Hello Everyone,

I've been a happy owner of a Mavic Pro for a couple of months. Never had to complain about it, was handling most situations quite well (even tho I was not using it a lot), and never had any crash or problem with it, until....

...until it suddenly could not calibrate its gimbal anymore. Gimbal was becoming crazy everytime I was starting the drone, knocking on some sides while initializing/calibrating.

This happened without any logical reason, as the drone itself looks pristine, perfect, mint. In fact, I could have sold it recently like new, this says a lot! Not even a single scratch on it, always use with amazing care, cleaned after every session.

Of course, I have contacted DJI support, and Calvin, from their "Rescue Squad", was very professional, bringing me immediate assistance, asking me to send it back to them for repair.

I have read, on this forum and elsewhere, that I was not the only one with this trouble, sometimes happening just a few days/weeks after buying it. Most people were saying that the problem was solved by sending it back to DJI and covered by the 12-months warranty.

Now, I am being asked by DJI Repair Service to PAY A HUNDRED DOLLARS for the repair (they need to change the gimbal itself), which surprises me quite a lot, given the perfect condition of the device and the fact it has barely been used for 6 months. I know that most people reading this may doubt and think the drone was crashed. Well, it wasn't. Never, ever. The shell itself could be shown in this thread by some DJI agent and that would prove my words. One day, I just put the drone out of its DJI official bag and start it, then the gimbal/camera became crazy...

More than the money they ask me to pay, which is totally nonsense to me and reveals an unprofessional dishonest way to do business, I am now afraid that I may get the exact same problem in a few months again, and have to send the drone back, again and again, paying everytime for not only the shipping fees but also the repair itself!

Could ANY DJI REPRESENTATIVE here do something and ask their REPAIR CENTRE to provide some HONEST SERVICE? (case number CAS-877773-Z2K9V6 , if they ever care about their customers).

Thank you everyone for reading this. I wish no one here to have to face what I face, this would make most people stop trusting this company...

Cheers!
*Nick*

Hy Nick,

I will tell you my story:
I am in Brazil, and DJI even don’t know we exist (not true, but almost).
We don’t have care refresh or anything like that.
I have my MAVIC for 3 months. First of all, I had some issues with the second compass, but I’d forgot this; yesterday preparing to fly, I had that motor overload and gimbal problem that you can see a lot of people suffering from it; even you. The only way is to send back to DJI. But I don’t have DJI here.
I would have to send to the dealer, and expect some technician to identify the problem….and then????? What comes next?????
So, as you can see, life is hard!
But, the point here is not this, because it’s my problem and no one else’s.
But what I want you to see is that we are in a bunch whole world with so many drones…millions of it.
I really believe that DJI is a company; with goals, and problems; but an honest company.
I really don’t believe in dishonesty.
Try to reach them and expose your concerns.
I do believe it will solve.
But, even though, remember: drones are trick hardware’s.
It is not easy to have no problem at all.

DocAraxá Posted at 2017-8-28 04:22
Hy Nick,

I will tell you my story:

There's something related to quality control.
I'm facing the compass 2 error when gimbal goes down. Annoying, dangerous and frustrating.

There's a bunch of guys with the same compass problem in our facebook group, I believe more than 15 guys is facing the same boring problem.

Like you said, here in Brasil we are all F****d up, no dji care, no warranty, so disappointing.

DocAraxá Posted at 2017-8-28 04:22
Hy Nick,

I will tell you my story:

Thank you for the nice words

Nicoking2001 Posted at 2017-8-28 05:19
Thank you for the nice words

I can only say, take a deep breath and send it in. $100 is a lot less than what DJI usually charges for repair!

The Gimbal clamp is not an easy device to put on correctly.  If not careful, I can imagine damage being caused to the Gimbal from that alone... I've seen so many people with it on their mavic wrong... I'm not saying you didn't install it correctly, I just wonder if that could have anything to do with the failure.  

