Is Yuneec Playing a Joke On Me?

Peter b · Mar 11, 2019

I might be going back to kav tomorrow after I speak to them in the morning. At least they have a repair shop which parrot does not! No more drones from them. ?

Phaedrus · Mar 11, 2019

PatR said:
Cheaper that way. No training costs, no tax or work comp O/H, no payroll tax load, perhaps lower wages, and certainly lower cost per square foot of floor space. All Yuneec provides is a couple people for phone calls and chat replies. They don’t even need to maintain an executive mgmt team. With so little to manage it can all be done remotely from home.

Too true. The flip side is your subs have less of an emotional investment in your business. I know 2 guys who were higher up, maybe not executive management, who have left in the last year. Not sure what to read into that.

DoomMeister · Mar 11, 2019

My reaction may be a bit knee jerk, but coming from a technical maintenance background I have a low tolerance for stupid. Two screw ups like that in a row is just beyond stupid and KAV needs to get their act together.

TurboDad81 · Mar 11, 2019

I'm sure the people in charge don't even know stuff like this is happening. Many companies use temporary labor services in their warehouses. Those workers don't care. They just collect a paycheck. The company where my wife works uses a temp service in the warehouse. They screw up everything. Last year, I bet temp workers cost that company $100,000 and probably $1M worth of future business.

Murray Martz · Mar 11, 2019

TurboDad81 said:
I wonder how much money they have tied up in my issue. We're up to 8 shippings, 2 warranty repair costs, and 2 radios.

I would suggest this.

Contact Yuneec again in which ever way will work best for you. Let them know that you do like their products otherwise you would not have invested your money in them. Explain to them that "you", are "their" customer. That "you" purchased one of "their" products in good faith believing that "their" customer service is a service for "their" customers. Then ask them why they are failing you as a customer?

Let them know that you understand that mistakes can happen, but also let them know that due to the fact that they know all about your problems, why did they allow this to happen? Suggest to them that as a matter of good faith, and that due to them dropping the ball on your warranty period with a lack of response for months, that they have wasted part of your warranty and you feel you should have the months that they did not respond be added back to your warranty.

Emphasize to them that this is their problem and not yours. Ask them what they are prepared to do to keep you as a customer.

If you word it all in the correct way, emphasizing the words you, their, customer and customer service, it puts the responsibility back to them.

Make it clear by telling them......... "you" need to take ownership of "your" own issues, rather than placing it on "me" as a customer of "yours"

Eagle's Eye Video · Mar 11, 2019

This is the kind of reports we saw posted here when KAV was first contracted to provide this 3rd party repair service... about 2 years ago. At least as of recently, they had improved their reputation on this forum... at least in terms of their repair work.

However this issue (now twice), is specifically with only the warehouse/shipping department at KAV. It is completely a quality control issue, as in neither case should those "controllers" have gotten to the station where items are packaged for shipping.

TurboDad81 · Mar 11, 2019

I can (kind of) see someone mixing up an ST10 for and ST10+, as in this most recent case. I still can't fathom someone putting an ST10+ in a box without sticks in it. I mean, 2 huge holes in the transmitter sort of "sticks" out. That is 100% an IDGAF attitude.

PatR · Mar 12, 2019

DoomMeister said:
My reaction may be a bit knee jerk, but coming from a technical maintenance background I have a low tolerance for stupid. Two screw ups like that in a row is just beyond stupid and KAV needs to get their act together.

It gets worse. They did a board replacement on a 920. When they put it back together they failed to secure the FC to the board in any way. It was just laying on top. There were some electrical connection chafing issues as well. The owner voided his repair warranty by opening it up but he’s glad he did.

Failing to secure a flight controller assures a crash is imminent.

Steve Carr · Mar 12, 2019

Something has certainly changed at that facility. I had some correspondence with them about a year ago and they were actively seeking to make improvements to their customer service. Perhaps there has been a change in personnel. Sad to see this kind of mishandling.

Phaedrus · Mar 12, 2019

PatR said:
It gets worse. They did a board replacement on a 920. When they put it back together they failed to secure the FC to the board in any way. It was just laying on top. There were some electrical connection chafing issues as well. The owner voided his repair warranty by opening it up but he’s glad he did.

Failing to secure a flight controller assures a crash is imminent.

Yikes!!

Peter b · Mar 12, 2019

This should be put on the q500 discussion but I spent a long time on the phone yesterday with yuneec help and as helpful as they we're trying to be, the problem still existed. 3 minutes on the phone with kav solved a problem that yuneec couldn't. Thanks Russ!

DoomMeister · Mar 12, 2019

I don’t mean to imply that everyone at KAV is an idiot. What I am saying is that image is a major part of a business and the image they are projecting is not a good one. A member of management needs to step up take the reins and steer the cart in the right direction. What we see here is not the right direction.

Yuneec should be looking for alternate sources if this trend continues.

TurboDad81 · Mar 12, 2019

Another update. I received a phone call from KAV earlier today, and again a few minutes ago. They knew of my issue from the email @DoomMeister sent. Not sure how they knew it was me, my name, or phone number, but they did. After talking to him this second time, he assured me that he had a brand new ST10+ in his hand, was currently updating the firmware, and it is shipping first thing in the morning.

I still have a 6:05pm scheduled phone call from Yuneec, which is exactly in 1 hour, my time.

TurboDad81 · Mar 12, 2019

Spoke to Yuneec CS. I just want to say, Roy J. is a superstar. He is who I spoke to a few weeks back, managed to chat with him online last week, and he is who I got again today on the phone. Out of all the CS stuff that he deals with on a daily basis, he remembered everything about this nightmare. He is extending my warranty, calling KAV and getting to the bottom of this, and meeting with his management to see what they can do to make this right.

And in case anyone wonders, KAV and United Radio are the only 2 outside sources that Yuneec uses currently. The Mantis Q is the only UAV serviced by Yuneec corporate.

Peter b · Mar 12, 2019

Spoke to kav this morning and had a good experience.

DoomMeister · Mar 12, 2019

Peter b said:
Spoke to kav this morning and had a good experience.

Glad you had such a great experience, but I fail to see what that has to do with the experience TurboDad81 has had with getting his ST-10+ replaced with two bad ones in a row.

Are you going to tell us more about that great experience in the thread you started where you asked the forum for help?

PatR · Mar 13, 2019

Easy there big fella, easy.

TurboDad81 · Mar 20, 2019

Hopefully this will be my last update. I received my brand new ST10+ on Monday, 3-18-19. This time it is an actual ST10+, it has all of its sticks and switches, and it appears to be brand new. I bound it to the UAV and the camera. Sitting on my desk, everything appears to be working like it should. I have yet to fly it, but I'm sure it will work just fine.

[MOD EDIT] Thread has run it's course.