So after a year of ownership and not having a single close call, I finally crashed the mavic 3 today at my families christmas gathering. I was showing the drone off to my step dad and when I went to show him how the "bypass" mode worked, the drone just flat did not avoid his massive garage and flew right into the side of it, at about 10 foot altitude and fell down onto concrete. I was shocked as I had never seen the drone just completely miss an obstacle like that. Just seconds before I had flown the exact same path with brake mode and the drone braked properly. Once in bypass mode though the drone flew straight into the garage wall without even attempting to avoid it. It was FULL bright and sunny day and sensors were active. Just really shocking. I have flown much more challenging areas with bypass and it worked great. Either way I am taking full responsability, though I wish I had been demonstrating to my step dad in cine mode instead of normal mode. I just trusted the drone to do what it always has done. The only thing that actually broke were the props of course and a 2 inch crack where the back right arm comes in near the battery compartment. It causes the back right arm to feel a little loose and rub against the gimble when collapsed. Aside from some scratches, miracuously nothing else broke. Even the gimble is still fully functional and fine. I do have an active DJI Care Refresh protection plan on the mavic 3.

With the crack being at the base of one of the arms though, making the arm feel a little loose on the body, I am sending it in. I would not feel safe flying it. Being my first time ever having to send in a drone to DJI, I went online to figure out what all I needed to do. There are several service options to choose, and DJI care express has a Premium and a basic option. Based on the reading I didnt need to use the "repair" service, and fly away service didnt apply, so I went with the care express service, which I was assuming is the service I would use given I have care refresh. I wasnt sure what the premium option would cost, and I am in not in some massive rush to replace it so I just went with basic, paid the $159 and got the UPS return label emailed to me just now. I plan to ship it out tomorrow.

As said I have never had to use dji's repair services so I have some questions. Based on the reading of all the service options it seems to suggest that DJI is simply going to send me a new / different mavic 3 once mine arrives at their service center. Is this accurate? Im also curious if I will end up having to pay more than the initial $159 care express service fee once the drone has been examined and damage determined. I know other folks who had to send in their drones for repair and they ended up having to pay for repairs based on what dji fixed, but that may be a different service. Really just curious if someone who has went through this process can give me some heads up on what to expect. Also, at no point in the process was I asked to supply any kind of flight data logs or anything - I was expecting to have to do all that. Is it really just this straight forward with care refresh? Drone crashes, you send it in and they send the new drone out, and no additional fee or charge? Also, the instructions for shipping it in do not mention the gimble cover/strap but I cant imagine they will ship me one without it so I am shipping the drone with the cover strap - I assume this is the proper thing to do. Anyways, just hoping to get a heads up from someone who has went through this before maybe.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

It is very straight forward, you ship your drone under your care refresh and they send you a replacement New or as new refurb. Its a no quibble pay the fee and that’s basically it.

Thanks for the confirmation. I watched a video of a guy who reviewed the service after a crash and it answered a lot of my questions.  Just in case my thread here can help anyone in the future I will post follow ups with how my experience goes with the service. If my experience is good, as I expect it will be based on all the good Ive seen of DJI's service I may go ahead and add another year of service to the care refresh. Mine was set to expire just 1 month from now.

One thing I am seeing in a couple videos I have watched now to better understand the process, is there was a place where folks were asked to describe the damage. I never saw that when I did mine. Hopefully DJI looks the drone over good because the 2 inch crack is somewhat hard to notice unless you really look the drone over good. I am leaving the broken propellers on the drone. One of the propellers actually broke off at the connect point so It won go on the drone anymore so Im sending it in with just 3 propellers.  Im probably overthinking this so Im going to stop and go enjoy christmas evening now. Ill follow up later.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we're sorry to read about the incident that happened on your unit. Once you have a DJI Care Refresh and your unit experience a crash, you can simply create a ticket straight to our website and pay $159 for your DJI Mavic 3 to get replaced. In addition, we will also ship your gimbal cover once the replacement unit is now available for shipping. Should you have other inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach us. Thank you for your valued support.

