I bought a DJI pocket on 13th July 2021.

I used it during the European summer and put in storage from October to May. Then I used in May 2022 and by June 2022 it started showing signs of failure - not reading the sd card, not initiating correctly, not moving correctly, some buttons unresponsive. It has been used lightly for  4 months and not used at all for 7 months.

When I sent it in for a check they reported corrosion on the sd card slot and the usb port. They offered a 50% discount on repairs totalling 180 EUR!!! That is getting close to what I paid for a new product. How it can be built so poorly that is fails in various places after just a few months use?

Is this programmed obsolescence? Or just really really really pooor quality electronics? I look after my gear and have owned many DSLRs, point and shoots, mobiles and gaming kits and I've never owned a camera or phone that became unuseable within a year of purchase.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching DJI Forum. I'm sorry to read and to know about this issue you have with your active case. Upon reviewing the result of the diagnosis, it shows that the unit has Liquid damage and the core board is damaged. In addition, there's corrosion found on the USB port and SD card slot. Please be advised that the service guarantee or the After-Sales Policy does not cover water damage or other damages caused by improper installation, incorrect use, or operation not in accordance with official instructions or manuals. For you to have a reference, you may kindly visit this link to our After-Sales Policy. https://www.dji.com/service/policy?site=brandsite&from=nav

DJI Diana Posted at 6-28 15:59
Hi there. Thank you for reaching DJI Forum. I'm sorry to read and to know about this issue you have with your active case. Upon reviewing the result of the diagnosis, it shows that the unit has Liquid damage and the core board is damaged. In addition, there's corrosion found on the USB port and SD card slot. Please be advised that the service guarantee or the After-Sales Policy does not cover water damage or other damages caused by improper installation, incorrect use, or operation not in accordance with official instructions or manuals. For you to have a reference, you may kindly visit this link to our After-Sales Policy. https://www.dji.com/service/policy?site=brandsite&from=nav

Hi, so how is this possible? It was kept in dry storage for months and the rest was normal usage not even intense. Nobody but me used it and I never let it out of my hands so I don't see how this is incorrect use. I live in an area where it hardly ever rains so the liquid damage is strange. As for core board and corrosion, would you say this is nomal for DJI products?
I own quite a lot of other electronics and none of it has ever suffered from corrosion nor have I had issues with sd slots or usb ports. Why is the DJI product so fragile?

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 6-29 01:19
Hi, so how is this possible? It was kept in dry storage for months and the rest was normal usage not even intense. Nobody but me used it and I never let it out of my hands so I don't see how this is incorrect use. I live in an area where it hardly ever rains so the liquid damage is strange. As for core board and corrosion, would you say this is nomal for DJI products?
I own quite a lot of other electronics and none of it has ever suffered from corrosion nor have I had issues with sd slots or usb ports. Why is the DJI product so fragile?

Hi, there. We are greatly sorry to hear about that and fully understand your feelings. Since we cannot fully reproduce the specific usage scenarios, we can't directly determine the reason for this issue. Besides, the storage environment, usage scenario, and so on may lead to this situation. The specific damage is subject to the inspection result of our engineer. Please rest assured our team has analyzed the device with detailed and professional skills.

Only now that I realise I must not be the only one, so disappointing

DJI Thor Posted at 6-29 01:58
Hi, there. We are greatly sorry to hear about that and fully understand your feelings. Since we cannot fully reproduce the specific usage scenarios, we can't directly determine the reason for this issue. Besides, the storage environment, usage scenario, and so on may lead to this situation. The specific damage is subject to the inspection result of our engineer. Please rest assured our team has analyzed the device with detailed and professional skills.

Well I always use various cameras on shoot and all are stored the same way. Why is it Canon and Nikon devices last years with no problems in sd slots or usb ports and DJI has multiple failures in just a few months? Your chat support suggested it is morning dew - really?!!!
Anyway, I will be making a legal escalation because under EU law you may not sell low quality electronics that break within 2 years and refuse to repair or refund. This is no longer legal.

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 6-29 02:07
Well I always use various cameras on shoot and all are stored the same way. Why is it Canon and Nikon devices last years with no problems in sd slots or usb ports and DJI has multiple failures in just a few months? Your chat support suggested it is morning dew - really?!!!
Anyway, I will be making a legal escalation because under EU law you may not sell low quality electronics that break within 2 years and refuse to repair or refund. This is no longer legal.

