Arrogance of DJI support

[wonkamavic]

soooo glad i returned mine to amazon for a refund. DJI calibrate support sucks out loud. But in their defense, they cant fix what the engineers screwed up. Just calibrate, calibrate , calibrate.....

 

[TheRoach]

Bollocks !!

They didnt even acknowledge the issue and have zero ability to fix it, and they know that.

Complain about mav and the result is a lengthy postal round trip with zero result. Repeat this enough and people are hesitant to send away their purchase for no resulting fix.
And you get someones elses repaired pile of rubbish in return.

Snakey, cagey and incompetent come to mind.

Best advice for OP is to sell the bucket of snot and buy a drone that has a real camera dangling from it, because your jacked up iframe is staying.

As others say, you can crawl and grovel all you want in an effort to make them play ball, but they still cant fix it, so that degrading behaviour is useless as well.

If you buy the first product off the line you're essentially paying to be a beta tester. I no longer buy DJI. This is a company who has no concern for customer demands and piss poor customer communication. Once they have your $$$, good luck. Waaaay too many other options with no BS, no constant firmware updates and products that work when you want them to. I continue to stand by my point that DJI will fall to the wayside and lose the dominate market share in two years or less.

 

[Pixar]

I just had VERY good luck and they treated me well with my Issue,. there even sending me a new drone. Thanks for the great customer service DJI !
8 days of shipping back and forth, they had drone 3 days. sent UPS label in 15 mins to my computer. and didn't charge me a dime. even tho I had have DJI care.

 

[jackdaws]

What should they have done?

You know when anyone every has the issue that the Op has, this video always pops up. Sure its a good video, very explanatory and very good of you to post this! but who want to spend nearly 80 USD on a plugin and spend hours upon hours of rendering time on something that should not be even happening in the first place? I too had this same 'flicker' problem and the way i fixed it was to shoot 2k and not 4k. It really works! give it a try.

 

[smurfslayer]

Without commenting specifically, let me offer some suggestions on working with a “regimented” or “scripted” support staff.

1) No matter how angry, frustrated or upset you are, you absolutely must be level headed to deal with tech support. Keep your cool, no matter how frustrating it gets. Professional support staff, no matter how many suggest to the contrary, develop an empathy for customers. Nobody likes to be the guy/gal on the other side of the phone. If at all possible, take a break between the reason for your call and actually calling.

2) Establish a rapport with the T/S agent. They may be reading from a script like “Hello, my name is not pronounceable by humans, how may I provide you excellent customer service in this millennia?” Be polite, respectful and easy going. Once you establish this, let them know you’re supremely frustrated, you tried online searching and the manual but the answer is just escaping you. Outline exactly what steps you took before calling.

3) No matter what steps you took troubleshooting, not all customers do and not all are truthful. You may have to repeat every troubleshooting step. Don’t scoff. sometimes this actually resolves the problem. I’ve seen it first hand.

4) Give the support agent the time and resources needed. You may have to do some work. Support doesn’t have direct access to your files and data you know.

5) Always maintain a positive relationship with the support agent. They might be new at their job, maybe having a bad day, and no that’s not your fault but remember they’re human too. Just because you’re not in front of them is no excuse to be rude or disrespectful.

6) You may get several interruptions as the level 1 or triage seeks information from online, manual and human resources. Be patient while this happens. They --MUST-- do this so that the level 2’s and engineers can work the more complex issues. if your issue ends up being one of those escalations, you’ll get there.

7) If your t/s agent “represents” or “steps up”, ask for someone to send an email too - boss, feedback, etc. get their name or ID and send positive feedback. <-- In every support infrastructure, this makes a difference. If you don’t like poor customer service, this is one of the best ways to see that the really good ones advance and lead.

8) if your t/s agent isn’t cutting it, tell them privately. Please remember these are human beings and they’re trying, so if you have criticisms, offer them kindly, respectfully and constructively. Like “I had a really tough time with your accent, I wonder if maybe a chat application would have helped us communicate better?” Find the positive where you can, but mention negatives as constructively as you can.

9) Recordings mean nothing to support. They assume they’re being recorded on the customer end and well over 90% of support orgs record via the VOIP phone client. Email, chat or “in writing” is far more committal to a company because it’s “there in writing from an official company representative”.

Support organizations are reviewed with specific metrics like time to contact, time to workaround and time to resolution and a lot of “metrics” applied to support make perfect sense to money managing bureaucrats, but they have minimal if any practical impact to resolving customer problems. Stuff like “Apologize profusely to the customer for their difficulty”. 1 time is enough for me after that they’re just sucking up in my mind ! But someone suggests it works and it becomes policy.

Good customer service is about how companies deal with their failures and in many ways it’s the true test of how companies feel about their customers.

 

[Bergumbira]

Mute point as I had already very clearly identified the steps I had taken to address the matter. It seems they do not even read the emails.