I went through this in October. Once you start the process, DJI will e-mail you a UPS label. Box it up, take it to a drop off point, and in about a week your new will arrive. Make sure to download all your pix and videos, and remove card. It is really a painless procedure.

Agreed with MobileHomer.  I just went through the process on a drone.  Paid the fee, shipped them the broken drone, and got a replacement all in about a week.  Things could not have been smoother.  I don't really see why they would need flight logs for a simple repair/refresh.  : )

Yikes! Why are so many seasoned veterans here crashing their drones ;-)

Thanks for all the replies guys, appreciate the input. I didnt get to UPS today but will be going in the morning to send it in. The $159 fee has already posted to my account. I had only seen the bullet points of dji care refresh and had never really read more on it. Honestly never thought Id have to use it. I tend to be a very cautious/careful pilot. Just glad I bought it when I did or id be out a lot more money at this point. If my experience goes as smoothly as all the others I've seen then the care refresh service really is a fantastic service. Huge props to DJI for such an easy and affordable service. Ill follow up with how it all concludes.

GaryDoug Posted at 12-25 22:24
Yikes! Why are so many seasoned veterans here crashing their drones ;-)

Well, I have a good excuse for the two I had in December.

1.  Mavic 3 into the palms - well, I was just sloppy.  Honestly, bad flying.
2. Mini 3 Pro - new drone, just picked it up, and was zipping around.  Forgot how zippy the little ones are, and just came straight down on a neighborhood tree.  

I guess both cases just came down to a small lack of attention.  I am already back to my rigorous high standards.   : )

Hi Tornado,

       Merry Christmas and sorry about your troubles. I am not sure if this was your case, but just wanted to mention what could "blind" a sensor is when flying directly onto sunlight.  Imho just like the sunlight blinds us, it could also "blind" the sensor causing it to not "see" an obstacle. I think I have seen this before, but luckily not with crashing of my drone, but rather drone detecting obstacles that don't exist when I've flown directly onto the sunlight. Not sure if this is the case for you, but wanted to share this in case this helps.

Take care, Mike.

Mzp Posted at 12-26 18:02
Hi Tornado,

       Merry Christmas and sorry about your troubles. I am not sure if this was your case, but just wanted to mention what could "blind" a sensor is when flying directly onto sunlight.  Imho just like the sunlight blinds us, it could also "blind" the sensor causing it to not "see" an obstacle. I think I have seen this before, but luckily not with crashing of my drone, but rather drone detecting obstacles that don't exist when I've flown directly onto the sunlight. Not sure if this is the case for you, but wanted to share this in case this helps.

good suggestion but that would not have been the case in this situation. This is actually exactly what happened:

I had the drone just like 10 feet high right in the front yard. I demonstrated the brake mode by flying at his garage, just stick forward from our location, and the drone braked properly as it approached the garage. I pulled sticks back to bring the drone back to us, then showed him my screen as I went into bypass mode. I then stick forward again toward the garage. Based on my prior experience with bypass mode I thought surely the drone would gain elevation and fly up and over the garage. As I stick forward though the drone just flew dead straight. As I noticed it wasnt responding I tried to stick back but just as it was about to hit, but it was too late. The drone hit the wall and fell down onto the concrete. It wasnt a massive hit really, as I just about pulled it back but it was enough to knock it out of the air. The real damage came when it fell down and landed on the concrete. 2 inch crack near the batter compartment. The gimbal was jacked to the side and I thought it was broken but as I moved it by hand it went back into place and seemed to function properly.

So, the sensors saw the garage in brake mode, then just 20 seconds later didnt react to it at all in bypass. There wasnt much going on, it was a very basic stick forward movement. No error messages, sensors were on and functioning. I have no explanation why it didnt respond to the garage. I dont think I will ever trust bypass mode though, even though up to this point I had used it even around trees and it performed great.

