Hello all,

I'll try to keep the backstory short, but here's what happened: I purchased my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo with DJI Refresh in late March, and then flew it 4 days in the following month.  The first two days I had the clear bubble protecting the gimbal, which degraded the footage (this will be important).  The third day was my first flight without the bubble, but I had purchased the Freewell gimbal cover to give it some protection.  I flew a full battery while recording video, landed it, swapped batteries and then handed it over to a friend of mine with 3 years of drone experience.  He crashed it into a tree.

The crash damaged the front right arm a little by bending the landing strut.  My friend felt terrible, and offered to pay for any repairs.  Luckily we have one of the few DJI-certified repair centers in the area, so they fixed it in a matter of days.  I took my Mavic out to make sure the repair was successful and that it flew correctly (it did).  I also recorded more video.

When I got home I loaded the day 4 video into Premiere Pro since I thought I'd be able to make use of it.  I quickly noticed that the left side was often out of focus while the right side was tack-sharp.  I'm a photographer/videographer so I immediately though 'this is like a tilt-shift lens'.  I looked online and found that many others had experienced a similar issue.

But was this issue a manufacturer's defect, or did something else break in the crash?  I loaded up my day 3 footage (from before the crash), which I hadn't checked before, and saw the exact same problem.  Left side out of focus, right side sharp.  I went back and tried to see if this problem was visible in my day 1 & 2 footage, but with the distortion and glare from the bubble, it's hard to say for certain.

I RMA'd my Mavic back to DJI reporting a focus issue with the camera.  I pointed out in the notes that the craft was in a crash, but I had video to prove the issue pre-dated the crash.  Which brings me to the email I received today:

  

"If there was a camera issue present before the non-warranty crash described on the invoice, the unit needed to be sent in before the crash to be considered for warranty. Even if the camera repair was covered and the damage from the crash was not, the Refresh invoice would be the same price."

They want me to use one of my Refresh charges to cover this repair, even though I'm certain it was a manufacturer's defect, and have video that can prove it.  I couldn't send it in before the crash, because I wasn't aware of the issue until afterwards.  I really feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick here.  What can I do?

  

Sorry, just noticed someone with a repair complaint included their case number, in case a DJI rep replies.  My case number is CAS-627896-T4L7D2.

Videos taken with the dji go4 app all have a timecode: this should totally be a warranty repair, no brainer here.

Thank you for your feedback and apologize for this special situation. I have forwarded this concern to the appropriate department, will look into it and help you get an update soon.
Please sit tight while we’re reviewing it, we will have someone to contact you for details later.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-6-15 19:25
Thank you for your feedback and apologize for this special situation. I have forwarded this concern to the appropriate department, will look into it and help you get an update soon.
Please sit tight while we’re reviewing it, we will have someone to contact you for details later.

Hello DJI Mindy,

I didn't know whether a DJI rep would read my post or not - I was mostly asking for advice from other pilots who might have been told something similar - but I'm very glad you've read my situation and are looking into it.  I will wait for an update, as you suggested.

Also, great avatar from a great movie. I'll admit it made me smile.

Moving Frames P Posted at 2017-6-15 20:00
Hello DJI Mindy,

I didn't know whether a DJI rep would read my post or not - I was mostly asking for advice from other pilots who might have been told something similar - but I'm very glad you've read my situation and are looking into it.  I will wait for an update, as you suggested.

I understand. Forum is a platform where you can share all your experience about our product and service.
Our representative will see your post and help you get it sorted, appreciate your patience very much.

Hello all,

I figured I should post an update for anyone who comes across this thread (perhaps when searching due to a similar situation).

Yesterday I received an email from DJI saying my case has been escalated to another department, and the camera repair will be covered under warranty.  I am supposed to wait for a status update from Logistics, at which time I will be provided a tracking number.

Since that's what I thought should happen in the first place, I'm obviously happy with this outcome.  A bit of a rough start, but DJI Customer Service came through in the end.  I'll likely post to this thread one last time when the Mavic is back in my hands, but at this time I'd say I'm satisfied and looking forward to being able to fly again (without any focus issues, if all goes well!).

Moving Frames P Posted at 2017-6-17 14:48
Hello all,

I figured I should post an update for anyone who comes across this thread (perhaps when searching due to a similar situation).

