Ok, so another horror story about DJI support and technical repairs, you ready? So, at the end of last month, I was flying my Phantom 4 which was purchased from Amazon on Feb 6th, 2018 so my drone was still under warranty, I was getting ready to do some panning shots for a documentary. I do my preflight check with the drone which includes (but not limited to): propeller attached properly to the drone, visual inspection, flight controls, battery, gimbal stabilization. After completing my checks, everything seemed dandy, so I took it up into the air where I filmed a couple of shots of my drone going 40+ mph in Sport mode and taking it about 1 mile away. After I was done with that shot, I was going to do a timelapse of the cars passing by on the street next to my house. So, once I'm about 200 ft from my house, I switch it to P-Mode and full throttle it to the road which took it about 30 mph. As I fly right by my house, everything is working perfectly, when all of a sudden I see something fly off the drone which I suspect it would be the propeller and I see it tumbling toward the ground while doing a couple of front flips. At this point, I lose visual of the aircraft and hear it smash into a neighbor's yard. Of course, like any sane person, I run to my neighbor's house and find my drone in the back patio, with severe damage. You can see the severity of this damage in the case: CAS-2405073-K6M1R5. So, my neighbor walks out of their house and they said that they woke up to this loud smash. So, they let me in and I retrieve it. Walking back to my house, I notice that the battery is gone, so I check the logs in my phone and notice that the battery ejected itself and looking around, I couldn't find the battery. Upon arriving at my house, I immediately went to contact DJI support telling them this entire story. They assure me that I will get my drone repaired and that they would only need for me to file a repair case and valid proof of purchase. Because I bought this drone off of my wife's Amazon account, I didn't think they needed the proof of purchase. I sent in my drone and waited for what was a surprisingly quick inspection (took about 1 business day) and came up with a 301 USD bill. The bill seemed reasonable, except for the 120 dollar labor charge but that isn't the point. So, I contacted DJI support today again and they told me that they would need a valid proof of purchase to fix my drone under warranty. So, I find my invoice from Amazon (which note was from the official DJI dealer) and contact them again by phone. This time, however, they tell me to email the proof of purchase, but during the call, he checks my case and apparently, from the repair people, they state that yes, the drone fell out of the sky, BUT, was apparently USER ERROR. Now TELL ME how in the world that is user error. I haven't changed anything from the drone since I bought it, I am using OEM parts that came WITH the drone. Even after I insisted everything and told the person on the phone, he still said that I would be charged 300 dollars! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. I clearly remember that the propeller mount was broken when I took the drone back to my house. He claims that the USER ERROR part was because "I didn't tighten the propeller".  If I didn't tighten the propeller, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD THE PROPELLER MOUNT BE BROKEN?????? ALL THE OTHER PROPELLER MOUNTS WERE PERFECTLY FINE AFTER THE CRASH, SO TELL ME, why should I be held accountable for something completely out of my power??? The drone is under warranty still and I have every right to say it is not user error. Any suggestions?

Case number: CAS-2405073-K6M1R5

Update: I sent the email and now waiting for a response.

We sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience. Upon checking your case, the unit was activated around 2016-10-20, we're sorry that it has been out of the warranty period, you may contact your seller to contact the exact status. According to the current policy, data analysis service will not be provided after warranty expiration, you may visit this link: https://www.dji.com/service/policy

For the user error, this will be forwarded to the management to investigate the exact status, we'll keep learning and avoid similar troubles in the future. The team will review your case and contact you during the working time. Appreciate your patience.

It seems one of you has their dates mixed up.

Hi Richard, we are very sorry about this. DJI Susan is correct, if warranty expires we can no longer request Data Analysis. But since you have mentioned you purchased it from Amazon on Feb 6, 2018. Did you purchased a used drone or a brand new? Please note that if you purchased a used drone which was activated on October 2016, warranty can no longer apply.

Please provide us a proof of purchased in order to review and check what we can do to help.