Diamond Customer Service Story

[jashsmash]

In October of 2023 I took my DA40NG to FlightLevel Aviation in Norwood, MA, a Diamond authorized service provider. They told me in November that my engine was a part of the AD 2023-20-03, which I was aware of because earlier in the year I attended a meeting with the CEO of Diamond Aircraft and other owners. I was told then that we would have replacement parts for the engine in a few months and the cost would be on Diamond. I waited for the call while flying the airplane. That call never came.

When I first purchased the airplane it had 300 hours Hobbs and I leased it to a flight school which quickly put about 600 hours on it. The flight school was responsible to do all necessary maintenance and of course informing me of everything and getting my approval. For the most part they did the work without getting my approval, nothing major ever came up. At 900 hours Tach you are supposed to change the spark plugs in the Austro engine, which they never sought my approval for nor did they actually change the spark plugs. At another point they were supposed to change the high pressure fuel pump gear. They replaced the entire pump which contained the new gear.

When FlightLevel contacted Diamond to start the process of replacing the necessary engine parts in my Austro engine Diamond was very slow to answer the request. When they finally did a week or so later they claimed that because I didn’t perform all the necessary maintenance items the engine integrity was at risk and they would not abide by their recall. The AD did not call out these items as necessary to acquire the parts Diamond promised to replace, at their cost. I fought weeks trying to understand what I needed to get the replacement parts. Every time I called or emailed the Diamond support they would take weeks to answer a call or an email. I even posted on multiple social media websites about how bad they were thinking the bad publicity would get them to answer me sooner. It’s worked for other companies.

I decided to start finding legal advice. I finally got in contact with Will Hawkes at Diamond, who I have to say is one of the worst customer service agents I’ve ever dealt with in any service or goods industry, after threatening legal action. Will said he would call me at a certain time and ended up calling me an hour and a half later. We talked for over an hour about what happened and what he would do. He didn’t really care about my situation at all. He finally said they would sell me a new engine at a discount. The lawyer told me he thought I had a case, but the cost of legal action and time didn’t seem like I was gaining anything.

The new engine was promised within 6 weeks, which turned out to not be true. I ordered the engine in April of 2024 and it arrived to FlightLevel Aviation in August of 2024. Before ordering in April FlightLevel received the quote in mid-January 2024 to write a PO from Will Hawkes and the price turned out to be incorrect. Will and Diamond took weeks to get an updated quote from FlightLevel and they finally called FlightLevel back after I again threatened legal action.

Upon delivery of the engine there were some issues with the prop holding RPM. I overhauled the governor, which had been sitting on the ground of almost a year. It turned out the harness that was shipped with the new engine needed to be replaced.

I just picked up the airplane from FlightLevel on January 13, 2025. When I got there, they informed me the new engine falls under AD 2024-19-10, which just so happens to be pretty much the same issue that the old engine had. I’ll say it again: They replaced my old defective engine with a new engine that has the same problems. They have not fixed their engine issues and they continue to ship engines with these issues. The new AD has even stricter maintenance requirements. After 100 hours you have to remove the fuel injectors and borescope into the engine to check for cracks in the cylinder head. After the first 100 hours you have to do that every 50 hours. I currently lease my aircraft to a flying club. It will probably see 200-300 hours a year. That means it’ll be 4-6 checks a year. That’s a ton of downtime. It was a huge gut punch. My initial thought was selling the plane. The other option would be to pull it from the flying club. Luckily, I learned the maintenance is covered under warranty. At least that was what I was told. Maybe someone here can confirm that.

My biggest concern, however, is the absolutely terrible customer service from Diamond. I have never experienced such disrespect for customers in any industry. They really don’t care. Often enough between December 2023 and April 2024 all I needed was a message back saying that they will get back to me. Just acknowledge that I left a message and you’d get back to me, but they couldn’t even do that. I can’t say enough how bad of an experience I had with Diamond Customer service. I had to threaten legal action or ultimately selling the plane and buying a Cirrus. Conversely, FlightLevel Aviation was great. I highly recommend them if you are in the Northeast.

I love the plane. It’s a lot of fun to fly, but the headaches with customer service have made me question my desire to own any GA aircraft which was a dream for a long time. That is how bad the customer service was. I had to question my dream.

I hope none of you have ever had to deal with a similar experience. I know that other people probably are currently dealing with similar issues. I just felt that I needed to put this story in a place that Diamond might monitor. They need to understand how poorly they treat people and what it could do to their business. I’m still thinking about selling the plane and not buying a new Diamond ever again. I have some thinking to do.

[Boatguy]

Posts like this are not unusual. I know they monitor these posts because they made some derogatory comments about me to service personnel regarding my posts. That is probably not the sort of understanding you were seeking, but that’s Diamond.

It’s the Diamond dilemma. Love the plane, hate the company.

[krellis]

Sorry you are having these issues with your plane. As Russ said in his post, this is nothing new. There are numerous posts going back many years about the poor customer support and it seems very little has changed. What has changed is the increasing number of issues with the Austro engines. The Mercedes sourced engines seem to be a little better, but with no overhaul capability - all of the engines will eventually be Austro manufactured.

