MBGphotography
lvl.2
United States
Offline
|
I have been going back and fourth with DJI customer service for a month and it is the most frustrating warranty claim experience I have ever had in my 30+ years. I have been extremely accomodating to all their request but they keep ignoring simple facts (like ocean tides are a real thing) that I ask them to review and looking for loopholes to not cover my drone while never addressing the actual issue. Spoke to multiple "managers" who just read me "understand your frustration" customer service scripts and refuse to explain what caused the crash or look at the clear cut facts and override poor assumptions made by their analysis team. 4 escalations later and I am still talking to jr reps hiding behind policies. I purchased a refurbished spark that clearly has a hardware/software issue, purchased in May and sent for evaluation beginning of September, well within coverage period. PLEASE HELP!
CAS-2200343-T8Y3T5
Incident:
- I booted up my drone for the first time in a month+ and had to install the latest update, geofencing, and take a safety quiz. It seemingly worked/let me take off, 17 GPS, all clear
- I was on the beach in Montauk at low tide and wanted to take some shots of the reflections off the sand and backdrop (I do landscapes). Plan was to take a simple fly route along the beach. I took off, brought it up to 15-40 feet, flew it along the beach to within 30-50 feet of the water line (never took it over water for obvious reasons) - see flight map below
- I recieved a gimball overload issue and decided to bring it in. I noticed it jerking around quite a bit with the wind, but I have flown in much stronger winds in iceland without that kind of irratic movement. I got a wind velocity warning, dropped it into sport and tried to fly it back
- When I was about 20-30 feet away from Home point at around 14ft high I thought I saw a red status bar flash with what I thought was the word "motor ____" and suddenly the drone flipped over itself and crashed into some wet sand (low tide) but no physical damage
- I immediately disconnected the battery, wiped it down with fresh water and dried the drone out for 2 days before rebooting.
- My battery was dead (had juice but flashing irregularly etc) but I was able to get it to boot up with a spare.
- Diagnostics read 2 issues - (1) the software update didnt take, and is failing to install at 99% every time (tried via phone and cable/pc) (2) error in motor 4 - ESC.no4 which implies a burnt out motor chip. The prop and the motor coils in #4 are perfectly intact without a scratch, no jammed or broken coils that could have caused this. I sent diagnostics on the software issue to DJI immediately (never heard back)
Customer Service experience:
- They requested flight logs from the incident, phone model and software, and an explination - no problem, sent over all materials as soon as I got back to the US.
- They concluded off the flight logs that the crash was caused by a "low altitude collision" and voided warranty - I disputed: The drone crashed from 14 feet, on a beach where you can see from the flight logs the nearest object (tree, building, etc.) was 1000+ yards away. Tallest object within hundreds of yards was a person, or 5ft tall beach umbrella. So what could have possibly caused a collision with the rear motor while it was travelling forward? and if there was a collision, why isnt there a single scratch on my props or motor?
- Followed up for weeks with no responses. Requested a supervisor, never got a callback.
- Finally called and waited to speak to a supervisor, Sunny E#521, who asked me for a live video of the incident. I explained I was not filming at the time of the crash (I only use it for photos) and it would be impossible for me to film the incident live with my phone which was plugged into the remote to navigate the drone (obviously)
- Sunny said my warranty is void because I violated their "enviornmental policy agreement". I asked her to explain what that means and what caused my crash, which she could not do. No where in the spark manual is there any reference of this agreement, only to remain 30 feet from a body of water - which I did, and my crash was a hundred plus feet from the shore line (see below). I asked her to stop looking for loopholes and just investigate the cause of the crash or honor the warranty.
- Then it escalated to a manager, Jason E#381 who said it was void becuase the flight diagnostics show "at some point of my flight I was 0.5m from the surface of water". I explained that I took off on land (obviously), the flight records clearly show since takeoff I was never below 12ft - 80ft high the entire time up until the crash, which occured at 12.8ft of altitude so their conclusions make no sense. Furthermore, I was never over the surface of water so how could he come up with that conclusion?
- He hinted that the diagnostics team focused in on the google satellite photograph justaposed on my flight path. THE IMAGE WAS TAKEN AT HIGH TIDE! - the map version clearly shows the water line which I never crossed! At low tide which it was, this is clear as day. He refused to try to understand how tides impact where the shore is, and that their team's ASSUMPTION makes no sense unless I pulled a Jesus, walked on water, and launched a drone off the heavy surf. Even so what caused the crash 1.5 minutes later??
- He would not explain what caused the crash, or why my software updates are failing at 99%. He brushed that off as a "unrelated issue". I see a strong correlation however between a burnt out chip and a software update error, how can they be ignorant to that fact.
- They keep pointing to one google earth image at high tide as the basis to void warranty, refute any facts of the shoreline at low tide, and covering up what caused the incident.
- He said there is no one further he can escalate to with common sense and this is a final conclusion. Its so obvious and I am going crazy here, please help!
I spoke to the DJI store in NY before sending it in who said my situation was rare, but they have heard of it happening before and said I should definitely send it in for warranty. I am 30 years old, and use the drone for photography travelling. I have had 60+ flights with no issues before this update and am very careful with the drone. Believe me, if I crashed it due to my own carelessness I would have bought the OEM parts for $20 and fixed it myself. I thought this would be a simple open and shut warranty claim... but 3+ hours of chasing customer service reps for feedback and I have gotten nowhere but frustration and a huge bill for more than the cost of a new refurb spark. I am blown away that they would give me such a hard time and ignore the facts instead of spending the $50 on a new esc motor and battery and honoring their warranty.
I have been a huge DJI advocate up until this and had at least 5-6 friends tell me they have bought DJI drones because of some of my photos on insta/fb (few pics attached). How could I trust DJI after this nightmare experience? I almost see no option but to post my experience on this and social media and hope no one makes the same mistake of trusting a refurbished DJI product.
|
-
Incident flight path
-
Volcano
-
Glaciers
|