Yuneec USA and its bad service

pete c · Aug 23, 2019

I called Yuneec today it is 50 miles from me I wanted to buy the shrapnel clips cost $1.99 each weight approx, 3 grams they wanted shipping costs of $12.99 talk about incompetent service! I 'll order from China get it faster and cheaper!

Steve Carr · Aug 23, 2019

pete c said:
talk about incompetent service! I 'll order from China get it faster and cheaper!

Let us know how that works for ya.

PatR · Aug 24, 2019

Yea, that price is gotta be tough. Figure some employee will spend 30 minutes pulling the parts while another employee handles creating the shipping label and does the packaging. Figure another 20 minutes or so for that. My guess is Yuneec will look for the cheapest shipping rate which means they’ll will assign an employee to run the package to the Post Office for USPS shipping rates. Figure at least an hour of employee time for that.

So all total that comes out just shy of 2 hours employee labor at $15.00/ hr. Yuneec probably has some kind of employee benefit package so if we use a factor of about 1.55 to cover benefits, payroll taxes (Work Comp ins, Social Security, unemployment taxes, etc) and other overhead (building rent, insurance, bldg maintenance, utilities, payroll accounting labor, etc) the total labor cost to ship those clips comes to about $46.50 without adding in the charge for the parts. The labor cost is prolly a bit more than that as they are doing business in California, a state that taxes businesses more than any other and has a heavy regulatory environment.

So the people getting screwed with that $12.99 shipping charge aren’t customers, it’s Yuneec. A word of advice; don’t go into business for yourself because you don’t have a clue about the costs of doing business.

Mrgs1 · Aug 24, 2019

pete c said:
I called Yuneec today it is 50 miles from me I wanted to buy the shrapnel clips cost $1.99 each weight approx, 3 grams they wanted shipping costs of $12.99 talk about incompetent service! I 'll order from China get it faster and cheaper!

Count yourself lucky, we pay over twice the price for those clips! And there out of stock here. How do you know the China ones are going to be up to the quality of a genuine part? Good luck.

Giulio Ranalli · Aug 24, 2019

Mrgs1 said:
Count yourself lucky, we pay over twice the price for those clips! And there out of stock here. How do you know the China ones are going to be up to the quality of a genuine part? Good luck.

..because it is in China where they make the " original" ones.....I had the same issue with the free wheel hub of my Nissan Frontier...the price here, Costa RIca, for one piece, is 600 dollars, in China, made from the same factory, I got two for 80 $ + 50 $ of shipping.....and they works flawlessly ....

Eagle's Eye Video · Aug 24, 2019

Giulio Ranalli said:
..because it is in China where they make the " original" ones.....I had the same issue with the free wheel hub of my Nissan Frontier...the price here, Costa RIca, for one piece, is 600 dollars, in China, made from the same factory, I got two for 80 $ + 50 $ of shipping.....and they works flawlessly ....

Interesting theory... tell that to the pilots that had the same thought with the "cheap" Yuneec props that have an unfortunate tendency to fail in mid-flight.

Panther6834 · Aug 24, 2019

PatR said:
Yea, that price is gotta be tough. Figure some employee will spend 30 minutes pulling the parts while another employee handles creating the shipping label and does the packaging. Figure another 20 minutes or so for that. My guess is Yuneec will look for the cheapest shipping rate which means they’ll will assign an employee to run the package to the Post Office for USPS shipping rates. Figure at least an hour of employee time for that.

So all total that comes out just shy of 2 hours employee labor at $15.00/ hr. Yuneec probably has some kind of employee benefit package so if we use a factor of about 1.55 to cover benefits, payroll taxes (Work Comp ins, Social Security, unemployment taxes, etc) and other overhead (building rent, insurance, bldg maintenance, utilities, payroll accounting labor, etc) the total labor cost to ship those clips comes to about $46.50 without adding in the charge for the parts. The labor cost is prolly a bit more than that as they are doing business in California, a state that taxes businesses more than any other and has a heavy regulatory environment.

So the people getting screwed with that $12.99 shipping charge aren’t customers, it’s Yuneec. A word of advice; don’t go into business for yourself because you don’t have a clue about the costs of doing business.

I will agree, as the thread creator indicated by the thread title, that Yuneec's customer service has gone down hill. They used to have phone-in support, which was mostly good...but, about a year ago, they eliminated that. Now, you can to schedule an appointment (via their online portal), and, when they call, you're limited to a 15 minute window. If whatever your problem is takes longer than that, oh well.

As for your estimated in picking/packing, you haven't got a clue as to how a warehouse operates. I've worked in warehouses before, including working for Amazon, and I can tell you, your "time estimate" is way, WAY overboard.

