Buying on Amazon will not be a pain if you buy from an authorized DJI dealer. It would be no different than buying it directly from a shop in person. Many dealers ship Phantoms themselves on Amazon too. If you're going Amazon though, get it Amazon Prime so you can take advantage of the easy 30-day return policy if something does not go as planned.Buying on Amazon or eBay or whatever might save you a few hundred dollars but it will be more difficult to deal with a problem.
It made it worse as he had just bought a brand new McClaren!