Imho is not they didn't read your email, the point is they don't have the time to personalize the answer, to cut off the extra usual steps who are not anymore a concern for you...
I'm french and I know a lot about arrogance.. I cannot see the tiniest arrogance in that pure tech reply...
I got a similar reply from airfast that before answering my questions was answering what was not my concern at all, having pointed out in my mail. I will never say they haven't read it because how to know the particular pb I'm facing? ... Just is no time for them for Haute Couture, just is a prepack categorized answer related to your general concern

 

[Kilrah]

I suppose I am used to the actual support I receive from all the other vendors in the film industry like Sony, Arri and even Free Fly. Any issue with my Alta 6 and they are right on it with very specific solutions.

You're talking of pro gear with matching price tags, they can afford to make you feel special with personalized support, and people they support are pros who generally know what they're talking about.
The Mavic is a (relatively speaking) cheap consumer device you find in every electronic store, with Joe Bloggs getting one and probably 9 calls out of 10 being user problems, so no surprise there's a "first line of defence" against these that everybody has to go through or the actually qualified people would drown in useless calls (and probably not stay long because nothing pisses them off more than lusers). Call Sony "consumer" product support and you'll likely have exactly the same, like any other consumer support.

Go read this one day you're bored, the sheer amount of stupidity of general users is insane. Tales From Tech Support • r/talesfromtechsupport

 

[Shawn3D]

You can reduce the flicker with the SpectrumGrades neat video noise profiles. They work brilliantly

 

[UAVXTC]

Yep, DJI Customer Service have special powers. I've been accused of crashing my MP that's in repair with them right now, although they admit they haven't yet seen flight data or video and there isn't a mark / scratch on the drone. Amazing!

 

[gnirtS]

You know when anyone every has the issue that the Op has, this video always pops up. Sure its a good video, very explanatory and very good of you to post this! but who want to spend nearly 80 USD on a plugin and spend hours upon hours of rendering time on something that should not be even happening in the first place? I too had this same 'flicker' problem and the way i fixed it was to shoot 2k and not 4k. It really works! give it a try.

You bought a drone with a cheap, budget camera. What did you expect? Its not an Inspire. The flickering is caused by the hardware limitation and 60mbps bit rate used in 4k. Its how compression works. We're talking a consumer level toy drone here not something anyone would use to get professional videos.

What the OP asked for isn't a support fix issue, he's asked them to overcome a limitation of the product itself - in other words, upgrade the drone for him.

Its an issue that was known to exist from day 1 so the mavic was bought with information about this limitation freely available.

The mavic for its price point has to be a compromise, the flight hardware itself is excellent. The compromise is the low quality camera fitted.

 

[jackdaws]

You bought a drone with a cheap, budget camera. What did you expect? Its not an Inspire. The flickering is caused by the hardware limitation and 60mbps bit rate used in 4k. Its how compression works. We're talking a consumer level toy drone here not something anyone would use to get professional videos.

What the OP asked for isn't a support fix issue, he's asked them to overcome a limitation of the product itself - in other words, upgrade the drone for him.

Its an issue that was known to exist from day 1 so the mavic was bought with information about this limitation freely available.

The mavic for its price point has to be a compromise, the flight hardware itself is excellent. The compromise is the low quality camera fitted.

So explain to me how ****** gopro fakes have incredible 4k quality for very little cost?

 

[gnirtS]

Firstly they're not constrained by size, weight and shape to fit on a small gimbal that has to be fitted in a specific place on something that flies.

Secondly, the quality of the gopro fakes is pretty uniformly terrible when you look in detail.

Sounds like you really should have bought a P4P and failed to do your research into exactly what the mavic is.

 

[jackdaws]

Firstly they're not constrained by size, weight and shape to fit on a small gimbal that has to be fitted in a specific place on something that flies.

Secondly, the quality of the gopro fakes is pretty uniformly terrible when you look in detail.

Sounds like you really should have bought a P4P and failed to do your research into exactly what the mavic is.

Maybe some people buy things after doing lots of their own research and learn as they go? or like you say, they are just failures.

 

[gnirtS]

2 mins of research into a mavic would yield the camera specs. A further few minutes of reading around would produce common flaws. You get what you pay for. You cant buy the cheapest and demand it outperforms the most expensive model.

 

[jackdaws]

2 mins of research into a mavic would yield the camera specs. A further few minutes of reading around would produce common flaws. You get what you pay for. You cant buy the cheapest and demand it outperforms the most expensive model.

you made your point.... you can stop now.

 

[KiterTodd]

...This may not help with DJI but with other companies in the USA it has. I don't email, I always call. As soon as the person answers and I get their name, lets say it's Jim, I say.

" Jim before I discuss the issues I am having with your product for legal reasons I am letting you know in advance that I am using an app on my phone to record this conversation."...

That's a good tactic.
What I do now, right from the start is get their name and ID #.
Also, if they don't ask for it, I make sure they have my number and a promise to call me back if we get disconnected.

I recently had a long call with AT&T... long, frustrating, I kept my cool, and when we got close to a resolution 90 minutes in I was mysteriously disconnected. I waited for a callback and never got one. I called back in and even though I had the employee name and ID#, it was impossible to route me back. I refused to start over, asked for a supervisor... I remained polite but got mysteriously disconnected again. This was after my first morning call was the "no call back" trick you mentioned.

In any case, I eventually had to send a snail-mail letter to the CEO. A rep from his office called me back within days of receiving the letter and resolved everything.

