Van’s has made a number of changes to our policies and practices related to the ordering, fulfillment, and shipping of kits, parts and other items sold by Van’s Aircraft.
Fee for Use of Third Party Freight Forwarders
International kit shipments for which the customer requests to use their own freight forwarder, rather than one of Van’s Aircraft’s several established freight forwarders, will incur a $500 administrative fee per shipment to cover costs related to additional work we must perform when working with these non-standard companies. In addition, we have found that customers rarely save money when using a freight forwarder that is not one of the already-established companies, and the process of doing so often actually tends to slow delivery. This policy is in effect immediately for the shipping of all orders.
Change to RV Aircraft Kit Crating Process
We are moving to a crating methodology and scheduling plan, in which we now crate kits of the same type together in batches (e.g., we will pick and crate multiple RV-14 wing kits at the same time), rather than crating whatever kit is next in line at the moment. This change will make us more efficient overall and our crating plan will take into consideration the complete list of orders that are coming up to be shipped, rather than just the next one on the list.
No More Modifications to, or Deletions of, Hardware Bags in Kits
We are no longer accommodating deletions of – or changes to the contents of – hardware bags on kit orders. The cost to do so is higher than the margin on the bags much of the time, and customers are saving very little with these changes. To help maintain efficiency and reduce costs, we have instituted this policy change.
No Changes to or Combining of Orders Once They Have Been Sent to the Crating/Shipping Teams
Once full payment is received for a kit and the order has been sent to the crating team, that order is locked and we will no longer be able to add or subtract items from the order.
For non-kit orders (parts, accessories, etc.), once your order has been processed and we have sent it to the warehouse for our packing and shipping team to prepare, we can longer be able to make modifications or changes to those orders. Please consolidate your orders before you place them, so you can avoid separate shipping charges.
Any time a request is made to combine a new order with an existing one, and either of the above conditions is true, the new order will be shipped as separate parcels, and shipping charges cannot be combined.
Thank You
We know this is a change to what people are used to. Van’s is taking these steps to improve our ability to get kits and parts delivered in the most timely manner possible, and to keep our costs down as much as possible in order to minimize the impact to the prices of our kits and parts.
