Gassendi
 lvl.1
United States
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I am bumping this thread to comment on my experience with DJI's account policies. Very briefly - DJI's products and policies are not designed with users' needs or best interests in mind, and I will be purchasing drones from their competitors.
For those who want more detail...
I've had the opportunity to use a small fleet of DJI drones owned by my employer. The account login process has caused a lot of problems which are familiar to those who read this forum. Some information was lost by the previous owner and DJI has chosen to not be very helpful in recovering usability. Let me emphasize the word 'chosen' here. DJI could have designed things differently and could be more responsive when problems like this develop. This forum and the internet in general is full of stories of people losing account information for one reason or another. DJI's standard response seems to consist of boilerplate messages in which they simply re-state their policies, followed by information which is already known (chiefly, without the email addresses used to create accounts, nothing will be done). This is unhelpful and frankly patronizing, yet it happens over and over again. This very thread has several of DJI's non-answer responses.
There have been instances, also described in detail many times before, of the drones being taken somewhere out of internet coverage only to find them unusable because of a required update. Again, this is a policy of DJI's choosing. The rationalization is always flight safety, which rings untrue.
In the United States at least, there are now very clear regulations on drone flight. An FAA license is needed for commercial operations and even purely recreational pilots are expected to obtain some training, in the form of the TRUST Exam. It can now reasonably be assumed that safety is the pilot's responsibility, in terms of both regulation and physical well being. It is not necessary to lock down functionality of owned products to ensure flight safety - that burden has been transferred to individual remote pilots. It's certainly not desirable considering the many failures of DJI equipment to accomplish their basic operational function for lack of an internet connection.
I won't speculate on DJI's true reasons for denying basic functionality to customers after purchase. But let's be clear that this is precisely what DJI is doing. Customers purchase expensive equipment, reasonably expect to utilize it at times and places of their choosing, only to find they must satisfy the whims of a far off company. When seeking help, these customers are patronized and essentially told nothing can be done because no substantive changes have been forthcoming.
At my urging, my company will be phasing out all DJI equipment. We have identified products from other manufacturers that will meet our needs going forward and I suggest others do the same. However, this post is not merely a complaint - this is an opportunity for DJI to change. I'll check in every so often on these forums to see if the problems I've described persist, and if DJI does indeed learn and improve. If real change to their products does take place, and users are put back in full control of their purchased property, my employer and I may reconsider DJI products in the future. But for now, we are done with their heavy-handedness, mistrust and condescending attitude toward customers.
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