We understand your feeling very well, we've forwarded your concerns to the corresponding team and our team will contact you regarding this issue. Hope you can wait with patience.

One month on and they just ignore me. I have no choice but to open a formal legal case. You cannot sell electronics that breaks down in a few months and refuse to repair, refund or replace. This is not permitted in the EU.

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 8-1 04:07
One month on and they just ignore me. I have no choice but to open a formal legal case. You cannot sell electronics that breaks down in a few months and refuse to repair, refund or replace. This is not permitted in the EU.

Hello, there. Sorry for your inconvenience. We believe our supervisor teams have offered you the best solution. Please reply to the email if you would accept the offer.

Well if you mean making me pay for your defective product, yes that was proposed. But it is not an acceptable solution neither ethically nor legally.

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 8-2 07:10
Well if you mean making me pay for your defective product, yes that was proposed. But it is not an acceptable solution neither ethically nor legally.

We are sincerely sorry for the unpleasant experience.

  

We have double confirmed with the team and our engineers repeatedly checked and found that the machine is seriously corroded. It is expected to be caused by water ingress or carelessness during storage like high humidity in the storage environment. It takes time to cause corrosion problems. We hope you can understand this.

  

We would like to help you more with this problem, and we hope you can check the advice we sent. We've confirmed with multiple teams and confirmed that the advice we sent is the best and also the final offer to help resolve this issue. We did hope you can have a check.

  

Besides, if there is anything else that we can help with, please let us know. We would try to see if we can help you more, please don’t worry.

Well it was taken on the same shoots as other cameras and stored in the same way. Why is it that the sd card slot is only "corroded" on the DJI product? Canon seems fine, Nikon seems fine.

Many other users have reported the same so there's clearly a quality issue. That's why I made a request to the legal team but after 1 month they still didn't even bother replying

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 8-3 04:41
Well it was taken on the same shoots as other cameras and stored in the same way. Why is it that the sd card slot is only "corroded" on the DJI product? Canon seems fine, Nikon seems fine.

Many other users have reported the same so there's clearly a quality issue. That's why I made a request to the legal team but after 1 month they still didn't even bother replying

Hello, there. Sorry for the late response. As what our supervisor teams said in the email, we let our technical supervisor examine and assess the damage again. The corrosion is serious enough that it can not be caused in our repair centers in two days. If it is not given rise to water ingress, then must be the humidity of the storage environment is too high. No matter which possibility, corrosion is a long-time process, which can not be deemed as product damage.
According to our limited warranty services, We would not cover water damage or other damages caused by improper installation, incorrect use, or operation not in accordance with official instructions or manuals.
You may refer to this link for more information: https://www.dji.com/service/policy?site=brandsite&from=footer
We believe our supervisor has offered you the best solution. We respect your option. Provided that you would accept the offer, you can reply to the email at any time.
Bets regards.

DJI Wanda Posted at 8-11 22:50
Hello, there. Sorry for the late response. As what our supervisor teams said in the email, we let our technical supervisor examine and assess the damage again. The corrosion is serious enough that it can not be caused in our repair centers in two days. If it is not given rise to water ingress, then must be the humidity of the storage environment is too high. No matter which possibility, corrosion is a long-time process, which can not be deemed as product damage.
According to our limited warranty services, We would not cover water damage or other damages caused by improper installation, incorrect use, or operation not in accordance with official instructions or manuals.
You may refer to this link for more information: https://www.dji.com/service/policy?site=brandsite&from=footer

Again, no solutions has been offered.
No other camera or digital equipment stored in the same fashion in the exact same place has ceased to function even if they have similar micros sd slots etc. ONLY the dji product "corroded"
The product is clearly of poor quality which is evidenced by the shockingly poor experiences of other users too: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/store.dji.com
I am waiting for a response from your legal department

djiuser_Oa8HMkZr3d2z Posted at 8-12 10:17
Again, no solutions has been offered.
No other camera or digital equipment stored in the same fashion in the exact same place has ceased to function even if they have similar micros sd slots etc. ONLY the dji product "corroded"
The product is clearly of poor quality which is evidenced by the shockingly poor experiences of other users too: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/store.dji.com

We have given you the offer in the last email. That is the best we can offer. You may reply to the email if you accept that.
Thanks for your understanding.