How is this misleading. I researched this info. I am not bashing any one drone company over another. 20 hrs on the phone, 4 trips and 4.5 months to finally get a new unit, YAY, only to have a camera gimbal broke. As far as the US dist. going bust and owing Yuneec USA, well never heard about that. All I know is the experiece I have had and have seen with others and the fact that according to wikipedia, Yuneec has been chased down by suppliers i.e. battery makers, That concerns me. And as far as starting out 2018, it is end of the first month and they are not doing to great. So look on with some suspicion. I guess you can justify Yuneecs poor CS and product, but I can't until I see a change in it all. Hope they do.
Yuneec's Typhoon H support is dead
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How is this misleading. I researched this info. I am not bashing any one drone company over another. 20 hrs on the phone, 4 trips and 4.5 months to finally get a new unit, YAY, only to have a camera gimbal broke. As far as the US dist. going bust and owing Yuneec USA, well never heard about that. All I know is the experiece I have had and have seen with others and the fact that according to wikipedia, Yuneec has been chased down by suppliers i.e. battery makers, That concerns me. And as far as starting out 2018, it is end of the first month and they are not doing to great. So look on with some suspicion. I guess you can justify Yuneecs poor CS and product, but I can't until I see a change in it all. Hope they do.
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Sorry you're having trouble. My point was to demonstrate that people are calling and getting Customer Support from Yuneec. In addition there is a thread that has announced a new firmware update for the Typhoon H Gimbal. Since my post, I saw at least two more instances where an H owner got a problem fixed with Yuneec CS. That, in and of itself means it is not dead. Could it be better? Probably. I hope you can get your situation resolved and back in the air soon.
I must say as a commercial operator, if I had a few jobs totaling a few thousand dollars and my aircraft was in service; I would have made the decision to bring out my back up, and if I didn't have one I would then make the decision to get one. At 700 bucks for a complete H, it would be hard for me to justify not satisfying my customers. But thats just me and I get why you may not want to purchase another Yuneec product when you've had such a disagreeable experience thus far. Good Luck.
I paid 1700 bucks for a H Pro with Intel. That was a mistake. I have had a few Reps at CS did did me right, but, I didn't say it was dead. I was only responding to a comment. But it is aweful close to being dead. I realise that the world is not perfect and products have issues. Honor the warranty and fix it or replace it. Why is it my problem that I should have a back up. I agree, but after 4.5 months and 4 different times. This is why I am bent. Hope they get it all straighted out. But I am not holding my breath.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
I've long advocated the need for any commercial sUAS business worth its salt to have at least two aircraft to call upon. Nothing worse for your wallet (or your business' reputation) if you are turning down jobs because your unit is away being repaired.
No blows, just pointing out that there are a few reasons why a camera with the same sensor might have a very different price.
No Blows mate, for sure, the one inch sensor is wonderful and performs beautifully, hopefully it will become popular and drift down in cost. I'm very happy with its performance. I do get gritty from time to time and frankly its aggravating to hear the central bank report there is no inflation occurring these days, pffffffffft!
So, in my mind, if there is no inflation, might it be greed we see frequently?
All your points were very valid for what it takes to bring a product to market, I think with the new tax structure we will soon have, we'll enjoy a wonderful technology explosion, maybe even a telepathic transmitter/ controller for our aircrafts.
PatR
Premium Pilot
If you are a "commercial operation" that only obtained a single platform to conduct the business you certainly are neither a planner or a businessman. Even a carpenter has spare tools to permit them to work when the primary tools break. They always break. Anyone having but a single tool to conduct their business is instantly out of business if anything happens to their one and only tool. Such a person lacked the resources of any type to enter into a business environment.
That's funny. My business does very good. I just got the drone last year to add some extra income. When I bought, I heard Yuneec had great CS. I did not want to spend extra money to buy additional units. The biggest issue is that when I am told by CS that it would be fixed in an expidited manner and it doesn't happen, (4 times). Speaking of having an having at least two aircraft, I do, 1 H advance, 1 H Pro. Speaking of business being worth their salt, I do not feel Yuneecs product and especially CS USA is worth their salt. I am not here to advertise for any other compay, just sating my experience and opinion. I hope they get their act together and then I will be their biggest fan, but for now, They suck.
I too had heard reports of CS being quite good at Yuneec. However I'm sorry to say that my only experience thus far has been far from that. My unit was gone for 2 months. CS probably shouldn't state an expected turn around of 7-10 days directly when it's already been a month. Especially when you have yet to ship the parts to the repair depot.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
I don't understand it then. If you do have two aircraft at your disposal (albeit one being mended) then why do you say you've lost thousands through lost jobs? You still have a usable aircraft don't you?
