Today, I received notification from DJI that the Inspire 1 will not be shipping in early December.

So, as disappointing as that is, I am torn between these wonderings/thoughts:

1) They truely were unprepared for the demand, but that would mean some will get theirs anyway (watch these boards)
2) They cannot get the parts
3) There is a problem they discovered and want to make sure it is resolved

I personally have no immediate plans to cancel my order. I am going to go with the belief that they are working to make it an even better experience for us and perhaps by late December to early January, I will be flying.

My 2 cents.

Received the following the morning of 11/28/2014. I ordered on the 13th directly from DJI. Frankly, I prefer the delay rather than deal with issues;

Dear DJI Customer,

We want to give you an update on the status of the Inspire 1 shipments.

Because we are committed to giving you only the best systems DJI can produce, we have decided to postpone shipment of our first units, and we want to explain this decision to you.

Earlier this year, we started flying and testing the first Inspire 1 beta units. The technology we built into the Inspire 1 is based on all of our years of research and development, and we have always dreamed of combining these elements into one complete system. So these first flights were deeply important to us.

As these flight tests went increasingly well, we started bringing the Inspire 1 around the world to test it in different environments. At that time, we were 99% certain for a launch date in early December. Unfortunately, as we started ramping up to full production scale, there were unavoidable circumstances that prevented our best work from being completed.

So now it is the right decision to delay shipments. We apologize for bringing you this news, but we are working hard to give you the best products you need.

We will update you on our shipment times soon.

Sincerely,


DJI

I'm bummed to wake up on the Friday after thanksgiving and to have gotten this message from DJI too.  The real kicker is that when I placed my pre order, they went ahead and charged me, so while they have my $3,399.00 it appears I may just get a lump of coal this Christmas.  I appreciate the update, but think DJI needs to do a bit more... Perhaps they could include an extra battery and charger to good boys and girls who pre ordered and are now left empty handed.....as a way to say sorry for over committing and under performing.  Just noticed that the DJI shore is indicating round 3 of pre orders has begun with an estimated ship date of Jan 15, 2015....

decided not to get one' after all we all no what dji after sales is like when something goes wrong

Feel bad for you guys that have pre-ordered only to receive a delay notification. Better safe than sorry they say (especially if it is a quality control issue). I guess you need to be 100% sure (and not 99% sure) when you predict a launch date of a product with a substantial price tag.

I received notification today also.
From the way they describe the problem without actual mention.
I think they have discovered a fault in manufacture.
If you think about it, that could mean hundreds or thousands of units needing to be returned.
And the fault corrected.
It is highly likely that parts are made by lots of subcontractors.
Any one of those parts is substandard or faulty.
It puts the whole unit out of alignment.
I blame Santa, he thinks I've been a naughty boy for spending all that money.
And yes it is a bit bad that money has been paid, there should be some sort of offer from DJI.

I got in on the 2nd round, but have not received any delay email.  Not sure if that means they expect all 1st & 2nd round orders to begin shipping by 12/15, or the 2nd round will get pushed back to Jan. 1st.

Either way, I'd rather they do whatever they have to to make sure they ship a good product, than try to hit a deadline.  

:@ refund my money. good lord who droped the ball should be fired:@

I waited 8 weeks to get my Phantom Vision 2 + fixed and was happy to get it back.
Now after getting the news about my Inspire 1 order I am disappointed but looking on the half full glass perception.
I want the the inspire to the the best that it can and I am willing to sit tight and wait for it, as long as I am still alive to fly it when it comes!

bobibobr@yahoo. Posted at 2014-11-29 01:47
decided not to get one' after all we all no what dji after sales is like when something goes wrong

Well, this is my first DJI product so please explain what you mean by "dji sales is like when something goes wrong". What am I getting myself into?

You can PM me if it would be better than airing dirty laundry in public.

MTShipp Posted at 2014-11-29 22:28
Well, this is my first DJI product so please explain what you mean by "dji sales is like when some ...

Have you flown quads before?!

Hey guys，
I apologize for the shipment delay.
Actually we do have encountered some problems in production.
The worst one is the lens. The original design is lens + filter glass.
But we found that when the sun is not appeared in the filed of view, the sun light will affect the image quality.
Engineers advised to accept the result because it is just one case and will be ok in 90% of  applications.
But the product manager disagreed. He insisted that the  camera is the key point of the inspire 1.
We should do something to make things better.
So we decided to add lens hood onto the camera.
And you can find out the camera on website is different with the introduction video.
It is a big change and the date is close to release.
However，there are a lot of work to do.
Redesigned the camera within limited weight and room.
Changed the design of lens.
Made the plastic molding which is 20 days in general and we compressed it down to 15 days.
Test and so on.
The shipment date was estimated to the end of November if everything goes well.
But unfortunately, troubles happend time by time.

