New to Autel and looks like I got taken...

[michidragon]

So, I'm new to Autel drones. I'm new to this forum (signing up after I purchased) - but full admission, and I know that 99.9% of the responses here will be admonishing me for not knowing ahead of time:

Took delivery today of an Evo II Pro V3, unfortuantely from autelpilot.com. (I'm just finding out right now what a mistake this was and I'm sick to my stomach.)

The path I took to get this was, it was out of stock on the official Autel Robotics shop site, and I followed the links FROM their site, to online sellers. Autelpilot.com was the most prominent.

Firmware is updating fine, but issue seems to be: I'm 99% sure I got a nerfed CE version when i'm in the US.
The Autel Explorer app image transmission section shows no channel/frequency information, and there are only CE not FCC certs/labels on the thing.
So I'm guessing I have the low-power and no-900mhz version, which was part of the reason I got it. (Forested terrain here.)

From what I understand I can't register for Autel Care with this drone; that this site doesn't honor returns at all; and that I'm basically stuck with an out of warranty CE-version drone that I paid pretty much full price for. (The discounts were nothing enticing.)

I don't know if I have a case on contesting the charge on my credit card or something. Because it says all over the site that it's the 15km/9.3mi version - and from what I can tell, it surely is not. (It looks like Autel does not do 'one set of hardware, different profiles for different countries' like DJI does.)

.. Again I just got here and I'm hoping to hear some advice besides just ridicule for not being prescient. I had no way of knowing that a prominent shop was such a big problem, especially being linked from the Autel Robotics site.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

Sorry to hear; for sure dispute it on your credit card.

 

[EBERLS]

It should have a 1 year warranty. I'd contact Autel about this and also mention the company you bought it from. I don't think there would be any issues getting your problem resolved. I would bring up with Autel the bad experience with the company you bought it from. Also keep hounding Autel if you don't get a response at first try. Most of the time that I've read here in the forum, Autel is pretty responsive as of late.

You may have bought a lemon... I've got 2, one is an Autel EVO II PRO RTK V2 and also an Autel EVO II Enterprise RTK V2. Both are great machines and were bought at autelpilot.com. The first one in Nov 2022 and the second in March 2023. Both are great machines and I haven't had any issues with either one.

Hope you get your issue resolved, good luck !

 

[christr]

Strange, I just got my first Autel from Autelpilot.com in the past couple of weeks and I didn't notice if it was CE only or not. It's a V3 640T, and I was able to buy & register autelcare on the main Autel Robotics website for it. The 'certification mark' page on my controller shows FCC info as well as CE and other countries.

Wonder if it was something particular about the Pro V3? Autelpilot according to Autel Robotics is an official reseller....


Also on my controller I don't see anything other than selecting smooth or high def in image transmission mode screen. Tho it's not like the docs on these things are all that great so I'm not even really sure what I'm supposed to see on each screen.

For example, I can't consistently find the remote ID page on here either. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

--Chris

(PS, so why is my post 'waiting moderation' ?? )

 

[cheeseman]

I'm expecting delivery of a 640T from autopilot.com tomorrow... I'm planning on purchasing Autel Care so I sure hope I don't run into any issues...

 

[christr]

I'm expecting delivery of a 640T from autopilot.com tomorrow... I'm planning on purchasing Autel Care so I sure hope I don't run into any issues...

I didn't have any issues getting autel Care with my 640t but I got from autelpilot.com

Had to buy from Autel Robotics site tho.

 

[cheeseman]

I didn't have any issues getting autel Care with my 640t but I got from autelpilot.com

Had to buy from Autel Robotics site tho.

This makes me feel much better lol. My 640t is out for delivery rn and autel care is the first thing on my to do list once I have the serial number.

 

[cheeseman]

I activated my 640t from them yesterday and was able to purchase and activate care without issue. What a relief!

 

[shallowpockets]

I could not get autel care on my 640t that i ordered from Autelpilot.com. i went back and forth between autel robotics (because right after buying the drone they had a free 1 year autel care offer) and autelpilot. Autel robotics said that because the offer was only good for purchases from the US, and autel pilot was online was based in China, they couldn't offer me Autel Care and that I could ask Autelpilot to sell it to me. Autelpilot.com told me the rugged package I ordered was an enterprise drone and they don't offer autel care on enterprise drones. This was my experience in April, so I hope you guys have better luck.

I did, however, successfully make a return to autelpilot. But I think I had to cover shipping. They listed the 6k gimbal as for evo 2 only, so I bought it. But turns out it was a V2 gimbal and not compatible with V3- like the smart controller could read it, but there was zero image transmission. So not only was I able to return it, they also updated their listing because while I was chatting with customer service because that was my "make it right solution." They tried sending me things I didn't need as an apology. Instead I wanted the listing updated- though they ended up sending me extra propellers anyways.

