Anyone using a DJI Care Refresh before it expires?

[HWCM]

Well, before I purchased my Mavic, I had a Karma but before that a 3DR Solo. The good thing about the Solo and the Karma was that you could replace all of the parts. Especially the Solo. The Mavic...not so much. It doesn't look like DJI offers replacement parts as far as I've found anyway. The motors, both flight and gimbal have an operation life. I don't know what it is and I'm not sure if anyone does. The other question is what defines a refurbished unit? Do they replace the motors, for example? The gimbal? Do you get a new warranty with a refurb from Care Refresh? If you buy one you do.

I plan to use mine before it expires even though would be $130. I crashed my drone within 30 days of buying it and DJI let me buy Care Refresh and pay the replacement fee to get a "new" one. In your case, I would definitely go for the possible refurb. I know people that would rather have a refurb because they go through them at the factory. I don't know but the one I got looked brand new and has worked perfectly for over 50 flights now.

Banggood.com has a lot of the parts.

 

[Lon Denard]

I think now that the Platinum is out DJI is probably scaling down the Pro production and the chances that you'll get a "recycled" Mavic (assembled from various used parts) are higher. So, you may end up paying $80 to get a worse Mavic.

Why do people think they use used parts?

 

[Meanee]

Why do people think they use used parts?

What do you think happens with all crashed Mavics that end up at DJI's warehouse? They are sacrificed to a drone god? Nope. Salvaged parts are tested, and installed on refurbished units. Some are franken-made. For example, good motor but broken arm, they will manufacture new arm and mount the motor on it. Or just pick a good arm from a pile that was returned, that possibly has a bad motor.

Idea is to reduce costs as much as possible, while living up to their contractual obligation of getting you back in the air.

 

[Lon Denard]

What do you think happens with all crashed Mavics that end up at DJI's warehouse? They are sacrificed to a drone god? Nope. Salvaged parts are tested, and installed on refurbished units. Some are franken-made. For example, good motor but broken arm, they will manufacture new arm and mount the motor on it. Or just pick a good arm from a pile that was returned, that possibly has a bad motor.

Idea is to reduce costs as much as possible, while living up to their contractual obligation of getting you back in the air.

Well you have inside info that I don't have. When I did large screen television refurbs. We tested systems and installed new parts. If the unit was beyond a certain point, we threw them away. I've seen thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of televisions tossed out. When I worked for Best Buy, we would routinely throw away returned product after getting a release from the manufacturer. I doubt very highly that DJI is investing the high priced American labor required to rebuild a totalled Mavic. If you think the broken units are being shipped to China and being rebuilt, you aren't aware of shipping costs there and back. I'm still guessing that the greatest percentage of refurbs are units taken off the assembly line for defects or units damaged during shipping and repaired.

Again, I've never worked for DJI, our contracts were with Hitachi and Sony so I bow to your greater knowledge in this area.

 

[Meanee]

If shipping costs from China were prohibitive, then manufacturing won't be done in China. Your $80 covers shipping, diagnostic, labor, and shipping back. Some refurbishment done locally. Some done in China. How many broken Mavics do you think you can fit in a single shipping container? Enough to cover small city worth of buyers.

I believe the process would work like this:
- Broken drone is shipped to USA processing facility and given quick diagnostic.
- You are given refurbished drone from local center's stock.
- Each drone is tossed into small protective box, much smaller than retail box, and shipped on a container to China.
- Initial diagnostic report is read, bad parts stripped out, good parts salvaged.
- Team rebuilds a number of drones from salvaged parts.
- Refurbished drones are sent back to distribution point via shipping container, to restock distribution center.


I do not work at DJI, and bow as many times as you want. But common sense dictates that is the way things done.

 

[xman1]

Old saying:

"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know"

 

[TrayBoz]

As far as DJI is concerned, your DJI Refresh fee basically pays for you to have the right to swap your existing mavic for a different one of their choosing (that is supposed to be working 100%) within the 12 month period. If they have refurbished units available, you'll get one of those. If they don't have any, you could get a brand new one.

All that is required of you is to give them your old unit. You wouldn't have to intentionally crash your mavic to execute a refresh. Just make up anything. Say your video feed cuts out sometimes, or that you have some other random intermittent problem. If they can't duplicate it, they still have to send you a new (or refurb) one as long as your Refresh account is active and you send them your old one, and you pay the $79.

I highly doubt they waste 2 seconds trying to figure out what's really wrong with your mavic, and send it straight to their parts department for testing to see which parts are still good; that they can re-use. This explains why they'll issue a replacement mavic immediately (no questions asked) if you pay the fee, but if you're trying get warranty (free) work done it can take forever, while they try to determine if it's gonna be your dime or theirs.

I'm still on the fence with this. My mavic has always been perfect and still is, but I'm still thinking it might be better to have a new or almost-new refurbished unit instead of a 12 month old mavic with 300+ flights on it. I have until January to decide.

I'd like to know how many people have been perfectly satisfied with their Refresh replacement, and how many have had issues, percentage wise. Maybe I'll start a poll....

 

[xman1]

I have heard in several cases where people got back scratched up obviously crashed Mavics so I wouldn't do it, but if you do, let us know how you fared. That is why I wrote what I did above. My mavic is clean and I want it to keep looking that way.

 

[Robbyg]

It's pretty much a known fact that DJI scraps the drones and uses the parts to rebuild refurbished drones. Old serial numbers and even left over flight data have been found in refurbished Mavics.

At @Meanee post pretty much explained the process.

The problem is that we know there are a batch of Mavics made between February and I think until April that seemed to have been rushed and had numerous problems. If your unlucky enough to get one of these you will wish you had not used your refresh.

