I called DJI for the very first time yesterday and was treated to holding for 46 minutes --this on a Monday mid-afternoon; but worse than that alone, I was connected with a human being who's chief duties seemed to be a willingness to listen and provide reassuring "ah.. mmm.. .yes, sir" throughout my admittedly lengthy story.
It's a story that begins when I bought my very first Phantom just days after they went on sale.
Over the past twenty (20 years I have been fortunate enough to found not one but two companies and sell each of them for over $100M. Trust me, I have been in the right place at the right time and blessed with a remarkable team of people to lead as CEO for those nearly two decades. I am humbled by it all, but I must say that among the benefits that have come out of it, I have learned a few things about the technology business (both retail and SMB market spaces). I am a moderately technical individual and I know how to "bottom out" a troubleshooting exercise as I have done so many countless times with DJI's gear. I just want to hopefully make it clear that my string of bad experiences with DJI has almost a zero chance of being rooted in my failure to do what is expected of me as a customer (and esp., an early adopter).
Since that first purchase, I have deliberately tried to show my belief in what DJI was doing and although at this point I should most accurately be called --a mere glutton for punishment; The facts include that I have faithfully purchased between 1, 2 and in some cases like the Mavic even 3 aircraft from them.
I did this in spite of nearly everyone one of them failing during a firmware upgrade or just refusing to connect with the remote controller one day out of the blue; I have experienced a great deal of frustration and pain but hung in there because I believed DJI was a company sincerely working to "cross the chasm" as Geoffrey Moore said in his book from the early 90s that remains a powerful marketing insight and applicable to this day.
As of this Mavic refusing to connect with its remote after the very first (and =forced=) firmware upgrade I have had it, I no longer have faith and can see no signs whatsoever that they are seeking to build a long-term brand with a good reputation. Quite the contrary, DJI's name is becoming associated with some of the very worst Customer Service out there, a certain Cable company comes to mind. I have at least four DJI products that haven't moved in months and even years simply because when they break they do it so thoroughly and beyond the realm of what we can service at home, but I have had at least that many in and out on RMA's.
Respectfully to everyone on these boards, I know those still faithful to DJI are likely already thinking of a half dozen entirely valid comments that would in effect "water-down" what I am trying to say here.
We hear constantly how we need to check this or that or perform this secret handshake and animal sacrifice to get our gear back in the air... and in a sense it is an impressive operation you all run (for free) on behalf of DJI; they certainly both need it, and appear completely disinterested in doing much of it themselves, (nor doing the systemic work to change the magnitude of problems they generate for themselves with rushed firmware and software)....
...and so, I would just ask whether anyone else has noticed that its the same old story month after month after year after year? The early adopters holding the customer service together on behalf of DJI with twine and chewing gum while DJI does little to nothing to fundamentally address the systemic issues that so many of you volunteer your time to defend or talk around or suggest it is anything but DJI doing an absolutely lousy job.
I can only assure you that I know when I have exhausted the options available to me in terms of repairing one of these things and at the same time, I will admit it is more often than not I am relegated to an RMA number and waiting for them to "fix the problem". It comes back working all right, but never with an explanation or the slightest insight into what the issue was to begin with... they aren't "teaching" their early customer base, we're teaching ourselves.
DJI will fail if it remains on this course. It may take another decade, but their sorry excuse for a business model is unsustainable in today's world.
In fact, I would bet real money that if they are talking about going public then one of the conversations they are having with board members and their underwriters is that there is no way they can manage to have a successful IPO with the state of dissatisfaction with their brand. If they were to move to go public the unhappy would end up in stories in magazines and blogs telling their story and strongly suggesting at the same time that this company is not ready to be "public". It hasn't even figured out some of the very first things about customer service that U.S. companies had nailed almost two decades ago.
Thanks for reading, I am not really asking for help here and please understand how much I respect the great many tireless contributers to this and other DJI-centric sites who are making the best of things. I just don't see this increasingly massive ship beginning to make a turn any time soon, and I can't support a company so far out of touch with how to build a business and brand, because even their products fail to work much, much too often; and not only for me as you all well know...
