Copied from email sent to support...

Let me start off by stating that this drone was a replacement to my original drone due to a gimbal problem because of a firmware update.

I am not a happy customer.  Less than 10 minutes in-flight on its first flight since being back and the drone looses response to the controller, does not respond to commands, and then free falls to the ground.

Needless to say I am furious.

Essentially here is a rundown of what happened.

I was flying in an open park, I was not near any objects or other obstructions, about 3 videos were recorded which were issue free. I then decided to go back to the home point to land, as I began to descend, the drone began backing up, as it continued to back up I attempted to apply forward stick to go forward. The drone would not respond and continued backing up towards a tree. Starting to panic, I applied full forward stick, and attempted to acsend full stick. The drone was not on autoland and was being controlled manually so there should not have been a reason the drone was not responding, but it still would not respond, the drone made contact with a small branch lasting for about 3-4 seconds during which I was in full panic mode and desperately trying to move away from the object. The drone STILL would not respond to any commands, the propellers then shut down fully at which point, being about 1.5-2 meters away I attempted to run to the drone to catch it, however the drone free fell about 8-10 feet to a full belly landing on grass. The impact clearly damaged the back landing gears, the gimbal and gimbal wiring. I was furious and very angry at this point as I could NOT understand why the drone would not respond. I examined the controller but could not find any issues there. The drone was on RC mode. I had to link the controller to the drone prior to usage and I was encountering issues calibrating the IMU and the compass. It took more time then average to complete these calibrations and at least three attempts before it was successful. Prior to flight I went through a full pre flight inspection and found no errors, firmware updated to the latest, no damages to the propellers or the body of the drone.

Like I said, I am utterly angry and upset that this happened as I tried every conceivable action or effort to avoid a collision and land safely yet the drone WOULD NOT respond to any commands at all.

Can you post the flight log?

I have to wait till I am at my computer. Right now I have the log on my phone on the DJI Go 4 app unless there is another way to port it from the app

Sorry to hear about the crash accident, we suggest to fill in online repair request to start a ticket and send in the drone for data analysis. We will help to find out the reason of the incident.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-9-23 19:32
Sorry to hear about the crash accident, we suggest to fill in online repair request to start a ticket and send in the drone for data analysis. We will help to find out the reason of the incident.

Thank you DJI Mindy,

I have to wait until Monday to call them for repair. I'm in Canada so I cannot use the online repair option

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-9-24 03:41
Thank you DJI Mindy,

I have to wait until Monday to call them for repair. I'm in Canada so I cannot use the online repair option

No problem, our support will help to start a ticket.

I have sent several emails to support.us and have not received any replies to my queries or request for repairs. Could you please help with this?

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-9-25 11:11
I have sent several emails to support.us and have not received any replies to my queries or request for repairs. Could you please help with this?

Would you please leave me with the ticket number? I will help to speed up the reply.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-9-25 19:56
Would you please leave me with the ticket number? I will help to speed up the reply.

Hello, that is the problem. I still have not received a reply giving me a ticket number or case number yet. I have only sent them the email asking for service and explaining to them what occurred

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-9-26 01:32
Hello, that is the problem. I still have not received a reply giving me a ticket number or case number yet. I have only sent them the email asking for service and explaining to them what occurred

When you sent email to support successfully, you will get a ticket number (not the case number). You could also PM me your email address, I will help to look into, thanks.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-9-26 02:02
When you sent email to support successfully, you will get a ticket number (not the case number). You could also PM me your email address, I will help to look into, thanks.

All the flight logs were synchronized with the drone before I send it to customer service just connect with my mail and password to find them, because my password was asked me with the address mail in the RMA form

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-9-26 02:02
When you sent email to support successfully, you will get a ticket number (not the case number). You could also PM me your email address, I will help to look into, thanks.

Can do that, you will have to point out how do I PM you. I am using mobile

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-9-26 03:08
Can do that, you will have to point out how do I PM you. I am using mobile

You have to look for the personal message icon underneath the button that says, 'Add Friend.' If you can not find the icon on your mobile device, please log in the website on a regular computer.

