One day in Bangkok...

[BillB]

DJI could be the next Apple Computer.

A lot of people rightly complain when they had a bad experience with a company. Today I had the opposite.

My son Finn received a DJI Mavic Pro drone for Christmas. It was sort of one of those gifts that you give your kid because you want to play with it too.

As I was planning my trip to Thailand, he offered to let me take the drone. I refused. I didn't know how to fly it as well as he did and I was afraid I'd break it/drown it/lost it/etc.

A few days later, he made the offer more forcefully. "Dad, a place like Thailand is why you have something like this," he told me. I couldn't refuse and packed it in the camera bag.

After several awesome aerial video shoots (which I will bore you all with once I get back to the states and get them edited), I took it out of my bag and the video was total jello. I had broken the drone.

DJI has a service center in Bangkok. I walked in, showed the engineer the "jello" video and he started working on it. 15 minutes later he came back and he did a full calibration and test flight in their lobby. Good as new. He even gave me a new clamp to protect the gimbal in transit.

I was saved. I'm not going to be bringing home a broken drone.

I asked how much. He looked confused. The nice woman that was helping interpret looked confused. "Invoice please," I tried again. They both smiled and shook their heads "no." (Fortunately before I left, I saw a tip jar hidden in the corner and left a fair tip)

I have never received better customer service. Thank you DJI. If you keep up this level of innovation and customer service, you are the next superstar in the tech world.

 

[skypros]

Great story and pictures and welcome to the group

 

[BillB]

Thanks. I've been a longtime lurker and have learned so much from this awesome community. But I never felt I had anything worth sharing until now. DJI seems to have a fair number of these service centers across Asia.

 

[Cyberpower678]

DJI could be the next Apple Computer.

A lot of people rightly complain when they had a bad experience with a company. Today I had the opposite.

My son Finn received a DJI Mavic Pro drone for Christmas. It was sort of one of those gifts that you give your kid because you want to play with it too.

As I was planning my trip to Thailand, he offered to let me take the drone. I refused. I didn't know how to fly it as well as he did and I was afraid I'd break it/drown it/lost it/etc.

A few days later, he made the offer more forcefully. "Dad, a place like Thailand is why you have something like this," he told me. I couldn't refuse and packed it in the camera bag.

After several awesome aerial video shoots (which I will bore you all with once I get back to the states and get them edited), I took it out of my bag and the video was total jello. I had broken the drone.

DJI has a service center in Bangkok. I walked in, showed the engineer the "jello" video and he started working on it. 15 minutes later he came back and he did a full calibration and test flight in their lobby. Good as new. He even gave me a new clamp to protect the gimbal in transit.

I was saved. I'm not going to be bringing home a broken drone.

I asked how much. He looked confused. The nice woman that was helping interpret looked confused. "Invoice please," I tried again. They both smiled and shook their heads "no." (Fortunately before I left, I saw a tip jar hidden in the corner and left a fair tip)

I have never received better customer service. Thank you DJI. If you keep up this level of innovation and customer service, you are the next superstar in the tech world.

I'm in Bangkok now. Where is this service center?


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[BillB]

Here:

503 KSL Tower, Room no.503/32, 6th floor, Sri-Ayutthaya Road, Thanonphayathai, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400
DJI Service Center - PhantomThailand

 

[Drone Police]

Very often jello comes from the gimble stop moving outside the tabs. It would be criminal to charge for a 10 sec fix, if that was the case.
If it was, then good for them and you. They could have rightly charged you.
I love Thailand and the people there. That would have made your experience there a bit better.

 

[BillB]

Thanks for the response. The gimbal stop was indeed inside the tabs. And there was some very helpful threads on this forum that helped me determine it was an issue that was beyond my ability to self rescue.

I was traveling without the gimbal clamp (I know, I know, believe me I've already kicked myself a million times for this). At some point while traveling, something pushed against the gimbal and caused a slight bend in the mounting plate (the plate that is suspended by the four little rubber bands...I'm sure there is a better technical description).

The tech at DJI Bangkok showed me what had happened. This bend caused the arm to hang at an angle and messed with the floating suspension. The tech bent the plate back so it was straight. And everything was fine again. At least that is my understanding of what happened.

When I showed him the jello video he at first assumed exactly what you said. But when I handed him the drone and he looked at the gimbal plate placement, he got a very confused look on his face. He asked through the interpreter if I had crashed it. And I said no, but had been traveling with the clamp.

After 15 minutes at his workbench, he had fixed it.

 

[sosmaverick]

I'm currently travelling the world, stupidly I threw out the gimbal clamp without actually knowing it had such use. I'm currently in Thailand, will have a few hours spare in Bangkok next week, do you think I could go there to get a replacement part? the whole gimbal/camera look so fragile.


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[BillB]

I'd give it a shot. They don't have them in their normal inventory of spare parts, but they rummaged around and found one for me. Might have taken it out of a new Mavic box....not sure. It was clear they were doing me a huge solid.