The DJI process is not good at all. My support case#: CAS-827035-D5D6K1

Background info: I ordered my Mavic Pro from the online DJI store. Arrived, and flew it one time for about 1 minute. There was an "excessive gimbal vibration" message and that persisted on the second flight. Therefore, I had sent it in to get a replacement. This is a brand new unit and it arrived defective. I should not have to worry about "excessive gimbal vibration" - I have another Mavic Pro in my fleet and it has been working flawlessly. There should be no reason (on a brand new unit) that I cannot get a simple replacement; after all it had arrived in a defective state.

I checked online status and my defective Mavic Pro arrived August 1st. Here it is now, August 28th! Calling DJI Tech Support has been a very frustrating process! They confuse things with multiple case #'s and when you call in again to check status, the rep you speak with does not understand nor seems to care that much. In fact, they seem very unprofessional and confused as if this was the first time they ever handled a support case.

DJI Management is seemingly not available to discuss ways to improve the process. Maybe they should hire me and I can get things in order with a sharp DJI Support team!

dronist Posted at 2017-8-28 06:21
I can only say, take a deep breath and send it in. $100 is a lot less what DJI usually charges for repair!

Thank you, sure it's not much compared to the full price of the product! Then I would have gladly paid $100 less when buying it if I knew it didn't come with any kind of after-sales... That's what some shops do in my country: "No Support, But Cheaper!" lol

Tombolian Posted at 2017-8-28 08:51
The Gimbal clamp is not an easy device to put on correctly.  If not careful, I can imagine damage being caused to the Gimbal from that alone... I've seen so many people with it on their mavic wrong... I'm not saying you didn't install it correctly, I just wonder if that could have anything to do with the failure.

Hi, that's right, your words are relevant. But I was not using the gimbal clamp at all In fact, the drone was mostly staying home and, once or twice a month, moved outside with extra-care (inside the official DJI bag). I didn't put the clamp from the beginning, as it seemed to me it would do more harm than good to the gimbal. So I finally never used it, except when I sent the drone back to DJI, a few days ago

DJI does seem to have the best drones out there, but unfortunately they also seem to have the worst tech support, very sad.

i dont use the gimbal clamp for that very reason, i'm am frightened i will break something the gimbal doesn't seem very strong and the handful of time i took the extra care to apply the clamp it felt like i was having to be too forceful or something just didn't feel right, but applying it seemed obvious enough, but i can imagine how people do it wrongly. i rather bash the gimbal around in the plastic globe than tear a ribbon cable from affixing the clamp...  i have heard some companies have better easier softer clamps for the mavic pro, i'm struggling to find them...  so if better clamp that exists for affixing the gimbal in place please share it.  

Ferks Posted at 2017-8-28 15:44
DJI does seem to have the best drones out there, but unfortunately they also seem to have the worst tech support, very sad.

Maybe you're right, even though it is a bit too early for me to 'judge' about this yet (from this forum, it doesn't seem to be positive, I would say, but forums are forums, and there may be more people coming here for help or complains than anywhere else).

About my case, I believe there are evidences, like the fact my drone looked mint and never had shock/water/crash or anything which could have harmed it. From one day to the other, the gimbal just stopped responding normally. This kind of faulty behaviour may happen in any kind of electronic devices, and I cannot blame myself or feel guilty for what is happening right now.

If DJI believes I am the one to blame, then they should at least have strong evidence to show me, instead of just a quotation for the repair...

Nicoking2001 Posted at 2017-8-28 15:19
Thank you, sure it's not much compared to the full price of the product! Then I would have gladly paid $100 less when buying it if I knew it didn't come with any kind of after-sales... That's what some shops do in my country: "No Support, But Cheaper!" lol

Hey, Not only in  your country you can say in every country, you have someone going for the quick bucks!

Hope DJI would launch the next generation of Mavic soon to solve all the harware problems of the exiting version.

DocAraxá Posted at 2017-8-28 04:22
Hy Nick,

I will tell you my story:

We are sorry for the trouble that has been caused. But there is no official repair center in South America at present and the drones there should be sent to US official repair center for warranty.
If your dealer could repair it for you, that would be great, otherwise, it will need to be sent to US.
We will keep improving our products and customer service, sorry again for the inconvenience.