Tornado 12, thank you for sharing your experience. I have found nothing online regarding what happened to me today. I was a Mavic Pro owner for 5 years and in September bought my Mavic 3. I have loved this drone. I call it, "Dr. Mavic." It is very therapeutic when I am out flying. My motto is, "LIFE LOOKS BETTER FROM ABOVE." I am out today, overcast conditions, 40 degrees. I live in western Colorado and have the past three months captured some breathtaking videos. I am flying today over the frozen Colorado River off I-70 near Palisade, Colorado. I am on my second flight. I chose a small building on the edge of the river and went into the P.O.I. mode. I started with a fast counterclockwise rotation from maybe 60'-80' above ground. It seemed the camera locked onto the subject and began its fight path. I then remember moving the slider to the left to slow the drone down and all of a sudden I got an error, “motor overload.” At that point the picture scrambled, went black and disconnected from my DJI RC remote controller. I lost my drone and was heartbroken. I tried for an hour to retrieve the drone. I was not able to find my drone using the DJI Fly App or my controller. I could see the battery was almost gone on the drone. I walked out to where the drone was flying and could not visibly see it. I contacted the local authorities and will tomorrow try to retrieve my drone. Thank God I do have the coordinates of where my drone is. If I don’t find it I would have to pay $739 for a replacement. I could not afford that on top of the $3K I have already financed with the combo package. My flight battery, 256GB card with all my footage and a DJI 64ND filter were onboard the Mavic 3. I have the one year Care Refresh package and was under the impression a replacement was free. My reason for writing is to ask you and others if they have heard of or experienced anything similar as to what I did today? Up till now everything worked great on my drone. Flight sensors seems to always work. No trouble with the gimbal. The only thing I did different today was I flew in the SPORT mode for the first time. When the drone went down I was in the Cinema Mode. Please, anyone out there with some information about what maybe happened today I would ask that you kindly contact me here or via my email. Thank you very much. EMAIL: lcappetto@icloud.com

fansd42c9b70 Posted at 12-26 22:08
I could see the battery was almost gone on the drone. I walked out to where the drone was flying and could not visibly see it. I contacted the local authorities and will tomorrow try to retrieve my drone. Thank God I do have the coordinates of where my drone is.

If you would care to have a read of the instructions on https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ you should be able to retrieve the relevant flight log, if you upload it to that site and post the resulting URL here someone may help.  
Just to clarify something, do you mean that the drone was communicating with the controller for 1 hour after the problem and that the telemetry showed that the battery was slowly draining? If so did you try the "find my drone" thing in the app and trigger the "flash the lights and beep" thing?

fansd42c9b70 Posted at 12-26 22:08
Tornado 12, thank you for sharing your experience. I have found nothing online regarding what happened to me today. I was a Mavic Pro owner for 5 years and in September bought my Mavic 3. I have loved this drone. I call it, "Dr. Mavic." It is very therapeutic when I am out flying. My motto is, "LIFE LOOKS BETTER FROM ABOVE." I am out today, overcast conditions, 40 degrees. I live in western Colorado and have the past three months captured some breathtaking videos. I am flying today over the frozen Colorado River off I-70 near Palisade, Colorado. I am on my second flight. I chose a small building on the edge of the river and went into the P.O.I. mode. I started with a fast counterclockwise rotation from maybe 60'-80' above ground. It seemed the camera locked onto the subject and began its fight path. I then remember moving the slider to the left to slow the drone down and all of a sudden I got an error, “motor overload.” At that point the picture scrambled, went black and disconnected from my DJI RC remote controller. I lost my drone and was heartbroken. I tried for an hour to retrieve the drone. I was not able to find my drone using the DJI Fly App or my controller. I could see the battery was almost gone on the drone. I walked out to where the drone was flying and could not visibly see it. I contacted the local authorities and will tomorrow try to retrieve my drone. Thank God I do have the coordinates of where my drone is. If I don’t find it I would have to pay $739 for a replacement. I could not afford that on top of the $3K I have already financed with the combo package. My flight battery, 256GB card with all my footage and a DJI 64ND filter were onboard the Mavic 3. I have the one year Care Refresh package and was under the impression a replacement was free. My reason for writing is to ask you and others if they have heard of or experienced anything similar as to what I did today? Up till now everything worked great on my drone. Flight sensors seems to always work. No trouble with the gimbal. The only thing I did different today was I flew in the SPORT mode for the first time. When the drone went down I was in the Cinema Mode. Please, anyone out there with some information about what maybe happened today I would ask that you kindly contact me here or via my email. Thank you very much. EMAIL:

Post your flight log of the failed flight. It should give a few answers. Never had that happen before. Motor overload is typically seen when flying in high wind. Mavic 3 is very good in wind though so would have had to be some very stiff wind

Sounds like a collision or bird strike. I hope you find it.

Tornado12 Posted at 12-26 18:48
good suggestion but that would not have been the case in this situation. This is actually exactly what happened:

I had the drone just like 10 feet high right in the front yard. I demonstrated the brake mode by flying at his garage, just stick forward from our location, and the drone braked properly as it approached the garage. I pulled sticks back to bring the drone back to us, then showed him my screen as I went into bypass mode. I then stick forward again toward the garage. Based on my prior experience with bypass mode I thought surely the drone would gain elevation and fly up and over the garage. As I stick forward though the drone just flew dead straight. As I noticed it wasnt responding I tried to stick back but just as it was about to hit, but it was too late. The drone hit the wall and fell down onto the concrete. It wasnt a massive hit really, as I just about pulled it back but it was enough to knock it out of the air. The real damage came when it fell down and landed on the concrete. 2 inch crack near the batter compartment. The gimbal was jacked to the side and I thought it was broken but as I moved it by hand it went back into place and seemed to function properly.

Got you Tornado. Sorry, not sure what could have caused your collision, I actually don't rely on sensors normally and navigate around obstacles manually, but sensors did save my drone couple of times for sure. I think the only time when I completely relied on sensors was when I was in follow me mode on a bicycle trail in a forest, the drone did pretty good avoiding tree branches, but it was in the summer and they had green leaves on them. I know the OA does not like dry / winter branches that have no leaves and power lines. Hope you get your new replacement drone soon.

Take care, Mike.

So having this happen on Christmas and sending the drone out in between Christmas and New Years is turning out to be terrible timing. My drone still has not been delivered to DJI. It sat in Texas the past 3 days due to UPS being closed for new years I suppose. Today they have resumed delivery services and I now see that the delivery failed because the business was closed. My drone is going to a DJI office in Fort Worth Texas. I have tried to google and figure out what the hours of this office are with no luck. Here is to hoping they are open tomorrow. I am surprised they are still closed January 3. Hope that doesnt mean they are closed all week or something.

Well DJI finally got the drone and are sending me one back now. Unfortunately they have shipped it with "Signature Required" which I really hate. Working all day there is no way I can be home to sign for this, so it may mean I have to drive 40 miles to the origin destination to pick it up in person unless they deliver it this weekend. I know why these things are sent signature required, but for those of us who live in the country, down a dirt road, with no neighbors and no porch pirates, its just a big inconvenience to have to sign for a package. Will post back when Its in my posession and I can put a cap on this dilemma

Tornado12 Posted at 1-5 05:32
Well DJI finally got the drone and are sending me one back now. Unfortunately they have shipped it with "Signature Required" which I really hate. Working all day there is no way I can be home to sign for this, so it may mean I have to drive 40 miles to the origin destination to pick it up in person unless they deliver it this weekend. I know why these things are sent signature required, but for those of us who live in the country, down a dirt road, with no neighbors and no porch pirates, its just a big inconvenience to have to sign for a package. Will post back when Its in my posession and I can put a cap on this dilemma

none of the carriers in my ao will get a signature for a package regardless if it is marked or not; they'll sign it themselves or say "n/a" and just leave it.  for important packages, i have to rely on their hold-for-pickup options.

