Believe it or not? DJI rep says they pay all tariffs.

[MS Coast]

I've been trying to understand the actual effect of Trump's 145% across-the-board (except cell phones and electronics, maybe) on imports from China and what they mean for DJI drone buyers in the US. So, I contacted DJI this afternoon and had a text conversation with a DJI's purchase support representative to ask about tariffs and pricing.

I've included screen captures of the conversation below. The bottom line is that the representative told me that DJI pays all import fees and duties, specifically including tariffs.

I suspect that this may be another case of the customer support representatives not being aware of the actual situation and providing bad information with good intentions. The discussions here have included numerous reports of DJI reps giving inappropriate advice or suggesting a drone be returned for service without a reasonable justification.

Has anyone purchased a drone from DJI since the White House told us that the 145% tariffs are in effect?



The linked page deals with sales taxes

 

[gulfstream4]

Looks legit to me. The proof is in the pudding when you hit the buy now button. I would not be surprised at all if DJI covers the tariff. They've had plenty of time to make a decision, and brief the staff on how to respond to this "VERY" question.

 

[microlinux]

Likely they on-shored stock, or to nearby countries. This is not an uncommon strategy if you have the time and capital. Assuming this is the case, the price increases will come once that stock runs out, if the tariffs are still in place.

 

[msinger]

I suspect that this may be another case of the customer support representatives not being aware of the actual situation and providing bad information with good intentions

But then how do you explain the unusual price increases on products in the DJI store? Those hefty increases must be due to some new costs of doing business (tariffs?).

It seems highly unlikely that they'd increase prices without reason and still leave customers to deal with extra costs when their shipments get held up in Customs. Just imagine if that's really the case, where all international packages now require a manual Customs process that consumers have to handle themselves. That sounds like an impossible scenario.

 

[rgarjr]

They have already jacked up the price on certain items such as (Avata 2, Flip batteries), Pocket 3 on their store. So yeah you're not going to pay any tarriffs fees, they will just increased the price.

 

[Cafguy]

Looks official BUT..Hmmm I don't see them shouldering the cost without a price increase that's just ridiculous. Maybe. Lets see what the "Tariff free price" of a Mavic 4 will be. lol

 

[mavic3usa]

The tariff is not new. There was a small bit of tariff last year no? Last year, when you ordered something from DJI, you paid one time and the shipment arrived, do you have pay additional to accept the shipment from China? No, because DJI paid for everything and you are only responsible for the single payment whether it contained additional fees or not. Same going forwards. Last year, you paid $500. This year, you pa $900. If you would prefer to call it DJI paid the $400 tariff and your item now costs $900 instead of $500, that's ok....call it whatever you wish. One side says "China pays" the $400 and the other side says new tariffs will be borne by the customers....pick your side. All I can say is the government is hoping the uneducated believes the former.

You can't believe for one side and not for the other side. because China has the same/similar tariffs in place, plenty of reciprocal tariffs. Do you believe American companies are paying China to receive US goods into China?

 

[Meta4]

I suspect that this may be another case of the customer support representatives not being aware of the actual situation and providing bad information with good intentions. The discussions here have included numerous reports of DJI reps giving inappropriate advice or suggesting a drone be returned for service without a reasonable justification.

Has anyone purchased a drone from DJI since the White House told us that the 145% tariffs are in effect?

Yes ... there are many cases where DJI personnel have provided false information, but it might not be the case here.
For the price to include the new tariff, the goods must have come into the country after April 9th.
The new tariff won't be charged on goods that entered the country before that date.
Many businesses have been stockpiling imported goods in anticipation of tariff increases.
DJI is likely to have done that as well.

To see if the advice was correct and that DJI's price will include any tariffs in future, you need to be sure you are looking at an item that was imported after April 9th, not something that entered the country before that date.

 

[mavic3usa]

DJI practically told everyone after their pre-tariff pricing before stock runs out here I made a post about it: 10% duties on all Chinese goods on 2/1

 

[Johnmcl7]

I think they're answering a different question, all they're saying is the total price you pay on the DJI site is the final price, there will be no further charges. However that doesn't rule out future price increases as there has been for the Osmo Mobile 3, if they do increase the drone prices for the tariffs then their answer will still be true in that the price on the DJI site is the total price but it may well be higher.

This is different to buying from a store abroad where you can be due additional taxes and duty when you import the item so the price on the site is not the final price.

 

[KAOS Imagery]

DJI has a large warehouse in CA, I'm wondering if they had a cache of product stored there before April 9th as Meta says. Maybe even a first batch of Mavic 4s.

 

[Vic Moss]

-ish...

Yes, DJI pays the actual tariffs, but only on the front end. We should be under no illusion that we as end users don't pay the actual tariff (or part of it) on the backend when we pay our final bill.

I deal with DJI management (not dealer reps or customer service) on a regular basis. At least once a week. I texted my two main contacts about tariff pricing for a video I'm getting ready to do. I needed pre- and post-tariff pricing a real work number to compare to comparable U.S manufactured drones.

Here is the response, ""Dock 3 with Matrice 4TD Ready to Fly kit: $9100 (pre-tariffs) and $15,199 (post tariffs)", and "Matrice 4T: $7280 (pre-tariffs) and $12,159 (post tariffs)"

These are obviously for Enterprise models, but there have been similar price increases across the board.