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-9-26 03:08
Can do that, you will have to point out how do I PM you. I am using mobile

Or please just post your email account here, I will delete when I see it.

Case number CAS-1041811-L2W3V1

Now I am really angry at DJI  and I am about to ask for a full refund and never touch another DJI product again.

I just got a quote asking me to pay for the repair on a device that I could not control with the remote control which caused the crash in the first place.  It's funny, The drone would not have crashed in the first place if it had responded to input commands that I was giving to the remote control. I'm sorry but that sounds like a software or hardware issue that caused this crash to happen and I refuse to pay for something that I did not forcefully do myself.

Again I am sorry but this is not a crash caused by user error or lack of experience or other issues, if I was responsible for crashing the drone I would have said so from the start and excepted my fate, in this case though I did not crash the drone. It just would not respond to me telling it to move away from an object. And now DJI wants me to pay for the repair?  Pretty pathetic customer service if you ask me.

I expect this to be resolved before I make my ultimate decision and asked for my $1800 back

For the reading of the quote that I received, I cannot help but see one critical message that says

User command stick error.

Which seems to sum up my complaint that the drone would not respond to the remote.  Your techs are trying to say that I did not allow the drone to stop in time before the object,  which is funny because I can see on the flight review that I apply for 100% forward stick but the drone continues to go backwards and does not show any signs of attempting to stop.

If this cannot be resolved that I will demand a full refund and I will make a social media post

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-10 12:19
For the reading of the quote that I received, I cannot help but see one critical message that says

User command stick error.

I would've edited the post I just posted but cannot so I will add this to it.

Same remote controller as I bought with my drone
Different drone altogether because my drone that I purchased was swapped out because of an issue with the firmware. So how do I know there was not steal any issues with this drone which most likely is a refurbished unit, at the very least how can no one speculate if there was communication errors because of a different drone and remote control having issues trying to communicate.

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-10 12:21
I would've edited the post I just posted but cannot so I will add this to it.

Same remote controller as I bought with my drone

We understand how you feel, really sorry about the data analysis.
Your concern and request have been transferred to appropriate team to follow up, they will double analyze the log and made it clear for you.
We will have someone to contact you after investigation, please wait patiently, thank you.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-10-10 19:06
We understand how you feel, really sorry about the data analysis.
Your concern and request have been transferred to appropriate team to follow up, they will double analyze the log and made it clear for you.
We will have someone to contact you after investigation, please wait patiently, thank you.

Ok thank you, hopefully they will make it clear for me under the fact that I had no way to control it, that I did not crash it and that I tried everything possible to control the drone that day but it would not respond and crashed. Anything indicating any kind of command stick error is considered a hardware, or at least software malfunction. I have read many other users here reporting loss of response or their drones not responding to input commands and this tells me there is a problem that is not user error. I should not have to pay for the repair or use my DJI care and if DJI thinks I should then I am point blank demanding a refund and I will use another company

I have sent this email to support.us  I am awaiting a response from senior manager.

Failing this response or satisfactory resolution will result in me issuing a chargeback if necessary to receive my refund and I will post to social media how arrogant and rediculous tech support agents at DJI. I have never been so insulted arrogantly by someone who should be in the position of assistance and I am furious.

Email sent....
CAS-1041811-L2W3V1

This is in reference to the above noted case that I find it very insulting that your technicians would insinuate pilot error when I have myself and two other witnesses who were viewing the drone not responding to my commands on the remote.  I find that the attitude of the technician to also be very arrogant to insinuate that I am responsible for the drone crashing when I explained that the drone was backing up while I was applying for throttle and the drone would not respond and for a period of five seconds made contact with an object and refused to respond to my controls to go forward.

I will be looking for email contacts to other DJI associates in your management department and will be demanding a full refund unless the drone is properly repaired and send back to me without cost. I will also begin posting this experience on social media as I am fed up

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-11 12:08
I have sent this email to support.us  I am awaiting a response from senior manager.

