Customer Service Now

[Panther6834]

I just got off the phone with a very nice man from Yuneec who listened to all the issues with the drone, revised the repair authorization and is sending me a shipping label. It will be going to another service company, not KAV. I haven't received the shipping label yet, so I don't know where, but I explained that I hadn't heard good things about KAV and he told me it was going to another service option.

I can't say that will solve the problem...it might, and it might not. I'm getting a VERY STRONG impression that the problem is NOT with KAV, but with Yuneec. What this whole situation sounds like is there's a VERY high probability that Yuneec has fallen behind...as in, seriously behind...on payments to KAV for warranty repairs. I've seen this happen with other businesses, and, unfortunately, the customers end up receiving the "bad CS", as well as claiming the wrong company.

In situations like this, it is wire common for the secondary company (in this case, KAV) to start requiring payments (from the requesting company...in this case, Yuneec) either up-front, or before returning the product to the customer. When you're dealing with a large company, they can afford to bill the requesting company, as well as wait months to receive payments. On the other hand, small companies (of which I'm guessing KAV would fall under) require that constant inflow of cash to remain in operation. If they aren't receiving money from the company paying for the repairs, they become in danger of going out of business.

If my assumption is correct...and, based on everything I've read & heard, this seems to be the #1 possibility...then KAV is very-much within their right to be doing what they're doing. I'm happy that my repair too place just before this started, and I believe that the customer being affected don't deserve this...but, the one you should be blanking IS Yuneec, not KAV. For whatever company they're having you send your drone to, hopefully, Yuneec hasn't been "screwing then over" in submitting payments for warranty repairs.

Considering how much Yuneec USA has cut-back over the past 18 months, I'm seriously wondering about their financial situation, and how much longer their stay "afloat". They're increasingly facing stiffer & stiffer competition, which doesn't bode well for them. I have up on DJI, and switched to Yuneec, for a number of reasons. However, with problems like this, that's why people are considering switching (or already have) to someone other than Yuneec. Yuneec makes really good products...but, if they don't have the CS, that's a serious problem...a product is only half the equation - support is the other half.

 

[dan reed]

Has anyone tried to contact Yuneec customer service in the last week or so ?
What have been your experiences ?
All comments welcome
Thank You
Keith Kuhn

yeah there all bathing in the fuji islands while u suckers are waiting for them

 

[KEITH KUHN]

[

Now that's funny

yeah there all bathing in the fuji islands while u suckers are waiting for them
[/QUOTE]

 

[Grumpy]

I can't say that will solve the problem...it might, and it might not. I'm getting a VERY STRONG impression that the problem is NOT with KAV, but with Yuneec. What this whole situation sounds like is there's a VERY high probability that Yuneec has fallen behind...as in, seriously behind...on payments to KAV for warranty repairs. I've seen this happen with other businesses, and, unfortunately, the customers end up receiving the "bad CS", as well as claiming the wrong company.

In situations like this, it is wire common for the secondary company (in this case, KAV) to start requiring payments (from the requesting company...in this case, Yuneec) either up-front, or before returning the product to the customer. When you're dealing with a large company, they can afford to bill the requesting company, as well as wait months to receive payments. On the other hand, small companies (of which I'm guessing KAV would fall under) require that constant inflow of cash to remain in operation. If they aren't receiving money from the company paying for the repairs, they become in danger of going out of business.

If my assumption is correct...and, based on everything I've read & heard, this seems to be the #1 possibility...then KAV is very-much within their right to be doing what they're doing. I'm happy that my repair too place just before this started, and I believe that the customer being affected don't deserve this...but, the one you should be blanking IS Yuneec, not KAV. For whatever company they're having you send your drone to, hopefully, Yuneec hasn't been "screwing then over" in submitting payments for warranty repairs.

Considering how much Yuneec USA has cut-back over the past 18 months, I'm seriously wondering about their financial situation, and how much longer their stay "afloat". They're increasingly facing stiffer & stiffer competition, which doesn't bode well for them. I have up on DJI, and switched to Yuneec, for a number of reasons. However, with problems like this, that's why people are considering switching (or already have) to someone other than Yuneec. Yuneec makes really good products...but, if they don't have the CS, that's a serious problem...a product is only half the equation - support is the other half.

Time will tell. Looks to me like Yuneec and KAV may be seriously understaffed.

 

[Grumpy Old Man RC]

I paid for a YES plan back over a month ago. I messed up and they were real quick to point out that the YES plan I purchased was for an H but I owned an H+. Even quicker to get me my H+ plan at almost $100.00 more paid for. Now I have both plans just sitting on there web site and in my CC statement and no activation codes. Website is a witch and when I do find them and click, I get a message about locked by user or some snit and no one will answer an email or an open case letter to help me. I am extremely hard of hearing and they know I loathe getting them on the phone but it seems I'll have to break down and set up one of their dreaded call backs. Frackers!

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Time will tell. Looks to me like Yuneec and KAV may be seriously understaffed.

