So I recently purchased a brand new smart controller and Mavic two pro and I and maybe my 20th flight the drone took off made it about 50 yards and then auto landed in the lake behind my house.

I have been working for almost a month with the claims department and I’m now being told that they will not cover it because there’s no flight record for the last flight. I think this is a software issue with the controller and they won’t even let me send the controller in for inspection. It is clearly not pilot error and should clearly be covered no matter what. They are very slow to respond and always have very limited information with me or suggestions on how to follow up or anything else.

I plan to take them to small claims court and will keep posted on how this goes. If I were you, I would not waste your money on this company or on their refresh plan in particular.

Hi there, I'm so sorry to hear about the accident with your drone. I've managed to get your case number via your forum account. The situation has been forwarded to our corresponding team to check again, we'll keep following up on it. Please wait for the email update. Thanks.

So now, finally, they are asking me to send the controller in. I guess I will have to go buy a new drone so I can get back to including that service with my business, since I don’t see a resolution coming anytime soon. This is super frustrating, as it is clearly a software malfunction and not pilot error.

***The last statement from an actual supervisor indicated that there has to be proof there was a malfunction and NOT proof it was a pilot error. I wonder how many of these cases ever get resolved***

Another call to technical support, another 30 minutes to find out nothing.

djiuser_wll4ezGCxF2V Posted at 4-23 07:59
So now, finally, they are asking me to send the controller in. I guess I will have to go buy a new drone so I can get back to including that service with my business, since I don’t see a resolution coming anytime soon. This is super frustrating, as it is clearly a software malfunction and not pilot error.

***The last statement from an actual supervisor indicated that there has to be proof there was a malfunction and NOT proof it was a pilot error. I wonder how many of these cases ever get resolved***

I am sorry for the difficultes and the inconvenience caused to you. Please send the smart controller back, we will keep following the case.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I have been enjoying flying the Mini 2 since it first came out, but a couple of months ago, they updated the firmware and there have been several strange control issues ever since (never had these on the old firmware) culminating in the loss of the drone into nearby water.  I am just starting to process this with DJI. But based on what I've read, here, I don't have much hope they will take responsibility.

The M2 had flown out in one direction for about 1200 feet at an altitude of about 60 feet. I raised the altitude to 150 feet and tried to continue forward in the same direction but the drone would not respond. I could pivot, go up and down but not forward. I was not too concerned as I had plenty of battery and, although very scary, I had been able to recover control from these post-firmware update issues before. This time proved different.

Hit RTH... NOTHING! What?  I did discover that I could go backwards (still no forward) but only at a max speed of 3 mph, but usually far slower (battery anxiety suddenly present). After a few hundred feet of slow travel backwards I stopped to check for control. I turned the M2 around, facing the direction of return travel and discovered I could now go forward but only at the same super slow speed (battery anxiety builds further!).  I tried changing modes (Normal, Cinematic, Sport) with no effect. Then, after another couple hundred feet, already slow forward progress slowed even further until the M2 just stopped going forward, again. I pivoted and tried to go backwards again... no luck. But now I could slide left (same slow speed). The M2 is now about 800 feet away, but this emergency angle of return has it cutting a corner over water. Raising and lowering altitude was always possible and though I tried both, altitude had no effect on restoring control. So now I am sliding S L O W L Y sideways toward home, battery draining, hoping that I am reasonably on course to return while facing away at a right angle from direction of travel. I get the M2 to three hundred feet distance and it simply stops again. Tried forward... no. Tried backward... no. Tried sideways... no. Then first battery warning.  Change modes... no luck. Change altitude... no luck.  More battery warnings. Random moments of ability to move slowly backwards or sideways gets me closer as M2 controller announces it will land. I jam the left stick up to fight the auto-descend (read about this and it works) while I alternately try sliding sideways or backwards to get home. At about 100 feet distance, the controller announces it is landing and this time there is nothing I can do to stop it. In retrospect, I should have spent those last few seconds just getting over any dry area instead of all the way home. We watched it nicely land on the water, float for a few short seconds, and then disappear below the surface, headed for the bottom fifty feet below.