Failing this response or satisfactory resolution will result in me issuing a chargeback if necessary to receive my refund and I will post to social media how arrogant and rediculous tech support agents at DJI. I have never been so insulted arrogantly by someone who should be in the position of assistance and I am furious.

Our supervisor has contacted you to explain why the drone crashed into the tree.
From the flight records, it is clear that at 06:53, you pushed backward and the drone moved backward to hit the tree.
You try to correct the path but it was so quick and there was no enough time for unit to stop.

We understand your frustration, but we are unable to refund due to pilot error, really sorry for that.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-10-11 22:21
Our supervisor has contacted you to explain why the drone crashed into the tree.
From the flight records, it is clear that at 06:53, you pushed backward and the drone moved backward to hit the tree.[view_image]
You try to correct the path but it was so quick and there was no enough time for unit to stop.

And as I said to your supervisor. What you are seeing and what occurred are two totally different things and I have two witnesses that observed firsthand what occurred.

I was not close enough to the object when any sort of back pressure was applied to the remote. However I applied for 100% forward stick as well as I applied for 100% upward stick on the left side of the remote.

THE DRONE DID NOT RESPOND nor would it to ANY COMMANDS.  I also explain to your supervisor that DURING the impact, the drone STILL WOULD NOT RESPOND. This whole process took roughly 7 SECONDS plus another 5 at the time the drone impacted and was still airborne but NOT RESPONDING.  It is clearly know that the Mavic pro can dead stop in under seven seconds from 100% stick command. ESPECIALLY WITH SPORT MODE OFF.

It is also clearly known that satellite imagery can differ and be marginally off from what is actually there. Or instance what your GPS satellite photo shows and what is actually there differ as two of the trees shown right near the area you all say I hit a tree, ARE NOT THERE.  And I can clearly take a photo of the area for you as proof.

I am not backing down on this I know exactly what I was doing and I did not have the drone in a dangerous position no more so that it should've been if the drone responded to my command inputs.  There was clearly a communication error between the remote and the drone and quite frankly I am not the only one to experience this with a DJI drone as I have seen in other threads on this forum.  I have done enough flight test to know how fast the drone will respond and how long it will take to stop.  Your staff have also failed to take into account weather, temperature, humidity, and the clear message that I stated that indicated that all four motors were extremely hot to touch as well as the drone body itself. This alone clearly tells me there was an issue with this drone.

I will firmly state this the last time,  I expect a resolution to this issue and the drone repaired or replaced or else I will immediately issue a chargeback for full refund of the drone,  I will then make it very clear to everyone I talk to including on social media to stay away from DJI products as they like to blame you for the problem instead of excepting responsibility for the high probability of a technical issue, and then I will not stop until I find the chief managers or owners of DJI and submit a formal complaint.

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-12 18:54
And as I said to your supervisor. What you are seeing and what occurred are two totally different things and I have two witnesses that observed firsthand what occurred.

I was not close enough to the object when any sort of back pressure was applied to the remote. However I applied for 100% forward stick as well as I applied for 100% upward stick on the left side of the remote.

All the analysis and result are based on all information you provided, if you believe we made a wrong analysis, please provide evidence, we would love to analyze again.
We understand your frustration, while the witnesses cannot help us to analyze but data log inside the aircraft which are objective.
Thanks for your understanding.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-10-13 03:43
All the analysis and result are based on all information you provided, if you believe we made a wrong analysis, please provide evidence, we would love to analyze again.
We understand your frustration, while the witnesses cannot help us to analyze but data log inside the aircraft which are objective.
Thanks for your understanding.

