Autel Cuts Support Hours by 20%

[G_G]

Autel Cuts Support Hours by 20%

Autel Support now closes at 4pm PST every day. It was 8am-6pm seven days a week.
It is now 8am-4pm only.
No explanation was offered when I inquired as to why.
It certainly isn't due to lack of support phone calls.
Even DJI is open until 5pm PST.

 

[Normex]

I fully understand this move after all I would say operators must be getting the hang of it and calling less at
least this is what I hope sincerely.

 

[G_G]

I fully understand this move after all I would say operators must be getting the hang of it and calling less at
least this is what I hope sincerely.

This is not a positive move. With a staff of only 4 support personnel for the entire United States, cutting their hours by 20% without a simultaneous increase in support personnel, means less customer access to live support, and increases the likelihood that you will never reach a live support person when calling. They already automatically hang up on you after 15 minutes on hold, and disconnect all calls at 4:00pm, even if you are already in queue, and even if you are already talking to a live person. DJI support sucks, but Autel's increased isolation from customer access is not helping their image. Can moving all customer support back to China be far behind? Autel is every bit as much a Chinese company as DJI, with only U.S Customer support currently located in the United States. Every Autel EVO drone already contains a No Fly Database, that can be turned on with a switch at any time, if Autel deems it in their best interest, should NFZ's become mandatory in the U.S., like in China, where Autel already imposes NFZ's on all EVO owners flying there.

 

[HWKIDD]

I may be 100 % wrong, but I thought there Support was based on the east coast, So it would be 7 pm back there, I have only used E mail support, and did that after 5pm pst, and had a answer back within the hour, So I was very impressed,, I have had a Mavic since the first production were shipped, but got rid of it, because it got to the point that I had to go 50 plus miles from home to even get it to start up, I have a large shop and like to play around in it, its in a no fly zone area, but its in a building,,, Not using any Faa air space, The Evo is so cool in this environment, The draw bask is there are not a lot of good info sources for self help on the evo yet, So many former Mavic user who have had questions answered are able to figure out most Evo issues, its the special programing or lack or what one might consider a basic function, that creates the issue, Considering that this bird is not even a year old yet, and the Mavic is on its 3rd generation, Autel has a lot of work to do to provide a better knowledge base for its customers, They need to produce how too videos on the main web page, But, as for me, I love this little bird, and am looking forward for future advancements, Competition makes it better for all of us,,

 

[G_G]

Autel support hours have been 8am-6pm PST since day one, until now. Cutting their support hours back to 4pm with the same 4 support staff members, with no corresponding reduction in support needs (all EVO's are now suddenly working perfectly, and won't require any warranty or repair service??) means less availability of needed live telephone support for everyone. Presumably, with support now ending at 4pm, no one will be there after 4pm PST to answer emails, either. You should have kept your Mavic and paid $40 for the NoLimitDronez.com unlock. The first Mavics were the easiest to unlock! 1000x the number of users, supporting anything you want for a Mavic. A year after release, there isn't even an available windsurfer for the EVO yet, but there are literally hundreds available for all Mavics. Most Mavic accessories are also fully compatible with the Mavic 2. Based solely upon Android downloads (Autel Explorer downloads are 1000+, while DJI GO 4 is 1,000,000+ downloads) , Autel has less than 0.1% of the DJI market, and is operating on a shoestring, that has just been shortened by 20%. The EVO itself takes stellar video, but the controller is unbalanced with any device attached, and the stable video range is limited to under 1.5 miles, despite a control range of 3+ miles. All Mavics are rock solid out to 3 to 5 miles on both video and control. You need both! Control out to 3+ miles without video is useless!

 

[Normex]

Like the Pink Floyd goes "we don't need no DJI fanboys here "
Good for you but I will stick with my Evo.

 

[CraigCam]

You cannot be advocating for control on a drone for beyond VLOS flying and three miles is for sure a violation of FAA part 107 rules. I’d be careful bragging or posting about extreme flights of height or distance. But then again, DJI drones breaking the rules are the cause of most of the hysteria and the pilots who fly them with this mindset will be the ones who get us all grounded regardless of your drone and manufacturer choice. I’ll never understand this part about the my drone is better then your drone because of distance.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

From my experience, companies do this when money is tight. We can speculate ‘till the end of time as too why, but companies tightened belts for many, many reasons. Let’s hope this is just a bump in the road....