I'm so mad at DJI. No wonder they sell insurance when their product is so unreliable. I don't know if this was channel failure in the drone,  bad firmware in the drone, elec/mech failure in the controller, or bad firmware in the controller. Based on the issues I have experienced (and read about, here) I'm betting the cause is M2 firmware. I am a licensed private pilot and experienced drone pilot with several dozen hours on the M2, so I know this was not my fault. This was a failure of their product.

djiuser_Vh1o8g8o6P2Y Posted at 4-24 10:08
Sorry to hear about your experience. I have been enjoying flying the Mini 2 since it first came out, but a couple of months ago, they updated the firmware and there have been several strange control issues ever since (never had these on the old firmware) culminating in the loss of the drone into nearby water.  I am just starting to process this with DJI. But based on what I've read, here, I don't have much hope they will take responsibility.

The M2 had flown out in one direction for about 1200 feet at an altitude of about 60 feet. I raised the altitude to 150 feet and tried to continue forward in the same direction but the drone would not respond. I could pivot, go up and down but not forward. I was not too concerned as I had plenty of battery and, although very scary, I had been able to recover control from these post-firmware update issues before. This time proved different.

Hey thank you for sharing your experience in so much detail. I wonder how many people this is happened to you. If anyone else out there sees this and has had a similar experience, please post to this thread so we can let DJI know exactly what is going on and how wrong it is for them not to honor their claims. Thanks to all!

djiuser_wll4ezGCxF2V Posted at 4-24 10:18
Hey thank you for sharing your experience in so much detail. I wonder how many people this is happened to you. If anyone else out there sees this and has had a similar experience, please post to this thread so we can let DJI know exactly what is going on and how wrong it is for them not to honor their claims. Thanks to all!

Thanks for your support. I contacted DJI and provided all of the data they requested to conduct "an investigation."  They say it will take 2 or 3 days. I'll let people here know what happens. It is a clear cut case of product failure and I hope they stand behind the product an will replace it. This may be helpful to others... as I prepared the data for DJI, I noticed something I didn't realize during the loss.  I knew that the only way I could make the drone move was with left or reverse commanded, what I didn't realize was that reverse was commanding it to fly a heading of approximately 243 degrees, and left was commanding flight heading of 63 degrees... regardless of the drone orientation, these were the only two directions it would move!

djiuser_Vh1o8g8o6P2Y Posted at 4-26 12:48
Thanks for your support. I contacted DJI and provided all of the data they requested to conduct "an investigation."  They say it will take 2 or 3 days. I'll let people here know what happens. It is a clear cut case of product failure and I hope they stand behind the product an will replace it. This may be helpful to others... as I prepared the data for DJI, I noticed something I didn't realize during the loss.  I knew that the only way I could make the drone move was with left or reverse commanded, what I didn't realize was that reverse was commanding it to fly a heading of approximately 243 degrees, and left was commanding flight heading of 63 degrees... regardless of the drone orientation, these were the only two directions it would move![view_image]

the interesting thing about this flight is that it follows about a month after updating to the new M2 firmware in mid-March. Ever since that update I have been experiencing random issues reported in this thread (https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... p;extra=&page=1) and elsewhere.

In particular, I have experienced "not connected to aircraft" and dropped video feed. The day before the M2 was lost, the DJI Fly App simply quit in mid flight. That really scared me!  But restarting the app re-established control and I could return the M2. Flight logs showed this as two separate flights, but the second flight starts in mid air, with no spinup or take-off!  After a couple of uneventful test flights, I flew again for the third time with the resultant lack of control and loss of the M2.

I had bought the M2 as soon as it was available and flew it successfully over 100 times without any of these issues, until the firmware update in mid-March.