You do understand that a chargeback means that the finance company are used would reverse the funds for spelling correct? Like I told another supervisor we are not talking about a $200 product we are talking about something that is well in excess of $1500   That is a lot of money that I would appreciate a lot more empathy to the situation. Do you want evidence that I will get you photographs of the area not a problem I will show you that the tree in question on your satellite photo is not there it is out of date. You cannot dispute other people who have had the same issue

Right now as far as I am concerned your company is acting incompetently , I feel insulted, frustrated, aggravated, at the end of my rope with this situation. It was not the same drawing that came back from the first repair and I have issues from the get go getting the remote to recognize that thrown that should say enough   PERIOD

Now if we are going to go back-and-forth you and I, that I would like to speak to your manager.  I have found the person who has found in your company and I have already said an email.

  Where I live we have consumer protection laws and if a company cannot abide by certain regulations within that long then we have protections available to us. I have disputed your data I have provided first-hand account of what happened, I just told you in the last email that I applied  forward stick and upward stick  command  yet your data analysis is obviously not showing upward stick command    Further, when I realized the drone was about to make contact, one of the actions I talk to try to avoid the collision was to also apply left stick to get it to move away. Is your dad a showing this as well? I can guarantee you it is not because the drone did not respond   I just finished telling you enough times that I had issues getting the drone and the remote  to sync using your instructions, then I had issues calibrating the  drone

I had enough issues with this drone, the drone that was not the one I purchased. If you are going to continue to argue with me I want to talk to your manager.

In the second paragraph of my post above it should have said that it was not the same drone that came back from repairas the one I purchased and that I have been having issues getting the drone to pair with the remote from the get go.

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-13 04:14
You do understand that a chargeback means that the finance company are used would reverse the funds for spelling correct? Like I told another supervisor we are not talking about a $200 product we are talking about something that is well in excess of $1500   That is a lot of money that I would appreciate a lot more empathy to the situation. Do you want evidence that I will get you photographs of the area not a problem I will show you that the tree in question on your satellite photo is not there it is out of date. You cannot dispute other people who have had the same issue

Right now as far as I am concerned your company is acting incompetently , I feel insulted, frustrated, aggravated, at the end of my rope with this situation. It was not the same drawing that came back from the first repair and I have issues from the get go getting the remote to recognize that thrown that should say enough   PERIOD

TdotTrucker, I understand your frustration, but we had explained it is the pilot's stick command error for this case, the result was made based on the data, it won't be covered by warranty. If you don't pay for the charge in a certain time, the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired after. Hope your kind understanding.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-13 21:28
TdotTrucker, I understand your frustration, but we had explained it is the pilot's stick command error for this case, the result was made based on the data, it won't be covered by warranty. If you don't pay for the charge in a certain time, the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired after. Hope your kind understanding.

All any of your staff know how to do is argue with customers. You say data, it's the data, it's the data. The data is right and so on.

YOUR DATA IS WRONG. YOUR DATA IS MISSING INFORMATION THAT PROVES I AM RIGHT

I will try and state this ONE LAST DAMN TIME
You all say I applied back stick and did not have enough time to correct the flight.

I have said I began applying 100% forward stick, then also applied left stick and upward stick with NO RESPONSE. DJI wake up and listen to my words, I APPLIED LEFT STICK AND UP STICK, yet your "data" SAYS NONE OF THIS,

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS????? How do you explain that your data is NOT showing left or up stick applied seconds before the crash????

I will do it for you, there was NO RESPONSE FROM THE DRONE TK ANYTHING I DID. I HAD NO CONTROL OF IT.

I am done arguing and playing these bs games, your company said it would reanalize the data thoroughly according to Jeremy, he has all but ignored me and does not reply to emails now, so I guess no thorough analyzation was none. Either the drone is repaired or I will begin looking at legal options available to me including working with other DJI users. I will also be getting my refund no matter what.

Your company is ignorant, you do not listen, rather argue and stick to flawed logic and treat your customers like crap because they are not big time celebrities and known figures yet you will freely send them thousands and thousands of dollars in equipment for free. Nothing more then PR bs.

IF THE DRONE COMES BACK, I WILL SEND IT RIGHT BACK TO YOU.

And what do you define as certain time??? Be specific or don't threaten, because to me what you proposed is an ultimatum of threat which is not allowed here under our consumer act.