Not having a jibe. Just curious.
Precisely why I haven't started a drone business, besides, I have a day job and for now, this is just a personal hobby.
When a business starts, they start out strong in many areas to give them a competitive advantage. As they mature and start to get established, they are forced to reign in expenses in some areas to remain competitive. R&D is a huge expense for any business and one of the areas which ultimately gets cut. Yuneec understands they need R&D, CS is another but to survive they also need to make some painful decisions. I'm fiercely independent and try to figure everything out for myself, maybe too much sometimes. I guess it's the school of hard knocks approach but it works for me and I learn along the way. Basically I never call support for anything, hardware, software, etc. unless I absolutely have to. Kind of like being stuck in traffic, I hate spinning my wheels and I always know I can count on myself.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Perhaps it’s just me but the change in drone quantity just invalidated the complaint, turning it into fallacy that may just be another Yuneec smear effort.
As far as turn around times are concerned, and I’m referring to door to door, they are now longer than they used to be but for the most part have never been less than 30 days. If people were to look at ship dates, receipt dates, and factor in the travel time they would more often than not find at least 14 days of their “down time” would have been incurred through the shipping process. Sometimes more. Unless expedited shipping is paid for they always travel slow. However, people always have the option of dealing with DJI’s customer service, which has never been good unless you happened to be one of their most favored customers.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
Possible. We've all seen the smear posts before. If he has a back-up aircraft then his claim that he's lost thousands in gigs because of a grounded aircraft tends to ring hollow.
Yes those videos all show the action at a very low level and self were self induced to test the recovery capability. But once you introduce lag in response time over distances, coupled with the constant motor error warnings, things change up. And problems get worse in the ability to control the aircraft from a distance. It was probably a china copy of an OEM prop, and yes the hub is not at fault because the hub is in use with a new prop without issue. And as far as the low battery warnings, my otherwise fine flying aircraft - develops a schitzo personality will bounce around several inches from the ground, become unresponsive to the stick control etc., etc. Pretty consistently, again sending warnings of low battery and overwhelming the ST16 with messages.
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Actually the video I was thinking about was the guy flying down the dock on a "Movie Shoot" and flew into a cable that supported the mast of a sailboat. It recovered and hovered in seconds. He was then able to pilot it back to the dock and land.
So it was likely a faulty, non-OEM prop that shatterd in mid flight, which caused the aircraft to go into five rotor mode at the same time you were getting low battery warnings - at "quite the distance away"? If that is so I wouldn't have expected to see the aircraft make it back even if the prop hadn't failed. At low battery, any sudden increase demand in power would likely have taken the battery dangerously low.
As a rule of thumb many Typhoon H pilots consider any flying after a battery warning is skating on thin ice, I for one have taken their advice and aim to be back at base by this time. The only time I flew to the second battery warning was in my back yard, I wanted to see the time between warnings - it wasn't very long. I suspect if I was flying very slow in no wind I might have been able to go 100 feet or so.
and flew into a cable that supported the mast of a sailboat. It recovered and hovered in seconds. He was then able to pilot it back to the dock and land. So it was likely a faulty, non-OEM prop that shatterd in mid flight, which caused the aircraft to go into five rotor mode at the same time you were getting low battery warnings - at "quite the distance away"? If that is so I wouldn't have expected to see the aircraft make it back even if the prop hadn't failed. At low battery, any sudden increase demand in power would likely have taken the battery dangerously low.
As a rule of thumb many Typhoon H pilots consider any flying after a battery warning is skating on thin ice, I for one have taken their advice and aim to be back at base by this time. The only time I flew to the second battery warning was in my back yard, I wanted to see the time between warnings - it wasn't very long. I suspect if I was flying very slow in no wind I might have been able to go 100 feet or so.
Haha, that is the funny part. Yuneec sent a used advanced model that replaced the expensive Pro. Then I got the Pro and neither one is what I paid for. So my point is even having two of thier units, the camera doesn't work on one, the live feed freezes on the other and the new batteries are giving me average of 6 mins. So the retailer is refunding me full because this is not an isolated situation. Yuneec as of right now needs to work on getting the percentage of quality of product up instead of quantity and work on their CS. Have a great day.
