Hi Ken,
I have just had an informative chat with an Apple employee who said there was a note on one of my orders(spare batteries) that they had been informed by DJI of issues around shipping & that you were now going to have to send them via Ground methods.


I'm an authorised  CAA Dangerous Goods  Shipping manager & am aware of the recent changes put into affect by IATA in relation to restricting the quantity of Lithium Batteries allowed on Commercial aircraft & even stricter controls for Pax aircraft.


So I'm guessing the issue is not that you don't have the Mavic's to deliver, rather it's that when you posted your expected shipping dates that you were planning to ship in bulk by Air until the new regulations took hold & then your plans had to subsequently change.

I believe that maybe why the orders are just trickling through to some customers as & when you can find suitable space on an aircraft?.

This would now makes sense with your updated delivery dates to clear pre orders in 7-8 weeks as this is the time for Sea Freight to onward distribution centres by road for final delivery.


If this is part of your issues then I am sure as adults if DJI had come forward with these facts which were beyond your control there would be much less negativity.


Anyway just a thought & if I'm not correct thatt's  not an issue but Please keep coming forward with your answers to our questions & keep your head up as people will soon forget all of this once they start flying their own Mavics.

I got a similar response from Apple after they escalated my question with regards to providing a more accurate delivery date in November for my order.

They said the new lipo regulations means it would have to be sent by ground, which is causing delays.

I doubt that is the main shipping delay issue. That would have been fine with the customer base and no reason not to publicly state that.

It was announced by DJI that there were manufacturing defects/issues with things on the drone itself. That caused delays as well. So now you can add this safety concern to the list it seems.....

marctronixx Posted at 2016-11-10 00:19
It was announced by DJI that there were manufacturing defects/issues with things on the drone itself ...

You need to read the announcement again, why would the issue they found prior to any of the scheduled shipments ie a safety concern ?
"we encountered an issue integrating a part into the Mavic Pro. We resolved that within a week"

I don't think that's the case at all. And if it was, I'm sure DJI would have stated that so everyone would be upset at the rules rather than DJI for shipping delays.The reason as I see it is pretty simple, the ordering webpage was crashing all day long, how many thousands and thousands of orders would it take for that to happen.
The demand was much higher then expected. They said they are ramping up production to meet the higher then anticipated demand.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-9 08:44
You need to read the announcement again, why would the issue they found prior to any of the schedu ...

You sir need to relax and not be disrespectful and passive aggressive in your posts. You represent DJI.

My post means that the safety concerns dealing with the shipping of the lithium and how much can be on board aircraft.
Im not here to spread FUD nor am I here to cause drama.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-9 11:49
The reason as I see it is pretty simple, the ordering webpage was crashing all day long

If DJI got slammed with more interest than anticipated, why didn't they just come out the next day and say something along the lines of:

"Whoa, we knew this was going to be a very popular product, but not THAT popular right out of the gate! We received xx,xxx pre-orders and had planned to ship xx,xxx units on Oct 15th. Please understand that we are very thankful for the overwhelming interesting in this product. We will fulfill orders first come, first serve. After the initial planned fulfillment of xx,xxx orders are shipped on Oct 15th, we tentatively plan to manufacture and ship xx,xxx units per day/week until the backlog is fulfilled and we will keep in close communication if there are changes."

Rather than not fulfill orders for a few weeks after the expected ship date, provide very little detail to customers that were going crazy for information, and more or less gloss over units arriving with missing parts, extra parts, damaged, or malfunctioning from the first batches. And now units appear to just be trickling out to consumers.

It doesn't feel to me like DJI was or is still being upfront with consumers, which is their right as a private company I understand. But if they had been initially, I believe most everyone would have been behind them regardless of the reason and 90% of this commotion would have been avoided.

marctronixx Posted at 2016-11-10 00:58
You sir need to relax and not be disrespectful and passive aggressive in your posts. You represent ...

Suggesting that you go and read the announcement again is being passive aggressive and disrespectful?

st pauli Posted at 2016-11-9 17:50
If DJI got slammed with more interest than anticipated, why didn't they just come out the next day  ...

They were upfront with me this morning, on the phone told me my order from 29th sept will be shipped in December, only to come here to forum and see October orders starting to ship, head scratching stuff..

hallmark007 Posted at 2016-11-9 18:03
They were upfront with me this morning, on the phone told me my order from 29th sept will be shipp ...

