I ordered a Bluetooth GPS receiver worth £90.00 (so my iPad will work when it can't see the sky) and a foam mic sock for a DC Headset worth £5.00.

Package only contains the GPS receiver not the mic sock. Mrs DG phoned the 0800 number which told her to ring the )1582 number. Lady on other end has no answers and will email me when she does.

1 out of 2 ain't bad
 

.....considering the general proviation record.

Hope your mic sock problem is resolved quickly Dave, but you won't be getting much sympathy if it doesn't.

Good experiences here
 

I have ordered a significant amount of equipment from Proviation in the last 6 months and have always been impressed. In particular, they were very accommodating on recent delivery requests for Sennheisers and personal gear to arrive downroute and this was handled very well indeed with liaison with our handler. I have always found them to go much further to offer stand out support than other retailers.
First dealing was in warranty repair for my Zulu 1 which impressed me as they collected the set, fixed it in Germany and sent it back to me within around a week I think. :ok:

Things that make you go..............:hmm:

:D :D :D :D :D

Well, it's interesting to compare this thread with the recent Trainsair thread, where one person has complained and many others have leapt to their defence.

Further to last Friday .. no mic sock and no email. Mrs DG has just rung again and "customer services" don't see it as their duty to follow up and tell me where my mic sock is. All they'll do is ask "dispatch" AGAIN to send me an email. When told I couldn't put an email on a DC mike they seem to be surprised and can do no more than ask dispatch to comment by email. Assume their phones only work for incoming calls. At least the GPS receiver works a treat.

Yes I know it's my own fault.

Sorry to perpetuate the negative news about Proaviation, but I am also in dispute with them over the non-delivery of an item.

Difficult to say whether they lack organisation or whether there are more fundamental problems.

In the meantime, might I suggest using your credit card for any purchases, just in case.

Further to my last and to put the record straight. Proviation had sent me a string of emails which for some reason Norton had categorised as Junk. (perhaps Peter Norton has shares in Transair :E ).

Amongst those mails were ones saying the GPS reciever would be sent on Thursday and the DC mic sock on Monday (so I would have been fully informed if Norton hadn't mucked it up).

The things were dispatched when Proviation said they would be and I got them both 24hrs after dispatch.

Case closed as far as I am concerned.

Dave,

Thanks for setting the record straight.

I've had similar problems with messages getting trapped by the upstream spam / junk filter at my ISP, so it can happen to the best of us. :O

There's a lesson there for us all - check junk / spam folders before putting megaphone to lips!

SD

Proviation customer care problems
 

I've used them a few times now. The time there was a problem out of their control they seemed to e very keen to make sure I was happy in the end. All good for me and I still use them.
Not the prettiest of websites but the search works well if you know what you want

Proviation customer care problems
 

I ordered an Alpha MA-1 jacket on the 13th April. Listed ex-stock and paid via PayPal. My money was taken immediately. on the 15th April, this company emailed to say- "We are expecting stock to arrive in a matter of 7-10 working days only".

At the time I thought this would be reasonable, little knowing what was to happen from here on in! By the end of the month there was no further contact from them. Several emails were sent to them requesting information, all without reply. We then phoned "orders dept" several times and have spoken to four different ladies, who were all very polite, but could tell us nothing and whilst promising to come back to us, never did. I started to wonder if this company was a "Scam".

I emailed the company on the 3rd May to tell them to cancel the order. The "orders dept" promised to do this and send a confirmation email. They said my PayPal refund would take 3/5 days. No email, no refund. After a threatening email,the owner emailed back offering to get the jacket since he didn't want me to be disappointed. It was supposedly on it's way from the USA. I told him that the order was cancelled and would he please make my refund.

On the 13th May, I received an email from the owner stating that the order had been cancelled and the PayPal refund would be made, but might take 3/5 days! Still nothing,it is now 18th May, so I sent another very strong email threatening legal action! At which time I opened a PayPal dispute. Finally, yesterday, 28th May, PayPal advised that his refund had cleared!

This is the most dreadful on line buying experience that I have ever encountered. I don't think the company is a scam company now. It is just the most badly organised group I have ever come across, headed up by someone who is prepared to come out with the weakest unbelievable excuses which burble along without really telling you anything. The "orders dept" is actually a call centre and have no idea what is going on.

