Last Wednesday, I got a Tello drone boost combo from Best Buy. The next day, it was gone. I will be updating this as customer support works out the issue with me, but here is what happened:

Part 1 (Tello is great!): Last Wednesday, I got my Tello drone from Best Buy and flew it inside my house. It was really fun, and I was very impressed at how stable it was. One of the key points on the Tello website was how Tello will land safely even if it loses connection, but as we'll see, that isn't always the case...

Part 2 (Tello goes rogue): The next day, last Thursday, I decided to try flying my Tello outside. Everything was going well and I was able to take the drone up to the safety limit of 10 meters and land it safely very easily. I was impressed! When the battery started to run low, I landed my Tello and swapped the battery. It took off normally and everything seemed great, but after it was about 8 meters in the air, it decided to turn into a rocket. I noticed my Tello drifting a little, and I tried to land it. It was no more than 15 meters away from me. Then, all of a sudden, it lost connection, and flew so high I could barely see it anymore! I kept trying to gain control and land my drone, but the connection had failed and I couldn't do anything! That's when it decided that it wanted to land, and it fell out of the sky into my neighbor's tree! After looking hard I couldn't see it anywhere in the tree, but the feed from the camera showed a lot of branches. After searching more on the weekend, I found a propeller, but no sign of the Tello. I was devastated! My one day old Tello had just shot up like a rocket, and it wasn't my fault.

Part 3 (Updates):

Update 1: Ryze tech support has been pretty good. I gave them the flight data on Friday, and they told me that it usually takes 2 to 3 business days for an investigation to be completed. They don't have phone support or do investigations on the weekends, and since I didn't hear anything from them on Monday I expect to hear from them today or tomorrow.

Update 2: My neighbors happen to be getting their trees trimmed today, so maybe the tree trimmers will find my Tello!

They are going to give me a coupon code for 100% off a new Tello!

Henry Leonard Posted at 4-7 10:42
They are going to give me a coupon code for 100% off a new Tello!

That are great news. Could you find the remains of your lost Tello?

I fly my Tellos 99% indoors, and happened more than once (yet luckily, not frequently) that out of sudden goes all the way up and over speeds stuck in the roof, and there's no way to retrieve control. After a while and when its frenzy state fades, just hovers down. Could not find a pattern why this happens but seems mostly when I use other devices to control it (Laptop, PC, or BT remote). One day in my backyard did the same (really a rocket launch) but I was lucky enough it went not too high and just fell down in the same point it took off from.

Stallman Johnny Posted at 4-8 02:16
That are great news. Could you find the remains of your lost Tello?

I fly my Tellos 99% indoors, and happened more than once (yet luckily, not frequently) that out of sudden goes all the way up and over speeds stuck in the roof, and there's no way to retrieve control. After a while and when its frenzy state fades, just hovers down. Could not find a pattern why this happens but seems mostly when I use other devices to control it (Laptop, PC, or BT remote). One day in my backyard did the same (really a rocket launch) but I was lucky enough it went not too high and just fell down in the same point it took off from.

I was never able to find the remains of the lost Tello, however, I just ordered a new Tello using the coupon code they gave me. I have no idea how long it will take to get here, it said a month was the estimated delivery date but I don't really believe that. This is my main account I am using now so that's why it's showing under a different name.

You're quite a bit luckier than I was.

My Trello drone flew away the pretty much the same day I got it; like a rocket, as you described.

Just using it in my backyard, the drone was working fine one moment, but then it suddenly just started to move vertically very fast -- straight up up up, until out of sight. I'd be surprised if it ever stopped.  I never found it despite hours of looking, but it went so high it could have gone anywhere.

It completely stopped responding to my phone and my button presses.  

I reached out to their support on Apr 2, 2018 and their response was just 'sorry'.  The exact reply is:

"I'm so sorry that you were not able to control your drone and lost it. Upon checking, one of the possible reasons why your drone became uncontrollable is that the phone where you have installed the app is not yet a compatible device. So we can make sure that Tello App will work as expected, please make sure that your mobile device you are about to use or where you have installed the app is any of the following; .."

They did ask what what phone I had, and I was using an LG V30 (a powerful smartphone), and they blamed that as the cause I guess. It wasn't on the list of supported devices.  

I pre-ordered the silly thing, and was really hyped, but instead I was felt very disappointed.  I've decided to never buy DJI or Ryze again, as harsh as that is. Instead, I've stuck to now just making and using home-made drones.

Glad you got a replacement though.  I was just checking on google to see if the company has yet come clean with the issue, but it doesn't quite seem so.

-steve

djiuser_R6a00c6bbKrL Posted at 8-31 22:46
You're quite a bit luckier than I was.

My Trello drone flew away the pretty much the same day I got it; like a rocket, as you described.

I am curious if you were using the Tello app or some other app.
My Tello has fortunately been quite reliable, my flying and experimentation not always so much.  Twice I flew mine into a tree quite high.  I saw it enter the tree both times, but could not spot it even with binoculars.

A big storm passed through after the first time and there was my Tello upside down in the yard.  It had been very windy but not much rain the night before.  The Tello worked great.

The 2nd time, my grandson was able to climb on our roof, find the drone and retrieve it.  It is still flying.

Willie