Canadian Drone Store Goes Bust, DJI Mavic Pre-Order Buyers Cry Foul

Droneology, a drone store in Canada’s largest shopping center, the West Edmonton Mall, has gone bankrupt and dozens customers who pre-ordered the Mavic Pro drone from them have run out of patience.

Global News in Canada is reporting that customers who pre-ordered Mavic Pro drones were under the impression they were dealing directly with DJI based solely on how much DJI signage was in the store.

Judging by the image of the store above, it would be easy to assume that this was a DJI corporate store.

Droneology owner Ron Windmueller had been using customer deposits to pay his operating expenses at the mall, expecting timely delivery of drones from DJI.  Mueller also claimed that DJI had promised US$106,000 towards his store renovations that he says were later reneged.

Adding in the painfully long delays for DJI to get Mavic drones produced and shipped made matters worse for Droneology.  Then came the news that DJI would ship pre-orders to customers that dealt directly with DJI before fulfilling orders for 3rd party vendors like Droneology.

The DJI Mavic Pro was ‘released’ for sale in the fall of 2016 but didn’t actually start shipping until late January 2017.

Windmueller now plans to reimburse 20 customers from his personal line of credit.

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