Now, if I had known at the time I was missing all the intelligent flight features I bought it for, I would've returned the drone at that time too and bought the cheaper V2 version. But alas, didn't realize it until about a week after the return date passed...so I paid full price for a rugged bundle 640T V3... when I could've gotten the full enterprise 640T RTK V2 for almost 1k cheaper....I'm still quite bitter about it.

 

[Betterbizworks]

So, I'm new to Autel drones. I'm new to this forum (signing up after I purchased) - but full admission, and I know that 99.9% of the responses here will be admonishing me for not knowing ahead of time:

Took delivery today of an Evo II Pro V3, unfortuantely from autelpilot.com. (I'm just finding out right now what a mistake this was and I'm sick to my stomach.)

The path I took to get this was, it was out of stock on the official Autel Robotics shop site, and I followed the links FROM their site, to online sellers. Autelpilot.com was the most prominent.

Firmware is updating fine, but issue seems to be: I'm 99% sure I got a nerfed CE version when i'm in the US.
The Autel Explorer app image transmission section shows no channel/frequency information, and there are only CE not FCC certs/labels on the thing.
So I'm guessing I have the low-power and no-900mhz version, which was part of the reason I got it. (Forested terrain here.)

From what I understand I can't register for Autel Care with this drone; that this site doesn't honor returns at all; and that I'm basically stuck with an out of warranty CE-version drone that I paid pretty much full price for. (The discounts were nothing enticing.)

I don't know if I have a case on contesting the charge on my credit card or something. Because it says all over the site that it's the 15km/9.3mi version - and from what I can tell, it surely is not. (It looks like Autel does not do 'one set of hardware, different profiles for different countries' like DJI does.)

.. Again I just got here and I'm hoping to hear some advice besides just ridicule for not being prescient. I had no way of knowing that a prominent shop was such a big problem, especially being linked from the Autel Robotics site.

As far as your rights from the credit card side, you are within your rights to return it for any reason. It's a mail order purchase which means you didn't sign for it. It's refundable.

 

[shallowpockets]

As far as your rights from the credit card side, you are within your rights to return it for any reason. It's a mail order purchase which means you didn't sign for it. It's refundable.

I had to sign for mine. I believe it was delivered FedEx, signature required.

 

[Betterbizworks]

I had to sign for mine. I believe it was delivered FedEx, signature required.

It doesn't matter that you signed for the delivery. Visa Mastercard and American Express has protection built in. You can call them and explain your situation. You can try returning the product and let them know you are unhappy and if they don't return your money you will charge it back. If they don't you can call your credit card company and have the charge reversed. It takes about 30 to 60 days. The resellers has a period to defend why they sold you something that is not valid in your country. They have to hae a good reason and respond correctly withing 14 days. The cc company will judge whether its fair and they usually side with their credit card customer within reason. Yours is most likeley valid. I used to be a VP with First data and in sales for credit card processing. Most people don't know they have more rights with credit cards than they do with anything else.

 

[andrew124C41]

So, I'm new to Autel drones. I'm new to this forum (signing up after I purchased) - but full admission, and I know that 99.9% of the responses here will be admonishing me for not knowing ahead of time:

Took delivery today of an Evo II Pro V3, unfortuantely from autelpilot.com. (I'm just finding out right now what a mistake this was and I'm sick to my stomach.)

The path I took to get this was, it was out of stock on the official Autel Robotics shop site, and I followed the links FROM their site, to online sellers. Autelpilot.com was the most prominent.

Firmware is updating fine, but issue seems to be: I'm 99% sure I got a nerfed CE version when i'm in the US.
The Autel Explorer app image transmission section shows no channel/frequency information, and there are only CE not FCC certs/labels on the thing.
So I'm guessing I have the low-power and no-900mhz version, which was part of the reason I got it. (Forested terrain here.)

From what I understand I can't register for Autel Care with this drone; that this site doesn't honor returns at all; and that I'm basically stuck with an out of warranty CE-version drone that I paid pretty much full price for. (The discounts were nothing enticing.)

I don't know if I have a case on contesting the charge on my credit card or something. Because it says all over the site that it's the 15km/9.3mi version - and from what I can tell, it surely is not. (It looks like Autel does not do 'one set of hardware, different profiles for different countries' like DJI does.)

.. Again I just got here and I'm hoping to hear some advice besides just ridicule for not being prescient. I had no way of knowing that a prominent shop was such a big problem, especially being linked from the Autel Robotics site.

I just went through something with Autel when I did an upgrade to the E2P RTK. Without all of the details, it took both a complaint to my credit card company AND opening a case on The Better Business Bureau site to get my money back and have them pay for the return shipping.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

It doesn't matter that you signed for the delivery. Visa Mastercard and American Express has protection built in. You can call them and explain your situation. You can try returning the product and let them know you are unhappy and if they don't return your money you will charge it back. If they don't you can call your credit card company and have the charge reversed. It takes about 30 to 60 days. The resellers has a period to defend why they sold you something that is not valid in your country. They have to hae a good reason and respond correctly withing 14 days. The cc company will judge whether its fair and they usually side with their credit card customer within reason. Yours is most likeley valid. I used to be a VP with First data and in sales for credit card processing. Most people don't know they have more rights with credit cards than they do with anything else.

