Dji CES presentation

Jimmy Jim said:
It wasn't the ping pong table comment that got me... it was the comment that they were upgrading their studios to include an Alexa... I work on a network TV show shot on the Alexa - we actually need an Alexa. They don't need an Alexa to shoot Internet instructional videos. They may think it sounds cool to say they are getting one but it's like a teenager saying he needs a Viper as his first car. We all did a collective "why" when we heard that.

Hahahaha.... I'm with you on that one. When I heard slippery Guinn say they were getting an Alexa I though 'wtf....WHY?'
Whatever workflow they use by the time YouTubes servers get hold of the footage and compress the cr*p out of it everything will look like it's shot on a potato anyway!!


Maybe the salesman told them they need 14 stops of dynamic range to do their YT videos - they don't.
Maybe they are going to mount it on a Phantom - to stop flyaways :D
 
Ksc said:
I really don't think that many people bought it because Colin said to buy it. If you did, you are a fool . .

Colin sold it to me my friend and I can assure you I am no fool. I certainly wouldn't make a comment like that either.
 
Ksc said:
Customer service should be attending to the phones and emails. Techs should be working on repairs and improvements. There shouldn't be time to play.


AMEN!

However lack of customer service is and I hate to say it an Asian thing. My company bought an $800,000.00 die press from Asia a few months back. One of the boards in the computer went out after 3 weeks, the US rep was not much help. We finally got a hold of text support if you want to call it that at the home office. You would think after spending dam near 1 million dollars with shipping and installation someone their could help us. Nope, it took 4 more weeks to have another board built and shipped
 
Phantasmic said:
How did you determine that they are spending their time watching Free Willy or playing ping pong rather than working between 9 and 5?

have you tried calling or emailing DJI? Did you get an answer? Free Willy is just that good of a movie.
 
Ksc said:
Phantasmic said:
How did you determine that they are spending their time watching Free Willy or playing ping pong rather than working between 9 and 5?

have you tried calling or emailing DJI? Did you get an answer? Free Willy is just that good of a movie.

I had to laugh a little at this.

I emailed DJI, actually got a response asking me to place my main points in point form and email back.

I did so immediately......nothing

I did so again a week and a half later - even more to the point......nothing

I have to tell you, my first email wasn't that hard to read, but I spoon fed them as requested and even on baby pablum, an answer was seemingly impossible.

I have sent them an email with one sentence (short at that).....a week later, nothing.

I've decided that they didn't like my question, even though it was a customer service issue.

I now figure it was a Willy Marathon - for free (aka Free Willy)

It is indeed frustrating when your own dealer and DJI are absolutely silent. If anyone else has had more luck, tell me your secret (the answer can't be Amazon - even if they are providing a higher level of service as an unofficial dealer)
 
Looking at current situation, I think it's probably best if we look toward DJI's Chinese office and route the support request there. Even if they can't resolve the issue, HQ will know the number of traffic that overflows from their incapable. Us subsidiary and so that they resolve the us issues ASAP.

It's seems that something has happened between them and Colin's 'team' and the current problematic (swamped) support personnel is even less effective in doing their job than they were before. If you've been in a company where they're doing some change management or any transitions (between systems, offices, etc) then you'd know the chaos within.

I mean we all like to whine and complain every now and then, but it's best if we spend that energy to look for and work toward a solution.
 
Just out of curiosity.......any idea how many Phantoms (v1 or v2) are out here in USA? Worldwide?
 
ppdrone said:
Just out of curiosity.......any idea how many Phantoms (v1 or v2) are out here in USA? Worldwide?

That's a hard question to answer. Let's assume 90% of the users on here are real and not multiple accounts that justsomeguy made up. Then think maybe 75% of those have a phantom and of that group maybe 30% have more than 1. Then take into consideration that we are English speaking and there are still a ton of other people in the world that aren't on here because they speak another language. Long story short. A lot.

If you ask dealers, it's always a lie. Dronefly, uavproducts, and Atlanta hobby all claim that they sell more phantoms than anyone else in North America. Obviously they can't all be the number 1 person. Then take amazon and b&h who sell a ton but never brag. Also consider the small local hobby shops. I know of one that just bought 25 phantoms and is probably sold out of them.

I would think dji is making some pretty good money. I think they could make more money with better management and leadership and that's probably why the changes are being made. If dji wants to be a household name they are going to need customer service which is something that Colin's team lacked. When a phone rings, it should be answered. When an email is received, it should be replied to. I get that that requires staff and staff costs money but that's exactly my point on their offices. Spending money on toys does nothing for your customer. Spending money on employees to provide the correct customer support does. I get that google and places have fun stuff at their offices but they are also constantly working on R&D and changing the world. A bunch of people fixing broken landing gear and making YouTube videos hardly requires the fun stuff needed for employee retention. The major R&D is happening in china. Not in the US. I'm willing to bet a video of their offices is going to be similar to a sweat shop. I've been lucky enough to visit some different offices of corporate giants in china and it's a whole different ball game there. Fun is certainly not in their vocab. No one is watching Free Willy over there. Godzilla maybe.
 
