1 month ago roughly I had an unfortunately incidence.

Bought my P4 Pro in November this year, first day it was announced.

I have owned a P3. An Inspire X1, and now a Phantom 4 Pro. This was my first ever crash. Fully charged battery. Props stayed on. I took off from the ground in an open area and at about 60 feet it just dropped.

What a sick feeling. Battery ejected and props stayed on. I'll say this, for that fall it is still in good shape. Camera snapped right off. I contacted DJI support ASAP.
Ive treated this thing like gold and it's been great. I'm not sure where to point the finger because the logs look like the battery behaved fine. Props were NOT the issue and Im thinking maybe the ESC failed?!? It didnt veer off path or do anythign other then just DROP.


I send it, and get this email back...

Voltage drop FLY097 1. Unit was in P-GPS mode and was responsive to RC input; 2. At t=94s, relative height=18m, discrepancy was found among battery cells. 3. At t=96s, unit powered off in mid air. Conclusion: Voltage drop in air caused unit to shut off.Battary warranty period is expired. Activation date:2016-12-04 02:00:01 SN:0AXDDB70A20437

I have the log which I am attaching and the battery voltages looked fine throughout.  I contacted DJI tech support and got a hold of someone named Rose in tech support.  She told me she would submit my case for review again and they would contact me ASAP.  I just questioned how the battery would fail and why its not under warranty and could someone contact me and tell me why the log didnt show a battery failure

A week goes by with NO contact from them.  I send an email off and get this for a reply...

On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 4:09 PM, Jeff Wiz <gemini8026@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi.  Any update on this.  I called tech support and they were having it looked at again.  It's been 5 days since I called with zero update.

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for contacting DJI.

We greatly appreciate your positive feedback. We’re always striving to provide the best service possible and working to improve. Customer satisfaction is important to us.

Have a great day, and thank you for choosing DJI!

Best regards,

DJI Support

So I called in again.  They told me there was some policy update and they would update me the next day (Friday)  The lady who answered was of next to NO help.

So I didnt get anything from them them the next day.  And today I got this email....

Dear Customer, DJI kindly remind you that you still have a repair invoice for your Phantom 4 Prowith an amount of 235.00. Your case No. is: CAS-799839-G5F6H1 Please use the link below to submit your payment.

Long story short...

My p4 crashed and they say it was the battery which ISNT a year warranty (only 3 months)  When I couldnt find ANY proof of that in the logs.
Customer support has terrible communication and they do not know what is going on.  My drone is there and it's the middle of summer and I wish I had it.
It's a couple months old, it fell randomly on me, and they want their money to repair.  GUESS WHAT, they didnt ask for the battery and it has flown 3 times without issue in a friends P4.

I loved the camera on the drone, but it's been nothing but flakey in terms of it's flying, and now customer service wants some $$$ without ANY good communication.  

Such a happy customer.....  :s

Wow was it the orginal batteries or an off brand batteries.... thats crazy. There could be many things, Maybe the batter wasnt secured properly or I dont know I wasnt there, hope they come to a solution it wasnt operator error.

Yeah, that's pretty crappy.

Hopefully some positive conclusion can eventually be figured out...



RedHotPoker

Apologies for the inconvenience first. I have checked the case and transferred the designated team for further follow-up. And they will contact you soon.

Same thing happened to me 100%.

I am an instructor at one of the biggest flight schools in the Chicagoland area. Mine fell out of sky and they blamed battery failure. I have phantom 4 pro. Worst support ever!  I have over a 100 students learning to fly and buy drones. Might have to ask them to go to another company.

Should I instruct my students to replace batteries every 6 months or maybe use a different manufacturer? How can you warranty the drone and battery differently when it's not like I can use 3rd party batteries. When I buy a new unit I expect it all to have same warranty.

fansb588a9c5 Posted at 2017-8-14 06:50
Should I instruct my students to replace batteries every 6 months or maybe use a different manufacturer? How can you warranty the drone and battery differently when it's not like I can use 3rd party batteries. When I buy a new unit I expect it all to have same warranty.

If you did replace the battery every 6 months, does that mean that damage to the aircraft would be repaired free of charge if the battery ever failed and it fell out of the sky?

I assume they would only replace the battery and you would still have to pay for the aircraft repairs.

Man, that's a pretty [typical it seems ] crappy support/service experience you've got going on... I'm sorry...

If batteries are only warrantied for 3 months and if a battery failure occurs during flight and causes aircraft damage after 3 months, the 12 month warranty on the aircraft does not cover it?

So in order to protect the aircraft and warranty, you need to order a new battery every 90 days to mitigate that risk? Is this stated in the warranty documentation? That's pretty crazy if that is the case and seems like they are just using that as an easy out when they can...

Did they tell you to pony up within 3 days or it will be sent back?