My problems, I think, are based around an ex-stock item that wasn't. If it had been in stock, this review might have been quite different, who knows? I got the impression that this person was prepared to go to great lengths to hang on to my order instead of being "up front" and offering cancellation in the first place.

You make your own mind up whether to deal with them. I would never ever deal with them again.

As above. I heard nothing from these clowns despite emails and telephone calls (none of which got through to a human). Opened a Paypal dispute and - well, well - an email the next day saying supplier problems etc. Paypal found in my favour and refund issued, shortly followed by an email from 'Nick' claiming to have found seven emails from me in his spam folder (I had sent three) and promising to refund my money (already refunded by Paypal).
Bull****. Don't touch with a bargepole. Friendly posts on Pprune don't cut it when the reality is rubbish.

Proviation customer care problems
 

Forgot to mention that in the midst of this fiasco, we re-ordered exactly the same item from Flightstore Pilot Shop on May 10th. The jacket was with us on the 14th May. All this whilst we were still trying to get our PayPal refund from Proviation!

I am afraid I am another one that has had problems with Proviation. I wish I had looked at the reviews before I ordered.

I didn't actually do the ordering, my friend did who helps me maintain my aircraft. I was looking for a Flightcom 403LSA intercom and a Mingda vertical card compass to fit in to a new panel we were installing in the aircraft.

Looking on their website, it said both items were available from stock on a 2-3 day delivery. This was around 6 to 7 weeks ago and neither have yet been received. We were told just over a week ago (after many attempts of getting through to someone on the phone as it was always and answering machine) that the Mingda was now in-stock and we would receive it on Tuesday (that's the Tuesday just gone). We were also told that the Flightcom would be in stock this Friday for delivery Monday 3rd June. The following day after being told that, we got an email apologising for the delay in the order and that they really didn't have a clue when the items would actually come in. They stated issues with Flightcom as being the reason and no reason why the Mingda wasn't being delivered.

As of today, I was told that the Mingda was now in and being shipped overnight but no news on the Flightcom. Today we have cancelled the Flightcom so we will see how it goes about getting a refund and see whether the Mingda turns up tomorrow.

Incidently, even after this, their website still says that both those items are available from stock. Our panel has been sitting on the floor for a long time waiting for the wiring to be finished and to be installed in the aircraft. All that is there now is a hole for the compass and a hole for the Flightcom. This will now cause us problems as the panel was cut and prepared for a Flightcom going in so we now either have to use something else and modify the holes or try and cover it up. If we had known that the items were going to take this long then we would have either chosen something different or not gone that route. The Mingda is available at many places on the web and in-stock. We could order a Flightcom from someone else but the only places seem to be in America so again we would be playing the waiting game. If they had been up-front and honest at the start then we would not be in this situation and would probably have ordered something else from them or used them again in the future.

They offered an alternative to the Flightcom but you couldn't really call it an alternative. They offered a portable pilot intercom that didn't have any of the features of the Flightcom that it was originally purchased for. I guess it's one they had in stock that they wanted to shift. The alternative was only offered a couple of days ago.

We order quite a bit of aviation stuff each year and will not be making the same mistake again of using them.

0-20415
 

Oh Dear, I wish i had seen this thread prior to ordering on monday. :ugh:

The website states the item i ordered would take 2-3 days delivery (Lightspeed Zulu 2 headset). I placed the order monday so i could receive the item in time for the weekend. Today is Friday and they have just told me that it hasn't been shipped yet !
I also sent an email 2 days ago and tried to contact them via the online help, no response. They have told me on the phone today that they will check to see if they can send it today. I asked if they could send me the item next day delivery so i have it tomorrow, if they cant i want to cancel the order. I am still waiting for the phone call back. All phones now go to voicemail. Arghhh ! You expect this kind of service from discount electrical retailers but not for a specialist aviation retailer !! Sort it out Proaviation !! I will follow up this post with the rest of the story. Lets hope they sort it out or i certainly wont be ordering anything from them again !!

Just to be fair and complete, the Mingda compass did arrive this morning. This was 7 weeks after it was ordered.

