Rotorpixel gimbal for Phantom Vision

[brushlesheaven]

Thanks for the update Keri.
Any chance for the photos from your assemblers of some complete units please?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152228432188695&set=a.476143003694.262211.691328694&type=1&theater

Editing together some footage from the last two days on the water. The results are very impressive (in my opinion).

Also, I've asked our assemblers to take some photos of some completed units in their final packaging, which will be shipping out ASAP (tomorrow/Thursday) so I'll post that when it's sent to me.

Keri

 

[iDrone]

iDrone

 

[pyrophantom]

pmsl :lol:

 

[iResq]

WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE "iResq"?????
There are plenty of other Gimbals, just let it go dude.
:roll:

Easy dude, no need to raise your voice. I only suggested that shipping dates should not be given until they are firm. It appears that product is indeed shipping., which is fantastic news.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[Pull_Up]

Easty tigers, let's not get back to the spectacular flounces and fanboy/hater stuff. As your friend and mine Spanktimonious (other usernames may apply) would say: let's deal with undisputed facts.

In-flight footage from a Rotorpixel-equipped Vision has now been published;
Gimbals from the first production run have now started shipping;
If you haven't got a shipping notice yours hasn't been shipped yet;
There's a lot of pre-orders taken, and you won't get a delivery slot as things will be ready when they are ready;
Rotorpixel have taken on some more people to increase assembly volumes over the coming weeks;
The owner of the company himself has said if you're not happy at any point in the wait for your gimbal you can apply direct for an immediate refund.

Ok, Spanky you need to leave the room now, becuase the next bit is mainly "opinion", m'kay?

I reckon once they get right into the next batch of production and know their times-scales they'll publish an "expected wait time";
I think Keri has been good at communicating with us since the thread started specifically about production development, changes to the design to accommodate our wishes (lens filters for example), etc.
I'm pleasantly surprised by the "extras" we ended up with like GoPro adapter to make this gimbal transferable and a future third-axis option;
I get how some people got/get frustrated, and the production delays could have been explained a bit better/quicker (despite agreeing to a "we might change the specs for the better before we can get this out to you" waiver at point of sale), but if you were that unhappy you got your refund (despite agreeing to a "patience waiver" at point of sale), if you're not happy with the unknown lead time at the moment you don't need to order;
On the bright side for those people there are now a few other gimbal choices in the market so those who are not happy with the Rotorpixel wait now have some other options that are being 3D printed in China, an open-source DIY project spearheaded by a member of these forums, and no doubt others to come. I'm assuming people interested in these and the Rotorpixel have discounted the Dronexpert gimbal which has quietly carried on being produced all this time.

So you pays ya money, ya takes yer choice - or not. But if we could keep the discussion in here relevant to the Rotorpixel gimbal and not go down the fanboy/hater revolving argument routes that would be cool.

Personally I am in a calm place this weekend - as I only had the choice of Canada Post for my gimbal then even if it has been sent out Friday evening, the chance of any national postal service updating their tracking system over the weekend and telling me is zip I reckon, so I'm going to lay off the F5 mashing on the inbox for 48 hours.

 

[pylon]

First time poster.

I have an issue with this rotorpixel outfit, and personally, I would wait to see a finished product in someones hands before I drop $400. I have sent them 4 inquiries on their website, asking about potential ship dates, before I even knew about this forum, and the high demand for this product. They have responded to exactly zero inquiries, when I straight up said, "I just need a realistic estimate, as I have a project I need to schedule."

No demands to cue jump.

No deadline demands.

Just, I really want to order your product, when do you 'think' I would see something, so I can give my company a realistic estimate?

If a company cannot even field the most basic inquiry that will make them actual money, how do you think the customer service will be when you have an issue that won't? Especially when I am a Canadian customer, and the cheap shipping would be the most profitable scenario for them. At this point in time, the only way I will feel safe buying the thing, is when it pops up on a big time 3rd party reseller like B and H or Amazon. At least they will still look after you if rotorpixel crashes and burns.

If any of my employees in my sales dept, straight up ignored a new lead like this, and I found out about it, I would fire them on the spot.