Perhaps they are still erring on the side of caution? That's what I hope anyway.

I have a feeling the numbers being dispatched will show a marked increase over the coming week or so.

You might recall I requested cancellation of my original direct order but (luckily) DJI were a bit slow in responding, giving me time to change my mind when it became apparent Amazon UK were feeding me a load of bull.

This is my first drone purchase. I don't buy any of the reasons DJI has given (not that anyone cares).  Seems to me DJI has been building drones long enough to know how to do it well and efficiently.  Did they just start building them the day they started taking orders? That would be strange, for by now they must have a pretty good idea of how many they plan to sell.
What makes more sense (which has already been stated) is they were trying to cutoff GoPro with the early announcement and they were no where near ready to start production. Started taking preorders and stock pile some cash (interest free) for the next project. Actually I take that back, I don't think DJI needs cash to start a project but interest free cash is always a good thing.
My concern is primarily now is if there is a quality impact due to all this chaos....
oh well... moderator delete away....

marctronixx Posted at 2016-11-9 09:58
You sir need to relax and not be disrespectful and passive aggressive in your posts. You represent ...

Ken is the only DJI employee that will talk to us so take your negative junk somewhere else.  I appreciate that Ken is always on here responding to people.  Even if all he can say is sorry he doesn't know.  Keep up the great work Ken!

symbol Posted at 2016-11-9 21:48
Perhaps they are still erring on the side of caution? That's what I hope anyway.

I have a feeling ...

Your probably right, I'm just heading to Budapest and then on to Stockholm this week, so would have been nice, looks like not so many problems last couple of days, and some new firmware today, so hopefully not so many problems when it does arrive, so would like to have it, but maybe for the best.

hallmark007 Posted at 2016-11-9 22:20
Your probably right, I'm just heading to Budapest and then on to Stockholm this week, so would hav ...

Wow - shame if you don't have it. I expect the P4 is a bit big to lug around?

Fingers crossed for you, have a good trip anyway. I did see someone mention Sweden is a no-flying-camera zone now or something.

(Apologies for this being OT)

Back onto topic - I was promised and told all kinds of things by Apple when enquiring to purchase, most of which I already knew was incorrect, such as, "We will definitely have the Mavic at the beginning of November..."

symbol Posted at 2016-11-9 22:26
Wow - shame if you don't have it. I expect the P4 is a bit big to lug around?

Fingers crossed for  ...

I have an Osmo will take that and camera, P4 to awkward , Sweden decision appealed to courts.

ferrari-458-ut Posted at 2016-11-10 05:59
Ken is the only DJI employee that will talk to us so take your negative junk somewhere else.  I ap ...

Thanks, sorry I have no new info

ferrari-458-ut Posted at 2016-11-9 16:59
Ken is the only DJI employee that will talk to us so take your negative junk somewhere else.  I ap ...

Isn't it his job to be here responding to people?

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-10 00:49
I don't think that's the case at all. And if it was, I'm sure DJI would have stated that so everyone ...

DJI-Ken,
Again my thanks for coming forward & trying to help us with our enquiries however unfortunately I still believe there is some truth in my post(obviously not all of  the reasons because as you said the demand was unexpected) & you may not be aware of that.

Otherwise why would different Apple employees give roughly the same response as to "DJI changing shipping methods from Air to Ground due to changes in the regulations for Lipo batteries", they would have no reason to state that unless they had been informed to say that by there management.

They also sent me the screen shot from  their internal systems with this information & I will not post it here as that would not be correct.

Don't get me wrong I am not by any means saying I'm 100% correct & that you are incorrect, rather I think there is a little validity to my supposition but clearly that we all are being kept in the dark including yourself sadly.

Again just to confirm as on my original post I DO REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR assistance doing your best to answer our questions when you are able to & no one should show you any disrespect & we treat each other accordingly.

fans55df7cea Posted at 2016-11-10 07:47
DJI-Ken,
Again my thanks for coming forward & trying to help us with our enquiries however unfortu ...

Thanks, again I do not think a battery has anything to do with it but you never know. Look at people's tracking numbers in the coming days to see how deliveries are routed.

And the real assistance will come when everyone has their Mavics and the tech questions will be pouring in.
Thanks for hanging in there.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-10 11:03
Thanks, again I do not think a battery has anything to do with it but you never know. Look at peop ...

