Howdy,

I recently purchased a DJI MavicPRO: Flymore combo.
This purchase was very pricey for me, and took me an entire year to save up for.
This purchase was made at Fry's Electronics and I was told that company does not accept returns on this product, and any repairs or returns would need to be done through DJI


The short story:
So after flying my device 4 times for a little less than half an hour of total flight time, the fifth time I went to fly the device [after a 10 foot ascent] a propeller flew off the unit, the unit crashed, and now the gimbal is ruined/nonfunctional.  I enjoyed my short time with this device but would like to send the device into DJI and receive a refund for it.


The fact that a propeller disengaged and flew off the unit after I specifically checked each prop during my pre-flight check list is why I am asking for a refund.  The unit flies fine, but the gimbal is no longer functional, as the camera does not transfer data and can't finish the self-calibration it does when being turned on.

What do I do now to begin a refund process if at all possible?



The long story:

The device took a long time to setup (Roughly 7 hours of going over everything with a fine tooth comb), and at the end of that day I was only able to fly it once that day for a short time.  Maybe 5 minutes.  Daylight was fading and I was still new with the controls and turned it off to better understand how to use it.  I was and continue to be way to anxious flying such an expensive object.

The Updates took a long time, and I had to disable digital driver signing while installing the DJI Assistant 2 so that my MavicPRO could be detected when plugging it into my laptop to try and update the unit via the Assistant 2 App.  

1 week later I was feeling much more confident, and took her out to do some more flight testing and learn more about the drone.
I walked to the end of the street using the drone and walked back.  This flight lasted a very short time. Maybe 5 minutes.  It looked like it might snow, so I brought her back inside and played some games, hoping to get another flight window sometime later.

The next weekend I again decided to fly my MavicPRO so my friend who has a Inspire 4 PRO gathered our gear and went to the park.  After a very short time my friend and I had to leave the park to go deal with some personal business. Flight time due to this was very short.  A little less than 10 minutes.  I did get to try flight control modes and found layout 3 to be my favorite.

During the next week I was busy learning about all the different phrases, operating modes, and new features the drone Firmware offered!  The new features DJI has slowly been unlocking like Pano mode made me very excited.  That night I did a short test flight and discovered 'Fixed-wing mode'.  Flight time was roughly 1 minute of panic trying to figure out what option I had turned on and how to land my bird.

Finally yesterday I decided to fly it around the parking lot at work.  To show some of the guys how neat everything was.  After doing my pre-flight inspection of the joints, the battery charge, and finally (the most important step in my opinion) making sure my props were secure...I initiated manual take off using the RC controller only to watch in horror as my device ascended 10 feet or so, lost a propeller, then spiraled off my friends cars and into my arms as I raced to prevent a concrete hit.  Too late, the damage was done.  The gimbal was hanging limp facing downward and my thumb now has a massive blister along with three slices on my hand.  This was stupid, but I would rather have a chopped up hand then a 1 thousand dollar Quadcopter that is now busted after such a short lifetime with me.

As I said before,  There is now slight damage to the body, and the gimbal no longer functions.  The device does not transfer video to my phone, and the gimbal does nothing but constantly restart itself and try to do its self-calibration.

I have decided this device is not a good match for me and my intentions when using it and hope to reinvest the money on another device instead
So what is the next step?

Please help!

Thanks for reading.

Correct: My friend has the Phantom 4 not the Inspire

I think that the fact that you have decided after crashing and damaging the drone that it is not a good match for you will not go over well with DJI.  But I do wish you well in your endeavor to get a refund.   

Additional detail.  I bought this unit on Feb 3rd.

You stand a better chance of asking for a repair/swop under warranty then getting a refund but good luck. log a ticket with Dji and hope for the best

How do I begin a ticket with DJI?  I was hoping an admin would reply and we could begin the process

Update: I called the American support number listed on https://www.dji.com/support/product/mavic .
I was told to email support@dji.com.  I have now e-mail DJI support with a copy of my post.

2.21.18-16:05

Please excuse the double post.

I have received an automated e-mail stating that DJI Support is currently experiencing the Chinese New Year Local Holiday and that response times may be delayed due to this.  I will patiently await a response.

I am terribly sorry for the crash and the mishap. Since you had sent an email to our support, you can wait for the reply. Or you can directly send the drone back, we will help to make data analysis for this crash when we receive the drone, if it's a warranty case, we will get your drone repaired/replaced with no charge according to our After-sales Policy. Please fill in the info on this page: https://repair.dji.com/en/SelfRepair/Area
Please kindly send the drone back first, thank you.

Thank you for replying to my forum message.  I have not yet received a reply from support@dji.com

UPDATE: I have received a e-mail response.

My refund has been denied for 2 reasons.

1. The device was not purchased from DJI
2. The device is past the 14 day refund window.

My only options now are to fill out an RMA form, then ship my broken '1300$ DJI MavicPRO: Fly more Combo kit' to my local service center. : sigh :

Next I will have to wait 6-8 weeks while the technicians read my internal logs and try to determine what happened and how much the repair will cost me.
------------------------------------
I can not afford to repair the device in any manner and no longer want to own this device.
Seeing how the device had a prop fly off after I explicitly checked to make sure they were secure (the way my instructions indicated to me).
I am furious with myself for buying a device that would so easily destroy itself and would cost so much to invest into, and then even more to maintain less then three weeks after purchase.  I am having a hard time sleeping at night thinking about this situation.

It is really unfortunate, and I feel like this last year of excitement, savings, budgeting, have all been wasted.  I feel like vomiting up the last month of ramen I ate.
As they say, you live and learn.  This has been a very expensive lesson to learn "Caveat emptor".

I will continue to try my best to stay even tempered here on the forum and continue to provide updates until I repair and resell the device.
It sounds like I will have another 3 months of this purgatory.

At least I will say, Thank you for the assistance with getting this process started.

djiuser_bgPHqFVacCA3 Posted at 2018-2-23 08:11
UPDATE: I have received a e-mail response.

My refund has been denied for 2 reasons.

I can totally understand your feeling right now. If you had got the case number and sent the drone in, you can provide me with the case number and I will help to keep an eye on it.