Resolved
 

An update.

I got through to them on the telephone, the lady said that she would call the warehouse to see if they have the item in stock. I asked her to call me back once she had done this. She then did it whilst i was on the phone. The number for the warehouse was engaged so she said she would email and then get back to me.

I then got a phonecall back from a previous online message i sent across, they tried to reply a while after i had sent the message but i had the window minimised. I believe the chap was called Nick, he said there has been a mix up and the supplier had sent the wrong headset to them (helicopter connections) they had managed to source another one and they are shipping it next day Saturday delivery !

A bad situation nicely resolved ! Its a shame i had to jump up and down for it but I will give them their dues !

So long as it arrives tomorrow as promised i wont have an issue using them again but i may be paying for next day delivery in future !

Thanks for you help ! :ok:

As an update to my earlier post, I have now put the matter in the hands of my credit card company to try and secure a refund. The matter is ongoing.

On a positive note, I have just ordered two items from Flightstore and had them delivered within 48 hours.

You pays your money and....................................................

Reply to forum post.
 

As mentioned before, we can't commit to responding to requests on here.

We'd rather be actually dealing with assisting customers. No doubt we'll come in for more flak on these forums if they are over-used.

Besides, it wouldn't be fair to air all issues publicly, but in respect of these problems, please private message through here - especially @ #Lukesdad: no-one should ever have to go to chargeback. We're keen to find out what order this pertains to and to rectify this with haste.

Note to anyone else reading this: We’re not certain that some of the comments left here are of a real customer of ours. If you’d like to learn more about who we think wrote the review and why, or if you just have some questions about us or our policies, please feel free to contact us.

We are undertaking to drastically improve lead-times shown the website and to make these clearer where necessary. The site is kept up-to date on stock levels and there is an automatic bar-code bases system coming in September.

In some cases, products have become unavailable at UK sources, but the site hasn't been changed to reflect this. In light of the Flightcom intercom- this hasn't been sold in the last three years and subsequently the UK agent for this product had ceased stocking, forcing the supply to come from overseas.

Quite a few avionics companies have adopted a strategy of building-to-order, or with long intervals between production runs, which doesn't speed up procurement on some of the specialist items.
This said, we're committed to providing difficult-to-source items in the UK market, albeit with better communication if items are delayed. Yes, we do expose ourselves instead of playing it safe on some of the run-of-the mill products, but we feel the UK is greatly under-served in terms of the availability of superb, and better-value aviation equipment enjoyed by the rest of the world.

We sincerely regret the negative experiences posted on here - if we can compensate in any way then please, PM this account.
Our stocked range of commonplace items is expanding all the time, and we are pleased to say that most orders ship on-time.

Proviation customer care problems
 

I do believe that this company has a good product range and potential service, but this service is useless if he keeps letting people down in the way that a lot of us here have been treated. Just take a moment and analyse what he is saying in the above post. Important to him maybe, but of very little interest to frustrated customers. Some people use other very descriptive words, but it is what I refer to as "talking and saying nothing".
OK, my problem is sorted out because I finally got my refund, but I can see that there are lots of people out there who's problems are unresolved.
I have suggested to Nick that the only way to succeed is to be totally honest with his customers up front and if he has to tell some people that the delivery of their ordered item is to be extended, he must tell them. If he loses a few orders this way, then let them go, reputation is far more valuable and in the long run will be repaid many times over.
He tells me that he has worked extremely hard to build up this business and I am sure he has. So why try to spoil it by "talking and saying nothing"?
Nick, get your act together and sort out your dissatisfied customers as a priority. Let's see the tone of these reviews do a complete about turn.

Precisely my thoughts FOZZFF. Whatever is causing the various problems is of no interest to customers at all. They have paid for goods and service. If you run a business it is entirely your responsibility to deliver what you have contractually agreed to deliver.And consistently not communicating with your customers is unforgivable. Longwinded explanations for continual appalling service mean nothing, and however hard you work (or claim to), will not keep your business afloat unless you stop telling everyone what's important - we know what's important already -and start actually doing something about it. Pretty simple really.

