I have been, and continue to, operate a Phantom 3 Pro without any incident for 2 years or so. I decided to buy a Phantom 4 Pro and it arrived on the 14th of December.

On that very evening, the P4P suffered a total failure while hovering at 17 meters. There were no warnings, there was no pilot error, the P4P just fell from the sky. The flightlog can be seen here http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/5JF52CNQ0V8U127HMRW9/#

I am lucky enough to fly these professionally, so I am good friends with other professionals. While I have never had a failure like this, they have... so right from the start I was prepared for DJI to take 6 weeks to get the situation sorted. I've been told how horrible they are to deal with.

Staggeringly though, I just received this email from DJI which has surpassed my already low expectations

As for your crash case. It has been evaluated and the results you can see below:

“【App record GMT+8 15/12/2016 2:59:27】

1)Aircraft worked at gps mode and responded to RC command well in flight.

2)00:37, h=17m, d=1m, the record stopped while aircraft was hovering.

Conclusion:

Unable to know the incident reason only base on the app record, according to policy, discount RMA.”

Unfortunately we had only your Flight Records to go by as your internal SD card with all the black box information was broken. This left us unable to produce the much needed information that we normally use. Because no solid conclusion was made we could not provide the whole warranty on this product. We do however provide you with a 15% discount to lessen the pain of this unfortunate case somewhat.

I would have loved to give you warranty but I am not able to in this regards.

We hope to have informed you. If you have more questions please let me know and I will do everything in my capabilities to assist you in that matter.

*Emphasis my own

My case number is CAS-368122-S9V7R9. Basically, DJI sold me a Phantom 4 Pro, which failed on day one. They have the flight record that CONFIRMS a sudden power loss. Astonishingly, according to DJI, they can not honour their warrenty bacause the crash (which resulted from them supplying me with a faulty product) damaged the internal SD. So they want me to pay for their mistake, not only in the time it has taken, not only in the stress from dealing with them but now financially.

I am posting here because DJI have left me with no other alternative than to shine a spotlight on this absolutely horiffic customer service. Throughout the day I shall be posting this story on every consumer website, every quadcopter hobbiest website and every site that mentions the DJI shop. I have never in 36 years dealt with a company like this.

**UPDATE**

More quotes from Stefan at DJI

"Cases like these happen, we are sorry to say but we need to identify the problem as a product fault before we can apply warranty." - Im sorry Stefan is this supposed to comfort me? Cases like these happen??

"I understand you might be upset, I would be as well. But it won’t get much better than this.

I would advise to mull it over a bit and see if you want to continue with the case or not. Is it just me or is the language being used here very threatening??

Since the internal SD card was damaged, without the flight data it's difficult to determine the cause of the crash.
While we'll inform our support about your case and find out if there's anything we can do for you.

DaceX80 Posted at 2017-1-17 01:01
**UPDATE**

More quotes from Stefan at DJI

Better get a lawyer, son
You better get a real good one

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-1-17 01:11
Since the internal SD card was damaged, without the flight data it's difficult to determine the cause of the crash.
While we'll inform our support about your case and find out if there's anything we can do for you.

DJI states the following

Return & Refund Service will not be provided where:
× Service is requested seven (7) calendars days or more after receipt of the product.
× A product sent to DJI for Return & Refund Service does not include all original accessories, attachments or packaging, or any item is not in new or like-new condition, i.e. with cracks, dents or scratches.
× A legal proof of purchase, receipt or invoice is not provided or is reasonably believed to have been forged or tampered with.
× Any fault or damage of the product is caused by unauthorized use or modification of the product, including exposure to moisture, entry of foreign bodies (water, oil, sand, etc.) or improper installation or operation.
× Product labels, serial numbers, waterproof marks, etc. show signs of tampering or alteration.
× Damage is caused to the product by uncontrollable external factors, including fire, floods, high winds or lightning strikes.
× A product is not delivered to DJI within seven (7) calendar days after Return & Refund Service confirmation is sent from DJI.
× Other circumstances stated in this policy.

Then further down the page

× It is requested over fifteen (15) calendars days after receiving the product.
× A legal proof of purchase, receipt or invoice is not provided or is reasonably believed to have been forged or tampered with.
× A product sent to DJI for replacement does not include all original accessories, attachments and packaging, or contains items damaged by user error.
× A product is found to have no defects after all appropriate tests are conducted by DJI.
× Any fault or damage of the product is caused by unauthorized use or modification of the product, including exposure to moisture, entry of foreign bodies (water, oil, sand, etc.) or improper installation or operation.
× Product labels, serial numbers, waterproof marks, etc. show signs of tampering or alteration.
× Damage is caused to the product by uncontrollable external factors, including fire, floods, high winds or lightning strikes.
× A product has not been sent back to DJI seven (7) calendar days after replacement confirmation from DJI.
× Proof of damage in transit issued by the carrier cannot be provided.
× Other circumstances stated in this policy.

Mindy can you point me to the part where DJI says that warranty is voided in cases where the internal SD is damaged? Even if that damages is caused by a faulty quadcopter? And if what Stefan at DJI support says is true, and "Cases like these happen," surely you should have a better policy of dealing with them?

**UPDATE 2**

**UPDATE 2**

Similar to the question I asked in this thread, I asked Stefan the following

"Can you point out to me where DJI has stated that your after sales policy does not cover failures where blackbox information can not be recovered due to the crash?? The unit was not lost, it was returned. You are not helping me, and you are not helping yourself."