I agree about the understaffing.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

I paid for a YES plan back over a month ago. I messed up and they were real quick to point out that the YES plan I purchased was for an H but I owned an H+. Even quicker to get me my H+ plan at almost $100.00 more paid for. Now I have both plans just sitting on there web site and in my CC statement and no activation codes. Website is a witch and when I do find them and click, I get a message about locked by user or some snit and no one will answer an email or an open case letter to help me. I am extremely hard of hearing and they know I loathe getting them on the phone but it seems I'll have to break down and set up one of their dreaded call backs. Frackers!

I feel your frustration.

 

[Panther6834]

I paid for a YES plan back over a month ago. I messed up and they were real quick to point out that the YES plan I purchased was for an H but I owned an H+. Even quicker to get me my H+ plan at almost $100.00 more paid for. Now I have both plans just sitting on there web site and in my CC statement and no activation codes. Website is a witch and when I do find them and click, I get a message about locked by user or some snit and no one will answer an email or an open case letter to help me. I am extremely hard of hearing and they know I loathe getting them on the phone but it seems I'll have to break down and set up one of their dreaded call backs. Frackers!

I'd highly suggest contacting your bank/CC company, and filing a claim....explain the situation, in as detailed a manner as you need to. Worst-case scenario, they should refund the amount equal to the first plan...best-case scenario, they'll refund the amount of both. In either case, they will then do a reverse EFT, taking the money from Yuneec.

I ran into the exact same situation several months again, with ROAR (RC vehicle racing association, and that's exactly what my bank did. No sooner had I received the refund, I received a huge "apology" email from ROAR, filled with several excuses why my membership package was never sent. I responded back, essentially telling them "no excuse". I had received my refund, and I won't bother with ROAR again, until such time as I attend a national event.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

I'd highly suggest contacting your bank/CC company, and filing a claim....explain the situation, in as detailed a manner as you need to. Worst-case scenario, they should refund the amount equal to the first plan...best-case scenario, they'll refund the amount of both. In either case, they will then do a reverse EFT, taking the money from Yuneec.

I ran into the exact same situation several months again, with ROAR (RC vehicle racing association, and that's exactly what my bank did. No sooner had I received the refund, I received a huge "apology" email from ROAR, filled with several excuses why my membership package was never sent. I responded back, essentially telling them "no excuse". I had received my refund, and I won't bother with ROAR again, until such time as I attend a national event.

You did great. Glad you
found the correct procedure to get action.

 

[Panther6834]

You did great. Glad you
found the correct procedure to get action.

Any time a company refuses to take action, or they refuse to respond to contact attempts, you next course of actual should ALWAYS be too contact the entity you used for payment. Banks will (almost) always back the customer first, as their customer is their "income source".

 

[PatR]

I’ll venture KAV is adequately staffed but redirecting staff normally used for warranty work to perform revenue generating work. If KAV is understaffed my best guess would be they had to let people go due to lack of incoming revenue. The staffing levels they currently have are most likely quite sufficient for the amount of work the company is being paid to perform.

People that have owned their own businesses seem to better understand that if you aren’t getting paid you stop doing work. If you had extended credit to other company’s for contract work and the companies owing money stopped making their payments you would stop doing their work until the bills were paid, and limit further work to levels much reduced from what had been previously allowed to minimize your losses should debtor companies default again.

If you had been maintaining a number of employees to perform work on debtor company products, but you weren’t getting paid for the warranty work performed, your only option would be to lay off the warranty work staff that was no longer doing that work.

It’s economics 101, you can’t make money if you don’t get paid, and you lose even more money paying employees that are not performing work. In contract labor operations your customer is the entity that signed the contract, not that entities entire customer base. Non warranty work, where the owner of the drone pays the bill is a completely different situation. KAV HAS to operate their business like a business, not a non profit charity. Where a few people are worried about their drone, KAV is worried about keeping the bills paid, the employees paid, and making enough money to justify running a business. Those that can’t put that together might consider contacting KAV to have their drones returned “as is”, foot the bill for the shipping, and deal with repairs on their own. Personally, I’d wait to see how this all shakes out. You’ve waited this long and Yuneec has implied a new product release will happen soon, at which time they might capture enough money to pay KAV. That’s a reach but it’s one of the only two options you currently have.

In the meantime, hammer on Yuneec. Make it loud and visual. Send e-mails, post on Yuneec’s FaceBook page, and post YouTube videos demonstrating the issues, but do it intelligently. Enough negative publicity and one of two things will happen; they correct the situation, turning things around, or they fold up and stop taking people for a ride.

 

[Grumpy]

What piqued my interest was what another poster said about Yuneec sending her drone to another repair facility. I wonder whom that would be and if they are are in the same situation as KAV? I think there is a lot more going on here than what Yuneec and KAV are letting out. Here's a "what if"... Yuneec isn't paying Kav because of too many "come backs" (jeff sibelius repair comes to mind) and others that have had to send their drones back more than once.

 

[PatR]

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen businesses that owed a lot of money jump to new, and smaller, suppliers when those they owed a lot of money to cut off the credit line.