 

[Pull_Up]

I realize that emails from many of you have gone unanswered, and am incredibly sorry for that. As soon as pre-orders went live, we have been fighting an avalanche of emails, and we're doing our best to slog through them all.

We've made hundreds of sales to resellers (including B&H who are going to be offering our gimbal as part of a pre-assembled package with the P2V + case)

Would seem to cover your maiden post! They are stuck between a rock and a hard place I think. Do they take someone off assembly to help answer pre-sales enquiries (annoying the people who've already paid money and want the product), or do they let answering general enquiries slip in order to favour building for the pre-orders (annoying people like you who want some pre-sales information). Not defending them, just saying it's a tough balancing act and something's going to give especially as they are playing catch up - I think the sheer volume of orders and interest has been totally outside anything they predicted.

But it looks like you'll be able to get it from your preferred re-seller in the future anyway once they ramp up production volumes, so that's good for you, them and B&H.

And welcome, by the way!

 

[streetcreep]

First time poster.

I have an issue with this rotorpixel outfit, and personally, I would wait to see a finished product in someones hands before I drop $400. I have sent them 4 inquiries on their website, asking about potential ship dates, before I even knew about this forum, and the high demand for this product. They have responded to exactly zero inquiries, when I straight up said, "I just need a realistic estimate, as I have a project I need to schedule."

No demands to cue jump.

No deadline demands.

Just, I really want to order your product, when do you 'think' I would see something, so I can give my company a realistic estimate?

If a company cannot even field the most basic inquiry that will make them actual money, how do you think the customer service will be when you have an issue that won't? Especially when I am a Canadian customer, and the cheap shipping would be the most profitable scenario for them. At this point in time, the only way I will feel safe buying the thing, is when it pops up on a big time 3rd party reseller like B and H or Amazon. At least they will still look after you if rotorpixel crashes and burns.

If any of my employees in my sales dept, straight up ignored a new lead like this, and I found out about it, I would fire them on the spot.

I hate that last statement by the way ..

So you would personally wait to see the product but professionally send caution to the wind and schedule a project based on availability and not having it in your actual hands as you said to see if it will work for you .. Weird .. if you worked at my company you would be fired for sure .


I think you may get an answer now to some of your inquiries . as now (like this week) they have be able to ship products out .That means they must have all things firing now and have a base for numbers of unit which can be produced . I think it was just a week and a half ago that they actually received the parts for assembly . It sounds like you need a solid estimate for scheduling which may have been tough to do prior to now.

 

[pyrophantom]

Its the easiest thing in the world to sit in a comfy chair and moan and throw complaints at their company, you don't have to make their decisions ! Sometimes you wonder why they bother when they read some of the crap that is aimed at them.

Its not complicated, if not happy DO NOT ORDER ONE !.......as the meerkats would say "simples !"

Sighhh :roll:

 

[pylon]

I realize that emails from many of you have gone unanswered, and am incredibly sorry for that. As soon as pre-orders went live, we have been fighting an avalanche of emails, and we're doing our best to slog through them all.

We've made hundreds of sales to resellers (including B&H who are going to be offering our gimbal as part of a pre-assembled package with the P2V + case)

Would seem to cover your maiden post! They are stuck between a rock and a hard place I think. Do they take someone off assembly to help answer pre-sales enquiries (annoying the people who've already paid money and want the product), or do they let answering general enquiries slip in order to favour building for the pre-orders (annoying people like you who want some pre-sales information). Not defending them, just saying it's a tough balancing act and something's going to give especially as they are playing catch up - I think the sheer volume of orders and interest has been totally outside anything they predicted.

But it looks like you'll be able to get it from your preferred re-seller in the future anyway once they ramp up production volumes, so that's good for you, them and B&H.

And welcome, by the way!

Thanks, I look forward to contributing.

It has been 2 weeks now since I sent them an email, and they have sold what looks like approximately 5-600 pieces. I would understand if it was a question that was technical in nature, but a response of "6 weeks would be a fair estimate, thanks." Would take 15 seconds to type out. A buying customer should not have to seek out 3rd party forums to get hearsay answers for customer service inquiries answered. Not having a contingency plan to answer these emails is extremely short sighted, and the signs of a one hit wonder, fly by night operation, and a very poorly thought out business plan.