Rob

 

[xman1]

Exactly. My drone is from right before this bad batch and it is flawless.

 

[Lon Denard]

Well, my unit is a refresh replacement and it looked brand new and operates flawlessly. I guess it's possible that they take all that time to save a couple bucks and risk sending out a refurb unit that they'll have to take back because refurbs come with the same warranty as new.

I worked for a refurb company that did TVs. We didn't do it that way and our parts cost way more and wouldn't set us up for a lawsuit if it could be proven that we used inferior parts and some kid lost an eye. Someone posted that a motor for a Mavic costs around $20 retail. They has to mean that DJI gets them for around $5 each. How in the world does it make sense to bother scavenging a potentially faulty motor when it costs you $5 for a new one? I don't doubt that some parts may be salvaged, the main board for example but I'd imagine most are replaced with new. Especially wear items.


Okay I just got a message from a buddy that refurbs cell phones/computers and he thinks you all are nuts! Hahaha! He says they evaluate what's wrong with a return and then replace the faulty parts with new ones. You have no idea what the cycle life is on a used part. It could fail in a day and you would get the product back AND have an upset customer. Total waste of time.

In any case, I love to argue but I don't have direct knowledge of how DJI handles this, so I'll let it go.

 

[Robbyg]

Well, my unit is a refresh replacement and it looked brand new and operates flawlessly. I guess it's possible that they take all that time to save a couple bucks and risk sending out a refurb unit that they'll have to take back because refurbs come with the same warranty as new.

I worked for a refurb company that did TVs. We didn't do it that way and our parts cost way more and wouldn't set us up for a lawsuit if it could be proven that we used inferior parts and some kid lost an eye. Someone posted that a motor for a Mavic costs around $20 retail. They has to mean that DJI gets them for around $5 each. How in the world does it make sense to bother scavenging a potentially faulty motor when it costs you $5 for a new one? I don't doubt that some parts may be salvaged, the main board for example but I'd imagine most are replaced with new. Especially wear items.


Okay I just got a message from a buddy that refurbs cell phones/computers and he thinks you all are nuts! Hahaha! He says they evaluate what's wrong with a return and then replace the faulty parts with new ones. You have no idea what the cycle life is on a used part. It could fail in a day and you would get the product back AND have an upset customer. Total waste of time.

In any case, I love to argue but I don't have direct knowledge of how DJI handles this, so I'll let it go.

Lon you have to keep in mind that DJI seriously under priced the Mavic when they announced it. They wanted to eliminate GoPro from the market place so they priced their drone at the same $999 price point as the Karma even though the Mavic had lots more built into it. So the $5 motor comparison might not apply in this case.

As I stated refurbished and rebuilt units being sent out under refresh is not a theory but a proven fact. Some people do get a new drone and others get a used drone, it's the luck of the draw!

Rob

 

[Lon Denard]

Lon you have to keep in mind that DJI seriously under priced the Mavic when they announced it. They wanted to eliminate GoPro from the market place so they priced their drone at the same $999 price point as the Karma even though the Mavic had lots more built into it. So the $5 motor comparison might not apply in this case.

As I stated refurbished and rebuilt units being sent out under refresh is not a theory but a proven fact. Some people do get a new drone and others get a used drone, it's the luck of the draw!

Rob

Oh I got that number from the retail price of the motor online. If it costs $20 retail for me to buy one, it can't cost them that much when they buy bulk. That's all I'm saying. I NEVER said that they don't send out refurbs, in fact I said that I got a refurb from DJI. They sell refurbs on their website. I question the idea that they get crashed drones, pick the motors out of them, install them in other broken or crashed drones and sell them as refurbished. I find that hard to believe, not because I worship DJI but from the cost of labor, cost of the part new, liability, customer satisfaction, warranty, shipping, reputation, etc standpoint.

Another example, I worked for M Brand rebuilding alternator, starters, etc. We would tear down the cores and replace the brushes, bearings, etc but would refinish the casing. The bearings were about $5 on a unit that sold for under $100 and we would never even consider using a used one no matter how good it looked. That's 5/100. You guys believe that DJI uses used motors in a unit that is 5/800 and comes with a one year warranty. Oh and btw could fall out of the sky? That you might fly in your house around your kids? Tell me again about DJI's commitment to safety? To me that's nuts! It's irresponsible. That doesn't even factor in the time it takes to scavenge them, check them over for serviceability, test them, etc. I really can't see how this would be cost effective or intelligent.

 

[MavicPro2]

Think of all the fun footage of mavics hitting stone walls and flocks of birds at 40+mph we'll get to see on here though man! refresh refresh refresh

 

[ldcam21]

[ had to send mavic back 3 times
Naw I got a new one it has all the new stickers no ware. So far this flys nice

QUOTE="Lon Denard, post: 319858, member: 37790"]Well, before I purchased my Mavic, I had a Karma but before that a 3DR Solo. The good thing about the Solo and the Karma was that you could replace all of the parts. Especially the Solo. The Mavic...not so much. It doesn't look like DJI offers replacement parts as far as I've found anyway. The motors, both flight and gimbal have an operation life. I don't know what it is and I'm not sure if anyone does. The other question is what defines a refurbished unit? Do they replace the motors, for example? The gimbal? Do you get a new warranty with a refurb from Care Refresh? If you buy one you do.

I plan to use mine before it expires even though would be $130. I crashed my drone within 30 days of buying it and DJI let me buy Care Refresh and pay the replacement fee to get a "new" one. In your case, I would definitely go for the possible refurb. I know people that would rather have a refurb because they go through them at the factory. I don't know but the one I got looked brand new and has worked perfectly for over 50 flights now.[/QUOTE]