About 10 days ago I was showing off my Mini 3 Pro in a park with a large open field surrounded by pine trees. I have flown in this location many times and know it well. We were standing in the middle of the large field and I was demonstrating the various autonomous flight modes in Quick Shots. I had previously done this at the very same point in the field on several occasions. When I started the helix maneuver I failed to notice that the drone was only about six feet high. The drone immediately began the helix when commanded, and it spiraled upward and outward. I was capturing the video the entire time and was watching the RC screen rather than the Mini 3 Pro and failed to notice that it was going to spiral sideways into a pine tree. Of course the video suddenly went crazy on my screen and we turned around to see the drone fall about 15 feet into the grass.  When I got to the drone, there was not a mark on it, not even a scratch or nick on any of the props or body. I relocated to the center of the field, rebooted the drone. It immediately reconnected to the RC, made the usual startup noises, the gimbal went through its usual startup motions, and I had a sharp stable image on the RC. My optimism soon turned to sadness, however, when the RC said "preparing to take off" but went no further as no satellites were picked up. Furthering, I found that the RC reported in red that a gimbal and IMU calibration were needed. I attempted to calibrate the compass but it always failed calibration and the IMU calibration failed to do anything when pressed.

I had purchased DJI Care Regresh when I bought the Mini 3 Pro about a year ago, so I filed a request for replacement.  Within an hour or so DJI had honored my request and sent me a shipping label to return my Mini 3 Pro. The next day I was notified that a replacement Mini 3 Pro had been shipped by UPS 2nd day air, and I had packaged up my damaged Mini 3 Pro and sent it to the indicated address. Three days later I received my replacement Mini 3 Pro which appeared in every way to be a new Mini 3 Pro in the original sealed retail packaging. I was able to quickly link my RC with the new Mini 3 Pro and ownload and install the latest firmware, This afternoon I took the Mini 3 Pro flying and ran it through a wide variety of tests. The Mini 3 Pro worked perfectly.

I could not be more pleased with DJI's service.  I was notified at every step of the way on the status of my replacement drone, the arrival and passing of inspection of my damaged drone etc. I even received a phone call from DJI yesterday to confirm that I had received the replacement Mini 3 Pro and that it was operating correctly.

In summary, this accident was entirely my mistake. Were it not for DJI Care Refresh it would have cost me a lot more than $65 to repair. DJI's service under this program was exceptiona!

Tom

Hi, there. We highly appreciate you sharing your experience with our service. Rest assured that we will keep striving to provide even better service in the future. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any DJI-related concerns. We're happy to help. Thank you for your support. Happy flying!

$65 ?? Care Refresh $189 + $99 for first replacement = $288. (that's in AUD)

No doubt the service is good, but what was the $65 for?

Burt37 Posted at 5-17 16:21
$65 ?? Care Refresh $189 + $99 for first replacement = $288. (that's in AUD)

No doubt the service is good, but what was the $65 for?

Here we go again....

You pay for car insurance or house insurance and you still have to pay for an excess when you claim, that is no different to the DJI Care Refresh, you pay for the insurance and then you pay the excess when you make a claim.

You do NOT pay 3 amounts though unless you have to claim more than once.

Here in the UK the initial outlay is £75 for 1yr or £119 for 2yr.
If you have to claim, the excess is £62 for the 1st replacement and £69 for the 2nd replacement
OR 1 of the above replacements can be used for a flyaway and this is £219, pretty good for a no questions asked service, the flyaway is relatively new, whereas before you needed to have the drone to be able to claim even if it was in tiny pieces in a ziploc bag, with the flyaway cover, you don't have to have the drone, so £219 for a replacement is pretty good, ignore the initial outlay of £75 because your pay for the peace of mind cover, like with all insurance's

As i said, its no different to any other form of insurance, you pay for the service and then for the excess when you need to claim, its a pretty decent service all told, i have bought it myself but never needed to use it so far, I initially bought it for peace of mind.