I personally handle 50-100 emails PER DAY, and I am dealing with inquiries on much more lucrative sales, that are much more detailed and technical in nature.I don't even own the company, I am am simply a dept manager, and I will still log in on weekends when we are closed to make sure our customers are getting answers. I get they have a high demand niche product.... for now. But once some slave labour outfit in Koreikstan gets a hold of one of these, and builds a clone at 1/2 the price, you better have good customer service to justify the premium. Right now it is bottom of the barrel service on an unknown product.

I have $400 burning a hole in my pocket, and nobody that wants to give me the time of day to take it. That isn't how business is up supposed to work.

 

[Pull_Up]

Well Rotorpixel have been around for a year and produced GoPro finals before this one. There also a post from the owner a few pages back giving his credentials and details of his other business for people concerned about the company or his status.

You should offer your services to him as a consultant... but I'd wait until the rush has died down.

 

[pylon]

I hate that last statement by the way ..

So you would personally wait to see the product but professionally send caution to the wind and schedule a project based on availability and not having it in your actual hands as you said to see if it will work for you .. Weird .. if you worked at my company you would be fired for sure .

Lets not get carried away. They built a gimbal that fits an odd ball camera. Nothing more. There are many products already on the market that do the exact same thing, they just fit a different camera. This isn't rocket science, the thing is basically a Zenmuse knock off for all intents and purposes.

I do all of our company photography, and I thought it would be a fun project to film our building, campus, and do a company group aerial photo on my own dime. There is some prep that will be required with parking, building maintenance and staging before I start on what is ultimately a freebie for my employer, but I need to know when to have everything ready, and when to let everyone know when to be prepared. The future of our company in no way hinges on something I am planning to do ultimately for fun.

However, rotorpixels very future relies on providing good customer service, regardless of how mundane the enquiries are. And they have provided exactly zero to me at this point in time. Their current service, is the equivalent of me walking up to a Bestbuy till with a wad of hundreds in my hand and a 50" TV in tow, and the cashier refusing to cash me out.

 

[Pull_Up]

Aren't we straying away yet again from the topic? Sounds like you don't want to do business direct, and that's fine, I get it.

Except your analogy isn't correct. It's more like going to best buy, they say due to demand we can't say when the TV is coming in stock, if you want to preorder on those terms we'll take your money and will refund any point up to delivery if you feel the need. If you're not happy with that may we suggest you go to Gimbals R Us in the meantime.

Just saying.

 

[gpauk]

Aren't we straying away yet again from the topic? Sounds like you don't want to do business direct, and that's fine, I get it.

Except your analogy isn't correct. It's more like going to best buy, they say due to demand we can't say when the TV is coming in stock, if you want to preorder on those terms we'll take your money and will refund any point up to delivery if you feel the need. If you're not happy with that may we suggest you go to Gimbals R Us in the meantime.

Just saying.

lol... Good analogy actually -- as I suspect if you asked best buy when it would be back in stock, they'd not be able to tell you either... Just that it would be back in at some point... "computer say no..."....

So, you'd have to think it'll be someone on here that gets the "shipped" notification... My order number is 352 so who knows?!!

 

[pault]

I am not a customer so not sure if I have a right to comment but I think that any company, no matter how busy, should have the courtesy to at least acknowledge all enquiries even if it is to say that they will get back to you when time permits. If staffing is an issue they should outsource their sales enquiries to an agency that can deal with them. To just say nothing is very unprofessional.

 

[pylon]

Aren't we straying away yet again from the topic? Sounds like you don't want to do business direct, and that's fine, I get it.

Except your analogy isn't correct. It's more like going to best buy, they say due to demand we can't say when the TV is coming in stock, if you want to preorder on those terms we'll take your money and will refund any point up to delivery if you feel the need. If you're not happy with that may we suggest you go to Gimbals R Us in the meantime.

Just saying.

