Sent PH3P to DJI - still no word on it

[Phantom751874]

No one-- especially those at DJI, ever suspected that they would sell about 500,000 of these P3's on roll out. Those numbers are mind numbing -- if 5% of those 500,000 had warranty claims, then they are upside down on customer service 30 days after the P3's were put on the street. In thirty days, this state of the art technology developed a customer service nightmare, that DJI was not prepared to handle and they are still trying to play catch-up.

Unfortunately, their Customer Service has been so bad, that it may not ever recover, but they continue to sell P3's. Why is that? Probably because it is the best buy for this type of flying camera platform available, with all the bells and whistles, extended range and signal, and it is also very easy to master.

Those who have had no warranty issues, which is a huge number, don't care about the customer service-- and those who have are either going to pay for getting the problems resolved because they don't want to wait for DJI---- or they are down the road and don't want anything to do with DJI. If DJI lost 25,000 customers to their nearest competitor, and refunded the full purchase price of the drone to everyone of those, that loss of revenue would have little or no effect on their overall revenue projections. I am sure that has already been calculated into their business plan.

Most US manufacturers are big on customer service as it is a means of building their market share. This is not the case in China, nor the US, DJI already owns most of the Market for this product. They will never be known to be a Customer Oriented company as some of the US and European manufacturers until those manufacturers build a similar product with the same performance specs at the same price point.

To be clear, I am not defending their Customer Service Policies and Procedures-- but I along with many others will continue to use their products-- simply because we do not have to spend 5 to 10K to put a camera platform in the air. All those competitors with great customer service that are producing "competitive platforms for the same price, just aren't there yet. Maybe by 2016, the competition may reach the point in their product development where customer service moves to the frot burner-- because the technological specs and performance are comparable to the Phantom.

They have always been known for horrendous customer service this isn't a recent P3 thing. They may have been surprised by how fast they were selling P3's so soon after release but I read somewhere that they sold 400,000 P2's in a year and that the CEO said every year they have been doubling unit sales. They knew this was coming especially knowing their price point would absolutely crush their competitors (3DR).

In my mind and for my money the DJi Phantoms have 1 and only 1 integrated technical advantage. Everything else is available from competitors albeit at a higher price. Lightbridge crushes everything else out there, no one is even close from an integrated standpoint of that capability.

Let's hope others they catch up. Give me the same capability and excellent customer service and I'd be willing to pay 10-15% more to try out a non-DJi product.

 

[Lovelight]

Considering the consistently obscene delays in getting warranty service, it seems like an option to consider would be to just send it to one of the places that will fix your unit for a fee. It defeats the point of a warranty but it's that or live without or buy an entire duplicate unit (with same pointless warranty).

 

[atki]

Considering the consistently obscene delays in getting warranty service, it seems like an option to consider would be to just send it to one of the places that will fix your unit for a fee. It defeats the point of a warranty but it's that or live without or buy an entire duplicate unit (with same pointless warranty).

This, or you could buy something from another company to pass the time with, I wont be buying a duplicate from a company not doing right by me, you can be sure of that.

 

[vmp]

UPDATE SPEAK OF THE DEVIL!!
8.5 WEEKS AND A DAY
Now i just hope it was fully checked and it wont need to go back again

D. S. (DJI Technology )

Aug 24, 13:17

Dear Paul

Upon inspection of your Phantom we found the gimbal was faulty. The components have been replaced and your Phantom has been updated, test flown, and is fully functional. You should receive a tracking number in a separate email within 1-2 business days.

Thank you for supporting DJI products. If you have any other questions, please contact our support center at 818-235-0789 M-F 9AM-5PM Pacific Time. Thank you and have a nice day!

Sincerely,
DJI Repair Team
The Future of Possible

DJI North America

I also sent mine in a little over 8 weeks ago. They emailed me with the exact same canned response that you got. I am getting mine back tomorrow.

I find it interesting that they did not say what the root cause was. Mine dropped from ~390ft and all they said was the same thing that they told you. There was no mention of what caused the accident.

I ended up buying another P3 a couple of days after the accident. So now I will have two P3s. My concern is that the problem that caused the first one to go down was not fixed, since the focus was fixing the camera.

 

[Stdquad]

No one-- especially those at DJI, ever suspected that they would sell about 500,000 of these P3's on roll out. Those numbers are mind numbing -- if 5% of those 500,000 had warranty claims, then they are upside down on customer service 30 days after the P3's were put on the street. In thirty days, this state of the art technology developed a customer service nightmare, that DJI was not prepared to handle and they are still trying to play catch-up.

Unfortunately, their Customer Service has been so bad, that it may not ever recover, but they continue to sell P3's. Why is that? Probably because it is the best buy for this type of flying camera platform available, with all the bells and whistles, extended range and signal, and it is also very easy to master.

Those who have had no warranty issues, which is a huge number, don't care about the customer service-- and those who have are either going to pay for getting the problems resolved because they don't want to wait for DJI---- or they are down the road and don't want anything to do with DJI. If DJI lost 25,000 customers to their nearest competitor, and refunded the full purchase price of the drone to everyone of those, that loss of revenue would have little or no effect on their overall revenue projections. I am sure that has already been calculated into their business plan.