Granted, you can just save the money and just pay for a new one each time @ £639 whereas my 1st claim would only be £137 (that includes initial outlay) then the 2nd claim would only be £69 or worst case £219 for flyaway so add that to the 1st claim cost, total all in if one was a flyaway, it would cost £356, thats not bad whereas yourself would have had to pay £1278, over 4x more, now if you didn't have to claim at all then over the 2yrs you've saved yourself  £1278, for someone like myself who is rubbish at saving, its a great product!

Despite your unfortunate accident, it's refreshing to hear some positive feedback on the forum. Great that you took the time and trouble to inform us all.

Bashy Posted at 5-17 18:30
Here we go again....

You pay for car insurance or house insurance and you still have to pay for an excess when you claim, that is no different to the DJI Care Refresh, you pay for the insurance and then you pay the excess when you make a claim.

So you agree. Saying that you paid only $65 dollars is wrong when you have actually paid $190 USD all up for the first replacement...

Still worth it in my opinion.

I wouldn't fly any of my current aircraft without it. It's funny because when I pull out my Phantom 4 or Mavic 2 Pro I'm always a bit too careful. It shows in the footage these years later.

I've never had insurance for anything where I didn't have to pay a deductible if it was my fault.  You could argue why we should pay a deductible when we pay for the coverage, but that's the way it is, which is unfortunate.

At the same time, when I dropped a $1000 iPad that became a paperweight, I was thrilled to pay a small deductible to get a new one, no questions asked.

Burt37 Posted at 5-17 23:27
So you agree. Saying that you paid only $65 dollars is wrong when you have actually paid $190 USD all up for the first replacement...

I do not agree it is wrong, its the way of life with most insurances, as I've already said, unless you pay a premium on your car insurance, you have to pay an excess, e.g., mins is £300 for the year, the excess is £100, no different to DJI's Care Refresh, so I can't see your argument being right in any way.

Bashy Posted at 5-18 06:42
I do not agree it is wrong, its the way of life with most insurances, as I've already said, unless you pay a premium on your car insurance, you have to pay an excess, e.g., mins is £300 for the year, the excess is £100, no different to DJI's Care Refresh, so I can't see your argument being right in any way.

So what you are saying is that you are really bad with numbers and basic economics...

and I quote:

"for someone like myself who is rubbish at saving"

If you think about it, it is really simple... You pay for a product, then you pay for the premium. The TOTAL COST is the combination of the two... Thinking that you have paid only for the premium in not really smart...

no discussion about insurance can be properly had without factoring in the very existence of the modern insurance coverage plan:  risk mitigation.  unless you add that into the equation, the calculations are not going to make a lot of sense in the end.  just because you have not a care in the world doesn't mean you can eliminate the risk factor and work the numbers solely based on cash outlay.  well, you can but it would apply only to you and nobody else.  each person has different levels but ultimately, risk counts for something.  i "always" buy drone insurance so for me, it is factored into the cost of buying the drone.  it doesn't all of a sudden materialize when a crash occurs or when i open my wallet based on an email i received.  a drone that i fly has different value when it's covered while flying vs. one that is flying naked.  you can add that up by the flight hours if you wish but i have much gains in learning and experience when i'm flying a covered drone....value (to me) that someone else cannot realize.  again, it's fine to have your own methods but just know they may not apply to others.

Burt37 Posted at 5-17 16:21
$65 ?? Care Refresh $189 + $99 for first replacement = $288. (that's in AUD)

No doubt the service is good, but what was the $65 for?

When I purchased DJI Care Refresh it was quite clear there would be a $65 charge for replacement.  DJI paid both the shipping to and from their facility in Texas. I regarded the $65 as a reasonable service charge.

Tom617 Posted at 5-18 12:20
When I purchased DJI Care Refresh it was quite clear there would be a $65 charge for replacement.  DJI paid both the shipping to and from their facility in Texas. I regarded the $65 as a reasonable service charge.

That's still not the total cost... Doesn't matter how you look at it...

I'm not saying that for some people this in not a option, but what I'm saying is that to replace the drone you didn't pay only $65. You had to pay for the Care refresh as well, and that money didn't come out of thin air... If you want to pretend that you didn't pay for that, that's your call, but it ain't the truth...

