Has anyone spoken to Autel Support lately?

[sfoutrider]

Just before and after the purchase of my EVO Max 4T I was able to speak with Autel Support and they were fairly available throughout the day. They no longer answer the phone and there is no longer a chat rep available that I have seen at various times throughout the day. I've had some nagging questions that have not been answered although I was emailed back and they said are looking into the issue...that was 2 weeks ago. Is this to be expected? There has been no progress update on this drone regarding firmware, the Mapper software or feature updates to get it to what they said it would do.

 

[Takashira]

I haven't tried recently. Some of the more difficult questions that are "forwarded to the tech team" do seem to disappear and remain unanswered.

 

[Western NC]

Autel seems to be waning esp in the US for support. I had to send in my Lite+ and it took close to 2 weeks before I got an actual reference number to ship it back. Shipped it, the got it, and now it's who knows where. I sent an email and the response was - the engineers have it and will contact you. That was about 5 days ago. Nothing, sent another email 2 days ago and no response yet.

Autel USA has a Facebook Page - although not sure how helpful that is. Spoke to a "Director" and he seems to have ghosted me after an initial conversation. To say the least, I'm not happy at this point as I don't know what is going on with my drone and when / if I'll get it back.

The 1-800 number is crap, but some other Autel owners have said they have gotten thru and or had emails / chats within hours. I'm going - who did you speak to as I get different people answering my emails and that can take 2-3 days when they finally respond - if at all.

Not sure of all the issues but from folks who worked at Autel USA Customer Service - the place was a revolving door and good people did not stay long. I've gotten nothing I know of from Autel USA - it's Autel China and their communication is not great.

With the move to strictly "enterprise" drones - that may be part of the problem; but those in the enterprise realm are not going to deal with crappy customer service - not when you're paying 10's of thousands of $$$. They may have a different tech / support channel than us on the low end of the scale. No idea.

It's sad that Autel has gone this route, as most people love their Autel drones and don't want to go to DJI, SkyDio, etc - but what are you to do when something goes wrong with your drone and the company seems to not back them.

Best I can recommend is keep calling the 1-800 number and maybe you'll get past the automatic disconnect line and send emails if necessary daily to make sure someone actually see's it. Should not be this difficult, but until Autel pulls it's head out and makes Customer Service something of a priority - then we're kind of stuck. Luckily I've not needed support a lot.

I'd also check FB Pages to see if help of some type from users can help figure out issues. Usually these types of forums are helpful too.

 

[tuxontodd]

Don't hold your breath on getting those future feature updates. Seems par for the course with Autel. I bought the Evo 1 and was promised the ability to program the buttons on the remote never happened. Contacting customer support was a pain. Sent it in for a gimbal repair quote. Took for ever to get a response. After about 3-4 months I had them send it back. I wasn't in a hurry as I had moved onto DJI. Luckily somehow it was fixed and no charge.

 

[DroneRat]

Don't hold your breath on getting those future feature updates. Seems par for the course with Autel. I bought the Evo 1 and was promised the ability to program the buttons on the remote never happened. Contacting customer support was a pain. Sent it in for a gimbal repair quote. Took for ever to get a response. After about 3-4 months I had them send it back. I wasn't in a hurry as I had moved onto DJI. Luckily somehow it was fixed and no charge.

Truely, as we all know the EVI II v3 release has never been finished! They actually continue to advertise features that are not implemented. When asked about that the frequent response from Enterprise Support is "we have no idea what, IF, or when the features will be available." Currently you have a v2 that has more features than the v3, but the v3 is advertised with the v2. Isn't false advertising illegal in America?

And these guys think people are going to invest in their high dollar "Enterprise" drones when they have never finished promised features and fixes for their previous Enterprise models.

They make it easy for DJI.

 

[SkyPhotos]

I've had mixed experiences with their support. their people are friendly but have processes that they are stuck with. I had to return my M4T three times, the third time they overnighted me a replacement. The first two times they did a repair and return.

1. This was a battery that was stuck inside the aircraft. it turns out the battery spring catch plastic was broken or malformed, locking the battery to the aircraft. Turn around time from reporting to repaired aircraft in hand was 14 days.
2. The strobe light failed. This appears to be a common failure mode for the aircraft, requiring a board swap. the turnaround time again was 14 days.
3. The strobe light failed again. This was 4 days following the second return. The company overnighted a replacement. Turnaround time was 4 days.

Overall the support staff was very polite and understanding, and each RMA was processed with a minimum of fuss. I would have liked having those 32 days of service back with the aircraft, but I was able to work around its absence.

This could have cost me dearly and I was pretty hot about it overall, but raging at the Autel service desk doesn't accomplish anything. Also, either due to some fluke, or routing process they have, I've always talked to the same agent.

 

[davshev]

About 2 -3 weeks ago I emailed about an issue and got a "form" response. There was a brief back and forth, but I haven't heard from them since.

 

[CaptainBry]

I’ve been nothing but frustrated since upgrading to the EVO ll Pro V3. Customer service does not answer calls or respond to emails or messages…
Great camera and excellent aircraft when operating properly… but it does not always operate properly and it becomes a brick for days at a time.
Fortunately I still have DJI backups for missions that are not geofenced out.

 

[DroneRat]

Just before and after the purchase of my EVO Max 4T I was able to speak with Autel Support and they were fairly available throughout the day. They no longer answer the phone and there is no longer a chat rep available that I have seen at various times throughout the day. I've had some nagging questions that have not been answered although I was emailed back and they said are looking into the issue...that was 2 weeks ago. Is this to be expected? There has been no progress update on this drone regarding firmware, the Mapper software or feature updates to get it to what they said it would do.

Same type of problem exhibited for the EVO II v3 series. Custome Support has severely declined to unacceptable levels. This is NOT the road to the Enterprise Platform that seems to be their goal. Not that hard to be better than DJI in this area, but they have leadership problems that go all the way to the top, right MAX!