I sent my spark away for repair on Tuesday ( I had the gimbal gyroscope error message in the app) and the gimbal wouldn’t let me move the camera, I’ve just received the quotation and they want €490 to replace the entire drone! Everything else worked perfectly fine I don’t understand why they needed to replace the whole thing. I can’t afford to get it back and now I feel like they’re holding my drone at ransom or something! Anyone else have a similar problem?

Why have they quoted in euro when you live in the UK? Where and when did you buy the drone and what exactly caused these errors for you to return the drone? Do you have care refresh?

Sorry to hear about your issues I hope you can get it resolved quickly.

Sent it to DJI?  Doesn't sound right.  New Sparks are $380 on Amazon.  Get your unrepaired Spark sent back and keep it for spare parts after you buy a new Spark.

I had to send it to the Netherlands to fix that’s why it’s in euros, they’ve said I have crash and water damage (don’t know how) it was literally just the gimbal wouldn’t move everything else worked perfectly fine

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 08:22
I had to send it to the Netherlands to fix that’s why it’s in euros, they’ve said I have crash and water damage (don’t know how) it was literally just the gimbal wouldn’t move everything else worked perfectly fine

This was through an official DJI claim? were you assigned a support case number?  Im sure one of the very helpful Admin from DJI can look it up for you.

Yeah it’s CAS-1419411-K0Q9W2

This is the quote☹️☹️

If the analysis showed that the problem is caused by crash and liquid damage, you might not have presented the full background to us here.

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 08:53
This is the quote☹️☹️

Hopefully DJI Grace or one of the other Admin can look in to it and weigh in with more details for you.

I have no clue how it would have water damage I’ve sent the support team the flight records etc hopefully they can review it

Might have mixed up which drone is yours in their repair bay.  Yours is the pink one with sub orbital reentry burn damage, right?

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 09:22
I have no clue how it would have water damage I’ve sent the support team the flight records etc hopefully they can review it

Has it crashed or not? Very simple question. And you can trust that the blackbox contains far more information than the flightrecords do. Thus if the data shows it has crashed, it is so.

Good one. I get that it appears to have water damage and crash damage but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it was still fully functional and I only sent it away for gimbal repair. It even still had live video feed the ONLY problem I had was the gimbal was not keeping the camera straight

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 09:34
Good one. I get that it appears to have water damage and crash damage but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it was still fully functional and I only sent it away for gimbal repair. It even still had live video feed the ONLY problem I had was the gimbal was not keeping the camera straight

Ok, it's obvious now that you are hiding what has really happened. I'm out of this discussion.

I’ve worked out its cheaper to buy the fly more combo again online rather than pay the repair cost. If DJI support can’t look at it again and review it I will probably do that instead, thanks for taking the time to comment everyone, and I have crashed it before but that was a very minor crash, the gimbal problem came quite a while after

A crashed drone is a dead drone.
Would you accept one from a dealer if he dropped it on the floor?
Next subject flyaways.....

Okay I’ve accepted the fact that it’s probably a write-off because of me crashing it, I didn’t realise how fragile gimbals and drones in general can be but I still don’t understand where the water damage came from, that’s really confusing me (can humid air cause it?)

I posted recently that much electronic equipment is fitted with shock meters for various purposes, one of which is to identify bona fida claims. Cellphones certainly are.
DJI no doubt at all will follow suite here. Such is the quantity of information gathered in life today that, in the event of your crashing your drone,  DJI would be able to tell when you crashed ,where you crashed,why you crashed,  what you hit,  how much damage you did  and much else besides.
But I can't say how liquid may have infiltrated you drone, but DJI can probably tell you which lake etc it came from.

And if it was heavy instead of regular water with traces of heavy metals or boron, he also might get approached by Chinese government to work on thorium reactor somewhere in the undergrounds of central China. C'mon guys, I think you overstate things sometimes.

Well I hope I can get my drone back soon without it costing me too much, I can’t wait for drone technology to be cheaper it’s so expensive

Conspiracy theories are fascinating, but  I 'm more than pleased with my spark, and look after it. The worst can always happen , of course, but it's still fun. Must be six months now, and I'm happier than when  many rumours abounded, which I now discount.
It's a style icon, which I think even the MA can't match with its legs, though it's no doubt a seriously good drone.

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 10:30
Well I hope I can get my drone back soon without it costing me too much, I can’t wait for drone technology to be cheaper it’s so expensive

You can try to just request that the gimbal only is fixed.  It might be an issue where they have to make it perfect to release it with their quality stamp on it.  They might not have a process for only partial repairs like trucks and cars do.  

