fansba17cce0
 lvl.1
Flight distance : 212303 ft
Canada
Offline
|
A month ago my drone malfunctioned during a movie shoot. It disconnected, lost video signal and did not return to home. Despite me pushing the return to home button it just stopped and hovered and pivoted left slightly (I discovered this later). In a desperate attempt to save the drone I pushed backwards on the controller to try and bring it back into range - however it didn't have a straight trajectory anymore since it changed direction on its own while hovering. It backed into a tree and subsequently fell and was damaged. This is just where the story begins, it's turned into a nightmare dealing with customer service and I am really in trouble now. I need help.
Here is my submission to DJI when I sent the drone back for damage assessment and repair:
The Phantom 4PRO was flying at an altitude less than 30m, when it reached 521.8 m from my position, the aircraft lost video feed and disconnected. Expecting it to return home at the set altitude (over 100m) I did not execute any controls other than a slight reverse to see if I could bring the aircraft within range. To my dismay, the aircraft never initiated RTH, and the DJI GO 4 app gave me no indication RTH had been initialized. Now very concerned I walked towards the aircraft’s last known location and saw that it had pivoted to the left without and controller input. When the aircraft reversed it was no longer on its initial trajectory. It had turned and faced another direction. At the time of disconnection, I had no idea whether stick inputs were being received – the remote indicated DISCONNECTED. The machine was well within control range at 521.8 m however, this machine even in completely isolated desert areas has shown poor range in comparison to what is expected. Unfortunately, the drone collided with a tree and struck the grassy area – damaging the shell and gimbal/camera unit. I’m concerned that this machine has always had a problem with its signal/range and am very concerned that it failed to initiate return-home. I’m not sure if this was due to a firmware update.
I called to speak to a customer service representative who assured me that the file would be looked at and given my explanation and flight logs (which were synced) he was confident that it was a malfunction and that the drone would be replaced.
I then received a repair invoice from DJI a week later in the amount of: $437.00 USD
Surprised by this I called DJI Support and they put me through to a Supervisor (last week) who reviewed my file, stick inputs, logs and said... I see the drone did not return to home, even though you pushed return-to-home many times. He admitted to me that he had seen this problem before and said admitted it was the fault of the machine but still asked me to pay the invoice. I told him, that makes no sense. You're telling me it was a defect with the machine and you're asking me to pay? He then agreed to replace my machine at no cost with a new one and that he would personally oversee this matter. I told him I would need the machine to be shipped soon because I'm using it in a Hollywood movie filming on the 27th in LA and need to have it back before then. He assured me he would put a rush on the replacement. That is not what happened. Apparently NOTHING was done.
A week later I get an e-mail from DJI saying:
"Dear Customer,
This is a second follow up for a pending invoice of your Phantom 4 Pro with an amount of 437.00. Your case No. is:
CAS-510462-M5C2Z6"
Being very shocked and concerned now, I called DJI Support again. After waiting an hour, the customer service representative and I spoke. She said, yes I see on file that your drone is to be replaced and that she confirmed that with the same supervisor. She then started telling me I had to pay the invoice at a discount... That is not what was agreed upon by the supervisor. I told her I needed them to keep their word and replace the drone which malfunctioned. She said she would get a Senior Manager to approve the replacement and said she would call me back within the hour. She did not call me back. That was yesterday and then customer service closed. She promised she would call me back with an update.
Today is Saturday April 22, 2017
I leave to film the final segments of the movie on April 27th. I am going to be in huge trouble if this isn't sorted right away. I can't believe I'm being treated this way. I was promised that this was going to be taken care of weeks ago.
BTW. I've spent over 20K in DJI orders for my business including: RONIN, RONIN-M, OSMO+, Phantom 2,3Pro,4Pro, Inspire 1... and am waiting to purchase a Matrice 210 RTK for aerial environmental studies (not that this matters). I want to be able to trust DJI when they say they're going to do something.
I need DJI to keep it's word and replace the machine as the Supervisor promised me. Soon it'll be too late! The flight logs are clear and customer service as already acknowledged the machine malfunctioned and it was promised to be shipped 2 weeks ago. My work depends on this being fixed. Please help.
|
|
lvl.2
Administrator
DJI team
