PC Aviator.com (not ".au)"=Bucket Shop

[BenFlat 0]

I've never posted before after 6 years of lurking but after an experience with pcaviator last week I felt I should share my experience so hopefully others won't fall trap. Basically I purchased a product (instant download) from their website, it took 72 hours and 4 e-mails to eventually get the licence key for a so called "instant download" product. They proceeded to send me a license key which didn't work and despite another 10 e-mails over the course of 9 days they have ignored me completely. I run many businesses myself, dry cleaning , beauty parlous, nails bars etc. but never selling digital products so I have no experience in this area, what I can tell you though, is that this isn't how you operate a business, ignoring customers. PC AVIATOR guarantees response within 48 hours from their generic e-mails which they send out after contacting support which is what makes me believe they are purposely ignoring my e-mails.

 

Anyway rant over but be careful with these , I also wouldn't be surprised if this post gets deleted because AVSIM probably has pcaviator on their payroll for advertising, either way I'm just trying to warn people to be careful with pcaviator.com. I have purchased many products from pcaviator.com.au without a hitch however they are seperate entities (I had to make a new account top use pcaviator.com) but .au didn't have the product I wanted

 

Ben Thomas

[ematheson 19]

Hmmm. I've bought many products from them and only had a problem once - and that was resolved rather nicely. (They'd migrated to a new shop software and some products had been dropped at time of transition. I went to download something I'd already bought on the old store and found it wasn't available anymore. So I sent an email to them and found a CD version of the product in the mail free of charge a day later.)

That said, I've heard this sort of thing before. I do hope they get back to you soon, but in my experience, they've been a first class shop.

 

Edit: It probably isn't a good idea to use the word "scammer" in a post and expect to not have trouble - regardless of the (non)existence of any alleged connection between Avsim and PCAviator. That's borderline defamation...

[max2770 75]

Bought 2 times from them - no problems at all.

[Cai Zicheng 171]

Bought many times from them. No problems at all. What product did you purchase?

[BenFlat 0]

which websites are you guys referring to, com or .com.au. I too have purchased many products from pcaviator.com.au without a hitch

@ CAI airport anchorage for x-plane, I would've bought from .com.au (where i already haven an account) but they don't sell it.

[Cai Zicheng 171]

which websites are you guys referring to, com or .com.au. I too have purchased many products from pcaviator.com.au without a hitch

@ CAI airport anchorage for x-plane, I would've bought from .com.au (where i already haven an account) but they don't sell it.

Right. Their PANC for X-Plane actually generates an FSX key for you, instead of X-Plane. I had the same problem when ordering the same problem form them. I called them and they never answered the phone. The email support was indeed slow. However, Aerosoft themselves were willing to take care of this issue. So yes, same problem.

[PCAviator 37]

Ben, please send me a PM here and I will look into and resolve the issue for you.

[kingm56 1,031]

PCAviator is my primary website to procure FS related software.  Their prices are often cheaper than their competitors (e.g. Simmarket and fspilotshop); they also have numerous sales.  I've purchased 10 separate downloads and have yet to experience any difficulty; I'd recommend this site to anyone....

[DreamsOfWings 18]

Been ordering from them for the past 16 years or so (even through Microwings). Both digital downloads and disc media and never had a problem. Always had great customer service and a CSR would answer to take my order when ever I called. I do miss those good weekly specials they used to do though. 

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

I've bought numerous things from them.  Not any problem so far.  And, (as seen above) they're active posters on Avsim, not just with their own products too.  They've been fair and I like them being around.  Bad experiences do happen and I do believe what you said...sometimes some issues drag on and folks at the business don't get a handle on it as fast as they should.  So post back once the issue is resolved and let us know how it turned out.  And, by the way, stop lurking and join in!

 

Gregg

[Gartro 18]

I can vouch for what has been said about PC Aviator Australia. It is my primary flight sim retail site of choice. I am not overly concerned by price. It is the quality of service which attracts me.The biggest department store in Australia had as its slogan for decades "For value and friendly service". That's how I find my dealings with PCA Australia.

 

Although I understand that the Australian and US stores of PC Aviator are related, they run as separate operations. Despite that, look at how many times on Avsim Dean from the Australian store has stepped in to help solve a problem when the product has not been purchased from his store.

 

I only deal with someone else if a product is not available from PCA Aust, much like BenFlat said he did, but that is frequently for airports by small developers.

 

The nearest to a problem I have had with the US store was a delay with an email response on a couple of occasions but that was explained to me as due to staff absence/illness. I accepted that.

 

A few weeks ago, I had an experience with a European site whose response seemed to me to be a world away from what I have been used to in dealing with PCA Aust. In the past year, I had bought close to 70 airports from that site. In the last batch of five which I bought, two were by the same developer and the other three each by different developers. The downloads of those three went without a hitch (as had every other download previously purchased from that retailer) but the two from the one developer would not download even though I subsequently did further downloads of other products from the same retailer. The retailer told me that it was a problem at my end, not at their's. I then made direct contact with the small developer who was great to deal with and who made some suggestions to me and offered an alternative method if they did not work. Eventually, following one of his suggestions, I effected the download some days later (all thanks to the developer) but thought how much smoother things would have gone for me if the product had been available from PCA Aust and I had been able to make the purchase there.

 

Just goes to show what a difference a particular developer and a particular retail site can make to satisfaction with a product purchase.

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Although I do understand the OP's frustration at giving money and not getting a product as soon as expected, I never experienced any issues with PCAviator (.com), and I've spent more than enough there, that's for sure!

 

To be honest, perhaps it's just me being lucky, but I've never had an issue shopping at any of the online flight simulation stores and I'm pretty sure I've bought from almost all of them, developers included. ^_^

 

 

I do miss those good weekly specials they used to do though.

 

I was going to add that I miss those as well, but the truth is that my wallet is thankful that they haven't had them for awhile!

[PCAviator 37]

Ben,

 

Still waiting for that PM so I can assist with your issue.