I've read the horror stories here and originally planned on not sharing my experience but I need to vent.  I'm totally  speachless (but evidently can still type ;) )


Background (cut and paste):


I have 29 years in RC and was flying a 5K run event for the organizers.
I have not had any issues with the Inspire 1 until May 31st. During filming, I lost control of the craft.
I had full telemetry and video but was unable to control the craft. I decided to engage the return to home by turning off my remote.
The thought process was that if the aircraft was not responding to my inputs, lets have it's own failsafe initiate the RTH.
Thankfully, I was high enough to clear obstacles during the fly away and the RTH engaged as designed.


So In short, had a fly away and by turning off the controller, RTH initiated and flew home - great.  But I wanted to make sure all was Okay.  So I emailed DJI.
No response.  


Emailed again - No response.


So I end this to DJI:


I  emailed DJI on June 01 regarding a fly away on May 31st.
I have 29 years in RC and was flying a 5K run event for the organizers.
I have not had any issues with the Inspire 1 until May 31st. During filming, I lost control of the craft.
I had full telemetry and video but was unable to control the craft. I decided to engage the return to home by turning off my remote.
The thought process was that if the aircraft was not responding to my inputs, lets have it's own failsafe initiate the RTH.
Thankfully, I was high enough to clear obstacles during the fly away and the RTH engaged as designed.

When the aircraft returned, I powered down and regained my composure. Since I needed to film the event,
I powered on the unit for preflight. The gimbal vibrated maybe 5 degrees in every direction.
It never hit the physical stops of the gimbal but it was there just shaking. I powered off the unit, removed the gimbal, inspected, and reseated.
Powered on the air craft and it behaved as it should. I verified my sensor settings and decided to fly the aircraft again but from a safer
altitude for the rest of the event.

So something was totally off.  How can open a ticket?  
DJI has yet to respond to my emails.




And this is where I get upset.


I receive two emails:


<email 1>

Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support.

I checked our mail system, there is no email record of you.
Normally, if you sent an email to inspire1@dji.com, you'll receive an auto reply to inform you with the ticket number.

For your case, do you have any video of the gimbal problem? Also, is there any error message on the APP screen?
May I know your current location?

Thank you for choosing DJI.

Best Regards,

DJI Product Application Technical Support

<email 2>
Thank you for contacting DJI Technology. We are a North American Customer Service and Repair facility.


I really do apologize to hear about the issue you are having with your unit. You now have a ticket and I am sorry for the inconvenience that you have had with not getting any response. What can I do to further assist your needs?


Thanks for flying DJI





I reported a genuine fly away.  But DJI won't acknowledge that I am reporting a fly away.  Instead I get concern about the gimbal anomaly and concern about response times?   Am I in the wrong?   Tahoe-Ed, informed me that I should call the support line.  Unfortunatly, after waiting 45 minutes, I hung up.  Perhaps I should just stay on the line and see where it goes.  I'm just stumpped.  


Any advice is greatly appricated.  


-David

Thanks for sharing your experience. As bad as your loss of control was, at least we can learn something from it.

My experience with the telephone support in LA has been pretty good (and my wait times were never that long). Even the occasional guy who was clueless about my problem, was at least polite and tried to do a good job. I'd call them, it's probably your best shot…and just be aware that they may want you to send your unit in. That seems to be the go to solution.

And welcome to my pain.  Now I feel for you and yours.  

And like all the emails I get from DJI.  Best regards
So sorry David.  It's too bad we don't have a USA advocate with backbone

That feature come form the phantom  drone. I've always use it with my inspire instead of hitting the RTH  button I  power off the remote.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.   I wrote this right before leaving the office for the day.  I just got on line this evening and received an email asking how I would rate their customer service.   

For all of those who have had to go through DJI support - I'm truly sorry but it is comforting to know that there is support on this forum (as long as I don't ask questions about batteries ;) ).

I will call LA tomorrow and try again.

Many thanks to all!

