chris12892
 lvl.1
Flight distance : 2877 ft
United States
Offline
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Wow, this has been a total nightmare.
I got a brand new Spark fly more combo with a new battery right around Christmas. The drone worked great for about 3 days. One of the batteries was acting a little bit odd, but I chocked it up to user error and I had two others, so I wasn't yet concerned.
Well, on the third day, I plugged my spark into my computer to get some footage off of it. The spark turned on and connected to my computer and I began copying the files. After some minutes, the spark started disconnecting and instantly reconnecting and it began smelling like burning electronics. Well, when I went to pick it up to examine it, it was extremely hot. Seems the fan didn't turn on so it cooked itself. No thermal protection, really guys?
So at this point I am left with two choices, I can either call support or just live with it if it still works. I opened the DJI support chat and while I was telling the CSR this story, I let the drone hover in my office. I wasn't touching the sticks, I was just letting it hover using optical stabilization mode. It seemed to work fine, so that was good. I had two fully charged batteries, so I kept cycling them in one after another just to make sure it wasn't going to do anything weird. I also begin trying to charge my third battery before realizing it would not charge. More on that later. Well, after 2-3 flights, the battery fell out of the aircraft in flight.
Ok, NOW I really don't trust this.
Let's recap. $600 kit. Problems with every single component except for the remote and a single battery. Less than 72 hours of ownership. I never crashed the drone, I never flew it rough. I only even had a few flights on it to begin with!
So I told this to the CSR, who I'm sure thinks that I'm lying to him. I explained the three issues:
* The aircraft overheated and I no longer trust the electronics
* One battery fell out
* One won't charge
He told me to send everything in and had a sup call me. So, about a half a week goes by because of the holidays until they were able to get me a return label.
About my battery which won't charge: The battery was basically "frozen" with all lights off. The battery stayed like this for 3 days (while waiting for my shipping label), then I happened to notice that the battery was sitting on my shelf with all LEDs lit up and dimming slightly every few seconds. When I picked it up, it was HOT. I assume it was self discharging after realizing it was having issues. I connected with another CSR and asked about if this was supposed to do this. He confirmed it was not. After the battery got hot, it seemed normal for a little while (I checked to see if it was back to normal and tried to charge it, but it did the LED on freeze thing again)
I finally get my return label and I immediately send it all in, packed nicely.
It arrives. DJI asks me for flight logs, I send them. DJI asks for flight logs again. I send them. DJI Ask for flight logs AGAIN, and I send them. At this point I tell them that I am tired of sending them flight logs. I've had a half dozen chat logs with CSRs at this point. I am always polite, but firm. I tell them that I am very concerned that they do not listen to me and are simply delaying my case. It is literally like pulling teeth to get the case advanced. I probably spent like 10 billable hours on the phone and on chat with CSRs. The CSRs at this stage say that they need "a feedback" from the repair techs to diagnose my drone.
At this point, we're a good 3 weeks into this mess from the start.
Finally, the repair techs complete their work and give me an estimate. They say that I am lucky and the repair will be covered under warranty, awesome! Thanks for offering to fix the defective product you sold me for free after 3 weeks of not even having it. But, I have some concerns about this...
First, the repair note mentioned only one battery needing to be replaced. But 2/3rds of my batteries had issues!
Second, I don't really want any part of this kit back. The drone overheated, and as an electronics engineer, I am not about to trust that didn't set the stage for problems down the road. Overheating electronics quickly is extremely stressful for the individual componets. I smelled burning. Stuff was getting hot fast.
Third, I know from reading the forums that DJI doesn't send your kit back. They send you someone else's repair refurb. I did not pay for a refurb. I paid for a new unit. DJI says they will replace the drone with an equivalent, but a refurb costs ~$100 less. Where did this $100 that I paid for go? $439 is not the same as $549. I am not going to accept a refurb after I paid for a new unit and I'm not going to accept my kit back after a questionable repair by DJI.
Fourth, Even if I did get my original kit back, they only thing the repair report mentioned is replacing the fan. Nothing about the mainboard or any other electronics that could have been damaged, invisibly to DJI techs. Sure it'll work now, but 100 hours down the line maybe not. And at that point, I'm up the creek because it's far out of warranty.
So that's where we are now. I talked to a supervisor last night and told them that I was not going to accept a refurb unit or my original kit back. I told them they had two choices. DJI, you can either give me a full refund or you can send me a new fly more combo and new battery. Honestly at this point, I should be asking for more than that, but I am only asking for exactly what I originally bought, or if that cannot be done, a reversal of this whole mess minues the incredible amount of time I have wasted on the phone, chat, and typing this forum post up. The CSR said he'd have to forward my request up the chain. and then I never heard anything more.
One last thing. What really bothers me about this whole experience is that throughout, the CSRs asked for constant information, and then asked for the same information again right after I gave it to them once. It seemed like an infinite loop of them asking for stuff and then asking for it again. The flight logs are a great example of that. I sent them multiple times and the only response was to send them again. I even send them the zip archive right from my phone. It seemed like I was talking to a robot that could only ask questions, never form a response.
I liked my Spark. It worked very well while it worked. Unfortunately, that experience lasted only 3 days of a 3+ week nightmare of support.
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