I have sent an email to all members of your management team including upper executives expressing my frustration with this and how you all choose to ignore a piece of information that You simply cannot answer or explain. I have also pointed this out to my store OmniView Tech so they may better assist future customers on DJI experiences

Further, no one has even asked for valid proof be provided that their data is possibly incorrect such as photos, testimony or other evidence. Evidence which would hold major weight in a legal setting here where I live.


To ALL DJI users, has anyone watching this thread ever had to go through such a situation and blatant disregard for empathy as this, and if so, how did you fix this issue

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-14 04:44
Further, no one has even asked for valid proof be provided that their data is possibly incorrect such as photos, testimony or other evidence. Evidence which would hold major weight in a legal setting here where I live.

I have a different situation, but I too will never do business with the company again.  I would not hesitate to start the process with your financial company if you have the ability to do so.  DJI is Chinese company and does not have the culture nor tact that the western world has when it comes to items we purchase.  Their USA based lawyers know this which is why they have an arbitration only clause (no class action lawsuits allowed).

It's unfortunate that they still pursue the drone industry on the small scale level because they are victimizing each new client that jumps on board unknowingly.

Danoldo Posted at 2017-10-14 06:39
I have a different situation, but I too will never do business with the company again.  I would not hesitate to start the process with your financial company if you have the ability to do so.  DJI is Chinese company and does not have the culture nor tact that the western world has when it comes to items we purchase.  Their USA based lawyers know this which is why they have an arbitration only clause (no class action lawsuits allowed).

It's unfortunate that they still pursue the drone industry on the small scale level because they are victimizing each new client that jumps on board unknowingly.

I'm happy I live in Canada for the legal reason then. They won't allow just no arbitration issue here and I never remembered signing any contract forbidding me to join a class action. I may be wrong though.

But if this is true, perhaps Canadian customers who have been wronged and are also forced to bow to DJI negligence and ignorance can initiate a class action and create a case where DJI has to smarten up.

This one DJI rep on Facebook... "hope you can learn from it and move on".... seriously?? Any right minded customer service centre here in Canada would have fired you for making a comment like that, especially to a customer who has raised valid concerns, is frustrated and has already spent close to 2 grand on something. They have no respect and cannot take responsibility for their mistakes and problems

They continue to ignore and not respond, heaven forbid they even ask any questions like “why do you think our info is wrong” or “how can we fix this right” or even try to resolve it. Nope, let’s just keep arguing with the customer who paid lots of money... whatever happened to the customer is always right? Hmm

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-14 19:13
They continue to ignore and not respond, heaven forbid they even ask any questions like “why do you think our info is wrong” or “how can we fix this right” or even try to resolve it. Nope, let’s just keep arguing with the customer who paid lots of money... whatever happened to the customer is always right? Hmm

I am sorry for the late reply. As we had mentioned above, the data did not show the error of the drone, and I had also checked your ticket, we had also reanalyzed your data and contacted you, the data never showed the drone's abnormal even we had reanalyzed it. If more trusted data could be provided, please send it back to our support. Or we could not cover your repair with warranty.

Danoldo Posted at 2017-10-14 06:39
I have a different situation, but I too will never do business with the company again.  I would not hesitate to start the process with your financial company if you have the ability to do so.  DJI is Chinese company and does not have the culture nor tact that the western world has when it comes to items we purchase.  Their USA based lawyers know this which is why they have an arbitration only clause (no class action lawsuits allowed).

It's unfortunate that they still pursue the drone industry on the small scale level because they are victimizing each new client that jumps on board unknowingly.

Sorry for the unpleasant experience, could you please tell us how may we help you with? We would like to see if there is anything we can do.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-16 01:00
I am sorry for the late reply. As we had mentioned above, the data did not show the error of the drone, if more trusted data could be provided, please send it back to our support, and I had also forwarded your needs to the colleague who is following your ticket. Will try to see if there is anything we can do.

