|
[EDIT: The sheer abundance of words here seems to give the impression to some that I feel this was the worst experience ever. Not so. It's only long because the reader and the business both deserve that I am thorough and accurate. My experience included good and bad. I paid a good price for a service that was provided to completion. But given communication issues and delays, I would not choose to use this service again.
That's the bottom line. Decide for yourself if it's a mountain or molehill. If someone has a better experience that's great... please post it.]
Here's my experience with uavrepairshop. I alluded to some concerns in another thread, but I didn't want to post this until I had my P2V+ gimbal back in my hands.
The website says: "Turnaround time for diagnostics andassessment is 24-48 hours from the time I receive your UAV." It also says: “Orders usually ship within three business days from when received.”
Thursday, April 9th: I left voicemail, but he called back quickly and he was very receptive and helpful on the phone. I paid the $50 diagnostic fee online and mailed my gimbal with tracking,and the expectation it would arrive by Saturday, April 11th. The package had a note with a description ofthe gimblal’s issues and my contact information... email, address, phone. The payment cleared the next day.
Saturday, April 11th: As expected, USPS tracking says it was delivered and signed for by "an individual".
I didn't call Saturday, Sunday or Monday because I assume he only works 5 days a week, so I figured "24-48 hours" must mean after the first workday, and although I worry about my gimbal, I didn't want to be a pest.
Tuesday April 14th: I left voicemail just to make sure he received my package. No call back.
Wednesday, April 15th: Left voicemail again. No call back.
Thursday, April 16th: No correspondence.
Friday, April 17th: I had still had no contact by phone, email, or any means. At this point it had been 6 days since someone signed for that package, (8 since I mailed it) and I didn’t know if he was aware he had it, if it was delivered to the wrong house, or if he had associated it with me and my payment. I left another voicemail and also sent an email.
About 6 hours later I did receive a returned call. He acknowledged he had a lot of voicemails like mine, as his “day job” in I.T. had taken him away temporarily as servers were down. I’ve been in I.T. myself so truly, I understand. BUT… If he’s running a business which requires clients to send him hardware worth hundreds of dollars, some communication would be appropriate. Especially if the website says: “Turnaround time for diagnostics andassessment is 24-48 hours from the time I receive your UAV." I didn’t know he had a “day job” and might have selected another repair shop if I had known.
No correspondence over the weekend.
Monday, April 20th: I received an email which includes: “…besides the obvious flex cable replacement and rotor re-attachment, the mainboard is bad too.” WHOA, HOLD UP… My gimbal had an intact ribbon cable. I emailed him, stating I think he was referring to the wrong gimbal, and asking him to send a photo of the gimbal he’s talking about. His brief response was “ok, I’ll double check. thanks for letting meknow.” (No acknowledgement of my request for a photo.) I also emailed again with the same description of symptoms I had included with my package, hoping it would help to identify which one was mine.
It seems if I hadn’t caught this, I would have been paying more for someone else’s repairs, and might never have known why I paid so much when I got a working gimbal back.
8 hours later, he emailed acknowledging I was correct -- he had described repairs for the wrong gimbal. He also said he had emailed another customer, describing to him repairs for my gimbal.
Oddly, neither of his two emails describing necessary repairs included the cost of such repairs, and neither told me the next steps.
Anyway, in the latter email, he said mine required a pitch sensor board and motor replacement. I questioned this via email because my pitch had actually worked fine… Only the roll axis had any problems and the pitch axis had no cosmetic damage. (And after all, he had already given me a diagnosis of the wrong gimbal, so I still don’t know if he’s talking about mine.)
He replied, proposing we talk by phone. (Note that I had never before heard him answer live when I call.) But I called and he did answer. He described the packaging of my gimbal accurately, and he explained how the pitch axis was involved and I was satisfied with that explanation. He told me the total cost of repair would be $110 (in addition to the $50 I had paid for diagnosis.)
He also told me he had several working gimbals in inventory, and in the interest of expedience, he could send one of them to me tomorrow morning, rather than waiting to repair mine. I agreed, and said “I can pay you online within a couple hours”. He said “Don’t worry about that.” (Or words to that effect. The feeling was he wasn’t concerned that I might fail to pay, and that I shouldn’t go out of my way to do it.)
Tuesday, April 21st: Well, I did indeed forget to pay until early the next morning, and I paid at about the same time he said he had promised to mail the gimbal. Now mind you, I don’t expect him to mail a gimbal out until he’s been paid, but it appeared to have been his plan to mail it anyway, and he seemed to express confidence he would be paid, so I mailed him: “Hi, I paid the $110 early this morning, not last night as I intended. Sorry for that. Of course I wouldn't expect you to mail a gimbal before you're paid, but did you send ittoday?” No reply until the next day.
Wednesday, April 22nd: He called to tell me he had mailed the package the same morning, (not the prior morning as he had stated he would) therefore I should expect it by Saturday, April 25th. I asked if he could provide a tracking number for the shipment, and he said he would email that to me the next day. The website says: “Every package sent out will be followed upwith a shipping provider tracking information.” Well, that just didn’t happen, even when I asked for it.
Saturday, April 25th: Although I never got atracking number, a fully functional gimbal was on my doorstep. It appears to be in good shape. Ultimately, I paid $50 diagnostic fee + $110 for repairs, +$12.50 for one way shipping. So thetotal out-of-pocket $172.50 isn’t too bad. It also appears that his expertise is solid.
BUT… I had been without my gimbal for 16 days and I had been led to expect much faster turnaround. And lack of organization and communication caused me to worry severaltimes.
Was this just an exceptional isolated circumstance? To some extent, maybe. He’s not out to cheat anyone, and he can do the work at a reasonable price. But since he’s not the only game in town, I will send any future repairs elsewhere.
| 
lvl.2
Second Officer
lvl.1
lvl.3
lvl.4