"Pulling the part" would take no more than 10 minutes...probably less than 5. When I worked for Amazon, I could EASILY pick over 100+ items per hour...and, no, that is NOT an exaggeration (a lot of the time, picking consisted of picking multiples of the same item). A computer determines the cheapest shipping method, & prints the label, so NO time involved there. Actual packing, including attaching the label, another 1-2 minutes. ACTUAL total time involved: less than12 minutes, closer to 5-6.

Where you come up with 2 hours, who knows...you must be smoking some of that 'funny stuff'.

PatR · Aug 24, 2019

My “warehouse” experience is a bit limited, mostly acquired working for a large aerospace subsidiary that had not built it’s business model on shipping parts. The time estimate I provided underestimated order fulfillment in that industry by tens of man hours, not to mention labor and overhead rates triple those encountered by a small business. If that sounds outrageous you don’t want to even think about the labor costs involved with purchasing items for the company, a process that adds hundreds to thousands of $$ to the cost of even the cheapest item. It’s where the (factual) tales of $20,000.00 toilet seats and $10,000.00 hammers originated.

Since Amazon makes nothing and relies on a high efficiency system, including drop shipping, designed around rapid order fulfillment using computerized SKU tracking, robotics, over worked people, and carrier contracts I don’t see the comparison between Amazon and Yuneec as a fair and balanced comparison.

In any event, just the cost of postage would exceed the cost of the part. In any event, as the OP lives only 50 miles from Yuneec he could have driven to their facility to puck up the parts if he felt $12.99 was too much to pay. He could look up AAA vehicle operational costs per mile to determine how well that cost comparison works out.

Next time he buys a new multirotor kit, perhaps he might offer to pay the actual carrier charges instead of accepting the free shipping Yuneec provides. If he did he might find the best he could do would end up costing around $68.00-$70.00.

People want to get something for nothing but Lord help anyone that tries to get those same people to discount anything they want to sell. It’s OK for them to break even or turn a profit but everyone else has to service them at a loss.

Ty Pilot · Aug 24, 2019

Panther6834 said:
I will agree, as the thread creator indicated by the thread title, that Yuneec's customer service has gone down hill. They used to have phone-in support, which was mostly good...but, about a year ago, they eliminated that. Now, you can to schedule an appointment (via their online portal), and, when they call, you're limited to a 15 minute window. If whatever your problem is takes longer than that, oh well.

As for your estimated in picking/packing, you haven't got a clue as to how a warehouse operates. I've worked in warehouses before, including working for Amazon, and I can tell you, your "time estimate" is way, WAY overboard.

"Pulling the part" would take no more than 10 minutes...probably less than 5. When I worked for Amazon, I could EASILY pick over 100+ items per hour...and, no, that is NOT an exaggeration (a lot of the time, picking consisted of picking multiples of the same item). A computer determines the cheapest shipping method, & prints the label, so NO time involved there. Actual packing, including attaching the label, another 1-2 minutes. ACTUAL total time involved: less than12 minutes, closer to 5-6.

Where you come up with 2 hours, who knows...you must be smoking some of that 'funny stuff'.

Apples and Oranges. I am a small business owner who sells items all over the world and ships primarily via USPS and on the subject of shipping there is something that has always been a sore spot with me. Individuals and small companies who do not have millions of dollars to give to political campaigns in order to get under the table below-cost shipping from government agencies such as the US Post Office have a much higher (Percentage-wise) of shipping costs than a mega corporation.

I agree with what @PatR said and he was obviously showing how a process that looks simple to a consumer is much different from the small business end. I believe he is right that most people have no idea what it takes set up and run a shipping pipeline for a small business and not that that is a bad thing its just a fact of life. We as consumers are in fact conditioned to see shipping as a mere formality that should cost next to, or exactly nothing precisely because of mega corporations like Amazon.

PatR · Aug 24, 2019

The cost of shipping is pretty easy to figure out even for the terminally ignorant.

Just take something you want to ship weighing more than 1 ounce that won’t fit in a letter sized envelope to the post office. Choose something in their packaging options that will hold it, whether it’s a small mailer pouch or a small box. Pay the postage rate. Now figure you were paying someone to drive from your shop to the post office, using your company vehicle that you pay for in fuel, maintenance, original acquisition cost, and insure under a commercial policy.

Add up the cost breakdowns. You don’t have to tell anyone what it came to but you know it came out to more than $12.99.

Mrgs1 · Aug 25, 2019

It's not bad service! They have the parts and will ship to you, it's just the cost your complaining about, bad service is a poor repair, failure to deliver etc.

John Hennessy · Aug 25, 2019

Panther6834 said:
I will agree, as the thread creator indicated by the thread title, that Yuneec's customer service has gone down hill. They used to have phone-in support, which was mostly good...but, about a year ago, they eliminated that. Now, you can to schedule an appointment (via their online portal), and, when they call, you're limited to a 15 minute window. If whatever your problem is takes longer than that, oh well.

