I lost my spark a while back......dji offered me 15% off a new one....$275.00

What i would really like is one of these $108.00 "like new condition ones"

this would be much better than any 15% off

                                                    Leo

I'm really sorry to hear that. You can provide your case number here so that I can check it on my end. Thanks for your support.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2018-9-28 07:15
I'm really sorry to hear that. You can provide your case number here so that I can check it on my end. Thanks for your support.

CAS-2009512-Z2B2D9

kowal63 Posted at 2018-7-13 07:03
spark geofence error

Kowal,

Wow! wow! wow! What a fight!

Let me re-enact last 3.5 minutes of your Spark's life:
9m 59 sec – Return home warning – battery low
  
10m 2 sec – you stop flying.
  
10m 9 sec – drone starts automatic RTH sequence tripped by low battery power. This is correct action.
  
10m 12 sec – automatic heading alignment in the direction of home point is completed – drone starts flying back but skims along geo-fence unable to penetrate it. It is not flying in the direction it is pointing to (home point) but rather along the geo-fence getting closer to home.
  
This is bad but consistent with behaviour observed in case https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=152623
  
You are not providing any stick input – just waiting for Spark to do its job.
  
  
11m 21 sec – Spark is near closest point to home on the other side of the fence – its further progress along the fence would only take it further away. So it stops.
  
11m 22 sec – You switch to Sport mode thus cancelling RTH (which was useless anyways) but you do not touch sticks. Nothing happens since nothing can happen.
  
11m 24 sec – Spark initiates auto-landing due to critical battery level. Altitude 45 metres. You are not touching your sticks.
  
11m 28 sec – You start turning camera down – but still no directional input for drone.
  
11m 33 sec – Finally you decide to take control and start flying Spark – you cannot get through geo-fence – your actions are chaotic – Spark is going down.
  
11m 41 sec – You give up. Spark is 17 metres above water and landing with speed about 1 m/s.
  
11m 46 sec – You direct Spark to fly up. It obeys. You do it for half a second only and than watch in horror as Spark continues is journey down.
  
  
Few more chaotic stick movements follow but Spark is pretty much stuck and going down.
  
  
12 m 11 sec – 5 metres above water. You attempt to raise the elevation and you succeed. Battery is down to 6%
  
13 m 22 sec – You got Spark 53 metres up, you are facing roughly good direction and you are trying like crazy to fly home. Geo-fence stops you. Battery level is 0%. Doom is almost inevitable.
  
13m 31 sec – forced landing due to no power left.
  
  
Your Spark sinks while your right thumb is on full throttle forward in your direction but Spark is being stopped by geo-fence.
  
  
This was extremely well done and good fight. Congratulations!
  
I suspect that had you hit RTH again while Spark was stuck at the fence - it would have flown through it as was in case of 62+. However, I do not know for sure since 62+ case was slightly different - his geo-fence was not enforced airport geo-fence but rather geo-fence he set himself by setting max flight distance in DJI GO App. I strongly suspect that behaviour would be the same (that is - success) but I am not sure.

  
If you have warranty I would be very surprised if DJI would not honor it.
  
This is very clearly DJI design error which prevented you from safe landing despite quite heroic efforts.
DJI allowed you to operate within restricted space and yet, once you flew out, they did not allow you to come back. Very, very clear error on DJI part.
  
  
Good luck and please keep us posted on your success with DJI.
  
  
Mirek

108 used. Where and how?? Is it only for the ones who can proove a lost drone case or anything?

Joller79 DK Posted at 2018-9-28 07:53
108 used. Where and how?? Is it only for the ones who can proove a lost drone case or anything?

sweet deal.....much better than 15% off a $275.00 for a refurb....where can i order this for $108.00 ? to replace mine

No no no, that is not what this is - this is not buying a used Spark for $108
This is DJI's "Trade-Up" program.

They give you $108 credit for a Spark in good condition that you turn into DJI.
That $108 can be applied to any DJI Drone above a Spark.

You are not buying a Spark for $108

You can even trade in old mobile devices towards the credit.

Yep, pmshop is right.  That is like the trade-in value for a car vs. the retail value vs. the private party value.  The $108 you are showing is like the equivalent of the dealer trade-in value.  They'll turn around and sell it for a much higher retail price.  And if you try to buy a used one from a private party, it will likely be somewhere in between the retail and trade-in price.  
p.s. If you find a working one in good condition for $108, jump on it!  

KlooGee Posted at 2018-9-28 12:24
Yep, pmshop is right.  That is like the trade-in value for a car vs. the retail value vs. the private party value.  The $108 you are showing is like the equivalent of the dealer trade-in value.  They'll turn around and sell it for a much higher retail price.  And if you try to buy a used one from a private party, it will likely be somewhere in between the retail and trade-in price.  
p.s. If you find a working one in good condition for $108, jump on it!

I like your youtube channel Kloogee ........i lost my spark....the fact that they will buy back your "like new used" one for $108.00....but charge a customer $275.00 because they lost theirs....means dji does not care at all for it's customers...i watched that spark hover in front of me 25 feet away for 4 minutes until battery expired and it settled in the water.....no way to treat a customer

Get a refurb, its cheaper and tested.

Get a refurb, its cheaper and tested.

What is this geofence it couldn't figure out how to get around?

Tentoes Posted at 2018-9-28 17:31
What is this geofence it couldn't figure out how to get around?

there was no geofence when i took off...had 14 sats and "home point recorded"....geofence kicked in mid-flight over water....RTH failed

Losing your drone with reduced buyback to lower levels is always best.

