I purchased my Mavic Air about a year and a half ago.  I already had a Phantom 4P+ & a Spark.  I maybe flew the Air a few times before I purchased a Mavic 2 Zoom and shortly after a Mavic 2 Pro.  The Mavic 2P lost connection while flying over a lake one day and ended up at the bottom, never to be seen again (still no idea why it lost connection and crashed, probably a faulty board).  Since I couldn’t retrieve the M2P to take advantage of the Care Refresh I purchased with it, I bought another. I’ve also had two other earlier version Phantoms plus I have a CrystalSky and lots of other accessories (batteries, cases, etc.), so I’m not a new DJI customer, I’ve spent a lot of money with them!  

Since purchasing the Mavic 2’s, I’ve not flown my other drones much. I fly them maybe once every few months just to exercise the batteries.  Such was the  case with the MA.  About a month ago I pulled it out to exercise the batteries since it had been a few months since it had been out of the case.  When I last flew it, it worked just fine, no issues.  I did all the s/w updates, charged up all 4 of my batteries and headed to one of my favorite flying spots.  As soon as the drone left the ground, it lost the video connection. I tried restarting it which didn’t fix the issue.  I was using my Moverio’s so I tried using my CrystalSky and iPhone to see if it was an issue with the DJI go app but that also didn’t correct the problem. Keep in mind that when I last flew this drone, it worked perfectly and this drone has never crashed or even landed hard. I store all my drones in Nanuk hard cases and the MA was in its case and never even touched after the last time it was flown so there’s no reason for it to have any mechanical issues.

I contacted DJI “Customer Service” explain the issue.  After explaining exactly what was happening, I was told to send it in with the controller so they could evaluate it.  A few days later I received an invoice for the repairs - $390.51!!!! Are you kidding me?!! They claim that the Core Board needs to be replaced ($239) plus 2 hrs of labor ($65/hr), plus tax. They claim that it problem was not caused by a product malfunction or anything the customer (me) did.  WHAT?  If it isn’t a product malfunction, then why does the core board need to be replaced?  It’s obviously a malfunctioning board and there’s absolutely no reason it should have gone bad between the last time I flew it and when it malfunctioned, it was stored in a very durable hard case and never even touched!!!

A few days ago I contacted DJI “Customer Service” to see if there’s anything that they could do to lower the repair cost. I explained to him that the drone worked perfectly when I put it away and that the issue just started the next time I tried flying it - it had never even been out of the case between so there’s no reason for the board to go bad other than a defective board. He told me that he’d pass this info to the appropriate people and he expected to get the invoice reduced, if not completely for free.  

Today I got an email from DJI with the “updated”’ invoice for $390.51, the exact same price as the original invoice. So, after spending many thousands of dollars with DJI, they’re not even willing to reduce the cost of replacing their defective board at all!!! They want to charge me for 2hrs of labor when in fact they’re just going to send me an already refurbished replacement. I’ve never seen a company with such bad “customer service”! You would think that after all the money I’ve spent with them, they would bend over backwards to try and appease me. If not to do the replacement for free, at least cut some kind of deal.  

This isn’t the first time I’ve had issues with one of their drones. Besides the Mavic 2P loosing connection and crashing, a couple years ago I was flying my P4P+ when it decided to loose the connection to the controller and it crashed. There was absolutely no reason for it to have lost connection since it was only about 15’ away from me at the time.  It just lost connection and I had no control of it. I called DJI and explained what happened. Of course they had me send it in for evaluation. They told me it needed a new board and a couple of the body parts had broken and needed to be replace.  I asked them why it lost connection in the first place and they told me it was an issues with the board. I asked them if the board when bad, then why should I have to pay $400 to repair it, it was obviously a defective part and not my fault. I got the same response then as I got with the current issue with my MA - it’s out of warranty so it’s all on you.

Now I really like DJI drones, they’re arguably some of the best consumer class drones made.  However, DJI “customer service” does not exist at all! They don’t care one bit about their customers, all they care about is taking more of our money. I understand that they have to make their investors happy, but at what cost? I’ve been a loyal DJI customer for years but I’m now reconsidering my loyalty.  I’m not sure I want to keep spending my hard earned money with a company that won’t make exceptions to their warranty policies for a customer that has spent so much money with them.  I’m guessing it wouldn’t cost them more than $50 in parts and labor to repair my drone. They could either charge me their cost or completely eat it and make a loyal customer happy. Instead they are being greedy and in the process, most likely they are going to loose a long time customer.  Additionally, I meet a lot of people when I fly my drones. There are a lot of inquisitive people who would like to get in drones but they’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start so I spend a lot of time talking with them.  I’ve always recommended DJI drones.  I’m guessing I’ve probably brought at least 30 new customers to DJI. Given this latest issue with my Air, I’m going to have to rethink recommending DJI. At the very least I’ll explain that DJI drones are the best, to start with, but at some point, most likely when the warranty is over, the main board is likely to fail (for no fault of yours) and DJI will charge you half the price of the drone to replace it since they don’t understand the meaning of “customer service”.

Today I’m going to have to call DJI “customer service” and have them return my Air without repair. No way I’m going to spend $490.51 to repair it.  It just really sucks because, although I don’t fly it much since I purchased my M2’s, it still filled the niche that I bought it for which is a very portable drone that I can easily pack to remote places and still get good video.


Very disappointed,

Gruhls

Typo - $390.51, not $490.51

Gruhls

I am sorry for the difficulties that you had experienced, I am able to pull out your case number by your forum account, noticing that the updated invoice had sent to you via email yesterday. Please check again the invoice, the amount after update was below the original price. Please kindly check again. If you have further questions, please kindly let me know, I will do my best to help.