Any update on the pending US DJI ban?

[GeorgiaPI]

Please write your state senator to stop the stalling of the audit.. I wrote both of mine.

 

[hank970]

I'm sorry but once again, this is the same thing Amazon is doing. Just because you go to bestbuy.com doesn't mean "Best Buy" is selling it. In fact, it appears most of the drones on their website are sold by Beach Camera. Both Amazon and Best Buy are duplicit with this tactics because they are aware many people are confused and they do very little to make it clear. It's a legal marketing internet practice and most consumer should know this by now....but apparently they don't. Best Buy sells a MSRP, they would never mark up their drones by 50% because they would never want to pass along tariffs directly to the customer.

Best Buy no longer does business with DJI. If you go to a Best Buy store, the former drone display fixtures are void of DJI drone which are removed and no longer on the planogram. There is no slot for anything new so nothing is coming. Shipping drones to Best Buy (similar to Amazon) requires a contract, a deal with pricing, logistics, inventory issues, model selections, schedules, etc. DJI can't just sell a crate of drones or ship a container of drones to Best Buy for sale. Best Buy product managers decides who and when they buy from, not the other way around. DJI has lost that channel because Best Buy can't be bothered with sporadic shipments, late launches, uncertain regulations, high pricing (including tariffs) and no manufacturer support. I wouldn't be surprised if Best Buy shipped their remaining inventory of unsold DJI drones back to DJI last spring. DJI has de-listed Best Buy from the DJI official seller website and it's going to take years to get back in there; it won't be as simple as shipping a bunch of old Minis and Mavics and Avatars to Best Buy distributions centers and say have at it. DJI is going to have to fly to Minnesota and sit down and have a real discussion when China is welcomed back into the US.

Does it really matter how the drones are getting into the US and being sold? Unless product that's going through third-party firms is gray-market stuff which lacks a US warranty, a drone is a drone, albeit a very expensive one at Best Buy's advertised price.

 

[mavic3usa]

Does it really matter how the drones are getting into the US and being sold? Unless product that's going through third-party firms is gray-market stuff which lacks a US warranty, a drone is a drone, albeit a very expensive one at Best Buy's advertised price.

It does matter because that's how you are seeing the elevated prices which you wouldn't see if product was sold by Best Buy and Amazon. Honestly, have you really seen any of the goods at those places skyrocket in prices? Many are elevated likely due to margins, inflation, etc. but as far as I can tell, none of them have implemented "tariff pricing." I don't know the ins and outs of Amazon/DJI but I can almost bet you Amazon would never be able to sell for example the M5P for $2,000 if they got it from DJI the ordinary way (while the same drone is MSRP $1,099 at DJI).

If Amazon or Best Buy sold a drone in America, it must have a warranty. There are rare exceptions like as-is and used and well-advertised junk. But those places cannot sell "warranty-less" new products, that would be against the law because warranties are implied unlike a shop like Adorama or B&H which often deals in grey market items. That's why the entire arrangement is complicated and that's why government interference is so troublesome; pretty sure with the complexity everyone decided to just drop I because now the entire system is broken. How can you expect a customer to buy a $2k drone new from Best Buy and in 4 months find out it's got a serious defect but neither DJI nor Best Buy will stand behind it. That's insane. Again, we're not the EU with their crazy 2-year warranties but consumer have rights when they go to merchants like Amazon and Best Buy...for at least 90 days, maybe longer. Honestly the entire deal put Adorama in a bad spot sourcing the drones as they have done from other places. Amazon and Best Buy would *never* buy drones and sell them "off the record" like that. On the backend, they rely on the manufacturer for all sorts of things well beyond just the sale. There's no way for unsuspecting customers to know any of this and where product comes from which is why we have consumer protection laws.

But ultimately you are right, a drone is a drone because for the most part, all DJI drones are identical. Imagine if Verizon Wireless decided not to get the iPhones from Apple and instead bought them elsewhere, that would be a disaster.

 

[GeorgiaPI]

If senator Scott of Florida gets his way the drone market as you know it will be no more. Firmware's, parts and service all will stop,
Another drone maker will become and will be sub par and much more expensive. Just to start

 

[Cafguy]

I suppose it could be a goldmine for some, All these people paying this huge price for these Drones, I myself will just sit back and wait till some poor shmo crashes their new Mavic and realizes they cant get it fixed, or get parts for it, and has to unload it cheap on Ebay..

 

[anotherlab]

It can mean any one of these possibilities:
Lobbying

They have been lobbying and have spent more on lobbying than any of their competitors.

US Factories

Wouldn't change the ownership, the reason for the ban

Investments and Tech Sharing with US Drone Companies

How would that change the ban?

Lawfare

In what way?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I suppose it could be a goldmine for some, All these people paying this huge price for these Drones, I myself will just sit back and wait till some poor shmo crashes their new Mavic and realizes they cant get it fixed, or get parts for it, and has to unload it cheap on Ebay..

Conversely, the guys crashing will need a replacement, and will then have to pay the exorbitant market price being charged by those who stocked up on new inventory when it was readily available at significantly cheaper prices, later offering it for resale to these "shmos" who are now a goldmine for the resellers.

As to the value of crashed drones, their prices for parts will also likely increase to be purchased by all the new independent drone repair shops opened in the wake of DJI's retreat from the U.S. market, needing parts.