I don't know where this should be listed but I'd like for all of Autel Pilots readers to know about my recent experience with Autel's Customer Service department and the Repair and Maintenance section.
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Dealing With Autel
I'm 78 years old and until last January I had never seen a drone close-up. Because I'm in the first stages of Parkinson's Disease my doctor suggested I find a hobby that would give me a lot of hand-and-eye coordination exercise. He gave me a list of things that he thought might help. Flying a drone was NOT one of them. It was one of my grandsons who suggested that I ask the doctor about it. The doctor was more than surprised, he was even excited about the idea. It turned out later that he was also a weekend drone pilot.
After hours of watching internet videos, I finally settled on an Autel EVO II 8K Rugged Bundle package, Looking back I can see now that I should have started with a simple kids' toy drone. However, if I had done that I would have missed out on meeting Alejandro Velasquez and his crew in EVO II Customer Service. Over the next couple of months, they spent a great deal of time just teaching me what the drone-related words in the operator's manual meant. I found that once you have some idea what the manual is talking about it becomes ten times easier to understand.
However, that's not the reason for writing this; One evening three weeks ago I went out to use my EVO II to check some cattle in a field behind our house. After a routine preflight check, I raised the drone to 400 feet. Much to my surprise, the controller's screen suddenly became blurry. A few seconds later the drone came crashing down, landing 8-10 feet from the spot it had taken off from. I was shocked and sick at what I saw! The impact left the drone in half a dozen pieces. Because I had never had a moment of mechanical problems with it I assumed that the wreck was a case of "Pilot Error", but I had no idea what I had done wrong.
This happened in the late afternoon so it was the next day before I got in contact with Customer Service. After a short description of what had taken place, I was e-mailed an accident report form and told to e-mail a copy of my proof of purchase. A day later I was sent (by e-mail) directions on how to ship the drone to Autel's Repair and Maintenance section for an examination of the drone and the flight log.
It was suggested that I ship it in the Rugged Bundle box to prevent further damage. That was a joke. The only way I could have done more damage was to have run over it with a truck.
A Personal Side Note: I was sure that this was the point where Autel was going to tell me that the warranty did not cover the cause of the accident
To make this story a lot shorter, five days after I shipped the six pieces of what was left of the drone to Autel I received (by FedEx Priority Overnight Shipment) a brand new, EVO II and a short letter of apology.
There was no explanation of what had caused the drone to fall out of the sky, and I was still not sure that it had not been my fault so I called and Alejandro. I asked if there was something that I could have done that caused the accident. He told me that he would check with the people in R & M and see what they had found. Later that day I got a call from Evan Applegate saying that as near as the people in Maintenance could tell, some internal component had failed. He spent another five minutes apologizing for the delay and inconvenience. All I could think of was, " WHAT delay and inconvenience.".
I can't speak for anyone else but all of my dealings with Autel's Customer Service Dept and the Repair and Maintenance section have been incredible! The people are fantastically knowledgeable, courteous beyond belief and have the patients of a saint. Autel's staff has made dealing with the company an enjoyable and educational experience. I feel very lucky that I chose them over the larger and less expensive company.
Have any Autel Pilot readers had a similar problem? And how common is this?
_____________________
Dealing With Autel
I'm 78 years old and until last January I had never seen a drone close-up. Because I'm in the first stages of Parkinson's Disease my doctor suggested I find a hobby that would give me a lot of hand-and-eye coordination exercise. He gave me a list of things that he thought might help. Flying a drone was NOT one of them. It was one of my grandsons who suggested that I ask the doctor about it. The doctor was more than surprised, he was even excited about the idea. It turned out later that he was also a weekend drone pilot.
After hours of watching internet videos, I finally settled on an Autel EVO II 8K Rugged Bundle package, Looking back I can see now that I should have started with a simple kids' toy drone. However, if I had done that I would have missed out on meeting Alejandro Velasquez and his crew in EVO II Customer Service. Over the next couple of months, they spent a great deal of time just teaching me what the drone-related words in the operator's manual meant. I found that once you have some idea what the manual is talking about it becomes ten times easier to understand.
However, that's not the reason for writing this; One evening three weeks ago I went out to use my EVO II to check some cattle in a field behind our house. After a routine preflight check, I raised the drone to 400 feet. Much to my surprise, the controller's screen suddenly became blurry. A few seconds later the drone came crashing down, landing 8-10 feet from the spot it had taken off from. I was shocked and sick at what I saw! The impact left the drone in half a dozen pieces. Because I had never had a moment of mechanical problems with it I assumed that the wreck was a case of "Pilot Error", but I had no idea what I had done wrong.
This happened in the late afternoon so it was the next day before I got in contact with Customer Service. After a short description of what had taken place, I was e-mailed an accident report form and told to e-mail a copy of my proof of purchase. A day later I was sent (by e-mail) directions on how to ship the drone to Autel's Repair and Maintenance section for an examination of the drone and the flight log.
It was suggested that I ship it in the Rugged Bundle box to prevent further damage. That was a joke. The only way I could have done more damage was to have run over it with a truck.
A Personal Side Note: I was sure that this was the point where Autel was going to tell me that the warranty did not cover the cause of the accident
To make this story a lot shorter, five days after I shipped the six pieces of what was left of the drone to Autel I received (by FedEx Priority Overnight Shipment) a brand new, EVO II and a short letter of apology.
There was no explanation of what had caused the drone to fall out of the sky, and I was still not sure that it had not been my fault so I called and Alejandro. I asked if there was something that I could have done that caused the accident. He told me that he would check with the people in R & M and see what they had found. Later that day I got a call from Evan Applegate saying that as near as the people in Maintenance could tell, some internal component had failed. He spent another five minutes apologizing for the delay and inconvenience. All I could think of was, " WHAT delay and inconvenience.".
I can't speak for anyone else but all of my dealings with Autel's Customer Service Dept and the Repair and Maintenance section have been incredible! The people are fantastically knowledgeable, courteous beyond belief and have the patients of a saint. Autel's staff has made dealing with the company an enjoyable and educational experience. I feel very lucky that I chose them over the larger and less expensive company.
Have any Autel Pilot readers had a similar problem? And how common is this?