Appreciate your update, we are pleased to hear everything turns out to be great,  hope you can get your drone back soon and have a good time on flying.

I got this and paid $49 for my Spark that lost signal and went to ATTI mode...lost control and fell on the lake....does this mean im getting my Spark back fixed? it says "non-warranty"

I sent my Mavic air 2 in for replacement I did all the necessary steps Asked of me in the email expect one . I forget to write down my email . Can anyone help with this ? It’s already a lengthy process I would hate to further delay it .

Hello I've got a mavic zoom that has had camera issues right out of the box it had minum amount of flights on it as the gimbal would go limp perse. So I did firmware and calibrated the gimbal over and over and over. I have another mavic which is a pro which got a esc failure after a few weeks no crashes involved it was caught during startup. At the start of march I was doing a short troubleshooting flight with the zoom and was coming home as the camera was acting up again. Roughly 250 ft in the air and 60ft from me the bird drops like a stone after about a half battery flight not even.it smashed right into a roof of a house. My batteries are in great condition not swelling as proper cooling and charging temps is crucial. I even took photos of my 8 batteries to show that fact. So my zoom what's left of it is at dji and they are denying warranty. To make matters worse the faulty esc refurb mavic now has problems with vision sensors and camera aperture not working. So what now?

fansf0a89141 Posted at 4-8 19:10
Hello I've got a mavic zoom that has had camera issues right out of the box it had minum amount of flights on it as the gimbal would go limp perse. So I did firmware and calibrated the gimbal over and over and over. I have another mavic which is a pro which got a esc failure after a few weeks no crashes involved it was caught during startup. At the start of march I was doing a short troubleshooting flight with the zoom and was coming home as the camera was acting up again. Roughly 250 ft in the air and 60ft from me the bird drops like a stone after about a half battery flight not even.it smashed right into a roof of a house. My batteries are in great condition not swelling as proper cooling and charging temps is crucial. I even took photos of my 8 batteries to show that fact. So my zoom what's left of it is at dji and they are denying warranty. To make matters worse the faulty esc refurb mavic now has problems with vision sensors and camera aperture not working. So what now?

But for some reason there was a power failure. The battery was still clipped in the bird. I know the logs just stop but the bird veered heavy the to the left and was into a non recoverable bank dive it was almost like a motor failed but why no logs? When I did the find my drone on it it located where the impact was Aswell which would indicate there was some sort of power until the drone struck the roof. But this is two replacements due to poor build quality imho. Like I said the refurbished pro I have is having camera issues Aswell as obstacle avoidance sensor issues I'm having to calibrate sometimes twice a week it has been roughly 5 times in a month. The aperture setting on the camera no longer allows for long exposure like I've done so many times. The only way is to crank the iso and that's just a washed out noisy mess. I'm also experiencing severely discolored pixels/dead pixels I know this is a common problem which usually you can take out in post however these are to polluted.

fansf0a89141 Posted at 4-8 19:17
But for some reason there was a power failure. The battery was still clipped in the bird. I know the logs just stop but the bird veered heavy the to the left and was into a non recoverable bank dive it was almost like a motor failed but why no logs? When I did the find my drone on it it located where the impact was Aswell which would indicate there was some sort of power until the drone struck the roof. But this is two replacements due to poor build quality imho. Like I said the refurbished pro I have is having camera issues Aswell as obstacle avoidance sensor issues I'm having to calibrate sometimes twice a week it has been roughly 5 times in a month. The aperture setting on the camera no longer allows for long exposure like I've done so many times. The only way is to crank the iso and that's just a washed out noisy mess. I'm also experiencing severely discolored pixels/dead pixels I know this is a common problem which usually you can take out in post however these are to polluted.

That's my short novel hopefully I can render a good experience from dji yet out of all of this. I have even contacted where I purchased the zoom and asked them what to do about the camera bit before any further action. Could be taken in fell out of the sky. I will also say if you take your kids flying with you be very cautious I was coming in to land and the sound it made when it connected it would have easily severely injured or killed someone. I couldn't have imagined if I was doing 50 or 60 kmph. So dji I hope you read this and offer some answers to my issues.