No, it is like going to Bestbuy, and the Sales person staring blankly ahead and refusing to tell me when they expect it back in stock. Nobody in 2 weeks has responded to a simple set of emails. That is simply terrible customer service. I get that anyone has the choice to order it, or not. But I also think if you have such a poor experience as I have had, you owe it to the community at large to let them know that so people don't just blindly throw cash at something that may not come to fruition. How many kickstarter and indigogo campaigns with big promises have ended with people left with nothing but inside out pockets?

I am sure they have a fine product. I am sure the intent is there. And I almost just punched in my credit card number to order one. But there has to be some sort of minimum level of service met. I find it extremely odd and suspicious, that a company would refuse to answer a simple, one line, sales inquiry. Crap, an auto reply could have been set up. "Thanks for your inquiry, due to an overwhelming demand for our product, and a few unforseen production delays, we are currently expecting our product to ship in approximately 6-8 weeks for all new orders. We are extremely backlogged with emails, however someone will respond to your inquiry in the next 1-2 weeks. We value your business and will get back to you soon!" You could make a Yahoo account do that in 1998.

Again, without finding this forum, I would have had no clue what to expect. And not everyone finds out about these things using forums likes this one. I was told about the rotorpixel gimbal by my DJI dealer, when I was perfectly prepared to just drop 2200 on the P2 with Zenmuse and Gopro + POV. But being red/green colour-blind, I preferred the more detailed telemetry of P2V as opposed to the on board running lights and he steered me in this direction.

Anyway, this will be my last post on the topic. I am sure rotor pixel will eventually deliver to those who have ordered, but nobody is immune to criticism when it comes to poor customer service, especially in this day and age.

 

[pylon]

double post

 

[pyrophantom]

At the end of the day its a good old chicken and egg scenario - if the gimbal was looking like it was going to be pants, there would not have half as much interest and so they would have more time and resources to do customer service type things but being the very small operation they are, perhaps they were not expecting the almost fever pitch observation and analysis of a product as has been microscopically looked at on here. Four weeks ago there was nothing, now we are over 1300 replies and 34000+ views about a product which is only at pre order stage.......that's quite some interest.

Hopefully the wait will be worth it but at the end of the day you have to make your choice what you want. If you want a gimbal quickly there are others about. If you want this one you will have to wait a bit. Its your own personal choice, but criticising the company is a little harsh, they have had unprecedented interest and I think its caught them on the hop - it doesn't mean they have bad customer service as Keri has been on here many times discussing peoples feedback and telling people what he assesses to be the situation as it stands. If some are not happy with the wait he said quite clearly they can have their money back, and if others don't like the lack of emails, then buy something else.

This thread started off really well about discussing the Gimbal, merits, warts, everything, and now its turning into a gripefest by some, and even wandering completely off topic, when most of us just want to chat about the product.

Rant over (again)

 

[MattOlieman]

People have a right to be cautious and concerned, whether you spend 4 or 400,000 dollars, it's your money and you expect something in return for it. At least some honest/satisfactorily explanations when a product can't be delivered as promised.

This has nothing to do with the quality, uniqueness or price of the product, it's about "How you do business." RotorPixel leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to business PR or customer service. I knew this, when I paid for this product, but that doesn't mean it's right or doesn't mean people don't have the right to voice their concerns. We're customers, customers that have paid in advance and we should be treated with respect and appreciation.

Keri, this is a threat, not a sign of appreciation, courtesy or apology:

If anyone wants to cancel their order because of the uncertainty of the delivery time frame, please feel free to let me know, or send an email through http://www.rotorpixel.com. We'll send a refund immediately.
Keri

Keri, Please correct me if I'm wrong, I calculate, I was approximately the 16th person to place an order and I know a few folks here that have ordered before me. None of us have received shipping notices. So does that mean, over the past two weeks you've only been able to build and ship less then 16 items? and you don't know who they were shipped to? I know one thing, I'm number 16 (give or take a few), and received no shipping notice.

Keri, we just want a honest/reasonable explanation, please?

Keri, I want your product, as promised and look forward to receiving it.

Keri from the bottom of my heart, I wish you and RotorPixel the best, Keri you have excellent product development skills, but, needs some business management advice and my advice to you is, find some.

 

[iDrone]

iDrone