Well, DJI responded by saying, "If the aircraft is launched outside of the No-Fly Zone which the aircraft has the permission to fly, it cannot fly out of the area after the pilot controls the aircraft to fly into it."
This makes no sense from any perspective, but especially because the M2 never entered any kind of control zone (see image).  There was a zone (for which I had permission) more than half a mile away, but the M2 was never near it at any time during this flight, never any closer than half a mile.

Well, I wish I could say I was surprised. I was told last week to “be on the lookout” for a shipping label to send In my smart controller for analysis and still haven’t seen anything. I think they just try to wear you down until you give up. So frustrating.

djiuser_wll4ezGCxF2V Posted at 4-28 17:02
Well, I wish I could say I was surprised. I was told last week to “be on the lookout” for a shipping label to send In my smart controller for analysis and still haven’t seen anything. I think they just try to wear you down until you give up. So frustrating.

Hi, we are sorry for bringing you any unpleasure experience on this case. We have arranged to send the Shipping label, could you please check your email inbox or the junk box? If there is any updates, please feel free to reach out to us.

Thanks

DJI Wanda Posted at 4-29 00:32
Hi, we are sorry for bringing you any unpleasure experience on this case. We have arranged to send the Shipping label, could you please check your email inbox or the junk box? If there is any updates, please feel free to reach out to us.

Thanks

Well I found it, and it is just an email directly from the shipping company with no information tied to DJI, as you would expect. I had to dig for it and there was no follow up or even a response to my follow up with the tech department. I don’t even know who is handling my case at this point. I would just think with a company of this side the customer service would be much more accommodating, especially with products at this price point.

djiuser_wll4ezGCxF2V Posted at 4-29 04:08
Well I found it, and it is just an email directly from the shipping company with no information tied to DJI, as you would expect. I had to dig for it and there was no follow up or even a response to my follow up with the tech department. I don’t even know who is handling my case at this point. I would just think with a company of this side the customer service would be much more accommodating, especially with products at this price point.

I agree with you. A company of this size should have much better Customer Service..

My case with Customer Service is not progressing even as far as yours.  I sent them the flight logs and they said that the lack of control was due to entering a no-fly zone, but as you can see (and they could see if they looked) from the actual flight log, the M2 never entered a no-fly zone at any time during the flight. While there was an authorization zone nearby, the M2 was never closer than a half a mile from it. Further, in planning for other scenic shooting I had authorization for that zone, anyway, but the point here is that DJI says the M2 thought it was in the zone and it never was. Their geofencing not only failed, but apparently interfered with flight control without justification and caused the loss of the drone!

This is an outright mistake by DJI and they have, so far, failed to live up to their warranty. If they don't make this right, I'll be moving on to Autel as they do not have this grossly inaccurate and unreliable geofencing.

djiuser_Vh1o8g8o6P2Y Posted at 4-29 08:27
I agree with you. A company of this size should have much better Customer Service..

My case with Customer Service is not progressing even as far as yours.  I sent them the flight logs and they said that the lack of control was due to entering a no-fly zone, but as you can see (and they could see if they looked) from the actual flight log, the M2 never entered a no-fly zone at any time during the flight. While there was an authorization zone nearby, the M2 was never closer than a half a mile from it. Further, in planning for other scenic shooting I had authorization for that zone, anyway, but the point here is that DJI says the M2 thought it was in the zone and it never was. Their geofencing not only failed, but apparently interfered with flight control without justification and caused the loss of the drone!

DJI has agreed that the loss of my Mini 2 was NOT due to pilot error and they are replacing the AC itself and the battery. Those replacements are due to arrive, tomorrow!

djiuser_wll4ezGCxF2V Posted at 4-24 10:18
Hey thank you for sharing your experience in so much detail. I wonder how many people this is happened to you. If anyone else out there sees this and has had a similar experience, please post to this thread so we can let DJI know exactly what is going on and how wrong it is for them not to honor their claims. Thanks to all!

Good news! After analysing my flight logs more closely, DJI has agreed that the loss of my Mini 2 was NOT due to pilot error and they are replacing the AC itself and the battery. Those replacements are due to arrive, tomorrow!