And to InspireAggie - Gig EM!!!!!

-David

Gig Em David

pidetectives@ya Posted at 2015-6-12 07:45
That feature come form the phantom  drone. I've always use it with my inspire instead of hitting the ...

I'm new to the DJI family.  The Inspire is my first DJI purchase.   If I may ask, are you saying that in the Phantom world, it's best to turn the transmitter off rather than press the RTH button?   

Not trying to add fuel to the fire - simply trying to understand the history.

Thank you !
-David

I've been there and done that. I crashed mine so I called them. Had to wait and they gave me the info to send the battery in and the I1 in. I heard from them today and they are sending me a free new battery telling me mine would not hold a charge. I have not heard about my Inspire yet. I am waiting for the repair cost. It is better to talk with them on the phone right now. Email to me to them right now is worthless. I waited a long time however I did get waited on and taken care. Their repair time is anywhere form 5 to 6 weeks to whatever. As soon as I hear from them about my Inspire I will let everyone on this board know the time it took to send it in and get it repaired. Then of course I won't be flying low or close to anything. Hope you get your fixed as I figure it needs to be checked out before you loose it or crash it.

I've never tried phone or email support.  But the "Chat" avenue has worked accurately and promptly for me on the 2 occasions I tried it.

Atlas Posted at 2015-6-12 08:44
I'm new to the DJI family.  The Inspire is my first DJI purchase.   If I may ask, are you saying t ...

Well in the phantom , phantom 2, 2vision that's how is done and I will let you know next week when I get the Phantom 3. But for Inspire that's how I do mine. the only thing is make sure you set your return to home to the location that's how I do it instead of using the remote control location.

Atlas Posted at 2015-6-12 08:44
I'm new to the DJI family.  The Inspire is my first DJI purchase.   If I may ask, are you saying t ...

It's my opinion that turning off the remote ensures signal will b disconnected and a quick return.  I'd you hit RTH button, the signal may take slightly longer or not go issued.   If it's not issued, then the signal is lost.  Either way, it will RTH.  Sometimes when signal is low or not there, it may only be intermittently not there.  I often wonder of its coming back until signal pops up again.  Always comes back but I'm always nervous about it

f1@frankschaffe Posted at 2015-6-12 09:01
I've never tried phone or email support.  But the "Chat" avenue has worked accurately and promptly f ...

Same here.
The chat avenue has been the most efficient.
I had an issue updating firmware and the attendant stayed with me for a good full hour until everything was done.

Sorry for your problem, hope you get a solution without send it in...

UPDATE
Tried calling DJI US.  I receive "We are experiencing high volume. Please try again later."

AND THEN IT HANGS UP ON ME!

AGGGRHRHRHR!!!!!!


I so wish they would get into gear.

Atlas Posted at 2015-6-23 02:21
UPDATE
Tried calling DJI US.  I receive "We are experiencing high volume. Please try again later."

Make sure you are selecting option 1 on the phone.  It will take you to the inspire help and not the phantom help.   Call times are not as bad with option 1

InspirelessAggi Posted at 2015-6-23 02:24
Make sure you are selecting option 1 on the phone.  It will take you to the inspire help and not t ...

Yes - Option 1.

After posting, I called again.   I'm now in the queue.  20 minutes hold time so far.  

<Fingers Crossed>

let us know how the call goes

InspirelessAggi Posted at 2015-6-23 03:00
let us know how the call goes

Okay - Home now.   Was able to get through.  The gentleman on the US team was very nice and polite and understood the grief.   I explained what happened and he issued an RMA immediately.   I asked if I could send in the logs for analysis but he said RMA was the best thing to do.  

Now I'm really torn - Pretty sure it's a software issue rather than a hardware issue.  If I fly it and it bonks, I'm going to be angry at myself.  If I send it in and they say no issue, I'm out shipping charges, summer filming, and 6 to 7 weeks.

So I think I'll error in safety and send it to Cali for inspection.

Thanks for all the replies.