Distributor Comment by David Skinner on April 24, 2011 at 4:22am

I think DIY Drones has the right to charge what they want! If you don't like it then don't buy it. No one is forcing you to do so. I know this is a community and everyone has the right to say what they want but bashing a product just doesn't help. I'm sorry CheBuzz but if you think they are unjustified with their price then either purchase them elsewhere and spend the time setting them up yourself or do all the hard work DIY Drones does and sell these products for a 5-10% markup and see how long you last doing it.

 

PS. I'd like to see how good the after sales service is from digi when you contact them about your ONE broken XBee module. I have a feeling they may laugh at you???

Comment by Don Brooks on April 24, 2011 at 7:07am

I hope that about covers the bashing. Point is, yes, there are certainly cheaper ways of initially getting this together. But IMO, this is the better value when you consider everything.

Comment by CheBuzz on April 24, 2011 at 6:36pm

Calm down.  I was actually responding to people who questioned Jack Crossfire's post on the first page.  Re-read my comment again putting emphasis on the "is".

 

I never said that DIY Drones can't charge whatever they want.  And David Skinner obviously replied without knowing my history.  I did "do all the hard work DIY Drones does and sell these products for a 5-10% markup" for 3 years while I lived in Europe.  The only reason I stopped was when I moved back to the States.  I didn't think it was ok to charge a 50%-100% markup on parts that I acquired from other sources.  You obviously have never worked with Digi either as their customer service is actually pretty good.

 

Let's try and avoid this knee-jerk reaction of calling it bashing whenever somebody questions anything on here.  A point was made that it seemed like a big markup for parts that are largely not created by DIY Drones.  I reiterated the point and was searching for a comment from them on the subject.  Which I would still like to receive.

Distributor Comment by David Skinner on April 25, 2011 at 12:43am

Saying "Seems a bit shameful" is bashing. Saying "I think this product is a bit expensive" is constructive criticism which I think is great for a community space like this. I apologise for singling you out CheBuzz as it is not only you and it is not confined to this post. I just think there is much more to be gained from constructive criticism than there is from attacking the exact mark-up someone is charging. I also don't understand what you expect DIY Drones to say about the matter???

Comment by CheBuzz on April 25, 2011 at 5:41am

Seems a bit shameful is my opinion, and I stand by it.  Saying something like "DIY Drones are ripping everybody off!" or "DIY Drones is charging exorbitant markups" without actually backing it up with facts would be bashing.

 

I guess I was hoping somebody would explain why a 50%+ markup is justified for products that they don't produce (minus the XtremeBee board, but even that seems cloned from many, many similar boards before it).  I guess the silence from them is my answer.

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on April 25, 2011 at 1:33pm

CheBuzz: As people have pointed out, you were looking at the wrong modems. Thank you for addressing that and recalculating the math to a 50% markup. Let me address that:

First, 50% gross margin is absolutely standard in retail. I think you'll find that in virtually every other business in the RC world.

Why? Because, as you know having run a store, overheads are significant. There is of course the salaries of the staff who load the setting on the Xbees, test them and pack them up to ship out. We have rent on our factory, very high insurance premiums (given the field we're in) to protect both us and our customers, and the overheads of full time customer and technical support staff standing by in case people need help.

Perhaps in your European business you were not large enough to have commercial rent, staff and insurance, but anybody who has built a business on the scale we have will tell you that 50% margin is about the minimum necessary to run a sustainable operation.

Comment by ARHEXA on May 4, 2011 at 8:14am

Seems it's no longer available on the store...
any plans to re-stock it ?

Comment by Al Ros on May 4, 2011 at 8:24am

Hi

 

THe telemetry kit is no longer on DIY store. Is this temporary or is it no longer sold there?

thanks

Al

Comment by Ron Holley on May 4, 2011 at 8:32am

Seen with other items in the past. Just clicked on email when in stock and that's what happened. :)

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on May 4, 2011 at 9:51am

I'm not sure what you guys are looking at, but the product listing is in the store as always. It's just temporarily out of stock while we have some custom cables made.

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next ›
• Page