I am happy to hear that, but sorry to report that my cases with DJI is STILL NOT RESOLVED. I sent in my controller, as requested, since the flight logs did not record the flight when the fly-away (crash landing into water) occurred, but it did show on the Find My Drone app on the remote right after happening, which was recorded while I was on the phone with DJI Support. They looked over my remote, sent me an email that it is fine and NEVER even correlated it to my case for the fly-away. Now who knows? I am totally in the dark here and have yet to connect with a supervisor.

djiuser_7VJ9teKS1cg0 Posted at 5-13 09:06
I am happy to hear that, but sorry to report that my cases with DJI is STILL NOT RESOLVED. I sent in my controller, as requested, since the flight logs did not record the flight when the fly-away (crash landing into water) occurred, but it did show on the Find My Drone app on the remote right after happening, which was recorded while I was on the phone with DJI Support. They looked over my remote, sent me an email that it is fine and NEVER even correlated it to my case for the fly-away. Now who knows? I am totally in the dark here and have yet to connect with a supervisor.

So sorry to hear hear that. I reread your initial postings and have to say that, based on my DJI experience, it would be hard to convince them of anything without a flight log! In my case, the M2's DJI Fly App was set to autosync flight logs to their server. So, although I had them on the phone, I didn't have to send them in since they already had them. Those flight logs supported my case, in the end. Strange your last flight did not generate a log. Without that, for all DJI knows, you could have thrown it into the water by hand!

I use a written checklist to fly a very simple drone, just because of all the things you seem to have to do as risk reduction (no nearby unauthorized zones/cal compass/cal IMU/cal gimbal/cal controller)... geez. With your Smart Controller and AC combo, I wonder if there is a way you can confirm the writing of a flight log after takeoff, but before you fly away from the homepoint? If so, that would be another tick on the checklist!

I fly a lot over water and although I've had over 100 flights without a problem, your issue, my issue and the many other random equipment and control issues I'm reading about has me re-thinking the obvious risks with DJI equipment. Did you see the video of the guy whose brand new M2 spiralled out of the air? DJI confirmed a motor failure as the cause (it even got recorded in the flight's .dat file) But gee whiz... brand new gear?

While my initial contact with them was very supportive and polite (a live person answers the phone!), the "team" that first "analyzed" my flight logs wrote a curt, dismissive note that didn't make sense to me or the next customer care person that looked at my case with me on the phone. I asked a few pointed questions of clarification and Customer Care said the case would be reviewed a second time by "engineering."  My questions must have been appropriate. They certainly could not be answered with the conclusions of the initial review. When they couldn't answer my followup questions and said my case would be reviewed further, I thought they were just giving me a line (and getting me off the phone).  But "engineering" determined I was owed a replacement and seems to have been promptly shipped.

The upshot is I think I was treated fairly, but you do have to stand up for yourself and have the data to support your argument to the next level. Without flight logs, I would have been sunk... twice!
5.15.2021 Update:  New M2 and battery received.

djiuser_7VJ9teKS1cg0 Posted at 5-13 09:06
I am happy to hear that, but sorry to report that my cases with DJI is STILL NOT RESOLVED. I sent in my controller, as requested, since the flight logs did not record the flight when the fly-away (crash landing into water) occurred, but it did show on the Find My Drone app on the remote right after happening, which was recorded while I was on the phone with DJI Support. They looked over my remote, sent me an email that it is fine and NEVER even correlated it to my case for the fly-away. Now who knows? I am totally in the dark here and have yet to connect with a supervisor.

Hi there, sorry for the inconvenience caused. May I know your case number or ticket number for better assistance? I'd like to help you check the details. Thanks.

djiuser_Vh1o8g8o6P2Y Posted at 5-13 08:30
Good news! After analysing my flight logs more closely, DJI has agreed that the loss of my Mini 2 was NOT due to pilot error and they are replacing the AC itself and the battery. Those replacements are due to arrive, tomorrow!

Thanks for your update. Glad to know that your issue has been resolved. If there is anything else I can assist you with, please feel free to let me know.