Burt37 Posted at 5-18 11:47
So what you are saying is that you are really bad with numbers and basic economics...

and I quote:

You're just being obtuse, how many times have I said that I am well aware that there is the PREMIUM + EXCESS.

For the price of a replacement drone with no questions asked it's very reasonable, YOU are the only one that I know of who does not think that it's a very cost-effective way to replace your drone after you've had to take it home in a carrier bag cause it's in many tiny pieces.

I will say it again, unless you specifically pay an EXTRA premium to get £0 excess with your motor or home insurance when you have to claim, you will ALWAYS have to pay the main PREMIUM + EXCESS which is EXACTLY the same as DJI's Care Refresh.

You're paying for peace of mind until you have to claim, and then you're paying extra for the excess so you can get a quibble-free replacement.  

You're making it sound like none of us know that we have to pay the excess, we do KNOW!

There is one thing that i do not like about it though and that's if you only paid for 1 year (not our fault as 2 years was not available at the time) and you do not make a claim and then you extend it to get the 2nd year using Care Refresh Plus, you automatically lose one of 2 replacements. Unlike with the 2 years, you get 3 all the way through. That, in my eyes, is wrong!

Bashy Posted at 5-18 19:47
You're just being obtuse, how many times have I said that I am well aware that there is the PREMIUM + EXCESS.

For the price of a replacement drone with no questions asked it's very reasonable, YOU are the only one that I know of who does not think that it's a very cost-effective way to replace your drone after you've had to take it home in a carrier bag cause it's in many tiny pieces.

Great, then next time don't forget to mention the full cost of the replacement. I'm not saying what value it has for you or anybody else here, all I'm saying is that what people advertise as replacement cost is not the truth... Quite simple really...

Now, you try not to be obtuse and understand this simple concept...

What I think about its cost effectiveness, has no bearing in this conversation. You are the one that keeps bring it up...

Burt37 Posted at 5-18 20:23
Great, then next time don't forget to mention the full cost of the replacement. I'm not saying what value it has for you or anybody else here, all I'm saying is that what people advertise as replacement cost is not the truth... Quite simple really...

Now, you try not to be obtuse and understand this simple concept...

Youre the one that keeps going on about this, I just dont get you, not ONE member has stated that there isn't any hidden costs, we all know what we are buying, we all know the costs involved as DJI tells us, youre trying to make out like its some big secret that DJI are hiding from us, that is far from it.

The replacement cost is the excess ONLY.

The actual insurance policy is the initial price, in a sense they ARE separate, you can think of it as 2 products in a way because the initial cost is to have the policy in place, thats what youre doing, buying insurance and then if you have to claim, you then pay a separate cost for a replacement.

Again, nothing hidden, we ALL know about it, only you seem to think that there is some conspiracy and DJI are hiding the replacement cost, well, they are not and its only you that thinks they are hidden.

And on that note, I'm out...

it's no different than someone buying a drone which comes with insurance for $900 but then someone else says your drone actually cost $800 and the insurance you paid $100 for that.

exactly why people are able to express their financial condition in the terms that is most suitable for them because there are literally a thousand different situations involved.  looks like burt is happy to impose his personal ideas on finances onto everyone else without taking into account there are different ways to look at it because each person's finances are unique.

when you crash your car and you have to pay a deductible, it isn't common for someone to add up the years and years worth of monthly premiums when they make a claim to cover a repair.  if someone says you have to add in $12,000 worth of premium over the last 10 years....nonsense.  exactly why we force everyone to have car insurance because their math sucks.

for me, it's a different [financial] bucket.

You two guys are a very interesting pair, to say the least... Often with you it feels like being in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"...

Had a crash with my DJI mini 3 pro. Now when I go hit the take off button the drop goes into full power and then shuts off.
Any suggestions on how to fit the problem

Tim Fowler4 Posted at 3-9 18:41
Had a crash with my DJI mini 3 pro. Now when I go hit the take off button the drop goes into full power and then shuts off.
Any suggestions on how to fit the problem

Hello there. Thank you for reaching out. We suggest sending the aircraft back to DJI for diagnosis after a crash for your flight safety. You can submit a Repair Request on the DJI website or use this link: https://repair.dji.com/. We appreciate your patience and understanding.