Beyond that, there will always be a never ending line of small, just starting or struggling businesses that will jump on every “opportunity” that presents itself, and fail because they chose to ignore history.

Big business preys upon those types of companies like a pedophile standing in front of a playground.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

What piqued my interest was what another poster said about Yuneec sending her drone to another repair facility. I wonder whom that would be and if they are are in the same situation as KAV? I think there is a lot more going on here than what Yuneec and KAV are letting out. Here's a "what if"... Yuneec isn't paying Kav because of too many "come backs" (jeff sibelius repair comes to mind) and others that have had to send their drones back more than once.

I really hope Yuneec gets
back on track.

 

[SkyVidTek]

Like others have said, I put the blame for the Yuneec-KAV fiasco at 90% with Yuneec. The reason being, I think that Yuneec may be in a financial bind, not just with KAV but possibly with its suppliy chain. Its no secret that there has been a serious shortage of both new drones and spare parts. If a company had backorders for kits and spares, its the only reason they wouldn't ramp up production IMO.
I have been a Yuneec "fanboy" for almost 5 years having owned 7 different Yuneec drones (currently own 4) since 2015, but I am very concerned with the business management decisions they have made in the past few years. I have seen their N Americam customer service go from "very good" to amost "non-existant". They launch new products before they are ready, they do not listen to their customer base for improvements or functional features and so on.

I do not think that Yuneec management understands modern western marketing. The pilots on this forum is possibly the most ardent, dedicated group of Yuneec owners on the planet, and should be a great resource for Yuneec to advance their products if they would listen. If they did they would be communicating and reacting with this dedicated market, advertise to the general market, and be proactive with cutting edge products. I fear that Yuneec may fail as a drone company soon if management does not start thinking proactively and reacting to their customer base and market directions.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

It should be noted that there are a couple of concurrent instances where the fault is definitely different in each of those cases.
The CF that Jeff has been enduring lies completely with inadequate QC on the part of KAV. In his case, there never should have been subsequent returns needed. It has to be frustrating, because KAV historically was awful when initially contracted to do warranty repairs. But they finally got their needed experience and their record improved... until about the same timeframe of the other downturns in Yuneec CS on a variety of fronts... quality of contacting CS, quality of repairs at KAV and parts availability... all within the last year and worsening in the last six months.

Another set of cases is a completely different situation... lack of parts delaying repairs... that lies solely with Yuneec entirely.

The third set of cases, I agree completely with @PatR, because no repair facility should be expected to continue warranty work... especially if the company they are contracted to, is not paying their previously agreed to rate in a timely manner. Pretty much the most basic way to break a contract. Unfortunately that leaves any pilot waiting on warranty work, SOL.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

Like others have said, I put the blame for the Yuneec-KAV fiasco at 90% with Yuneec. The reason being, I think that Yuneec may be in a financial bind, not just with KAV but possibly with its suppliy chain. Its no secret that there has been a serious shortage of both new drones and spare parts. If a company had backorders for kits and spares, its the only reason they wouldn't ramp up production IMO.
I have been a Yuneec "fanboy" for almost 5 years having owned 7 different Yuneec drones (currently own 4) since 2015, but I am very concerned with the business management decisions they have made in the past few years. I have seen their N Americam customer service go from "very good" to amost "non-existant". They launch new products before they are ready, they do not listen to their customer base for improvements or functional features and so on.

I do not think that Yuneec management understands modern western marketing. The pilots on this forum is possibly the most ardent, dedicated group of Yuneec owners on the planet, and should be a great resource for Yuneec to advance their products if they would listen. If they did they would be communicating and reacting with this dedicated market, advertise to the general market, and be proactive with cutting edge products. I fear that Yuneec may fail as a drone company soon if management does not start thinking proactively and reacting to their customer base and market directions.

You may be on target judging by what you have
Just stated here. Some of the original pitch men for
The TY H have abanded
Ship. I am concerned as well. I love my TY -H 480

I am almost afraid to fly it.
I do not need anymore mishaps.

 

[Panther6834]

I've been considering selling mine for almost 6 months now, going back & forth...sell, keep, sell, keep...can't make up my mind...but, maybe it is time to sell.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

I've been considering selling mine for almost 6 months now, going back & forth...sell, keep, sell, keep...can't make up my mind...but, maybe it is time to sell.

Almost like the stock market, what to do and when. I will keep mine to death do us part.

 

[PatR]

You may be on target judging by what you have
Just stated here. Some of the original pitch men for
The TY H have abanded
Ship. I am concerned as well. I love my TY -H 480

I am almost afraid to fly it.
I do not need anymore mishaps.

Most mishaps occur because the person flying made a mistake. Taking the time to plan a flight, then fly the plan while avoiding impulsive actions tends to minimize or eliminate mishaps.

Look at the area of flight prior to flying it, become aware of features that could cause a mishap, monitor battery voltage, avoid ultra low flight and dangerously close to obstruction flights, fly within a safe flight distance, stabilize the aircraft before landing. Those items cover the cause of most mishaps.