I have received no contact from them at all.   The lady I spoke to advised me someone would contact me within a day.  There was no contact so when I phoned back I got the same story.   Once again, no contact.  So they have had it for a LONG time now, and I have no idea when I will get it back.  I havent transferred over any money to them for the repair until I talk with someone who can explain to me HOW the battery failed and the drone isnt under warranty ESPECIALLY since I have used the battery since.  

Why would they not ask for the battery?!  (it's 8 months old roughly) And am I supposed to just throw it out expecting that it could happen again!?!

Honestly, I'm just not sure how to feel anymore.  My Phantom 3's (ive owned 2 and just won another one in a photo contest) sometimes had issues, but they NEVER dropped from the sky and they were rock solid in that I never lost it or it let me down.

After experiencing the communication that is DJI support, what am I supposed to think now?!?  I considered an Inspire 2 for some commercial work, but I honestly cant imagine this same ordeal with a more expensive unit.

Either way.  No communication from them (I will phone tomorrow, I wanted to see if they would hold up to their word of contacting me)

Thanks for the comments guys, nice to see some support rather then people coming back at me asking questions and giving me a hard time about potential user error scenarios.

This is just another Reason that Our Dept. of the Army and Navy on August 2nd, put DJI on notice they would halt all flights and will no longer use thier Products EVER !!!

Tough road ahead of ya.....good luck!

DJI called me today.  Warranty is covered, and they are 2 day shipping it back to me.  I spoke with a gentleman named Tom from DJI who was rather friendly.

Im happy with this outcome.  It took a little longer then I had hoped, but they lived up to their end.

Next time around I will get the DJI care service for better peace of mind though!

Just purchased my first drone. P4Pro, extra battery, SKB case. Right out of the box the battery that came with the drone would not charge, took it back for a replacement. The replacement battery shut off in flight and crashed the drone. I have it on video. They have it now. Any advise. Worried I have a very expensive paper weight.

fansb588a9c5 Posted at 2017-8-14 06:50
Should I instruct my students to replace batteries every 6 months or maybe use a different manufacturer? How can you warranty the drone and battery differently when it's not like I can use 3rd party batteries. When I buy a new unit I expect it all to have same warranty.

Sorry for the crash accident and unpleasant experience. Could you please provide me the case number? I will help to check more details for better assistance. Thank you.

JeffInCanada Posted at 2017-8-15 10:34
DJI called me today.  Warranty is covered, and they are 2 day shipping it back to me.  I spoke with a gentleman named Tom from DJI who was rather friendly.

Im happy with this outcome.  It took a little longer then I had hoped, but they lived up to their end.

Jeff, glad to hear that everything turns out to be great, thanks for your updating.
Sorry again for the trouble caused and hope you will get it back soon.

The case number is CAS-876306-L9P0V4.Thank You.

DaMeegz Posted at 2017-8-16 04:18
The case number is CAS-876306-L9P0V4.Thank You.

Local team just finished the data analysis, the outcome and further resolution will be sent to you very soon, please wait patiently. Thank you.

All is well in the universe. DJI is making good on the repair my only concern is that I did not get the actual reason for the crash, eg; battery, disconnect, firmware, ecu. I would like to know the cause so I can look for pop up symptoms. Only flew the drone maybe 6 times and had some sort of issue all but one time.

DaMeegz Posted at 2017-8-17 12:19
All is well in the universe. DJI is making good on the repair my only concern is that I did not get the actual reason for the crash, eg; battery, disconnect, firmware, ecu. I would like to know the cause so I can look for pop up symptoms. Only flew the drone maybe 6 times and had some sort of issue all but one time.

The aircraft crashed because of power system problem, it is a warranty case, local team will take care of it and get it fixed, no worries.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-8-17 19:59
The aircraft crashed because of power system problem, it is a warranty case, local team will take care of it and get it fixed, no worries.

Same issue with no explanation about what has been done to prevent this from occurring again.


Kevin Blonie （Support）
3月6日 CST17:13
Dear David,

Good day!

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

We understand that you want to know the cause of your crashed drones. Here technical support we cannot access the result and the data analysis on your case. However, we already inform our internal department about this matter. There is already a note on your case for your request. The relevant staff will inform you in a separate email about this matter.

Kindly check your email for more updates with the status of your case.

You can check the status of your case online. You can visit this website : https://repair.dji.com/en/support/RepairTrace

We humbly ask your patience and understanding about this matter.

Have a great day and take care always.
You will receive an email survey two days after this email if not responded. If you happen to be away and won’t be able to answer this email timely, please disregard the survey and reply to us directly.
Best regards,
Kevin Blonie
DJI Technical Support
Website http://www.dji.com/support

Davidh0 Posted at 2018-3-6 08:17
Same issue with no explanation about what has been done to prevent this from occurring again.

David, sorry to read on your post, may I have the case number so that I can check more details and make it clear for you? Thanks.