I'll not be using Drones Direct again!

General Drone Discussion
1

Literally every single day I’ve been checking DJI, Heliguy and Drones Direct (DD hereafter) for weeks now, waiting for stock of the CrystalSky monitors to come in.

DD finally showed in stock yesterday morning!

Not quite believing it, I rang them up to confirm.

Spoke to some bloke called Ashley and asked him to confirm the stock. Yes he said, we’ve had six delivered. Be quick he said, we’ve sold one and three are currently in online baskets (one of which was mine).

During the course of me placing the order with him, I specifically asked him to confirm the exact model no less than three times (as I was that convinced these things were just an urban myth). Each time he solidly reassured me.

So that was it, order placed, I even paid extra for a Saturday delivery.

Barely slept last night from excitement :roll_eyes:

Checked in with the order status this morning to see if it had been updated / dispatched yet.

My heart sank when I saw ‘awaiting stock to fulfill this order’ :disappointed_relieved:

Might be early I told myself… waited till lunch time, no change. Not liking the look of it I rang them up. Ashley was off today it seems. So I asked the bloke on the phone for an update.

He said he had no idea why I was told these were in stock, as they aren’t. Not due in for weeks yet he said.

I asked how to go about cancelling my order.

His response?

‘Yeah sure thing, I’ll do it now’ click, brrrrr…

The bastard literally hung up on me, mid-sentence :open_mouth: :rage: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

No apology, no fucks given, no nothing.

After I’d calmed down I rang Heliguy instead. These guys bent over backwards to answer all my questions. They even said I could place a £100 pre-order deposit, that is FULLY refundable if another supplier gets stock before them. Amazing :+1:

So! Screw you dronesdirect, I’ll never buy anything from you with that level of customer ‘care’ :-1:

6 Likes
2

Reminds me of the debacle with EE when I was waiting for my iPhone 7 Plus pre-order.

At least you got your money back from DD

3

OMG I am not surprised I purchased my Mavic from them and ended up having a right royal set too in there showroom, they tried to charge me a credit card fee when I had used my debit card and just to totally throw me over the edge the invoice said delivery charge WTF is this I am here to collect it you moron… :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::rage:

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4

Blimey… I just checked the original invoice. Sure enough, they’ve added on a 1.5% surcharge for me using a credit card :open_mouth:

The shady bastards!! :rage:

Two serious downvotes from GADC members then :-1:

2 Likes
5

I read your pm earlier regarding them being in stock.

I couldn’t quite believe it and went online to see you were right. I still didn’t believe what I was seeing as heliguy have no stock. Even DJI are saying no stock, so why on earth would DD have them?

My gut feeling was that they may have some of the high brights but we’re selling them as ultras. Looks like I was wrong and they just downright lied about stock.

I’ve used laptops direct when I bought my gaming laptop. It was £150 cheaper than the next cheapest supplier I could find and £250 cheaper than RRP. I guess I was lucky on that occasion that I got what I paid for and touch wood have had no issues at all.

This company has been added to my not shop with list now.

To hang up on a customer is unforgivable when you’ve lied about stock just to get the order.

1 Like
6

Yeah I’m sorry about that mate, but from one GADC member to another I thought I’d give you the heads up on stock availability asap as I know you’re after one too.

That in itself should have started alarm bells ringing with me really :blush:

Ever since Buy It Direct bought them out, they’ve gone to shit. Like you say, they’re now all about sales quotas, commission and targets, rather than actually caring about their customers (like Heliguy do).

7

I got my CS from LCE: https://www.lcegroup.co.uk/New/dji-crystalsky-785quot-high-brightness_16347.html

They don’t have any 7.85s in stock atm but they do have 5.5s. They were spot on, helpful, friendly and efficient, I wouldn’t hesitate in using them again.

2 Likes
8

Cheers @Peter I actually rang a couple of LCE branches on Friday as it goes, like you say, no 7" stock to be had in any of them, also checked their distribution hub too, nothing there either.

Spoke to Heliguy again today, I’ve done a pre-order there now and given them £100 deposit :slight_smile:

9

I’ve just crumbled.

I’m going away for the weekend and REALLY wanted the crystalsky to take with me. I hoped the 7.85 would be back in stock and with me after being on pre order for over a month, but, alas, no.

Apparently they’re having problems with overheating and that’s what is causing the delays.

So I’ve bitten the bullet and cancelled my previous order for 7.85 and I’ve just ordered the 5.5 instead.

I’ll probably regret not waiting but I’m just not a very patient man!!

10

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

But yeah, I can see exactly where you’re coming from :slight_smile:

So when you get back, go put a deposit on the 7" then as soon as Heliguy
call you, go put the 5 on eBay as nearly new, boxed, 10x month warranty,
etc?

11

So has it arrived yet??? :smiley:

12

No, tomorrow. I ordered it too late yesterday for next day delivery today.

Getting excited

13

So what do you think of it? :slight_smile:

14

Five years later and Drones Direct are still claiming they have stock when they don’t?

And:

Drones Direct:

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2 Likes
15

I got my gaming lappy from them aswell, got it a good deal cheaper, although I really new I was taking a chance after reading bad reviews about customer service and what not. I know now reading these posts I’ll never use them again.

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16

Unfortunately I’ve suffered from DD myself when I first bought a DJI Spark from them years ago. Paid for said goods that were in stock, after speaking to someone in sales. They gave me a tracking number and courier. Waited my delivery date and as it’s hadn’t arrived at my collection day, tried to contact DD numerous times through 2 days. Each time I was told it was shipped and had been delivered to the collection point. After contacting the courier they told me they’re tracking the item and it’s still in transit…
3 days later they called back to say DD didn’t ship any items for me at all as nothing was showing in tracking.
:face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:.
I contacted my credit card company and claims the money back as a fraudulent transaction and vowed never to deal with DD or any of their franchises again.