Tornado12 Posted at 1-5 05:32
Well DJI finally got the drone and are sending me one back now. Unfortunately they have shipped it with "Signature Required" which I really hate. Working all day there is no way I can be home to sign for this, so it may mean I have to drive 40 miles to the origin destination to pick it up in person unless they deliver it this weekend. I know why these things are sent signature required, but for those of us who live in the country, down a dirt road, with no neighbors and no porch pirates, its just a big inconvenience to have to sign for a package. Will post back when Its in my posession and I can put a cap on this dilemma

Hi there, we are sorry to know about the logistic issue. Your feedback on "signature required" issues will be forwarded to the appropriate team. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. Hope you receive the package soon.

fansd42c9b70 Posted at 2022-12-26 22:08
Tornado 12, thank you for sharing your experience. I have found nothing online regarding what happened to me today. I was a Mavic Pro owner for 5 years and in September bought my Mavic 3. I have loved this drone. I call it, "Dr. Mavic." It is very therapeutic when I am out flying. My motto is, "LIFE LOOKS BETTER FROM ABOVE." I am out today, overcast conditions, 40 degrees. I live in western Colorado and have the past three months captured some breathtaking videos. I am flying today over the frozen Colorado River off I-70 near Palisade, Colorado. I am on my second flight. I chose a small building on the edge of the river and went into the P.O.I. mode. I started with a fast counterclockwise rotation from maybe 60'-80' above ground. It seemed the camera locked onto the subject and began its fight path. I then remember moving the slider to the left to slow the drone down and all of a sudden I got an error, “motor overload.” At that point the picture scrambled, went black and disconnected from my DJI RC remote controller. I lost my drone and was heartbroken. I tried for an hour to retrieve the drone. I was not able to find my drone using the DJI Fly App or my controller. I could see the battery was almost gone on the drone. I walked out to where the drone was flying and could not visibly see it. I contacted the local authorities and will tomorrow try to retrieve my drone. Thank God I do have the coordinates of where my drone is. If I don’t find it I would have to pay $739 for a replacement. I could not afford that on top of the $3K I have already financed with the combo package. My flight battery, 256GB card with all my footage and a DJI 64ND filter were onboard the Mavic 3. I have the one year Care Refresh package and was under the impression a replacement was free. My reason for writing is to ask you and others if they have heard of or experienced anything similar as to what I did today? Up till now everything worked great on my drone. Flight sensors seems to always work. No trouble with the gimbal. The only thing I did different today was I flew in the SPORT mode for the first time. When the drone went down I was in the Cinema Mode. Please, anyone out there with some information about what maybe happened today I would ask that you kindly contact me here or via my email. Thank you very much. EMAIL:

You need to post flight log. Motor overload is more likely to be on impact with something, but your log will tell you what you need to know.

Well got the new drone yesterday from DJI. As seems to always be the case it came in a fully sealed brand new looking package. I looked the drone over very closely and from all accounts it is a brand new drone. One of the propellers was damaged however - the rubber tip was half cut off, so I threw that blade out. It was a clean cut on the tip, almost as if someone nicked it with a razor. Thankfully I have several backup props from the fly more combo when I originally got the Mavic 3.

If these care refresh drone replacements are refurbished units, as would make sense, then you cant tell by looking at them. It looks like it hasn't been touched (aside from the damaged prop tip). Not a smudge on it anywhere. It came with .0900 firmware so it needed just the most recent waypoint firmware loaded. I got it loaded, got my FCC license label on the drone, and quickly got in one flight before dark. In the first flight its just like my old one. No difference. Overall very pleased with how smooth and painless the care refresh service is. If I happen to come across an issue with this new drone I will dig this thread back up and post it here for completeness sake, But so far everything is great. Honestly the biggest inconvenience from my personal perspective in all of this is that they send the drone back with signature required. Thankfully I had company visiting who were staying at my house, and I asked them to watch for UPS and sign for the package for me and they did. If not for having company on that day, I would have been forced to drive 80 miles round trip to get it, because I can not be home during the day. This is me personally however, and Im sure many would prefer signature required as they could be in an area where porch pirates are a problem. I live in a rural area down a dirt road, so no risk of that here.

