I have heard a lot of delay horror stories. Should I buy direct from DJI or wait until the Mavic is available in stores?

At this point there is no reason to order from DJI. If you order now you probably wont get your Mavic until at least late January or February.

If I was looking to order now I probably would order from Apple (because they don't take your money up front) and then continually check local Apple stores in case they get unexpected stock in the mean time. I was able to pick one up at a local Apple store last week.

At this point for what possible reason would you consider ordering directly from DJI?  So you can pay in full up front?  For the "awesome" form letter responses to inquiries on your order status?  Almost two months out now & DJI has yet to fulfill all orders from the first day or two of pre-orders.  What do you think your projected delivery date will be if you order now?  The Mavic is an amazing concept that has been turned into a colossal FAIL...

Your pretty much screwed regardless of who you order from...

dotfiles Posted at 2016-11-22 20:44
At this point there is no reason to order from DJI. If you order now you probably wont get your Mavi ...

Which Apple store?

Save your money and wait for the next version of the Mavic. Or wait for some other competitors to catch up. If you do some research, there are other drones coming to market in a short while. Finally, as mentioned above order it through Apple and follow the other steps. It seems Apple and a select few retailers received preference for distributing the Mavic.

It's like they have a monopoly position on the market  and don't give a f**k about their customers, the walls are bleeding money so why care. It's time for Samsung or another big company to join the drone market.

"I have heard a lot of delay horror stories."






House of 1,000 Corpses. Our version however has a little less blood and NO TASTY FRIED CHICKEN.

4wesomeAdam Posted at 2016-11-23 09:11
"I have heard a lot of delay horror stories."

Personally I wouldn't order a Mavic from anywhere.
There are far too many cases proving that there are fundamental software issues and possibly hardware issues with the Mavic, and until these are dealt with I would keep your money firmly in your pocket.

DJI seems to have a very substandard quality control system in place, and anyone buying now are free beta testers at best. The lack of acknowledgement by DJI to the issues being raised and the constant subsequent excuses of pilot error are not to be taken lightly. Other companies will rapidly catch up in technology terms and will wipe the floor with DJI's extremely poor quality system, and customer service if they do not quickly recognise their flaws.

Repsolkid Posted at 2016-11-23 04:55
Personally I wouldn't order a Mavic from anywhere.
There are far too many cases proving that there ...

I pretty sure the batches they are sending out have ironed out the bugs seen in the earlier batch. I bought mine from an Apple Store last week and it is flawless. I haven't had any issues whatsoever. The camera is sharp, it flies perfectly, and everything works as it should.
With production of any electronic of course there are going to a few bad apples but that shouldn't deter you. And people are more likely to complain when something goes wrong than when everything is good, that's why  it may seem like so many are bad Apples. People are less inclined to come on here to say their mavic is perfect, whereas people with problems are more inclined.

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 10:58
I pretty sure the batches they are sending out have ironed out the bugs seen in the earlier batch. ...

How long have you had your Mavic?
I am reading more and more cases of flyers that once stated everything is fine, the same as you just have and then after many flights are reporting sudden issues.
Dont be surprised to find yourself saying the same as others after you start to see random problems.
This is what happens when a company does not have a repeatable, reliable quality process.

As far as I and I'm sure many others now, this is just a Mavic lottery and not worth £1000 at this time.

Repsolkid Posted at 2016-11-23 06:30
How long have you had your Mavic?
I am reading more and more cases of flyers that once stated ever ...

I get what you're saying, but we don't have a good source of information.

This is the company's forum. One of the main things will always be people reporting problems. One week after initial shipping, the issues reported will be from people who had problems immediately. After a month, those problems will be from people who flew fine for a month, then had a problem. That's just how it is going to be for any product. After a year, it will include people who flew fine for a year before having a problem.

It doesn't mean that the product has widespread quality control issues. We don't know if we're seeing 10% of users or 0.01%.

We're not a random sample, we're the people who had a reason to come to the forums. The people who have no problems at all are much, much less likely to come to the forums. I wouldn't be here if Mavics weren't behind on shipping.

Repsolkid Posted at 2016-11-23 06:30
How long have you had your Mavic?
I am reading more and more cases of flyers that once stated ever ...

Again, you are reading about only those who have issues. You are not hearing from those who do not have issues. For every one person who posts an issue with their Mavic there could be 100 people who don't have any issues. People who do not have issues are less inclined to come onto forums. Like me, I've had absolutely no issues and this is the first time I've even mentioned it on any of the forums I frequent. I have no complaints so I have no reason to make any threads, whereas those with issues have a reason to complain and make threads. In the last week I've had over a dozen flights in different types of conditions, and I still have no issues.

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 12:19
Again, you are reading about only those who have issues. You are not hearing from those who do not ...

Of course you are correct, no issues generally do not get mentioned I agree.
However what proves my point a little more, is that either the very few people reporting no issues are coming back after may flights, and then saying they do now have sudden issues that match what others reported previously, or we see posts from people that have never been on the forums flown for a few weeks, and now are reporting issues.

Now to me that is more concerning than hearing about issues straight out of the box.
As I said this is down to a non reliable quality process. It basically says to me that nearly all Mavics have the potential for common issues, it's just a matter of time until they show.

Anyway, this is pure discussion and I sincerely hope you never come across any problem(s) with your Mavic, which ever one you kept

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 05:58
I pretty sure the batches they are sending out have ironed out the bugs seen in the earlier batch. ...