We have to inform you the delay info reluctantly.
Please believe that we are doing our best to get it done.
We are more anxious than you.

DJI-ZT Posted at 2014-11-30 01:08
Hey guys，
I apologize for the shipment delay.
Actually we do have encountered some problems in prod ...

Great info DJI-ZT!
Nice to know that a lens hood is being added!

hendryx32@gmail Posted at 2014-11-30 01:06
Have you flown quads before?!

Yes. I am a member of AMA and fly RC. I never graduated to full helicopter but have flown other quadcopters along with my planes..  This will be my first of DJI brand though.

Great info. It's good to have some real information rather than speculation. I have sold my phantom 2 h3-3d and 550 an advance of receiving my inspire - so I hope they hurry up. It does however sound like the inspire 2 might be the way to go! At least it's a lens problem and not a 3kg object that flies 100kph falling out of the sky.

I wonder if a lens hood will fix the issue? And whether a lens hood will add to wobble and shake by not being aerodynamic. They could always have shipped the lens hood seperately later so maybe there are other big issues.

David@trewern.c Posted at 2014-11-30 05:20
I wonder if a lens hood will fix the issue? And whether a lens hood will add to wobble and shake by  ...

I doubt it.  I have flown with a lens hood on my Zen for BMPCC.  It did not cause any flight issues.  I have now been flying the Inspire for 11 days.  I think if there was going to be a major design flaw it would have showed up by now.  Others have been flying them much longer that me.

I wonder Ed whether you have the redesigned lens or not?

Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2014-11-30 05:58
I doubt it.  I have flown with a lens hood on my Zen for BMPCC.  It did not cause any flight issue ...

I wonder if a lens hood will fix the issue? And whether a lens hood will add to wobble and shake by not being aerodynamic. They could always have shipped the lens hood seperately later so maybe there are other big issues.

I also wonder if the gimbal motors were designed for the extra weight of the lens hood?

Lens hood for a Gopro is around 1 gram. It does not need to be heavy.

David@trewern.c Posted at 2014-11-30 07:28
I wonder Ed whether you have the redesigned lens or not?

I have #29 of the preproduction units and no I do not have the new lens/lens hood.  I don't think anyone outside DJI HQ does.

Well funny thing is  before I placed my order I have twitter to dji about the  delate after I have placed an order but no reply. Lucky when I placed my order as the dealer only takes a portion of deposit without the whole amount. They really need to rethink how to please people when comes to delate to the product. My 2 cent.

wwstudio Posted at 2014-12-1 00:14
Well funny thing is  before I placed my order I have twitter to dji about the  delate after I have p ...

DJI-ZT,  Thanks for the update.

I too have pre-ordered but would like to know if the camera will be capable of taking still images at the same time as video just like the GoPro 4.

Any chnace of confirming the specification and flight controller as I am trying to write an Ops Manual in advance for getting the Inspire.  Also can you confirm the max. number of waypoints that will be available and how will you be able to get access to the ground station app.

Would be good as per other posts if DJI recognise their customers who have pre-ordered the Inspire with a free battery.

pinpointmapping Posted at 2014-11-29 00:11
I'm bummed to wake up on the Friday after thanksgiving and to have gotten this message from DJI too. ...

I ordered mine today (12/3/14) from BH Photo. "Expected availability: End of December 2014" we'll that what the site says! I was going to buy from DJI but after reading your post went with BH as they wont charge my CC until the product ships. (I think they do put a hold on the funds) I just hope BH has a similar delivery time to DJI.

I bought the inspire one with some jobs already booked. Such a shame about the delay. That said, I want a drone that works and not one that I have to send elsewhere.

I move around a lot and often move countries every 4 weeks so I hope I get a notification before it ships as I may need to change the address.

I think a secondary battery for those who pre ordered would be the right thing to do for such a huge company. By doing this they would change a lot of frustrated and in many cases angry customers into accepting loyal ones. For every 1 conflation they could give away 20 batteries, it seems to make sense to me.

I just hope they start communicating better and send some updates to all preorders.

Thank you DJI for the attempt to deliver an awesome product.

FirstDroneInspi Posted at 2014-12-4 08:33
I ordered mine today (12/3/14) from BH Photo. "Expected availability: End of December 2014" we'll  ...

DJI only charges at the time of purchase with PayPal.

Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2014-12-5 01:30
DJI only charges at the time of purchase with PayPal.