Tornado12 Posted at 1-10 05:59
Well got the new drone yesterday from DJI. As seems to always be the case it came in a fully sealed brand new looking package. I looked the drone over very closely and from all accounts it is a brand new drone. One of the propellers was damaged however - the rubber tip was half cut off, so I threw that blade out. It was a clean cut on the tip, almost as if someone nicked it with a razor. Thankfully I have several backup props from the fly more combo when I originally got the Mavic 3.

If these care refresh drone replacements are refurbished units, as would make sense, then you cant tell by looking at them. It looks like it hasn't been touched (aside from the damaged prop tip). Not a smudge on it anywhere. It came with .0900 firmware so it needed just the most recent waypoint firmware loaded. I got it loaded, got my FCC license label on the drone, and quickly got in one flight before dark. In the first flight its just like my old one. No difference. Overall very pleased with how smooth and painless the care refresh service is. If I happen to come across an issue with this new drone I will dig this thread back up and post it here for completeness sake, But so far everything is great. Honestly the biggest inconvenience from my personal perspective in all of this is that they send the drone back with signature required. Thankfully I had company visiting who were staying at my house, and I asked them to watch for UPS and sign for the package for me and they did. If not for having company on that day, I would have been forced to drive 80 miles round trip to get it, because I can not be home during the day. This is me personally however, and Im sure many would prefer signature required as they could be in an area where porch pirates are a problem. I live in a rural area down a dirt road, so no risk of that here.

Glad you got a replacement. I had to send my new Mavic 3 back at Christmas due to a faulty gimbal. Never flown. A replacement was sent yesterday with a different serial number, so hopefully a new machine. Enjoy getting in the air again :-).

Tornado12 Posted at 1-10 05:59
Well got the new drone yesterday from DJI. As seems to always be the case it came in a fully sealed brand new looking package. I looked the drone over very closely and from all accounts it is a brand new drone. One of the propellers was damaged however - the rubber tip was half cut off, so I threw that blade out. It was a clean cut on the tip, almost as if someone nicked it with a razor. Thankfully I have several backup props from the fly more combo when I originally got the Mavic 3.

If these care refresh drone replacements are refurbished units, as would make sense, then you cant tell by looking at them. It looks like it hasn't been touched (aside from the damaged prop tip). Not a smudge on it anywhere. It came with .0900 firmware so it needed just the most recent waypoint firmware loaded. I got it loaded, got my FCC license label on the drone, and quickly got in one flight before dark. In the first flight its just like my old one. No difference. Overall very pleased with how smooth and painless the care refresh service is. If I happen to come across an issue with this new drone I will dig this thread back up and post it here for completeness sake, But so far everything is great. Honestly the biggest inconvenience from my personal perspective in all of this is that they send the drone back with signature required. Thankfully I had company visiting who were staying at my house, and I asked them to watch for UPS and sign for the package for me and they did. If not for having company on that day, I would have been forced to drive 80 miles round trip to get it, because I can not be home during the day. This is me personally however, and Im sure many would prefer signature required as they could be in an area where porch pirates are a problem. I live in a rural area down a dirt road, so no risk of that here.

The deal is “New or as New so that’s what you should get. Incidentally it’s very rare to read of problems with refurbished drones from DJI, could be something to do with more personal scrutiny of these drones. Who knows good luck.

Dirty Bird Posted at 1-10 12:24
Just consider it as you were getting your money's worth of DJI Care!

Just a quality control test on DJI's replacement service.  : )