It's a story that begins when I bought my very first Phantom just days after they went on sale.
Over the past twenty (20 years I have been fortunate enough to found not one but two companies and sell each of them for over $100M. Trust me, I have been in the right place at the right time and blessed with a remarkable team of people to lead as CEO for those nearly two decades. I am humbled by it all, but I must say that among the benefits that have come out of it, I have learned a few things about the technology business (both retail and SMB market spaces). I am a moderately technical individual and I know how to "bottom out" a troubleshooting exercise as I have done so many countless times with DJI's gear. I just want to hopefully make it clear that my string of bad experiences with DJI has almost a zero chance of being rooted in my failure to do what is expected of me as a customer (and esp., an early adopter).
Since that first purchase, I have deliberately tried to show my belief in what DJI was doing and although at this point I should most accurately be called --a mere glutton for punishment; The facts include that I have faithfully purchased between 1, 2 and in some cases like the Mavic even 3 aircraft from them.
I did this in spite of nearly everyone one of them failing during a firmware upgrade or just refusing to connect with the remote controller one day out of the blue; I have experienced a great deal of frustration and pain but hung in there because I believed DJI was a company sincerely working to "cross the chasm" as Geoffrey Moore said in his book from the early 90s that remains a powerful marketing insight and applicable to this day.
As of this Mavic refusing to connect with its remote after the very first (and =forced=) firmware upgrade I have had it, I no longer have faith and can see no signs whatsoever that they are seeking to build a long-term brand with a good reputation. Quite the contrary, DJI's name is becoming associated with some of the very worst Customer Service out there, a certain Cable company comes to mind. I have at least four DJI products that haven't moved in months and even years simply because when they break they do it so thoroughly and beyond the realm of what we can service at home, but I have had at least that many in and out on RMA's.
Respectfully to everyone on these boards, I know those still faithful to DJI are likely already thinking of a half dozen entirely valid comments that would in effect "water-down" what I am trying to say here.
We hear constantly how we need to check this or that or perform this secret handshake and animal sacrifice to get our gear back in the air... and in a sense it is an impressive operation you all run (for free) on behalf of DJI; they certainly both need it, and appear completely disinterested in doing much of it themselves, (nor doing the systemic work to change the magnitude of problems they generate for themselves with rushed firmware and software)....
...and so, I would just ask whether anyone else has noticed that its the same old story month after month after year after year? The early adopters holding the customer service together on behalf of DJI with twine and chewing gum while DJI does little to nothing to fundamentally address the systemic issues that so many of you volunteer your time to defend or talk around or suggest it is anything but DJI doing an absolutely lousy job.
I can only assure you that I know when I have exhausted the options available to me in terms of repairing one of these things and at the same time, I will admit it is more often than not I am relegated to an RMA number and waiting for them to "fix the problem". It comes back working all right, but never with an explanation or the slightest insight into what the issue was to begin with... they aren't "teaching" their early customer base, we're teaching ourselves.
DJI will fail if it remains on this course. It may take another decade, but their sorry excuse for a business model is unsustainable in today's world.
In fact, I would bet real money that if they are talking about going public then one of the conversations they are having with board members and their underwriters is that there is no way they can manage to have a successful IPO with the state of dissatisfaction with their brand. If they were to move to go public the unhappy would end up in stories in magazines and blogs telling their story and strongly suggesting at the same time that this company is not ready to be "public". It hasn't even figured out some of the very first things about customer service that U.S. companies had nailed almost two decades ago.
Thanks for reading, I am not really asking for help here and please understand how much I respect the great many tireless contributers to this and other DJI-centric sites who are making the best of things. I just don't see this increasingly massive ship beginning to make a turn any time soon, and I can't support a company so far out of touch with how to build a business and brand, because even their products fail to work much, much too often; and not only for me as you all well know...
