05/21/2015 Now DJI offered 50% off and I accepted it. Just don't have the energy to argue with them any more. Thank you guys for paying attention to this post! Your replies and supports are helpful and I apprecitated them.
05/13/2015 Just got another email back from them
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Siyang
We are DJI Technology, a Customer Service and Repair center for North America. Our focus is technical support through phone and email, as well as product repair.
Unfortunately, in these situations where we cannot accept the Phantom into our repair center, we cannot determine the cause of the Phantom's behavior.
Because of this, we have customers fill out the survey so we can find any clues that lead us to one of these main causes: user error, equipment malfunction, or signal interference.
The fact that you chose to fly your unit over open bodies of water, something we advise against in our safety guidelines places a certain level of responsibility on you.
http://download.dji-innovations. ... s_Disclaimer_en.pdf
I choose to help, and offered you the best solution we have to helps customers in your position. We cannot offer any further discount as this is a company-wide policy.
If you accept, please use the information in the previous email to send your transmitter in.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
DJI Customer Service Lead North America
DJI Customer Service North America
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05/12/2015
Received an email from DJI earlier today, saying they will “offer” me a 30% off on a new P3 purchase. And they didn't say anything about the cause of this case, but only gave me a "general reminder" saying that the remote connection can be interfered by "large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology", which doesn't seem to exist in the middle of a river.
I feel this is NOT fair at all, basically DJI want me to pay 70% (actually 100% considering they want the reomote back) for this crash which was at least 70% their fault! I cannot recall any error from my side, I have flied my p2 in this area several times without any issue, so it's hard to believe signal interfere was the case. Even the signal was interfered by those things were mentioned, it should be able to go home, unless the GPS and transmitter failed at the same time, or a complete battery failure, either way it's a mechanical or software error rather than user error. And I provided everything I had to help them investigate my case. What disappointed me more is their attitude, it takes them a week to reply me a email, which doesn't really talk about my specific case. I guess maybe they were too busy dealing with these kind of cases...
I will attach part of the email, let me know what you guys think about this. At this point, I just cannot accept this "offer".
I understand that the data maybe not enough for them to reach a conclusive result, and right now i'm not expecting a free replacement since i don't have any solid evidence showing it's completely their fault. However I do want a explanation and 30% off is just too little compare to my loss.
----------------------the email----------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Siyang Qi, Thank you for your patience. We have reviewed your survey, and based on the incident you experienced, we want to provide further assistance. First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation. We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30 To accept this offer, please mail us your transmitter so we can register it and generate an invoice. (the rest of the email is talking about how to accept the offer ) ----------------------end of the email----------------------------------------------------------------- |
05/03/2015
It's a beautiful Sunday in Boston, warm and with only mild wind. I decided to fly above Charles River to take some aerial shots. I flied the p2 for more than 100 times in the past one year and about 5 times with this new P3, without any problem. So I’m pretty confident about this flight.
I took off near the river with GPS locked and everything normal, I flied for about 7 mins, took few pictures and shot 2 videos, I had full bar of image and control signal and about 80 meter from the ground, with about70% battery, until all of a sudden, I lost signal and the screen went B&W.My first reaction was to reload the app, but there was still no signal, I tried several times and then looked to the sky and cannot find the drone any more. I restart the remote as well as the app, and also pressed the return to home button, nothing happened, the signal never went back.
Then I wait there for a while, wished it would auto go home, it didn't. Then I went to the other side of the river, I'm worried if it crashed into those people at the bank. Thankfully when I got there, it seems all OK. I asked a few people but they didn't see anything. I guess it just crash right in the middle of the river, as shown on the flight record inthe pilot app...I eventually gave up finding it and went home.
I read another p3 user's thread saying his p3 suddenly lost power in the midair, I think that's the same thing happened to my unit. Ihave attached the flight record file that pulled from my phone, as well as thelast video the app cached (that’s pretty much all I have). I believe the video was rolling until the moment that I lost signal.
I love DJI and their products and I'm so passionate about aerial photography and filming. But this case really shocked me, now I’m almost feeling lucky that it “just” crash into the river (probably) and no one gethurt. DJI really need to inspect their product to see if there was any design flaw or something that leads to this serious issue.
Meanwhile, for the people that just get P3 in their hand, I strongly recommend not to fly it or just fly it in the area that it won’t drop and hit anyone, until DJI release the next firmware update. No matter how skillful and experienced you are, there is nothing you can do if a drone loses power in the air.
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