Some of you may have noticed that many drones on the DJI website are listed as "Out of Stock", or "Not available in your country/region." This is due to DJi trying to get their pricing set due to tariff. At the moment, you have to go to the DJI Amazon store to get what you need.

So if you're looking to get DJI gear at the moment, use their Amazon store. You're still buying from DJI themselves, but via Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/DJI/page/A2F1C74C-8865-4820-AD23-3C56F28F254C?

 

[Dave Pitman]

With Tariffs, if the product is sold by a legit retailer, they pay the tariff and add it (or not) to the price you pay. The buyer ultimately pays the tariff because it was likely added to the price already.

On the other hand, if you buy a product directly from a seller that is not a "retailer", like on Ebay or other. Then, that is the case where it may get hung up in customs waiting for you as the buyer to pay the tariff directly.

So, in both cases, the buyer pays the tariff. The first case, like with DJI's store, the tariff will be incorporated into the price. In the second case, it will be a mess when you try to pay for your gizmo that you purchased from some individual online. and it gets hung up in customs.

As @Vic Moss mentioned, DJI's enterprise drones are the first to show "significant" price increases because of the tariffs. Most have nearly doubled in price to the buyer. I expect the M4 will be approximately double the pricing of comparable M3s at launch if tariff rates remain and the enterprise increases are any hint. DJI will eat some but not all of it.

It was reported that Amazon was thinking about adding an alert on each product telling how much was added to the price by the tariff. The white house had a fit and Amazon relented.

 

[JoelP]

Having spent half of my career in marketing I want to point out that price and cost are two different things. Cost is calculated from the cost of materials, labor and all other factors such as shipping, tax and now tariffs. Price is determined by what the customers are willing to pay. If there is no competitive product, the manufacturer can raise price until they hit the threshold of pain for their customers. The price that maximizes total margin for the manufacturer based upon the adjusted customer demand is the ideal price. The professional market may tolerate a higher price. If the prosumer marketplace for DJI cannot tolerate the increased price due to tariffs and there is sufficient margin the calculations may show that DJI needs to absorb some or all of the tariff to maximize their total margin.

 

[Vic Moss]

Having spent half of my career in marketing I want to point out that price and cost are two different things. Cost is calculated from the cost of materials, labor and all other factors such as shipping, tax and now tariffs. Price is determined by what the customers are willing to pay. If there is no competitive product, the manufacturer can raise price until they hit the threshold of pain for their customers. The price that maximizes total margin for the manufacturer based upon the adjusted customer demand is the ideal price. The professional market may tolerate a higher price. If the prosumer marketplace for DJI cannot tolerate the increased price due to tariffs and there is sufficient margin the calculations may show that DJI needs to absorb some or all of the tariff to maximize their total margin.

DJI assuming some of the cost of the tariff increase. But they cannot continue doing this. That is why the trade war needs to end now.

There is zero benefit to the U.S. drone industry because there is nothing to replace DJI and Autel drones. So the theory of encouraging U.S. manufacturing is a farce for drones.

 

[msinger]

So if you're looking to get DJI gear at the moment, use their Amazon store. You're still buying from DJI themselves, but via Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/DJI/page/A2F1C74C-8865-4820-AD23-3C56F28F254C?

I'm not sure any of those products are sold by DJI themselves. Most do appear to be DJI dealers though.

 

[Vic Moss]

I'm not sure any of those products are sold by DJI themselves. Most do appear to be DJI dealers though.

Some are, but all are done via the Amazon DJI store, so they are approved vendors.

 

[Calson]

If one is buying from a U.S. retailer then the tariff is paid by the importing entity which can decide whether to pass that along to the reseller. DJI wants to protect its market dominance with commercial and recreational drones and has more options for responding to the Trump tax for U.S. customers.

At this time the Air 3S kits are backordered by DJI and all the U.S. resellers.

 

[mavic3usa]

If one is buying from a U.S. retailer then the tariff is paid by the importing entity which can decide whether to pass that along to the reseller.

Not to make this political and your statement happens to be the last one in the list so I'll point this out, to clarify because there is so much confusion:

Correct, the tariff is paid by the importing entity.
The importing entity cannot decide whether to pass the tariff along to the reseller; they have to pay tariff and the reseller does not have to pay the tariff.
The importing entity can decide to raise their prices to cover their costs whatever they may be due to a tariff or an earthquake.

This is the conflict when you have the discussion from both sides about who pays the tariffs. Passing along costs is not exactly the same as passing along the tariff especially in a trade war where the tariff is meant to hurt a particular party and is not mean to hurt the end consumer. When there is an earthquake that damages a factory and production is halted and prices rise, we don't claim the consumer has to pay for that earthquake damage do we?

In your example, first blame goes to the importing entity and second blame goes to the tariff should the end consumer have an issue with the higher prices. It has to work like that otherwise tariffs are identical to a sale tax and while they are close, they are not exactly the same. Ultimately who gets hurts is a totally different discussion. China imports have *always* had tariffs and we never complained and never noticed until they got high and got politicized.

 

[Dave Pitman]

So the theory of encouraging U.S. manufacturing is a farce

The tariffs in this case have no particular purpose. One day, the reason is to encourage manufacturing. The next day they are because there is a trade deficit. The next day, it goes away if you make a deal with some particular crypto currency. The next day, the tariff is postponed because the bond market is cracking. The next day, they are to encourage manufacturing.

And, after all of this. There are still defenders of these tariffs. Go figure.