Vendor Warning - Warnke props

[John Slade]

I just saw the following on another list.......

I heard a similar story from another Warnke customer.

 

 

CONSIDERING A WARNKE PROP ?

 

I urge you to reconsider

 

 

I ordered a prop from Margie Warnke on 10/09/01. I was promised delivery in 12 weeks. I made a special point of asking will I really have the prop in 12 weeks because my airplane was grounded in the mean time. I was assured I would have it in 12 weeks. It arrived on 5/2/02 seven months later and four months over due. It wasn't supposed to take four months from the beginning. And I was supposedly given special consideration because I was grounded. She insists on full payment up front so you have little recourse.

 

Margie Warnke is a horrible person to do business with. She continuously lied about the progress of the prop. To the very end she told me on a Friday it was done and would be shipped that day. Then I was told whoever does her shipping missed the deadline so it didn't get shipped. It wasn't shipped until Tuesday. That's a pretty big miss.

 

Of course when I got it, it wasn't finished. It had to be tried then sent back for fine-tuning. When I shipped it back I was told I would have it back in two weeks, it took four. Better than I expected.

 

But the worst part is when I got it back it was terrible. It shook the airplane badly, even at idle. Initial acceleration was dismal and climb was down 300 fpm. This was after she repitched it to increase the RPMs. Now she won't return my calls.

 

After leaving several massages on her machine she had someone else call me back to tell me she wasn't available for at least 45 days because they are moving to Alaska. After a couple of weeks the message on her machine hadn't changed (leave a message and I'll get back to you) nothing about being unavailable or moving. So I decided to leave another message with a different name and my cell number. What do you know she call back the same day. Now she lies some more, claimes she hasn't gotten the letter I sent over a month earlier with the performance numbers and a request for my money back. She said it's because the mail is being forwarded to Alaska but she called me from Arizona.

 

This tale could take up several pages. It's been a maddening experience that I wouldn't wish on anybody.

 

Buyer beware.