H. Arif - 6IX Posted at 2018-9-28 14:08
Get a refurb, its cheaper and tested.

Where do you get thar?

pmshop Posted at 2018-9-28 10:00
No no no, that is not what this is - this is not buying a used Spark for $108
This is DJI's "Trade-Up" program.

Just what i thought.  I then officially offer people here 120 bucks, so they earn 12 more

Joller79 DK Posted at 2018-9-28 22:07
Where do you get thar?

Search up dji spark refurbished, click the first link and it will take you to the official DJI website.

kowal63 Posted at 2018-9-28 12:53
I like your youtube channel Kloogee ........i lost my spark....the fact that they will buy back your "like new used" one for $108.00....but charge a customer $275.00 because they lost theirs....means dji does not care at all for it's customers...i watched that spark hover in front of me 25 feet away for 4 minutes until battery expired and it settled in the water.....no way to treat a customer

kowal63, I went back and looked at your case as a reminder and do agree that it is a tough one to swallow.  Most of the time when I look into the cases people have with lost/crashed drones, I largely agree with DJI's decisions on who they decide to cover under warranty and who they don't.  However, your case is one of the very few that I don't understand DJI's decision.  It is hard to believe that they would let your ticket expire mid-flight like that.  It seems that they would extend a bit of grace for a few minutes in order for a flight to end and then extend some grace when it comes to covering it as a warranty issue.

Having said that, I don't necessarily agree that their having a buyback program where they buy people's used drones at a low cost is proof that they don't care about their customers.  

I do agree that your particular situation with DJI is a sh!#ty one to be in.  Wish I could help and hope you can be back to flying again soon!

KlooGee Posted at 2018-9-29 11:16
kowal63, I went back and looked at your case as a reminder and do agree that it is a tough one to swallow.  Most of the time when I look into the cases people have with lost/crashed drones, I largely agree with DJI's decisions on who they decide to cover under warranty and who they don't.  However, your case is one of the very few that I don't understand DJI's decision.  It is hard to believe that they would let your ticket expire mid-flight like that.  It seems that they would extend a bit of grace for a few minutes in order for a flight to end and then extend some grace when it comes to covering it as a warranty issue.

Having said that, I don't necessarily agree that their having a buyback program where they buy people's used drones at a low cost is proof that they don't care about their customers.  

there was absolutely no warning at all that this NFZ was about to expire......i watched that hover 4 minutes off the end of our fish pier (25 feet away)....i would have taken a video of it but my phone was busy in the RC running the go 4 app )before battery expired and it "slowly" settled in the salt water....(60+ feet deep)...i tried everything...sport mode...RTH...GPS...nothing no company should ever treat their customers like this....i was helpless....thank for listening...i do not want this to happen to anyone else .

I got 30% off mine and I still can't afford it, holy crap being a student is expensive. I am hoping they check my flight logs again but I don't even know what to do anymore. Anyway, I hope you get another spark.

H. Arif - 6IX Posted at 2018-9-29 14:05
I got 30% off mine and I still can't afford it, holy crap being a student is expensive. I am hoping they check my flight logs again but I don't even know what to do anymore. Anyway, I hope you get another spark.

good luck friend.............

kowal63 Posted at 2018-9-28 12:53
I like your youtube channel Kloogee ........i lost my spark....the fact that they will buy back your "like new used" one for $108.00....but charge a customer $275.00 because they lost theirs....means dji does not care at all for it's customers...i watched that spark hover in front of me 25 feet away for 4 minutes until battery expired and it settled in the water.....no way to treat a customer

Are you able to swim? I would have swam out to get under it. You bought yourself time by gaining altitude.
I was in the same exact situation and was ready to swim out 10 yards or so to get under it but at the last moments the nth somehow worked..

Carmenvail Posted at 2018-10-1 10:46
Are you able to swim? I would have swam out to get under it. You bought yourself time by gaining altitude.
I was in the same exact situation and was ready to swim out 10 yards or so to get under it but at the last moments the nth somehow worked..

60 feet ...at least of salt water and current.... water temp about 50 degrees F.....not risking my life for a spark....just a horrible way to show customer loyalty....

kowal63 Posted at 2018-10-1 11:07
60 feet ...at least of salt water and current.... water temp about 50 degrees F.....not risking my life for a spark....just a horrible way to show customer loyalty....

ok mine was over a 70 degree pond so ya I could see not going into the ocean

kowal63 Posted at 2018-9-28 07:53
CAS-2009512-Z2B2D9

kowal63 Posted at 2018-7-13 07:03

This is a good story. Would make a nice dramatic reading. As far as the $108 Spark goes, DJI has a lot of overhead and risk involved in buying back drones and selling them as refurbished. They have to ship them, test them, replace worn out parts, sell them and then ship them again. And if they end up buying more than they can sell then they have to eat the cost. I feel they are giving the customer what they want by even offering the program. Try taking an Xbox or Playstation to a pawn shop and see what percent of your original purchase price you get back. And the gaming console doesn't even fly through the air and suffer collision damage.

Official response from DJI on the fraud committed by employees
“We hold our employees to the highest ethical standards and take any violation of our code of ethics very seriously. During a recent investigation, DJI itself found some employees inflated the cost of parts and materials for certain products for personal financial gain. We took swift action to address this issue, fired the bad actors, and contacted law enforcement officials. We continue to investigate the situation and are cooperating fully with law enforcement’s investigation.”

“These actions do not represent DJI, our culture, or our 14,000 employees, who work hard every day to serve customers and develop cutting-edge technologies. We are taking steps to strengthen internal controls and have established new channels for employees to submit confidential and anonymous reports relating to any violations of the company’s ethical and workplace conduct policies.”