I also bought my Mavic in December from Costco. Had many problems with Calibration, Forward Sensors, DJI Assistant 2, and etc. DJI authorized a return for the drone to repair. I made a previous post on this forum regarding forward sensors and Assistant 2. Just got back Mavic yesterday., upon un boxing I found the serial # did not match.
There is an R in the 10 th position, so I am assuming it may be refurbished. I have not done anything to the mavic yet. In the box it had my FAA registration # on a slip of paper and directions on how to link remote controller.
Two questions: 1. Is having a refurbished drone necessarily a bad thing? If so, why?
How many hours flight time does your refurbished aircraft have on it? 10? 100? 1,000? 10,000? The point is, you don't know.
I knew that my brand new drone had less than 20 hours flight time on it, and had never been crashed, never been wet, never dropped, never taken apart, never mistreated in any way. Can you say the same for your refurbished aircraft? Simple answer, no you cannot.
My new Mavic Pro was manufactured with all new parts. Your refurbished aircraft has parts taken from other crashed/returned/defective aircraft, or new parts. You just don't know.
Each part in a new Mavic Pro is supposed to work, without fail, for a minimum amount of time. Let's say Part X has a minimum life span of 500 hours. That part in my new Mavic Pro will (generally speaking) continue to work for 500 hours, or more. On your refurbished aircraft, that part could already be at 499 hours and while it passed quality inspection today, it could fail from over-use tomorrow. You won't know, until it fails and your aircraft falls out of the sky.
Why would I accept a refurbished aircraft, with all of these unknowns, in exchange for my brand new aircraft?
Yes, refurbished aircraft are covered by the same warranty as new aircraft, but only for the amount of time remaining on your original (new) aircraft. So, if your new (but defective) aircraft had only 6 months left on the warranty, then so does any refurbished replacement. Even though the aircraft is new to you, your warranty period is already reduced when you accept a refurbished unit. As all warranty claims can be denied, should your refurbished aircraft fail, fall out of the sky, and be lost forever due to a previous manufacturing problem related to the reason it was originally returned to DJI for repair, your warranty claim could be denied!
2. I registered the original Mavic with FAA and wrote the registration # on the inside of battery compartment with indelible pen, which of course is no longer there. Since the FAA registration was for that specific drone and it's serial # - how does one go about re-registering with FAA? pay another fee or what?
Did you register with the FAA as a hobbyist, or Part 107 pilot?
If you registered as a hobbyist, then please understand that you registered YOURSELF, not the aircraft. This means all you did was put your PILOT NUMBER on the aircraft you returned to DJI. The FAA has no idea what aircraft you own, or fly, unless you crash it and they find your pilot number attached to it!
If you registered as a Part 107 pilot, then each of your individual aircraft have to be registered with the FAA, and that's another matter entirely, for which I have no answer.