Was this a waranty thing where a crash is hid?  Or, was it a person wanting to pay to have some part repaired and what they did with it to break it is non ya business?

@gunship9 that’s what I originally expected to happen, I almost had a heart attack when I seen I’d have to pay basically the full price of a spark (and they probably wouldn’t even send it back with a battery or props!)

I just wanted the gimbal fixed, I was prepared to pay for it but not to replace the whole unit when it was still pretty functional but I guess the water damage they mentioned messed that up

The problem is one of liability. If they were to fix just the gimbal issue and return it with other potential damage, they could be held liable. If 2 weeks after you got it back, the hidden damage kicks in and it does something unexpected.

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-1-26 09:36
Ok, it's obvious now that you are hiding what has really happened. I'm out of this discussion.

Its not obvious at all.  They told me mine crashed into a buiding hundreds of feet in the air 900 miles away from where I was when it actually fell 3 feet out of the air. You're calling him a liar when DJI doesnt know what they're doing.

Madwand Posted at 2018-1-26 11:07
Its not obvious at all.  They told me mine crashed into a buiding hundreds of feet in the air 900 miles away from where I was when it actually fell 3 feet out of the air. You're calling him a liar when DJI doesnt know what they're doing.

Kindly read my posts and choose your words a bit more carefully. I have never ever called anybody a liar in this forum. In this particular case I only came to the conclusion that initially not all facts were presented. Crash has already been confirmed after all and on the liquid side the stage of "humid air" has been reached, whatever that might mean.

Getting popcorn

I have never flown near a body of water and I had no reason to believe there was any water damage hence the confusion

Bottom line is I was just looking for some advice

Do I pay the €490 for just the body replaced or do I buy another drone? (I’d get a new battery, I’ve also seen a fly more combo for £490 online on dronesforless.co.uk

Am I able to just get the gimbal problem fixed? Or is the complete replacement unavoidable?

New pristine hardware,no history, no brainer.

Be very careful where you purchase a replacement, some online stores promise the earth, but don’t deliver.  Caveat emptor.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/dronesforless.co.uk

Thanks for that Vulcan, some very mixed reviews there, I hear the company uses PayPal so if I get screwed over I should be covered right?

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 14:26
Bottom line is I was just looking for some advice

Do I pay the €490 for just the body replaced or do I buy another drone? (I’d get a new battery, I’ve also seen a fly more combo for £490 online on dronesforless.co.uk

I would suggest that you get your case once again checked carefully by directly approaching one of the DJI representatives (Administrators/Moderators) here in the forum. Their follow up has significantly helped in many cases already. Just replacing the gimbal/camera unit is cheaper than the quote that you have received as far as I can remember. The big mystery remains that "liquid damage". Have you maybe flown it in rain? If everything else functions well you might be able to avoid a complete replacement of your Spark. Have you already asked the DJI repair office from which you have got the quote what the replacement of the gimbal/camera unit only would cost?

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-26 14:47
Thanks for that Vulcan, some very mixed reviews there, I hear the company uses PayPal so if I get screwed over I should be covered right?

You can take the chance, but I'd rather not.  On top of this, there's the hassle of going through the PayPal dispute process as well as having your money sitting in limbo for a while.

I bought my Spark mid-December and was ready to buy from a few of these sites, but a quick read up on Trust Pilot put me off.  Prices are pretty much standard across the board from the big box retailers, to the small independents, so anyone offering you a "bargain" is quite often the case...not.

Obviously there have been a number of contended customers, but the ratio is way too small for my liking.

do you have a warranty? if you do ask them about it but since it is an expensive part of the drone it would explain the cost

Hi Sir, we are sorry for the confusion caused, please check the picture of the damage assessment below, the water-proof labels inside the aircraft have been red which means the drone had got water-damaged. For this situation, we recommend to replace the whole aircraft since the drone with water damage may exist many potential threat, we do not suggest to fly it anymore for safety. Thanks for your understanding.

Thanks for replying @DJI Mindy, is there absolutely no chance of me just getting the gimbal problem fixed because I honestly believe it it doesn’t actually have any internal damage from water (even if the indicators are red)

fansacc1dc2b Posted at 2018-1-27 08:48
Thanks for replying @DJI Mindy, is there absolutely no chance of me just getting the gimbal problem fixed because I honestly believe it it doesn’t actually have any internal damage from water (even if the indicators are red)

Sorry to tell you that we would not recommend users continue to use their drone as the water-proof labels became red. For better flight performance, please replace the drone. Thanks for your support.