Hello  DJI Thor,

Unfortunately, I do not have any technical data such as a separate flight log. In reviewing the flight log more closely I can however see an issue. Just before the point in which the drone makes contact I can clearly see that the throne log turns to face away from the object that it hits  and then according to speed references you can easily tell the drone drifts backwards.

Just to clarify your data, first I did not ask the drone  to point in the direction it was facing before is began to drift backwards, you will need to carefully check the data to verify this, as the drone is drifting backwards towards the object, your data is not showing that I applied full left stick and full ascend or up stick.  Please as well verify this information on the data.

Witness to the incident was my wife and my sister-in-law who both observe the drone behave unexpectedly and  erratically . They observed the drone drift backwards. I stated to them that it is not responding, I cannot control it or stop it.

Thor,  I understand what your technicians are trying to say based on what they have in front of them. But there is a lot more to a big picture that I just bytes of data recovered from the loss. There is usually weather information, technical information, witness accounts, pilot accounts, and much more than I can help you see the bigger picture  I ask you a question you please try and answer without dodging it please, if there are certain stick commands that are missing from the data, and if you review the paragraph above this one where I indicate two witnesses that saw this occur including what I said to them, how can it still be pilot error? How can you explain missing data, two witnesses, and stated to those two witnesses that I cannot control or stop it!

The only explanation I have for missing data from the flight log is because the drone did not receive that data or stick commands, Would this not be a correct assumption?

TdotTrucker Posted at 2017-10-16 01:24
Hello  DJI Thor,

Unfortunately, I do not have any technical data such as a separate flight log. In reviewing the flight log more closely I can however see an issue. Just before the point in which the drone makes contact I can clearly see that the throne log turns to face away from the object that it hits  and then according to speed references you can easily tell the drone drifts backwards.

Tdot, I really understand your frustration, but as we can only evaluate the data on the drone and the flight record, or the video files recorded in the accident, it the data did show the malfunction of the drone, we are not able to justify what users mentioned. And our aftersales policy has also stated the loss of the data is not covered by our service. Hope your kind understanding.

And yes again you dodge the question that I ask. I am a very technical person and the experience I had that day clearly told me that there was a communication problem between the remote control and the throne with your company and your representatives are refusing to except or take any responsibility for. You have not provided me any straight answers to my questions other than just argued with me in stating that I am the responsible party that crash the drone and that it is my fault and I should learn from it.  That is the worst customer service experience I have ever had to deal with and I am now in contact with a lawyer to seek compensation.

From my first hand experience, which you are refusing to listen to, except, or investigate further, there was a clear problem with the drone. It did not respond to any stick commands as I was trying to land it. This is not and I repeat not user error I don’t give a crap what you guys think. It was not user error. It was a failure to communicate. I will now be applying the full weight of the law  in my country of residence which is not the United States of America to this matter.

I will also be contacting consumer rights groups and explain my experience with DJI and will make my experience known publicly through the media.  I reside in the biggest City with in my country, which is home to over 4 million people. Perhaps once I am done explaining my experience publicly and it affects the mind buying decision to 4 million people if not much more, maybe that your company will learn something about customer experience in customer service

Let me explain something perfectly clear to you my friend. In a court of law in my country, the decision is based on the weight of the evidence. Your evidence is incomplete or corrupted data that is missing key data points that if you guys would wake up and listen to what I tell you that there was a problem with the drone.

My evidence will be based upon your same incomplete data but will also include eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence  of the park and the area where the drone crashed, photographs of the drone which I still have in my possession that I took when it crashed and will include every attempt that I have made contact you guys to get you guys to investigate my claim further.

Let me be absolutely clear about how our court process works in my country, once the judge Waze I have it it’s yours and realizes that there is more to the story and that your company was negligent in properly investigating my claim based on the information I try to provide you. A judge will settle the case in my favour at that point.

I have noticed every person that I have spoken to at DJI and the responses that they have provided me, I have also noted a clear sign of negligence on the part of your company for contractually failing to properly investigate a customers claim

And this folks is how you really silence them. Greedy and unsympathetic is what they are