He Replied

"The issue here is the Engineers are not able to appoint a responsible party.
We can’t, with the information we currently have, determine whether this was a pilot or drone error.
If you have more information available which you didn’t send us by all means, please send it to me for re-evaluation. Otherwise this conclusion will not change.

Then in a seperate email:

"I have been campaigning for your case despite our rocky conversation and I have good news. I have the greenlight to put you up for a much higher discount.
I can now offer you 50% off your RMA price.
Hope this will suffice."

I replied to both these mails in this message:
"Stefan. DJI entered into a contract with myself when you sold me the Phantom 4 Pro. There are various terms and conditions applied when a product is purchased. Can you tell me where, in these terms and conditions, it says that product warranty is voided if the internal SD is damaged in a crash? Warranty in this case is established on these terms and conditions, have I voided my warranty or not?

Secondly, I appreciate your campaigning on my behalf but you are missing the point. By DJI's own stated terms, what you are trying to do is wrong morally & legally. I will not accept 50% off RMA and the offer is insulting when you look at the circumstances of this case."

This was the final email from Stefan at DJI thus far

"Dear Alan,
Alright. I am going to discuss this case with upper management, this will require time however so I won’t be able to come to a conclusion right away, maybe not even today as I need to build a solid case to defend your case and my own advice in this case.
I will contact you again when I have their ultimate decision.
Kind Regards,
DJI Support EU
Stefan"


I wont lie, I find various things Stefan has said to be troubling but I will leave it to those reading to see if they agree.

The fact remains, I bought a Phantom 4 Pro from DJI's online shop. On the very first day of operation, I believe the 3rd or 4th flight, the quadcopter lost all power and fell 17 meters on to the ground. Flight records from the pilot app confirm this sequence of events but regardless of this, I wonder what the response would be if I had bought the product from a local retailer and NOT direct from DJI? DJI may very well be following protocol but in this case it looks like they are trying their hardest to get out of honouring a warranty.

I have never had any issue with DJI up until this point. Due to how fantastic the P3P is, I never hesitated from buying directly from DJI. I deeply regret that decision however. I dont want to be here fighting over things like this, I just want DJI to honour their terms and do the right thing in my case.

DaceX80 Posted at 2017-1-17 02:54
**UPDATE 2**

Similar to the question I asked in this thread, I asked Stefan the following

Any options via your credit card? Dispute charges or extra warranty coverage?

fredq2 Posted at 2017-1-17 03:00
Any options via your credit card? Dispute charges or extra warranty coverage?

Currently looking into this and what my position is legally. I have no experience in this kind of thing so any and all advice is welcome

DaceX80 Posted at 2017-1-17 03:04
Currently looking into this and what my position is legally. I have no experience in this kind of thing so any and all advice is welcome

If you paid with a credit card and you havent paid the bill with the drone on it, you could dispute the charge with your cc company. That suspends the transaction while the cc company works with DJI to figure out if its a legit charge. You should provide extensive documentation to your cc company. Sometimes you can do it after you paid the bill but that's rare - I would research any extra warranties the cc has at that point.

It really depends on how good you cc company is at this kind of thing.

I can see DJIs view of this to a point - they dont have evidence that its a drone failure, however, it seems that IF the drone failed and destroyed the evidence they should have some leeway, especially since it was new. Putting the charge in dispute gives you a little leverage.
edit - for the future consider a state farm personal property policy (for hobbyist use only). I have that for 2 P3Ps for $60/year and it would have covered this.
edit 2 - Understand your frustration but recommend you stay fact based and courteous with the DJI reps on here. They are very helpful and kindness will get you farther.

fredq2 Posted at 2017-1-17 03:15
If you paid with a credit card and you havent paid the bill with the drone on it, you could dispute the charge with your cc company. That suspends the transaction while the cc company works with DJI to figure out if its a legit charge. You should provide extensive documentation to your cc company. Sometimes you can do it after you paid the bill but that's rare - I would research any extra warranties the cc has at that point.

It really depends on how good you cc company is at this kind of thing.

Appreciate the response. Unfortunately the payment has been processed but I will look into it!

I agree, I can absolutely see DJI's point in this but where I tend to disagree with you is that they do have evidence that is a drone failure. In fact, all the available evidence suggests drone failure. Furthermore, in my opinion it strains credulity to come up with a scenario where this crash was anything other than drone failure when you look at the totality of the facts.

Just as Stefan mentioned, we can't determine the cause of crash according to current information.
We really want to work it out with you.
Our support team will keep following up your case. Thank you for your understanding.

FINAL UPDATE
DJI have eventually done the right thing and decided to honour the warranty.
Message as follows
"Dear (DaceX80),
I was in the process of wrapping it up, but I will reply to this email instead.
I am happy to tell you that in light of recent events and my endorsement we will provide warranty on this unable to judge case. We require no further action on your end, I will change this case to warranty immediately so it can be put in line for the rest of the process.
We hope to have informed you.
Kind Regards,
DJI Support EU Stefan"


My conclusion from all this, DJI make incredible tech but their customer service is extremely poor. I feel like the company operates their customer service like a production line. They all follow protocol and forget they are dealing with human beings, they forget that certain situations require nuance and flexibility. It is very unpleasant to be on the receiving end of this.
As appreciative as I am that DJI eventually came through, I honestly can not recommend buying directly from them again until they change their approach to all this.
I would and will buy DJI products in the future, just not direct from them. I hope they review this kind of situation and improve from it.
Also want to thank everybody for the constructive comments here.