Most US manufacturers are big on customer service as it is a means of building their market share. This is not the case in China, nor the US, DJI already owns most of the Market for this product. They will never be known to be a Customer Oriented company as some of the US and European manufacturers until those manufacturers build a similar product with the same performance specs at the same price point.

To be clear, I am not defending their Customer Service Policies and Procedures-- but I along with many others will continue to use their products-- simply because we do not have to spend 5 to 10K to put a camera platform in the air. All those competitors with great customer service that are producing "competitive platforms for the same price, just aren't there yet. Maybe by 2016, the competition may reach the point in their product development where customer service moves to the frot burner-- because the technological specs and performance are comparable to the Phantom.

Bob, a little support data from Forbes

 

[bobmyers]

Bob, a little support data from Forbes

View attachment 28704

Whow! very interesting -- Projected revenue increase 100% by years end-- Yes they will be behind the customer service demands for quite some time-- when a folks decide to take this DJI jump-- the customer service will not be there for awhile. This graph looks like it covers the entire DJI line-- be interesting to see the P3 impact. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[TacAir42]

Mine took just over 3 months and multiple returns before they got it right. My crash was not my error. Good luck getting anything from these people at DJI but as for their service versus sales? I have to laugh. They had no service before sales took off and they still don't. Know what they wrote on my return Fedex label the 3rd time it had to be sent back? And I quote "Return piece of dirty junk with this tag, thanks". Want to see a picture? Yeah DJI wrote that. I also never heard the root cause of the original crash. Now I'm going to be censored because I told the truth. Adios flyers...oh btw I own two P3P's...

 

[PilotHal]

Well, well, well. Look at the email that I received today. I feel better now... sort of. They really have to address the turn-around time for their repairs. But at least they made me whole here.

 

[TacAir42]

Well, well, well. Look at the email that I received today. I feel better now... sort of. They really have to address the turn-around time for their repairs. But at least they made me whole here.View attachment 28784

If I had that response in May, June, July or August then I'd be pretty darn happy.

 

[phuocsandiego]

So what do you guys think a reasonable turn-around time for warranty repair would be? You'd have to take into account getting an RMA number, diagnosis, ordering parts that may not be readily available, actual repair time and shipping times to/from. I would say that about 3 weeks total would be totally reasonable to me given the factors above. As it stands now, DJI is at 2-3 months, which is anyways from 2.5 to 4 times as long as what I would consider reasonable.

Of course, turn around time of repairs is just one factor of excellent service. The other being good communications (either by email, phone or both). I find DJI fairly responsive via email but they could do a lot better. The phone option is pretty abysmal though; you're either waiting forever or just simply not getting through.

So what you do guys think?

 

[skyhighdiver]

So what do you guys think a reasonable turn-around time for warranty repair would be? You'd have to take into account getting an RMA number, diagnosis, ordering parts that may not be readily available, actual repair time and shipping times to/from. I would say that about 3 weeks total would be totally reasonable to me given the factors above. As it stands now, DJI is at 2-3 months, which is anyways from 2.5 to 4 times as long as what I would consider reasonable.

Of course, turn around time of repairs is just one factor of excellent service. The other being good communications (either by email, phone or both). I find DJI fairly responsive via email but they could do a lot better. The phone option is pretty abysmal though; you're either waiting forever or just simply not getting through.

So what you do guys think?

Im with you in this day of age with overnight shipping
and repair parts at DJIs own center (which they would not be short on)
2 weeks from them getting it is a fair time frame with 3 weeks on the very high end

 

[phuocsandiego]

Im with you in this day of age with overnight shipping
and repair parts at DJIs own center (which they would not be short on)
2 weeks from them getting it is a fair time frame with 3 weeks on the very high end

We're close enough that I would say I agree with you. I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt with an extra week since even at their own center they can't totally control the entire supply chain of all the parts that goes into a Phantom. There would inevitably be some situation where an obscure part would require more time to get but still, 3 weeks feel about right to me. Hopefully it'll improved. I've certainly seen a small improvement in my two times dealing with DJI. The first time I sent in my unit, it took 3 weeks to get checked in! The second time it was mere days. I'm hoping the actual time for diagnosis & repair has improved as well. I'll report back on my second experience as soon as I get it back.

 

[skyhighdiver]

We're close enough that I would say I agree with you. I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt with an extra week since even at their own center they can't totally control the entire supply chain of all the parts that goes into a Phantom. There would inevitably be some situation where an obscure part would require more time to get but still, 3 weeks feel about right to me. Hopefully it'll improved. I've certainly seen a small improvement in my two times dealing with DJI. The first time I sent in my unit, it took 3 weeks to get checked in! The second time it was mere days. I'm hoping the actual time for diagnosis & repair has improved as well. I'll report back on my second experience as soon as I get it back.

I guess my worst complaint is My unit was bad out of the box but because I got direct from DJI and not amazon
I was hosed as they will not just replace or return but must go through RMA process.
I would even be ok with bill me for the replacement and credit me when you inspect the old one.
I have since bought 2 more from Amazon due to there 30 day no questions replacement or refund and even had to use it due to the shell crack issue on one . They issued a Return label and sent me a new one the day UPS checked in my return.
Now that is CUSTOMER SERVICE