OnThePath
 lvl.1
United States
Offline
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I will start with saying that I have a Air 2s that has been a rock. Love it.
I had a new (and big) client ask me if would get the Mavic 3 or Mavic 3 classic for a night job so we could do "Waypoints" with it. It's a long story, but it makes total sense to me. I love the option, but I'm unfamiliar with it and need some time to get up to speed so I can do it on location quickly. There was a contractual agreement for multiple jobs which made it worth the investment. And it was a great national client to have on my resume including the option to fly in a pretty restricted area. To be honest, It was just an excuse to pull the trigger on something I had my eye on for some time. : ) And to get in their roster for a recurring job.
They had another flyer that had to back out and the timing was last minute. It was an opportunity for me and I wanted to make it happen.
The only company that could overnight it to me was ADORAMA. I ordered the RC controller unit version. They sent me the basic kit with the RC-n1 controller. I had to register it and fly it on New Years for the fireworks shot they wanted.. Long story short-after a week of fingerpointing between DJI and ADORAMA about the mislabeling of the kit, ADORAMA finally took it back for a full refund. Except the batteries and extra propellers that came 2 days later for some reason.
This left me 10 days to buy a new drone and get everything going for the upcoming second shoot on January 15. I thought to myself "You should order it from DJI direct to ensure you don't have to go through this headache again". With 10 days to spare, I ordered the correct kit with DJI Refresh on January 5. It arrived later in the day on the 11th and I tried to set it up the next day. I had not used the RC remote yet and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with it. However, after linking everything up and updating firmware, I could not get it to give me camera view on the controller. DJI FLY would launch and let me navigiate around except when I hit "GO FLY" it would try to launch and quickly fail taking me back to the same window where I had just hit "GO FLY".
I spoke with the DJI Tech team-two people in fact-who someone got disconnected half way through helping me solve the issue. Eventually, I downgraded 1 step and it connected and let me get the DJI FLY app open and hit "GO FLY". Except it was a black screen. All the readouts and options but no image. I could not get camera picture and I was told there was a GIMBAL ERROR-ERROR CODE 1C0090F. I needed to contact DJI and return it. Searching the error code I disocvered I was not the first to encounter this.
So I immediately sent an email. 24 hours later, still no response. I called in the morning to see if we could get one sent overnight and I was told by their tech department that they would check with their supervisor and call me back. After not hearing back for 6 hours, I followed up on the phone for an update. The next person told me their was no record of my previous call or email and that there was nothing they could do. Just go to the website and file a form. I tried to do a "CHAT" with a rep (since the phone conversation has no solutions.) I was given plenty of "Truly sorry for this experience has caused you" and "Truly understand that you are quite upset on the expectation" by "TAYLOR". Um.... I'm guessing the name is NOT Taylor by the overall misue of grammar and syntax throughout the chat. I could be wrong. In the end, the solution was for to escalate. I though "finally" someone who can help me. Then TAYLOR told me to expect an email within 24-48 hours and disconnected.
Let me be clear on this: I went directly to the company to purchase the item to avoid the shenigans I had just gone through with another vendor. To avoid another round of fingerpointing rodeo. It took 6 days to get the item. They sent me a non-functioning unit. These things happen, I get it. But then there was no attempt to remediate an unfortunate circumstance caused by the oversight of their own quality control in their own facility. There must be someone who could overnight me a unit if a customer service person asked for it, right? Even though their service number is in the (818) area code-the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles-I doubt there support team is actually there. Especially with the lag in conversation between sentences.
Now I am scrambling to find a DJI MAVIC 3 classic with RC in my area. I have some leads, but I also have a job tomorrow and I'm hoping to find some time to get one befrore the store closes. Best Buy lists that they have one near me, but I'll believe it when it's in my hands. And actually working. If that happens, then I will go through the process of unbinding the drone from my account and getting a refund for my 2 year DJI REFRESH. Atleast I didn't register it with the FAA this time and have to undo that. I am just really trying to keep this client and grow my business.
Honestly, I am not looking for something for nothing here. They were nice about sending me a "Sorry about that" item for my ongoing Gimbal issue they cannot resolve. But I'm curious to know if any ENTERPRISE users are encountering this type of customer service? I am moving into some industrial work in the future and looking at investing in a thermal sensing drone and if this is how the quality control works with this company, I need to start doing research for their competitors now.
I guess the lesson is to always find it locally. Even if it costs a bit more.
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Administrator
Core User of DJI
Look like it double posted on you. 