But they are raffling off 10 new Mercedes Benzes to employees as holiday gifts ;)

I recall in some video a few months back that dji claimed it was selling "10,000 Phantoms a week." No idea if that's accurate but it's the only number I've seen.

But "drones" are starting to be big business. Multi-billion dollars predicted just over the next few years. Don't think for a second that a frontrunner like DJI is looking at their future as just some toy manufacturing sweatshop. They've got plans to change the world for sure, or at least plat a big part in it.
 
I have to agree to a degree with El Guano. The Chinese know how to do many things extraordinarily well; making money is only one of them. My sense is that while they recognized the value of having a guy like Colin in the camp during the early days had value, they also recognized when those days were over, and dumped him like a bad taste.

Colin did provide them with a valuable service; he was largely responsible for making the Phantom attractive to the hobbyist in North America at a time when they knew, or had a very good feel for the fact that consumer level UAV's that were feature rich while being priced in the "impulse purchase" price range for consumer electronics (under $2000.) were attainable, could be sold at substantial profit if sold in volume, and act as a "gateway" product for more expensive offerings down the road, when wide spread acceptance was realized.

They hit the North American market hard, took a significant percentage of it, sold a ton of machines, and made incremental improvements while doing so. Now, the next phase to kick off is the higher end products, even more feature rich, higher priced, and moving out of the "impulse buy" and into the "good used second car" price range. Something you can expect, demand and GET at those prices is service to back up your investment. That was something Colin didn't have, couldn't provide and subsequently could not remain with DJI as a result of.

DJI has positioned themselves very, very well. They have the lions share of the lower end consumer grade UAV market in North America certainly, and likely other parts of the world as well. The have a solid line of more capable prosumer, commercial and professional level machines already established and selling well. Really, the biggest "fly in the ointment" is the dismal customer service. Mark my words, that will not last.

This industry is set to explode with growth; any company not providing top notch customer service will not be in the business long, and I don't see DJI giving up the ground they've gained in only a couple of years. Customer service is not cheap or easy, but they're a lot easier to tackle with deep pockets and a solid customer base. They have that, they don't want to lose that, and they aren't likely to give it up easily.

They may not have had a lot to say at CES, but it's not the only game in town. Let's see what they come up with in 2014 with regard to customer service, and then product improvements. I'm betting the customer service issues will be greatly improved before the years over, and there will be at least one new, exciting machine to bring to market. If not, we can all watch with morbid fascination as they self distruct in an increasingly competitive industry.
 
WReimer said:
I have to agree to a degree with El Guano. The Chinese know how to do many things extraordinarily well; making money is only one of them. My sense is that while they recognized the value of having a guy like Colin in the camp during the early days had value, they also recognized when those days were over, and dumped him like a bad taste.

Colin did provide them with a valuable service; he was largely responsible for making the Phantom attractive to the hobbyist in North America at a time when they knew, or had a very good feel for the fact that consumer level UAV's that were feature rich while being priced in the "impulse purchase" price range for consumer electronics (under $2000.) were attainable, could be sold at substantial profit if sold in volume, and act as a "gateway" product for more expensive offerings down the road, when wide spread acceptance was realized.

They hit the North American market hard, took a significant percentage of it, sold a ton of machines, and made incremental improvements while doing so. Now, the next phase to kick off is the higher end products, even more feature rich, higher priced, and moving out of the "impulse buy" and into the "good used second car" price range. Something you can expect, demand and GET at those prices is service to back up your investment. That was something Colin didn't have, couldn't provide and subsequently could not remain with DJI as a result of.

DJI has positioned themselves very, very well. They have the lions share of the lower end consumer grade UAV market in North America certainly, and likely other parts of the world as well. The have a solid line of more capable prosumer, commercial and professional level machines already established and selling well. Really, the biggest "fly in the ointment" is the dismal customer service. Mark my words, that will not last.

This industry is set to explode with growth; any company not providing top notch customer service will not be in the business long, and I don't see DJI giving up the ground they've gained in only a couple of years. Customer service is not cheap or easy, but they're a lot easier to tackle with deep pockets and a solid customer base. They have that, they don't want to lose that, and they aren't likely to give it up easily.