Like Russ, I got a phone call many years ago from Peter Maurer (then President of Diamond Canada) telling me my posts about poor customer support were not appreciated. Again, nothing much has changed. Will Hawkes used to be very helpful. Sorry to hear that he wasn't helpful for you.

Why anyone would buy an Austro powered plane today and why the dealers continue to sell them is beyond me.

Minor edit question - Josh, I assume you mean "glow plugs" and not "spark plugs"? Diesel engines don't have spark plugs.

[Steve]

Josh: Very sorry for your troubles. Even aside from the financial issues, I can only imagine your frustration at not being able to fly and enjoy your airplane for 14 months. I have been fortunate in that I have suffered only one extended AOG period (4 months) waiting for Lycoming to build me a new engine during the COVID pandemic. My experience with Diamond warranty service was limited, but excellent. They replaced my exhaust system under warranty due to cracked exhaust risers, but that was a long time ago (2003).

Since then my communications with Diamond technical support (usually questions from me or my A&P regarding maintenance items) were always handled professionally and promptly. Clearly, based on your and others' experiences, things in Customer Support have changed since the early years. If I had to replace my airplane now I certainly wouldn't purchase a DA40NG. I think that says a lot, coming from someone who has owned his Diamond aircraft for over 23 years...

[jashsmash]

Sorry you are having these issues with your plane. As Russ said in his post, this is nothing new. There are numerous posts going back many years about the poor customer support and it seems very little has changed. What has changed is the increasing number of issues with the Austro engines. The Mercedes sourced engines seem to be a little better, but with no overhaul capability - all of the engines will eventually be Austro manufactured.

Like Russ, I got a phone call many years ago from Peter Maurer (then President of Diamond Canada) telling me my posts about poor customer support were not appreciated. Again, nothing much has changed. Will Hawkes used to be very helpful. Sorry to hear that he wasn't helpful for you.

Why anyone would buy an Austro powered plane today and why the dealers continue to sell them is beyond me.

Minor edit question - Josh, I assume you mean "glow plugs" and not "spark plugs"? Diesel engines don't have spark plugs.

That’s right. I meant glow plugs. Thank you.

[jashsmash]

Well I’m glad they monitor this stuff. It’s nice that they want you to not speak badly about them, but that’s earned. Forums like this will hopefully hurt their bottom line. It will probably take a while, but maybe something meaningful comes from continued criticism.

[Soareyes]

Even if every pilot has a soft hand on the controls, flight schools and flying clubs are hard on airplanes if for no other reason than the rapid build up of flight hours. Many required maintenance events are based on time and every trip to the shop is a chance for an MIF or maintenance induced failure. It is a paradox. We want to fly all the time yet also feel the need to limit the hours so as to minimize trips to the shop.

Fuel injectors, not spark plugs, have a 900 hour maintenance requirement.

Regarding engine replacement, AD 2023-20-03 required new pistons if available or a new engine core at 900 hours. At 900 hours the engine is at half its expected 1,800 TBR service life. Early on in the AD discussion Diamond gave the impression that one could get a new engine core at half price since you got only half the expected service life from the old engine. It would be interesting to know what was the cost of your new engine.

I started with a Diamond DA40 in 2005. After excursions to Cessna and Cirrus I came back to a DA42 in 2020. My two Mercedes/Austros (450 hours) are also subject to piston or core replacement, at 1,000 hours in a twin. I don't hesitate to take the plane on trips or to fly for proficiency but I do limit the just for fun type of flying I might do without that time limit hanging out there.

Threatening "legal action" and roasting a company on social media makes one feel better temporarily but also burns bridges. Probably not worth it if you want to continue using their product. For those who can't let go you can still come back and complain even years after moving on to something else.

One always wonders what would be the other party's perspective. In the court of public opinion it carries more weight to post verifiable written quotes from actual emails of who said what and when.

For what it's worth, over on the Cirrus forum there are nearly identical tales of woe.

[JCOiii]

Threatening "legal action" and roasting a company on social media makes one feel better temporarily but also burns bridges. Probably not worth it if you want to continue using their product. For those who can't let go you can still come back and complain even years after moving on to something else.

One always wonders what would be the other party's perspective. In the court of public opinion it carries more weight to post verifiable written quotes from actual emails of who said what and when.

For what it's worth, over on the Cirrus forum there are nearly identical tales of woe.

When a company is allowed to sell a defective product and charge you for the repair and replacement without any legal or financial repercussions, all anyone is left with is complaining on social media and forums.

[Captain340]

Very sorry to hear about your issues. I know this wouldn't help you but the European Service Center here in Germany is excellent. Probably because of the right people and the vicinity to the main factory in Austria. I really can't complain besides the AD's that hurts the image of Diamond. I think the situation is getting worse for US-customers as per 01st Feb Trump has opted for 25% increase in customs duty. I wonder what impact that will have.

[VickersPilot]

Frankfurt team are fabulous