Have recently purchased many non aviation items from a UK company who never debit my account until despatch and advise on ordering if the goods are there to go and if not when they are due.
On one instance they advised me that delivery would be a week later and offered me the option of placing the order with a competitor. I could live with the extra week so waited and they of course waived the delivery charge.

All told this is how proviation should run their business.

So did it arrive as promised Kindupnorth? Most of the posts on this thread indicate that promises (where you can actually get a response), are broken.

You're right FOZFF, all of Nick's responses have been long winded and flowery with little or no substance.

I just thought I would add an update to my posts above regarding my order with Proviation just to give a fair account.

After posting on here, Nick from Proviation contacted me via email and asked me for 7 days to complete my order. The 7 days were up yesterday and as he promised, the remainder of my order did arrive.

It has taken a long time but when Nick got involved, he did honor his promises.

Hi!
I bought a headset a month ago. The item was in stock but a few days later I got and email from proviation saying that the item was not in stock and they where waiting a delivery from the supplier.
After a week waiting I cancelled my order. After 2 emails and 2 calls I got the confirmation email that my order was cancelled the 7th of june, still no refund. :ugh: Be careful with proviation!!

Are Proviation Still Trading
 

I ordered a headset, headset bag and kneeboard from Proviation over a month ago.
I got a mail to say items were not in stock (despite the website showing as available in stock).
It was a 1.5 week wait for the headset but to date still no bag and kneeboard.
The delivery note with the headset said the other items were to follow in 2-3 days. That was weeks ago
So in chasing them up:
1 phone call which was answered and I was told Nick wasn't available and he would get back to me - he didn't.
1 email that Nick replied to offering me Pooleys replacements. I replied in the affirmative but then have received nothing or had a reply.
1 further phone call that was unanswered so I left a message and got no reply.
Today I have emailed again to have the mail returned as undeliverable. I then went online to check the address on the Proviation site...whereupon it doesn't load as its "under construction".
All of this: the delays, withering communication and eventual lack of contact is symptomatic of a struggling company going under..I hope not but being new to this forum and reading other posts I thinks its doubtful that my items will ever be received.

I received the headset as promised on the saturday ! I am still yet to receive the spare ear pads and mic sock that were supposed to come with it tho. They said they are on order from the USA (3 weeks ago)

Ive just tried their website and it doesn't appear to be working .....

Website downtime today
 

Hi everyone,

We'd like to point out that yes, our site is down. We're working with 1&1 at the moment to restore access. So far we don't know what the problem is and they're not being very helpful.

We're hopeful the shop will be back online this evening. But, if anyone needs to check anything at all with an outstanding order then please do PM me.

It seems emails are coming through in fits and bursts (again, a server error), so we will reply to these and will be doing so over the weekend so to avoid any back-log.

The free ear seals and mike socks are being offered with the Zulu. The mike socks are Zulu-specific and so will be sent with the ear seals when these come in. They've been sent 'USPS' from the States, so they are crawling along for which I apologise, but we'll have them in this coming week I'm sure.

For missing items from the other headset order- I have PM'd you. We may not have got your message to change some of the outstanding items.

UPS's website was down too yesterday- so we all have problems from time to time. This luckily came back online in time to be fully utilised.
The website being down is not a sign of anything sinister, so it's important to us to post here as things can quickly spiral out of control.

As ever, we're receptive to feedback and will not hide away from ensuring we provide a better and better service as time goes by. We're pilots too, so please do engage with us.
A focus in particular is that we're solidifying our supply chain and negotiating with suppliers overseas on shipping and minimum orders, so this way we can import faster when required. This has a bearing on, for example, the delivery schedule for items like the headset mentioned by Nacius which was an FAA-approved unit, not readily available here in Europe.

As of this week we also have a new addition to the team. This has really helped us be able to call people back quickly to answer any queries with orders. It also helps us be more proactive in communicating in the event of a problem.

If anyone has any suggestions for products they'd like to see us carry, we'd be keen to hear about them. In the meantime we'll continue to ensure excellent availability across the current range.

Best regards,

*Update: We have been backlogged due to the site downtime, but working hard to overcome this. The store has been back online for 24 hours.

Please note that in any event anyone is unhappy, you can email [email protected] and we'll look at it.
We all own the business, and so feedback is really important to each of us.