So when are we going to try the follow me feature with my motorcycle?

Repsolkid Posted at 2016-11-23 07:30
Of course you are correct, no issues generally do not get mentioned I agree.
However what proves m ...

I don't think it's fair to say that DJI has a non-reliable quality process just because some people have problems. This can be said about ANY product from cars to phones. As I said before, any product is bound to have some bad apples. Had my Mavic had issues I wouldn't have condemned DJI as a whole, I would have sent it back and got another one. Now if that one had issues then I would have started questioning the company. But it's common knowledge that the first batch of a lot of products have a higher propensity to have problems than later batches. That's the chance we, people who need to have things first, take.
As for the people who've used their Mavic's for multiple flights before they've experienced problems it could come down to user error so I find that questionable. We don't know how exactly they've been flying it, under what conditions they've been using it, or how they've handled it. I always handle mine with care, so I'm not worried. It set me back $1070 and I treat it as such.

4wesomeAdam Posted at 2016-11-23 08:48
So when are we going to try the follow me feature with my motorcycle?

I don't like motorcycles =/

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 14:24
I don't think it's fair to say that DJI has a non-reliable quality process just because some peopl ...

If you do not understand the concerns about their quality processes that only says to me that you have not been involved in a front end technology business where quality is paramount and delivering a fully functioning product is taken as a given.
Once you have that experience, you would see things very differently, as you are only viewing from a single  consumer poi, not from a company deliervance poi. Their poor new product introduction would of had me sacked in my job, as it is probably the worse I have witnessed in many years.

I will not buy a product that is a lottery about what you can receive, and unlike you I do not think its is polite error. Unfortunately you will only understand this once you get some issues yourself, and are back here bitching that the Mavic is unsafe or uncontrollable.

Each to their own, but when I spend £1000 on a drone, I want it to work, not be a lucky punter hoping for the best.

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 09:25
I don't like motorcycles =/

That is fine. You can (wo)man the gopro camera and we could just have the Mavic follow me on the bike.

BTW. What did you do with your second Mavic? Donated it to charity, right?

Oh and I tried the Apple store in Boca Raton this past Monday as per your instructions. I was able to get thru to the actual store as you pointed out by responding with "manager" to the phone prompts. But I had no luck sneaking one under the official inventory radar. Place was mad busy. The sales rep checked in the back for me and said they had two come in which where sold. Apparently you have more charm, luck or both than me.

Repsolkid Posted at 2016-11-23 09:38
If you do not understand the concerns about their quality processes that only says to me that you  ...

You literally know nothing about me or what I do for a living do I find it very odd that you are jumping to such big conclusions on what knowledge I have in the production/technology business.
If this is the worst product launch you've witnessed in many years then you clearly aren't as intune with the technological world as you think.
I did not try to excuse the malfunctions of some of the Mavic units. All I said is that a lot of times early productions of things may experience issues that a company failed to catch. It happens. It's happened to some of the world's biggest producers (Apple, Samsung, GoPro, Sony, etc) but that doesn't mean we should just condemn the entire company. Secondly, if a large amount of Mavic's were having issues I'm sure it would have been recalled by now. The fact that it has not been recalled attests to the fact that the amount of faulty Mavics are miniscule compared to the number of those with no problems.
And when you buy ANYTHING, from a drone, to a computer, to a car you are "playing the lottery" on whether it functions correctly or not. Things get recalled every day. That's why companies offer warranties and such to provide assistance in the case their product is not functioning as it should.

4wesomeAdam Posted at 2016-11-23 09:39
That is fine. You can (wo)man the gopro camera and we could just have the Mavic follow me on the b ...

I'm sure now that so many people know about the Apple stores having stock it's going to be harder to catch one in store, but you just need to keep trying. I know the Sarasota store seems to keep getting them. I've seen several people on different forums have success at that store. Since I've gotten mine I haven't been checking up on them any more.
My second Mavic is actually a Christmas gift to my nephew, that's why I was so pressed to get two. Had I only gotten one I'd have given it to him but I really didn't want to wait until January for my own, especially after having one in hand. The anticipation would have killed me.

MsSea Posted at 2016-11-23 11:31
I'm sure now that so many people know about the Apple stores having stock it's going to be harder  ...

What a sweet aunt. Now you are making me feel like a selfish, jerk uncle. {:4_154:}

If you've followed many of my posts you're aware my confidence isn't shaken in DJI's customer service, it simply no longer exists.

I personally would NEVER place another order directly with DJI. I'm just now getting a full refund for the money they had been sitting on for nearly two months, with nothing more than lip service in return.  This company has some serious flaws when dealing with customers and it doesn't seem like their getting the help needed to make positive changes.  They "talk-the-talk," but struggle with the walk.

Apple filled in where DJI dropped the ball by delivering a Mavic to my door step three weeks after I placed the order and didn't take a dime from my account until they shipped.  While they too have their faults, Apple is light years ahead of DJI in customer service, reliability and integrity. Suffice to say they're my destination for any DJI products in the future.

The GOOD news . . . since the Mavic arrived on my doorstep its only been idle when the battery is charging or my head hits the pillow.  This drone has logged air miles over the ocean, in the mountains, at the lake, filmed a parade, hot air balloon event, moto cross race, real estate/ranch brochure footage, inspected a radio tower for an engineer,  took an aerial photo of corn maze for the boy scouts . . . today we'll be filming a vineyard's turning leaf color for the owner.


This little drone is AWESOME!!!