He said the autel care was free. They didn't sell his something that is not valid in his country. From what he wrote, it sounds like he has a valid dispute but not because of a warranty situation or an after-purchase maintenance package. The credit card company don't guarantee these are good and you shouldn't rely on them to enforce an out of country warranty or service agreement which is industry practice. It is true the credit card companies will go to bat for you but you'll be pushing it if you buy a grey market item.

 

[WV RAM]

So, I'm new to Autel drones. I'm new to this forum (signing up after I purchased) - but full admission, and I know that 99.9% of the responses here will be admonishing me for not knowing ahead of time:

Took delivery today of an Evo II Pro V3, unfortuantely from autelpilot.com. (I'm just finding out right now what a mistake this was and I'm sick to my stomach.)

The path I took to get this was, it was out of stock on the official Autel Robotics shop site, and I followed the links FROM their site, to online sellers. Autelpilot.com was the most prominent.

Firmware is updating fine, but issue seems to be: I'm 99% sure I got a nerfed CE version when i'm in the US.
The Autel Explorer app image transmission section shows no channel/frequency information, and there are only CE not FCC certs/labels on the thing.
So I'm guessing I have the low-power and no-900mhz version, which was part of the reason I got it. (Forested terrain here.)

From what I understand I can't register for Autel Care with this drone; that this site doesn't honor returns at all; and that I'm basically stuck with an out of warranty CE-version drone that I paid pretty much full price for. (The discounts were nothing enticing.)

I don't know if I have a case on contesting the charge on my credit card or something. Because it says all over the site that it's the 15km/9.3mi version - and from what I can tell, it surely is not. (It looks like Autel does not do 'one set of hardware, different profiles for different countries' like DJI does.)

.. Again I just got here and I'm hoping to hear some advice besides just ridicule for not being prescient. I had no way of knowing that a prominent shop was such a big problem, especially being linked from the Autel Robotics site.

What a horror story.
I’d definitely go the credit card claim path… it use to be you had 30 days, not sure what the laws are like now to protect your rights as a consumer when using a credit card. Good luck!

 

[jjradioactive]

So, I'm new to Autel drones. I'm new to this forum (signing up after I purchased) - but full admission, and I know that 99.9% of the responses here will be admonishing me for not knowing ahead of time:

Took delivery today of an Evo II Pro V3, unfortuantely from autelpilot.com. (I'm just finding out right now what a mistake this was and I'm sick to my stomach.)

The path I took to get this was, it was out of stock on the official Autel Robotics shop site, and I followed the links FROM their site, to online sellers. Autelpilot.com was the most prominent.

Firmware is updating fine, but issue seems to be: I'm 99% sure I got a nerfed CE version when i'm in the US.
The Autel Explorer app image transmission section shows no channel/frequency information, and there are only CE not FCC certs/labels on the thing.
So I'm guessing I have the low-power and no-900mhz version, which was part of the reason I got it. (Forested terrain here.)

From what I understand I can't register for Autel Care with this drone; that this site doesn't honor returns at all; and that I'm basically stuck with an out of warranty CE-version drone that I paid pretty much full price for. (The discounts were nothing enticing.)

I don't know if I have a case on contesting the charge on my credit card or something. Because it says all over the site that it's the 15km/9.3mi version - and from what I can tell, it surely is not. (It looks like Autel does not do 'one set of hardware, different profiles for different countries' like DJI does.)

.. Again I just got here and I'm hoping to hear some advice besides just ridicule for not being prescient. I had no way of knowing that a prominent shop was such a big problem, especially being linked from the Autel Robotics site.

I was sent a used one by autelpilot.com so they had me send it back. Two weeks later another open box unit shows up with the case switched out from the wheeled one as advertised to one without from the standard series, and the propellers were switched out too. Beyond furious with them and will be sending back. Not even bothering with trying to power up the unit. Sounds like autelpilot.com is not a reputable retailer. If I'm going to spend this much for an RTK Enterprise drone, it had better be legit and not some CN mainland version.

 

[jjradioactive]

Buyer beware with autelpilot.com. Theyve shipped me two used drones trying to pass them off as new. Sent them both back. They are insisting that the third will be right. Not holding my breath…
If you are shipped anything without a factory seal, refuse it and send it back.
The first one had scratches and someone’s handprints stained into the remote. The second had several wifi networks saved including the Autel service center in Bothel WA and several hours of flight footage in china saved on the remote.
Not expecting much from third. Already alerted credit card company.