So, here is my situation/timeline of events:

July 4th weekend: My drone fell out of the sky within 500 ft of me into a lake (where it still probably resides). It exhibited no issues prior to crashing, nor had any errrors or warning. Nothing hit it (bird or tree). Still had about 60% battery. It's a pretty wide lake (Lake Sinclair, Georgia). I had gone through 2 batteries (and a 20 minute break) before my final flight that day. A drone that had less than 4 hours of total life that I owned for about a month.

July 9th: After contacting DJI, I get a response stating they need some information from my controller and a statement of what happened. I submitted everything they requested and asked if that was all that was needed to do the analysis. It also said "Once we have confirmed that you have synced your flight records, it will take 2 or 3 business days for us to conduct data analysis."

July 10th: After submitting the requested information, I asked if they had everything needed to do the anaylsis. I was given a CAS number. Also stated "the process will take approximately 3-5 business days. A Special Team will contact you via as soon as the results have been readily available to discuss the details of the incident and the possible option."


August 7th-14th: Made multiple phone calls in regards to my sitation. Everytime I called, I get the same response. "We have pulled up your case. It looks like they have everything needed. For some reason, your case is in information collection team, but it hasn't been sent to the analysis team. I'll make a note to accelerate your case so we can get this resolved".


August 14th: I emailed my original contact I corresponded with back in July: Reply " We would like to inform you that we already assigned your case to the right department for the evaluation of your flew away aircraft and its already on the process. All you have to do is to wait patiently for the results. Your patience is highly appreciated."


August 20th:...So intead of waiting 3-5 days, I'm STILL waiting "patiently" for 1 month and 10 days later. 30 Business days.

That's very frustrating. I can feel your pain.

Hopefully this case will be finished soon, with positive results for you, and your bird gets replaced.

Wishing you only all the best of luck.


RedHotPoker

Maybe the long wait is a good sign.

Sorry for keeping you waiting. I have checked the case status and found that our colleagues had contacted to get the video cache for further analysis. Did you get that email? If not, please upload the video cache to Google Drive or Dropbox and send me the link, I will transfer to the designated department to accelerate it. Thanks you in advance!

Thank you for the reponse. That email did not reach me. I have gone through the app and do not have any videos of that incident, just recently projects. Droning is what I do for a living, so I do a lot of filming. Not sure if there is a time frame or storage requirement in order to save videos from the past. This is why I originally asked if they had everything needed to do the analysis, and I was told yes, not "maybe". I was afriad something might be time sensitive and would possibly disappear. Also, no one in customer service told me what you told me.

Mongo6294 Posted at 2017-8-22 08:13
Thank you for the reponse. That email did not reach me. I have gone through the app and do not have any videos of that incident, just recently projects. Droning is what I do for a living, so I do a lot of filming. Not sure if there is a time frame or storage requirement in order to save videos from the past. This is why I originally asked if they had everything needed to do the analysis, and I was told yes, not "maybe". I was afriad something might be time sensitive and would possibly disappear. Also, no one in customer service told me what you told me.

I swear I think the only real people that work for this company are the forum moderators. Its amazing how incompetent the rest of their customer service department is. I feel for your situation. Unless they can prove it was a battery malfunction AND the battary was still in its 6 month warranty then they will most likely not replace the AC under warranty. Im not sure what type of detail they can get from the controller logs but I dont think its as in depth as the AC logs.

Fractures Posted at 2017-8-22 08:35
I swear I think the only real people that work for this company are the forum moderators. Its amazing how incompetent the rest of their customer service department is. I feel for your situation. Unless they can prove it was a battery malfunction AND the battary was still in its 6 month warranty then they will most likely not replace the AC under warranty. Im not sure what type of detail they can get from the controller logs but I dont think its as in depth as the AC logs.

That is what the weird thing is. I'm not sure which battery I was using, but it was either bought in November (First bought drone) or december (when I bought more batteries). So all my batteries are less than a year old. IF a battery was going bad due to age/useage, would there not be a warning? I've seen random warnings before. Once, back 5 months ago, I was warned that the battery was partially connected. I was lucky enough to land it to correct the issue. With my situation, there wasn't a battery warning, or any warning at all. I had flown for about 8 minutes total on its final flight before it crashed. The controller log pretty much shows the exact flight path of the drone, and random pictures. You can play a video of your flight path, and it'll show it on a map. I'm going to see if I can post that up here.