DJI - Ken,
To be honest another reseller in the UK who had promised a delivery date of 18/11 has now contacted me to say they also are not getting stock as they expected from DJI so I think I will give it a couple of more days to see if your company ships to either Apple UK(your preferred partner from your unveiling presentation) or Amazon UK with my orders placed on 01/10 & if no confirmation of stock with them I will sadly cancel as this is gettting beyond a joke.

Especially as customers now in the UK who ordered after myself(there are many who ordered prior to myself also in the same situation in the UK) directly from DJI have either received their Mavics or got shipping notices yesterday.

This is an unacceptable way to treat customers.
Again not of making but your company will hopefully learn some lessons from this fiasco.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-9 22:42
Thanks, sorry I have no new info

Hi DJI-Ken

please can you help with my order?   mine was one of the early orders, at 17:40:45 UTC to UK on Sept 27th (order number 04411769xxxx)... and yet they are delivering orders made on 28th and later (to UK) and beyond and seem to have missed my one.   I've emailed onlinesales@dji.com a few times, and i just get a stock answer back - that they've been overwhelmed with orders, which ignores that mine was one of the earliest orders, and should've been shipped before others that ordered later (from the same country).

A Fly more combo package, to UK.   Yet on the forums i see UK orders from 28th and later being shipped but my sept 27th order remains unshipped.

when i do sales chat they just say they're sticking to first come first served yet its plain to see that my order has been skipped as they're serving orders that came after mine.

Jez Posted at 2016-11-10 19:16
Hi DJI-Ken

please can you help with my order?   mine was one of the early orders, at 17:40:45 UTC ...

Jez,
Can I ask whether yours was a direct DJI order or from a reseller ie Amazon or Apple etc?

Brightlights200 Posted at 2016-11-10 16:59
DJI - Ken,
To be honest another reseller in the UK who had promised a delivery date of 18/11 has n ...

I understand your frustration along with everyone else's.

Jez Posted at 2016-11-10 19:16
Hi DJI-Ken

please can you help with my order?   mine was one of the early orders, at 17:40:45 UTC ...

Whatever online chat tells you would be the same exact thing as I tell you as that is whom I ask for customers inquiring about their orders.
I do not have ordering information on my computer system, when there's a inquiry I have to go ask someone from the chat team.
I'm sorry about that.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-11-10 23:49
I understand your frustration along with everyone else's.

DJI-Ken,
I've sadly waited long enough now & this is becoming  a silly farce.
Today I have cancelled all of my 3 pre orders, so Good luck if this bumps someone even slightly closer to getting theirs.
However from what I've read on this forum over the past few weeks is that the Mavic will be a great drone when the bugs get fixed.
On the down side DJI does not give a Damn about any of their paying customers & if anything goes wrong you will have to jump through hoops to get anywhere.

Brightlights200 Posted at 2016-11-11 18:19
DJI-Ken,
I've sadly waited long enough now & this is becoming  a silly farce.
Today I have cancell ...

I'm sorry, I responded in your other thread.
With the amount of people who ordered, shipping is taking some time.

I've been reading the posts on this site as well as other forums and it seems that the frustration has two root causes: 1) a big expectation of a really sexy product and 2) almost complete radio silence since.  

I believe most customers are fine with the tradeoff of a great product vs. time to receive the product.  Which is why people (including myself) willingly threw thousands of dollars a pop at DJI.  But, we also expect some common courtesies - which DJI has been slow in extending.  I don't want, nor do I need specific counts of how many units are shipping daily. But some kind of reassurance is needed and for this money - expected.  

It just seems that this whole launch wasn't thought out too clearly (maybe it was?) and now as people wait they are starting to get grumpy. Now is one of the best times to be flying in the US but the drone we want to do it with is currently vaporware. I hope that will change. I see posts of people getting their orders.  I personally don't see mine coming until next year (i only ordered the mavic and not the package). I ordered mine from B&H, and it doesn't look like they have received any so far.

I'm not going to cancel..yet.  But I do hope that DJI will be a little more forthcoming with...something. Anything.

Parman432 Posted at 2016-11-12 01:24
I've been reading the posts on this site as well as other forums and it seems that the frustration h ...

The announcement made on Nov 3rd explains the shipping delays. As you can see from posts, people are getting their deliveries or tracking numbers on a daily basis. It's the sheer numbers of people who ordered is when it's taking more time to get to you.
And you called the Mavic "Vaporware", I really understand why that statement was made.