Walkera Is it really this BAD?

[mike61]

I have a few Walkera helis and their radios including the Devo12S and 8S. They have all flown out the box and I bought them because they looked great especially the Lama. The main website for Walkera is a complete disgrace, the forum is too slow to browse it times out, the Devo software upgrade doesn't work. Maybe the CEO should be executed and the staff flogged as it might ruffle a few feathers. All I can say is that they are a f....ing disgrace and need a wakeup call. I sent them an email setting out my complaints which I doubt they'll respond to. There is no excuse for pathetic service and backup as their products are not cheap. Give me a chance and I will personally thrash their staff within inches of their lives. Bear in mind that we the customers put food on their tables so they should show us some respect.!!

[Heli-opolis]

Not that it changes much of anything but I was able to get the software update app working on my Devo-8.

It took me a while to figure it out, with quite a bit of time thinking that I had a new door stop, but I got it working eventually.

As for their site, I'd be fired if a site I worked on had such poor response times. So what if they are a Chinese company, I've got 15 servers all over the world, one even in China so if they wanted to provide a better online service, they could.

Walker's a hard company to figure out. They do somethings very well but other things, it seems like they don't even know what they don't know and if it is not on their radar, their service suffers.

I do hope that they figure things out though as I like their engineering and design but quality control and 'service', with service being across the board, are definitely lacking.

Oh well, they'll figure it out or they won't.

[bytemuncher]

I've been hammering Walkera with emails saying pretty much this same stuff. I told them they need to start a product support forum to improve customer communication and implement some form of issue tracking.

It seems they started to act on it by creating a new sub-forum called Product Support, but of course it doesn't work and the forum is painfully slow. Please email Walkera and complain and if you can endure the slow loading times (~3 minutes/page) please register and post in this thread http://www.walkera.com/diywken/diyar...d=3794&claid=5

heli@walkera.com
info@walkera.com

[jimmymc2286]

Originally Posted by bytemuncher

Try to get Lucy on msn lucychan02j1@hotmail.com. She is with Walkera sales and might be able to help you.

Thanks for the link I emailed her. Now lets see if she will answer.

[bytemuncher]

Try to get her on msn messenger for a live chat...but she is probably a few time zones away from you.

[mike61]

This is the email I sent Walkera with their reply...really doesn't help or adress any of the problems.





Hi,Michael

we don't open the forum to public any more, if you have any question pls contact with us directly. we are trying our best to be help.
For the upgrade of the radio system, pls download the upgrade tools before you download the software.
Here is the reference of the upgrade videos from Finess technology room which we ask him to help us.
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=347970



Many Thanks & Best regards
Sheila.Deng
Email: heli-13@walkera.com
msn:heli-Sheila@hotmail.com
2012-03-06

Guangzhou Walkera Technology Co., Ltd.
RC Helicopter & Airplane!
Web: http://www.walkera.com
Tel: 008620-84915116 / 5115
Fax: 008620-84915117

>I have been trying to access your forum for months and I can't get in as you forum is too slow and times out. I have spent a lot of money
on your products and I am angry at how poorly you look after you customers. I would appreciate just a little effort from your company to try
and service your clients. Your upgrade software does not work and has made downloading your updates a waste of time.
All your clients in every forum are complaining about this and your company does nothing.
>
>Do you people even care how much of a problem this is, do you ever read your own forum? You provide the worst service in the world and you people need to wake up this is the 21st century and I need a good reason to continue to purchase your products. If this continues I will never buy another product of your so please WAKE UP!!!!!!!
>
>
>Michael Fisher

[Heli-opolis]

So maybe 'Finess', Finless Bob, may have an 'in' that he could use to help educate Walkera on how other manufacturers in their technological corner provide support and service to their customers?

I really would like to see Walkera get up to speed on service and support because I love their technology!

It's too bad they shut down their support forum although seeing the types of posts in their before it was shut down, the level of damage control needed to deal with some of the irateness likely would have been difficult even for a company employing native English speakers.

I saw a number of posts that I would have liked to respond to to try to help out with but by the time I got logged in again, the forum was already gone.

[MilitaryMachinist]

I'm not shocked. They have an incredibly low level of customer support. Once you buy a Walkera you are pretty much on your own lol.

[Heli-opolis]

One problem though has to be their documentation not being as easily understandable as it might be otherwise.

For example, I know for a fact that the software upgrade application works but the destructions on how to do it not being too clear can make it seem like it doesn't work at all and without the benefit of the doubt being given with the thinking that it may actually work if 'the' correct process was followed, no matter how convoluted that process may be, that it would work, it is easy to think it doesn't work at all and so blame Walkera for a shoddy product when in fact the product is fine, basically, it's just that the manual blows.

It seems clear to me that all the problems people have with Walkera boil down to being one of communication, one way or another. If they could turn that around, they'd rock!

[Majic1]

Originally Posted by Heli-opolis

One problem though has to be their documentation not being as easily understandable as it might be otherwise.

For example, I know for a fact that the software upgrade application works but the destructions on how to do it not being too clear can make it seem like it doesn't work at all and without the benefit of the doubt being given with the thinking that it may actually work if 'the' correct process was followed, no matter how convoluted that process may be, that it would work, it is easy to think it doesn't work at all and so blame Walkera for a shoddy product when in fact the product is fine, basically, it's just that the manual blows.

It seems clear to me that all the problems people have with Walkera boil down to being one of communication, one way or another. If they could turn that around, they'd rock!

Well Said H.O. The problem IS communication.

I don't know how many of you guys have actually read your manuals. But, looking at my manual for the v200d03. Right on page 1, statement #2 it clearly says: "We consign our distributors to offer technical support and service after sale. Please contact the local distributor for problem solutions caused by usage, operation, maintenance...etc."

I have never tried to contact Walkera for questions or problems. I have always contacted the place I bought it, which is what they ask you to do. WOW has always been available to answer any of my questions or to respond to any issues that arise.

Personally, I haven't had any problem getting the Devo upgrade tool to work. It works fine. And, I have been able to install the updates. The only thing I haven't been able to do is get the model upload function to work. Every time I tried to upload the binary (.bin) data file to my PC, the upgrade tool would crash. I am running Win 7 64-Bit Ultimate, so I tried changing the compatibility mode on the app, but that didn't work either. I was going to put it on one of my XP machines to see if it would work, but I have not had the time to do that yet.

If you guys are having problems downloading the upgrade tool. Here it is...