They may not have had a lot to say at CES, but it's not the only game in town. Let's see what they come up with in 2014 with regard to customer service, and then product improvements. I'm betting the customer service issues will be greatly improved before the years over, and there will be at least one new, exciting machine to bring to market. If not, we can all watch with morbid fascination as they self distruct in an increasingly competitive industry.

That was almost biblical
 
perhaps it is almost biblical. Despite the facetious commentary, I don't see anyone shooting holes in the "almost biblical" comments I left. I find it gets tedious after a while; all this debate over issues that in the bigger picture don't mean a whole lot.

There are lots of reasons, and even more companies, who don't make huge announcements at CES, only to drop big advances in some sort of new technology a month or two later.

Why not do it at CES; "the world's largest consumer electronics show" (according to them)? Nothing worse, in my mind anyway, than bringing a brand new flying ship to the show that doesn't fly yet (yes, it's been done). Maybe they still have R&D to do...maybe Colin did more damage than is visible to the consumer that they're trying to fix...maybe they have something they "think" is really innovative, and want to know what the competition has on the books to see if their product is different enough, better enough to spend even more money finalizing a design...there are many reasons that a company may choose NOT to "grandstand a project.

My apologies to the OP for making "biblical" comments in your post...maybe I would have better served your question by listing this reply instead of my first, and then got out of the pool
 
Thread hijack.... Can someone post a link to another thread that explains what happened with Colin? Feeling a little out of the loop here.
 
WReimer said:
perhaps it is almost biblical. Despite the facetious commentary, I don't see anyone shooting holes in the "almost biblical" comments I left. I find it gets tedious after a while; all this debate over issues that in the bigger picture don't mean a whole lot.

There are lots of reasons, and even more companies, who don't make huge announcements at CES, only to drop big advances in some sort of new technology a month or two later.

Why not do it at CES; "the world's largest consumer electronics show" (according to them)? Nothing worse, in my mind anyway, than bringing a brand new flying ship to the show that doesn't fly yet (yes, it's been done). Maybe they still have R&D to do...maybe Colin did more damage than is visible to the consumer that they're trying to fix...maybe they have something they "think" is really innovative, and want to know what the competition has on the books to see if their product is different enough, better enough to spend even more money finalizing a design...there are many reasons that a company may choose NOT to "grandstand a project.

My apologies to the OP for making "biblical" comments in your post...maybe I would have better served your question by listing this reply instead of my first, and then got out of the pool

I agree. The fact they made no big announcement doesn't mean anything. Apple makes no announcement during CES yet is still the biggest company ever. Plus, an announcement like a 3 axis gimbal would be just as good in the middle of May as it would at CES. If you look at the bloggers and news reports from CES about DJI they are all the same thing... "DJI, a company I had not heard of before today, makes this incredible drone with a camera on it". The folks at CES wouldn't know what to do with a 3 axis gimbal announcement. They will say "um yeah I don't know what that does and my fans won't either, I'll just skip DJI and report about the new fitbit tracker." If anything, DJI's CES visit was great. People who never considered aerial video are going to say "wow for $1200 and my iPhone I can make aerial movies". In previous years, $1200 would break the bank, nowadays anything new and great is between $700 and $1500. DJI is pushing to make UAVs or drones or quads or whatever you want to call them more of a household name. If you remember about 2 to 3 years ago, the only place you could buy a co axial helicopter from was a hobby shop. Now they sell them EVERYWHERE. You can walk into TJ Maxx and find a selection of them for under $20. Someone starts with a $20 toy then gets an AR Drone or some other deal with FPV and before long, the phantom is part of his fleet. DJI wants to corner that market. If you can be the logical entry unit, people will then say "I want something bigger like a S1000 with wookong" and DJI now has a loyal customer. This is the exact reason Blade made the 350. People were leaving Blade to the next level which was DJI and Blade wanted them back. Now as DJI works to grow, customer service will need to be a focus.

Which sadly I think customer service shouldn't have to have been a major focus. When you go to Best Buy and buy a new tv and you have an issue with it, you go back to best buy to get it taken care of. DJI made a small mistake with their dealer selection. If you were to buy a phantom from every dealer they list then call that dealer and tell them you have a fly away or a crash that wasn't your fault, a good percentage of the dealers are going to tell you to call DJI. Imagine going to best buy and having them say "call Sony". If their dealers would step up to the plate and handle dealer responsibilities, DJI would get less calls and need less customer service people. They could get away with two girls who only talk to dealers. I think in a way, that was what Colin wanted because in the tour of the office, he said they were customer service and mentioned them working with the dealers. Problem is dealers throw him under the bus.
 
I don't think anyone know for certain the "why" of the termination, but he is not with DJI in any capacity any more
 

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