Mongo6294 Posted at 2017-8-22 09:12
That is what the weird thing is. I'm not sure which battery I was using, but it was either bought in November (First bought drone) or december (when I bought more batteries). So all my batteries are less than a year old. IF a battery was going bad due to age/useage, would there not be a warning? I've seen random warnings before. Once, back 5 months ago, I was warned that the battery was partially connected. I was lucky enough to land it to correct the issue. With my situation, there wasn't a battery warning, or any warning at all. I had flown for about 8 minutes total on its final flight before it crashed. The controller log pretty much shows the exact flight path of the drone, and random pictures. You can play a video of your flight path, and it'll show it on a map. I'm going to see if I can post that up here.

The batteries only have a 6 month warranty so if a battery fails in a warranty aircraft but the battery is not under warranty the aircraft will not be covered. Seems to me the batteries and AC should have the same warranty period.

Fractures Posted at 2017-8-22 10:16
The batteries only have a 6 month warranty so if a battery fails in a warranty aircraft but the battery is not under warranty the aircraft will not be covered. Seems to me the batteries and AC should have the same warranty period.

Good lord... If that is the reason they use as to why my drone crashed, I'm going to be very upset.  

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-8-20 18:29
Sorry for keeping you waiting. I have checked the case status and found that our colleagues had contacted to get the video cache for further analysis. Did you get that email? If not, please upload the video cache to Google Drive or Dropbox and send me the link, I will transfer to the designated department to accelerate it. Thanks you in advance!

Can you help me too?  Your customer service department hangs up on me . I sent in my drone for repair and was charged for a battery  along with the repairs. I had sent in the aircraft , battery and controller.  When I called in they were going to refund the battery cost  two weeks ago. It showed up today and I have been charged for the battery  which it didn't need plus they didn't send me back the SD card which was in the aircraft when it was sent in.

Here is a recording of my flight log: And no.. My "home" was not in the lake.. I took off from land. Not sure why home is way off.

Two days after posting this thread:

August 22nd: I get an email asking if I had any video feed from the cache. The cache was full, so I had no video of the crash. Not sure why this wasn't requested at the very beginning, after I had asked if they had everything needed to do the analysis.

August 28th (my birthday):... Still waiting.

Happy Birthday!

It seems to me DJI is not going to be a lead on dron market too long if they won't change their way how to treat customers

See?!?!?! @Alabama Maybe I'm not the only one....

I fell your pain. Similar situation happened to me. Except my P4P lost connection with the controller. When I glanced down at the remote and back to the drone, my P4P was gone without a trace. The RTH did not work. And now I wait. We must have the same Tech Support helping us.

Thank you for the bday wish....

Sept. 4th:.Today marks 2 months when my drone crashed... STILL WAITING!!! THIS HAS TO BE THE LONGEST 3-5 DAY WAIT EVER!!! It's been 2 weeks since any contact was made, when they requested any video footage. My next post will probably be the 2 month mark of when I was told it will take 3-5 days to analyze the data.

Maybe stalling to wait for warranty to run out lol

^HA! Now thats funny.

I want to correct my previous post. There was an email sent out a few days ago requesting the serial number of the controller... Yet again, more requested information that was apparently not needed back in July....

My drone is being replaced!!! DJI did the right thing and stood by their product! While the timing could have been a little better, the results are great!

I was told that the drone itself will be replaced, which is fine. I'm just hoping both my 64gig U3 micro SD card and battery will be replaced.

Well... Even after being rung through the ringer for 2 months, DJI will not help me on my lost memory card, due to a defective drone. Not sure if I should be surprised or not. They will be sending the complimentary 16 gig card. Not sure if they feel that is a sutible consolation deal for telling it'll take 3-5 days, but ended up being 2 months.... While I'm glad DJI is standing behind their product and is doing the right thing in replacing it, sucks I'm out a nice memory card.

I can't believe it... So I get the replacement drone in yesterday. The new battery was dead on arrival. Pressed the button to see what charge it had, no response. Plugged it in. No Response. Not sure if these batteries are like phone batteries, where it can be so dead that it takes several minutes before there is any life shown. Is there any time of quality control before shipping out or something? lol

Geeezz... That sounds really bad..