We've also invested in being accredited by Internet Retail organisations, including buyer protection for all customers up to £2000. So this should always provide reassurance.

I'm curious how the reviews on this site are mostly extremely high.
Proviation reviews | Customer reviews of Proviation

Is it that we are in the minority and its only us complainers who have posted here? But for every one of us, there are 25 happy people. I find that hard to believe, but I wonder....

Could you please look into stocking CEP? I don't think anyone in the UK stocks it at the moment, and since it is a US product I think it might be right up your alley to be their UK supplier.

Also Oregon Aero parts would be cool too! :)

No delivery
 

At the request of Nick, this post has been deleted whilst he resolves this ongoing problem.

Matt

Yet another unhappy customer
 

How I wish I'd read this forum prior to ordering my new case from Proviation.
Nearly a month now, with the website saying the case is in stock, and apologetic emails telling me they will send it via overnight delivery. But it still never arrives. So the case cannot be in stock then, can it?
Now the website is down.
Don't bother using this company. Apologetic email replies do NOT constitute customer service, and false/misleading statements next to goods advertised are surely contrary to UK consumer law.
Proaviation is NOT PROACTIVE, and once it has taken your money, appears to operate in a manner that suits itself, not the customer.
Looks like another chargeback in the wind. Thank goodness for credit cards!
And never again.

Happy flying all.

Update: Nick eventually got in touch and offered a different case, which I agreed to, then the original one ordered became available. It finally arrived by snail mail, even though it was promised by overnight on several occasions. In fairness to Nick, he did try his best to resolve this, but I have to say if items are not in stock then it should not state that they are on the website. Being "in stock" at a remote manufacturer or stockist is not the same as being in stock and ready for supply by the retailer, is it? It's a shame because I think the company is inherently honest, and for the most part trying it's best.

Wish I'd read this thread before.. Ordered three "in stock" items last week (June 25th) totalling about £90.00 (CRP computer, a kneeboard and some VFR nav. log cards) and in the confirmation e-mail it claims they aim to dispatch in-stock items within 24 hours of order but still no dispatch e-mail after nearly a week.

So I checked the order status..

Why did Proviation say all the items were "in stock" if they have had to order them from suppliers?

Had I known about this I would have ordered from elsewhere as I need the computer desperately for my Nav exam.

If/when my order arrives, it will be my last from Proviation, didn't even receive an e-mail from them informing me the items weren't actually in stock, not a happy customer.

UPDATE :)
 

UPDATE: After my initial cynicism and a phone call yesterday to Dannielle at Proviation, I was told the systems had crashed and so an update couldn't be given to the status of my order but they would call me back the next day (today).

First thing this morning I got an e-mail notifying of an update to my order status, stating the order had been shipped. Shortly after, I got a personal call from Nick at Proviation explaining the situation and delay in processing, he informed me the order had been shipped today and should be with me tomorrow, much to my relief!

In light of this I'm retracting my previous statement of but it just would have been re-assuring to receive an e-mail in the first place explaining the problems with the system and subsequent shipping delays.

Providing everything arrives in good nick, I won't hesitate to use Proviation again, hope the problems with the system get sorted!

22 and so so much to learn.

Nick is a very smooth talker (I have personal experience with this) we've seen other instances in this thread where, because Nick has promised it will all be OK, a complaint has been withdrawn BEFORE the situation has actually been resolved.

Hopefully James will not be disappointed, but as you indicate MJ, why on earth do people post a withdrawal BEFORE the situation is resolved?

Update. 3+ weeks and still no spare ear pads or mic sock which were supposed to be shipped with the headset. Started a PayPal dispute requesting a refund of the value of a spare set of ear pads priced up from flightstore. PayPal looked into it and awarded me the refund.

Nick (pro aviation)......

If the ear pads do turn up In the interest of fairness I will return the money via PayPal but only when/if they drop on my doorstep. If not I will buy some elsewhere when mine need replacing.

I trust my actions and intentions were/are fair

Mike

Stuff arrived at my door yesterday as promised and all accounted for.

Agreed I was a bit eager to back-track on my opinion of Proviation, probably just down to wishful thinking!

Hope everyone else gets their issues sorted.

Glad to hear you got a good result James.