That statement is 100% accurate, but might be a bit misleading to some folks. While it is absolutely true that DJI charges at the time of purchase, DJI considers the "time of purchase" to be the moment you place your order online, not when it ships.   Within seconds of my initial Inspire 1 purchase direct from DJI in the middle of November, the full amount was sucked out of my checking account by PayPal.  I am not criticizing DJI for this policy, just making folks aware.

The policy of B&H, Amazon, and other highly ethical retailers that have been around for a while is to not charge your credit card until an item ships.

To their credit, DJI immediately refunded the full amount when I cancelled my initial 2 controller order.  PayPal makes money off of the float, so it is not surprising at all that they held on to my money for 8 full days before allowing me to manually transfer it back to my checking account.  That was a PayPal issue, not a DJI one.

When I placed my 1 controller Inspire 1 order shortly after canceling the 2 controller order, once again PayPal sucked additional funds to cover the full price of the order immediately out of my checking account, despite DJI having already credited my account for a greater amount.  Again, a PayPal issue, not a DJI one.

Sorry for the long post, but the bottom line is that you will be required to submit funds from your checking amount immediately for the full amount of your order through PayPal if you order directly from DJI.  If you order through your local hobby shop, you may have to place a deposit.  If you order through B&H or a reputable Amazon retailer, your credit card will not be charged until it ships.

Ironically, it would be smart business practice for DJI to cover all of its retail order commitments first before shipping a single unit to a direct sales customer.  After all, DJI has already been paid cash in full by its direct order customers, and has no reason other than simple human decency to honor commitments to simpletons like myself in a fair manner.  This would make a local, B&H, or reputable Amazon merchant order likely to be delivered sooner than one placed directly with DJI.

Unfortunately for them, however, DJI has a reasonably good track record of simple human decency, and I hold out high hopes for receiving my order around the same time as others that ordered through different sources at the same time as I.

I really fail to understand why this is an issue for some people.  Why shouldn't they charge you at the time the order is placed?  What difference is there between getting charged now, or when it actually ships?

"What difference is there between getting charged now, or when it actually ships?"

In a word - "float".  Take an example of two purchasers, one direct via PayPal, one through a retailer using a credit card.  Both order on November 15, and both take delivery on January 15.

DJI gets 2 months of float, or use of the purchaser's money in the direct purchasers's case.

The credit card purchaser gets about a month of float, or use of DJI's product, until his credit card bill comes due in February.

That's a net difference of 3 or more months use of several thousands of dollars.

Dji should offer refunds to folks  due to this delay as some folks might need the extra cash for xmas .ETDroneHome must live in a fantacy world where everyone is loaded with cash .

xzgraham@btinte Posted at 2014-12-5 05:44
Dji should offer refunds to folks  due to this delay as some folks might need the extra cash for xma ...

They will and they have for anyone asking for a refund for any reason, not just the delay.

DJI will immediately issue a refund if you simply ask for one by e-mailing onlinesales@dji.com with your order number.  They did so immediately, and in a very courteous manner with me when I needed to cancel a 2 controller order and replace it with a 1 controller order in mid November.  

PayPal will hang on to your money for at least a week before allowing you to transfer it back into your account because they like to make money using your money, but that is a PayPal issue, not a DJI one.  

As I pleaded on another post, if you are in the first batch of orders, please cancel your order as soon as possible, as it will move my order up in the queue.

xzgraham@btinte Posted at 2014-12-5 05:44
Dji should offer refunds to folks  due to this delay as some folks might need the extra cash for xma ...

Okay, well maybe one might want to re-evaluate their priorities if they are cash strapped enough to worry about being able to cover a $3k purchase on a drone.  Just sayin'.

""What difference is there between getting charged now, or when it actually ships?"

In a word - "float".  ...

That's a net difference of 3 or more months use of several thousands of dollars."

For complete idiots who maintain a credit card balance, that 3 months of $2,988 @ 18% costs them more than $134.  There is a very real difference.

Well, no one is forcing them to pre-order, sheesh.

GB44 Posted at 2014-12-4 01:50
DJI-ZT,  Thanks for the update.

I too have pre-ordered but would like to know if the camera will  ...

Well，
We don't support the PIV function.
And we don't release the waypoint function.
It is only a map function for flight reference.

DJI-ZT, so no autonomous flight (with exception to RTH)?

I have become a bit fearful that the initial delivery will not be until March 2015. I base this on the fact that there has been no testing of a production model, yet.

Well even if that is the case, look on the plus side in that the weather will be better by then. ;)

pete1144@me.com Posted at 2014-12-6 01:53
I have become a bit fearful that the initial delivery will not be until March 2015. I base this on t ...

There won't be testing of a production model until production begins and the unit is shipped to you!  Testing is done on pre-production models.

Well, I live in Florida so that isn't a perk. So, they don't send out the production vehicles to test....I guess we are the testers.