As for your estimated in picking/packing, you haven't got a clue as to how a warehouse operates. I've worked in warehouses before, including working for Amazon, and I can tell you, your "time estimate" is way, WAY overboard.

"Pulling the part" would take no more than 10 minutes...probably less than 5. When I worked for Amazon, I could EASILY pick over 100+ items per hour...and, no, that is NOT an exaggeration (a lot of the time, picking consisted of picking multiples of the same item). A computer determines the cheapest shipping method, & prints the label, so NO time involved there. Actual packing, including attaching the label, another 1-2 minutes. ACTUAL total time involved: less than12 minutes, closer to 5-6.

Where you come up with 2 hours, who knows...you must be smoking some of that 'funny stuff'.

Hi panther,
You have left out the most important item in this costing and that is the delivery service, you obviously don't send parcels to other place other wise you would know that there is a flat fee for any parcel up to 500 grams then more after that per weight increments. Don't try to send anything out of Australia the cost is very big. Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

Panther6834 · Aug 25, 2019

John Hennessy said:
Hi panther,
You have left out the most important item in this costing and that is the delivery service, you obviously don't send parcels to other place other wise you would know that there is a flat fee for any parcel up to 500 grams then more after that per weight increments. Don't try to send anything out of Australia the cost is very big. Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

Don't know about other countries, but here, in the US, there is no "delivery service" charge. The shipping charge INCLUDES delivery. If you shop via USPS, USPS does the delivery. If you shop via FedEx, FedEx does the delivery. I don't understand why other countries have to 'complicate' things.

biltno · Aug 26, 2019

PatR said:
My “warehouse” experience is a bit limited, mostly acquired working for a large aerospace subsidiary that had not built it’s business model on shipping parts. The time estimate I provided underestimated order fulfillment in that industry by tens of man hours, not to mention labor and overhead rates triple those encountered by a small business. If that sounds outrageous you don’t want to even think about the labor costs involved with purchasing items for the company, a process that adds hundreds to thousands of $$ to the cost of even the cheapest item. It’s where the (factual) tales of $20,000.00 toilet seats and $10,000.00 hammers originated.

Since Amazon makes nothing and relies on a high efficiency system, including drop shipping, designed around rapid order fulfillment using computerized SKU tracking, robotics, over worked people, and carrier contracts I don’t see the comparison between Amazon and Yuneec as a fair and balanced comparison.

In any event, just the cost of postage would exceed the cost of the part. In any event, as the OP lives only 50 miles from Yuneec he could have driven to their facility to puck up the parts if he felt $12.99 was too much to pay. He could look up AAA vehicle operational costs per mile to determine how well that cost comparison works out.

Next time he buys a new multirotor kit, perhaps he might offer to pay the actual carrier charges instead of accepting the free shipping Yuneec provides. If he did he might find the best he could do would end up costing around $68.00-$70.00.

People want to get something for nothing but Lord help anyone that tries to get those same people to discount anything they want to sell. It’s OK for them to break even or turn a profit but everyone else has to service them at a loss.

It’s the same crap in the Auto industry with parts and warehouses. For example a special fastener required that’s not in stock and has to be ordered is sometimes 4 times the cost of the part for shipping, and if you want it overnight, tack on some more

PatR · Aug 27, 2019

I was looking at lipo batteries on the Alibaba website last night. Of the very few where you could order just one the shipping price would have tied the OP’s shorts up in a bunch for months.

The battery price was not out of line at around $124.00 but the shipping price of $68.00 created a moment of pause. We see stuff like that on Amazon well where a real low product price is accompanied by $25.00-$120.00 shipping costs. Prime not available.

biltno · Aug 28, 2019

PatR said:
I was looking at lipo batteries on the Alibaba website last night. Of the very few where you could order just one the shipping price would have tied the OP’s shorts up in a bunch for months.

The battery price was not out of line at around $124.00 but the shipping price of $68.00 created a moment of pause. We see stuff like that on Amazon well where a real low product price is accompanied by $25.00-$120.00 shipping costs. Prime not available.

It’s called “getting it in the back end”

PatR · Aug 28, 2019

That’s for sure[emoji6]

Ty Pilot · Aug 28, 2019

I've purchased direct from China before but you have to buy in serious bulk to make it worth while. In the mean time I thought I would see if the maker of Yuneec's batteries would show up. . . . . .

Mrgs1 · Aug 28, 2019

Ty Pilot said:
I've purchased direct from China before but you have to buy in serious bulk to make it worth while. In the mean time I thought I would see if the maker of Yuneec's batteries would show up. . . . . .

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