Sadly, I don't think any of that would work with China. The email responses with them are on a 24 hour lag so it takes quite a while to get a resolution. I have not tried phone support. If they have it, that'd be a much better choice.

 

[LINXXL]

I have found a method of getting fairly good support from most companies that use to give me the run around.

This may not help with DJI but with other companies in the USA it has. I don't email, I always call. As soon as the person answers and I get their name, lets say it's Jim, I say.

" Jim before I discuss the issues I am having with your product for legal reasons I am letting you know in advance that I am using an app on my phone to record this conversation."

That really gets their attention!

Then I tell them everything I have tried and that I know it's not X and I know its not Y so please tell me something different.

Second thing is that I will not hang up unless they either resolve the issue or let me speak to a supervisor or a higher level tech. No matter how persistent they are that some one from tier two support is going to call me back, I will not hang up, I let them know I will wait it out until they can transfer me. I cannot tell you how many times they have told me its impossible yet I stay on the phone very persistent and after 10 or so minutes they suddenly crack and say something like, "Hold on I am going to try something". A minute later they come back and say hold on sir I am going to transfer you to my supervisor. Once transferred I also give that person the same recorded call intro.

If that person cannot help me I ask for a manager and will not hang up until I get one.

This is where things get interesting. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes of extra hold time but I almost always get to a manager. I give him the same opening speech and in about 90% of the cases I have gotten the issue resolved on the phone, but if the manager tries to tell me he will call me back with a resolution I start to insist that he gives me his direct number just in case I do not hear back from him in a reasonable amount of time.

Half of the time I actually do get a direct number and the other half of the time they tell me it's not possible and stick to their guns. Even in those cases they always call me back within hours with some sort of resolution to the problem.

This system really works well and it's funny how when they have you on hold they will break in every few minutes to make sure your ok with holding. They are very conscious of the fact that the recording may go public. The downside is that it sometimes takes me two hours from start to finish to get to the manager and get a resolution. but its a lot better than making 10 different calls and always starting from the beginning with a new person.

Rob

" Jim before I discuss the issues I am having with your product for legal reasons I am letting you know in advance that I am using an app on my phone to record this conversation."

Surprised you haven't heard a click and silence after they hang up. While most call centers record the calls, They in turn do not allow you to record them and common practice would be to say they do not give consent to be recorded or to hang up.

 

[Robbyg]

" Jim before I discuss the issues I am having with your product for legal reasons I am letting you know in advance that I am using an app on my phone to record this conversation."

Surprised you haven't heard a click and silence after they hang up. While most call centers record the calls, They in turn do not allow you to record them and common practice would be to say they do not give consent to be recorded or to hang up.

Nope never had that happen. I am pretty sure that it would create a stir when an audio recording hits the news with a big company announcing on the phone that they are recording the call for customer service quality but then turn around and say they will not allow you to record them.

Rob

 

[Robbyg]

That's a good tactic.
What I do now, right from the start is get their name and ID #.
Also, if they don't ask for it, I make sure they have my number and a promise to call me back if we get disconnected.

I recently had a long call with AT&T... long, frustrating, I kept my cool, and when we got close to a resolution 90 minutes in I was mysteriously disconnected. I waited for a callback and never got one. I called back in and even though I had the employee name and ID#, it was impossible to route me back. I refused to start over, asked for a supervisor... I remained polite but got mysteriously disconnected again. This was after my first morning call was the "no call back" trick you mentioned.

In any case, I eventually had to send a snail-mail letter to the CEO. A rep from his office called me back within days of receiving the letter and resolved everything.

Sadly, I don't think any of that would work with China. The email responses with them are on a 24 hour lag so it takes quite a while to get a resolution. I have not tried phone support. If they have it, that'd be a much better choice.

I have mixed results with getting the persons ID#. Most of the time they tell me they have none, which is a lie!

On a few occasions I have had to use the Nuclear option.
I make a very polite YouTube video showing the problem I am having with the product and detail my CSR experience. I keep it as private video and email them the Link. No threats of going public, I make it clear its a private video.
That has never failed yet but is time consuming and an absolute last resort.

Coincidentally I also just had a long stint of calls with my ISP due to the internet being down for 48 hours and WOW did that one require a lot of work. In the end it went from a 2 day service wait down to 2 hours! A nice chat with the CSR manager and he dispatched a tech who soon came by and ran all new cables.

Rob

 

[LINXXL]

Nope never had that happen. I am pretty sure that it would create a stir when an audio recording hits the news with a big company announcing on the phone that they are recording the call for customer service quality but then turn around and say they will not allow you to record them.

Rob

Would not cause a stir at all. They are required by law to record the call as a fraud prevention as they are asking for and repeating your personal information. If they allow you to record, there is no assurance that you are securely able to protect the recorded information and them agreeing to be recorded makes them liable if that information is disclosed. The recording is partially for service quality. They do a key word search for words that show displeasure. If there is a hit the full recording is then reviewed . The rest of the reason is for legal compliance and protection on there part. How about you post a recording of all the calls where they have agreed. I am curious to know what call center would allow this.