Nicoking, we are so sorry that there is mistake with the quotation, the new email has been sent to you, please check at your most convenience.
You have our sincere apologize for the unpleasant experience and inconvenience that has been caused.

fans03c5fc4c Posted at 2017-8-28 14:08
The DJI process is not good at all. My support case#: CAS-827035-D5D6K1

Background info: I ordered my Mavic Pro from the online DJI store. Arrived, and flew it one time for about 1 minute. There was an "excessive gimbal vibration" message and that persisted on the second flight. Therefore, I had sent it in to get a replacement. This is a brand new unit and it arrived defective. I should not have to worry about "excessive gimbal vibration" - I have another Mavic Pro in my fleet and it has been working flawlessly. There should be no reason (on a brand new unit) that I cannot get a simple replacement; after all it had arrived in a defective state.

We are sincerely sorry to have kept you waiting, the case has been escalated local team look into, we will have someone to contact you and ship the drone out as soon as possible, appreciate your patience.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-28 18:44
We are sorry for the trouble that has been caused. But there is no official repair center in South America at present and the drones there should be sent to US official repair center for warranty.
If your dealer could repair it for you, that would be great, otherwise, it will need to be send to US.
We will keep improving our products and customer service, sorry again for the inconvenience.

Dear Mindy,

Thank you for your kindness.
My message was not a disclaim. Just to inform that things are, sometimes hard, but, it is the way it is.
And, again, just to inform: there is no way to send my DJI product to US. If you want me to explain to you the reality of this commercial issue, I will be glad, but we can discuss it by PM. It will be my pleasure.
Thanks again to support our discussions with gentle and polite messages.
Cheers.

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-28 15:54
i dont use the gimbal clamp for that very reason, i'm am frightened i will break something the gimbal doesn't seem very strong and the handful of time i took the extra care to apply the clamp it felt like i was having to be too forceful or something just didn't feel right, but applying it seemed obvious enough, but i can imagine how people do it wrongly. i rather bash the gimbal around in the plastic globe than tear a ribbon cable from affixing the clamp...  i have heard some companies have better easier softer clamps for the mavic pro, i'm struggling to find them...  so if better clamp that exists for affixing the gimbal in place please share it.

This is what I use currently.  It's a little easier to put on, but not much.  

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-28 19:00
We are sincerely sorry to have kept you waiting, the case has been escalated local team look into, we will have someone to contact you and ship the drone out as soon as possible, appreciate your patience.

Hi Mindy,

Thanks for the reply, but I have been waiting nearly a month now for what should be a simple replacement of a brand new Mavic Pro which I purchased directly from DJI Online store. I had asked about returning it directly at the DJI Los Angeles, California office which would have been much easier for everybody (DJI and myself).

I must emphasize that the product arrived defective and this should have been a simple matter of replacement of my new unit. In fact, if I had ordered another Mavic Pro from the store, it would have already arrived by now -- in my case, this simple fact seems to be over looked and I find it abusive. I have not received any email with shipping/tracking information yet; still waiting.

fans03c5fc4c Posted at 2017-8-29 09:48
Hi Mindy,

Thanks for the reply, but I have been waiting nearly a month now for what should be a simple replacement of a brand new Mavic Pro which I purchased directly from DJI Online store. I had asked about returning it directly at the DJI Los Angeles, California office which would have been much easier for everybody (DJI and myself).

We are so sorry for this, I had checked the case and believed our colleague had contacted you and sent you a coupon to order the drone online. Had you received the email? Please check. Thank you.

I'm really starting to question the reliability and longevity of the components that dji uses in there quads, I have a similar issue with #2 compass on my mavic, flying fine one day, the next day compass won't calibrate? I just sent it in to cloud city for repair, $148. Mavic had very little use....

R&L Aerial  Posted at 2017-8-30 08:46
I'm really starting to question the reliability and longevity of the components that dji uses in there quads, I have a similar issue with #2 compass on my mavic, flying fine one day, the next day compass won't calibrate? I just sent it in to cloud city for repair, $148. Mavic had very little use....

You sent the drone to third party repair center instead of DJI official repair center, right? We would recommend to send in the drone to official center, we will cover warranty if there is any malfunction in warranty period.