 

[Normex]

You cannot be advocating for control on a drone for beyond VLOS flying and three miles is for sure a violation of FAA part 107 rules. I’d be careful bragging or posting about extreme flights of height or distance. But then again, DJI drones breaking the rules are the cause of most of the hysteria and the pilots who fly them with this mindset will be the ones who get us all grounded regardless of your drone and manufacturer choice. I’ll never understand this part about the my drone is better then your drone because of distance.

Hear hear ! Exactly what I was thinking, here in Canada we have until June 1st for getting our license which I have done almost a month ago and I secured liability insurance as well which
means I have to stay with LOS. It keeps me honest at least more than 80% of my flying time as no one is perfect in that regard as long as we keep the aim and being responsible.

 

[G_G]

From my experience, companies do this when money is tight. We can speculate ‘till the end of time as too why, but companies tightened belts for many, many reasons. Let’s hope this is just a bump in the road....

Exactly! Certainly not a good sign. If they are cutting back on Support, they are likely also pulling R&D money, too, which means the iOS Explorer update to bring it on a parity with the Android Explorer app is now in jeopardy, too, and a 1” sensor is totally out of the question.

 

[G_G]

Like the Pink Floyd goes "we don't need no DJI fanboys here "
Good for you but I will stick with my Evo.

It's not an either/or scenario. I own an EVO, too, for good reasons. However, if the promised iOS Explorer update never makes it out of Beta because all funds have been cut back, it will be a sad day.

 

[G_G]

You cannot be advocating for control on a drone for beyond VLOS flying and three miles is for sure a violation of FAA part 107 rules. I’d be careful bragging or posting about extreme flights of height or distance. But then again, DJI drones breaking the rules are the cause of most of the hysteria and the pilots who fly them with this mindset will be the ones who get us all grounded regardless of your drone and manufacturer choice. I’ll never understand this part about the my drone is better then your drone because of distance.

Being new, you may not realize that stability at long range translates to greater stability at close range with obstacles around. It is a good gauge of signal strength and stability for every pilot, no matter how close or far you fly.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I can assure you CraigCam is not a new pilot. He has been around for many years on the various forums. He is very knowledgeable when it comes UAV's.
He is just new to posting here is all. He is also a member on other Pilot forums

 

[G_G]

I can assure you CraigCam is not a new pilot. He has been around for many years on the various forums. He is very knowledgeable when it comes UAV's.
He is just new to posting here is all. He is also a member on other Pilot forums

Thank you for that. Then there is no excuse for his post then...

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Depends on how you look at it. ?

 

[G_G]

Depends on how you look at it. ?

Touché!
However, I hope I helped him finally understand.
"I’ll never understand this part about the my drone is better then your drone because of distance."

 

[Tufargon]

It's an opinion. Doesn't mean anyone is right or wrong. Although going beyond los is not good.

 

[KevinP]

Or perhaps it's as simple as not many calls coming in between 4 and 6 to justify the extra 2 hrs. ....

 

[G_G]

Or perhaps it's as simple as not many calls coming in between 4 and 6 to justify the extra 2 hrs. ....

I can guarantee you that was not the case. I have never previously been able to get through between 4:00pm and 6:00pm. Calls always went to VM after 15 minutes on hold, while being told you are number 2 or 3 in the queue . Repeated calls thereafter to try and get through before 6:00pm were also not answered, and all calls on hold were automatically disconnected at 6:00pm. They lacked sufficient staff to handle the calls they were receiving between 4 and 6. Eliminating those 2 hours every day without a 20% compensating increase in staff only makes it worse.

 

[bobfa100]

I may be 100 % wrong, but I thought there Support was based on the east coast, So it would be 7 pm back there, I have only used E mail support, and did that after 5pm pst, and had a answer back within the hour, So I was very impressed,, I have had a Mavic since the first production were shipped, but got rid of it, because it got to the point that I had to go 50 plus miles from home to even get it to start up, I have a large shop and like to play around in it, its in a no fly zone area, but its in a building,,, Not using any Faa air space, The Evo is so cool in this environment, The draw bask is there are not a lot of good info sources for self help on the evo yet, So many former Mavic user who have had questions answered are able to figure out most Evo issues, its the special programing or lack or what one might consider a basic function, that creates the issue, Considering that this bird is not even a year old yet, and the Mavic is on its 3rd generation, Autel has a lot of work to do to provide a better knowledge base for its customers, They need to produce how too videos on the main web page, But, as for me, I love this little bird, and am looking forward for future advancements, Competition makes it better for all of us,,

Support is here in the North Seattle suburbs, Bothell, WA