It doesn't matter whether one sends the email to Yuneec USA, or Yuneec China, as both would still receive it. If you send to USA, they determine their response, and, if they don't have answers to certain questions/problems, they forward to China HQ for more info. If one emails to China HQ, once they realize the customer is in USA, they forward to Yuneec USA for replying to the customer. It's a standard practice. As for where I got info that Yuneec was, essentially, "abandoning" the original H (asked by NorWiscPilot), it was from a combination of sources, including a Yuneec rep (who may have been misinformed and/or misunderstood information given to him...at the same time, in regards to my email to Yuneec, it was partially a "statement", but also partially an inquiry, as I was trying to find out IF they were "abandoning" the original H.
Anyway, I just received a reply, and, as promised, I am posting the email below, after removing any personal information:
Hello Robb,
Thank you for contacting Yuneec! While I'm sorry that you're disappointed, much of the information you typed is simply inaccurate. The CGO3+ camera indeed records video at 4K resolution (note to YuneecPilot readers - I NEVER said the camera doesn't record 4K video, only that it appears to be a much lower resolution, possibly due to the lens never having been properly focused, exactly as they restated, below, in their reply), although the clarity of your video may have been affected by a focus issue, based on your description. I'm sorry to hear that you never contacted us regarding the focus issue on your camera (note to YuneecPilot readers - I DID contact them...TWICE, I fact...shortly after I discovered the problem, but they didn't appear to care. The 1st time I called, while I no longer remember the person's exact words, they were something along the lines of, "There's no known problem. As such, we're not obligated." The 2nd time I called, approximately 2 months later, I was told they were aware of the problem, but that it, supposedly, only affected a relatively small number of units, and, if I wanted the repair done, I had to ship the CGO3+, including gimbal, to them, but the shipping would be at my expense...talk about RIDICULOUS), as we would have been happy to resolve the issue under warranty. Despite your claim that there were "enough affected cameras" to affect a recall, this sort of issue happens on an extremely small scale (note to YuneecPilot readers - using the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall as am example, out of worldwide shipments exceeding 4 million units, there were less than 150 reported as "defective" (of which ONLY 37 provided to be defective...the remainder were either caused by external forces (purposefully done), or owners refused to turn the units over to Samsung to be examined), yet a recall was still issued), in line with the standard manufacturing defect rates inherently found with any mass-produced product. Small defects are expected to be found occasionally when manufacturing products en masse, which is why we offer a one year (originally six months, at the time of the initial release) warranty, and why we extended the original customers' warranties out to one year as well. As the end-user, it is your responsibility to contact us if you have an issue with your unit, as we do not know that you have an issue until you make it known.
In regards to firmware updates, Yuneec has not discontinued support for the original Typhoon H. It's always possible that we will update the firmware in the future - for example, we will release an update for model support once the C23 camera is released, which will be compatible with the H480. We have not updated the firmware in the time frame you've suggested, but that is simply because the current firmware is extremely stable. Again, contrary to your statement, our inclusion of C23 support for the H480 (which will require unique firmware) shows that we have not stopped supporting the customers that have been with the Typhoon H since we launched the platform. While we take your concerns very seriously, you did not alert us to the issue with your CGO3+'s focus, despite contacting us for several other issues while your unit was still covered under warranty. While we could have helped you had you alerted us at the time, any repair work now can only be processed as non-warranty. If we can help you with anything else, please don't hesitate to let us know.
Thank you,
Mitch M
Technical Support | Yuneec USA
There you have it, their entire reply (minus a few pieces of personal info). On the plus side, at least according to the email, Yuneec it's not "abandoning" the original H, as they've clearly stated a new firmware update it's coming soon. Unfortunately, it appears that the only purpose for said update is for the new C23 camera. Beyond that...as clearly indicated in the email, there may, or may not, be further updates, as Yuneec considers the current firmware (ST16, Typhoon H, & CGO3+) to be...and I quote..."extremely stable". The problem there is, if the firmware truly is "extremely stable", then why are there still numerous people reporting a variety of problems? As for the focus problem (which I realize not everyone has experienced...again, it's a "sporadic" problem), they gave me the run-around both times I previously contacted them about it, and now that the warranty has expired (as of 6 months ago), they say they would have fixed it, had I contacted them during that warranty period...which I did...TWICE.
At this point, I'm "on the fence" whether to stick with Yuneec, or return to DJI. I really prefer the hex design over the quad design, plus Yuneec's controller is far, far better. On the other hand, I never had any problems with my Phantom 3 Pro.
PatR
Premium Pilot
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
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