with the liberator kit.
I would have returned the models to the hobby shop where I purchased them, but, the store is some 70 miles from my home and the only reason I went to that town was for a Dr's appointment. With todays gas prices, its hardly worth driving 70 miles to return a model, much less do it two times.
Anyway, I hope to hear from you again soon,


have a nice day,

Greg Worsham

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It was a generous offer to replace the missing parts, however, what am I gonna do with parts for a model I no longer have?
I see how some things "slip thru" as Ms. Blackwell stated, It seems that it "slipped thru" that I no longer had the Liberator and was missing parts to the Ventura.
I am really kind of wondering if maybe she is the inspector for quality control.

have a good day,


Greg