Repair experience with DJI (not so good)

[Capt Drone]

Rookie mistake. Backed by Mavic into a tree at night. 100 percent my fault. Landed right on the camera of course.

I followed their repair instructions to a tee and received a UPS shipping label the following day and promptly send it away. It took forever to get it from Kansas City to California. 8 days! Seemed like once it got there DJI really got on it in a hurry. On day one they assessed the damages and sent an estimate for repairs on day two. I promptly sent them payment via their PayPal link for the $132 for the repairs. I thought all was well but suddenly progress stopped. I received notice from the repair department a few days later that my repair was in dispute because the damage was pilot error and warranty was denied. DUH! I already acknowledged that. So... I spend most of the next morning emailing and chatting with more reps. After convincing them that I had no dispute. (I CRASHED IT) they could not find my Paypal payment. Finally I email them the receipt for that and things got repaired over the next few days and I received notice it had been shipped back. Finally!

UPS says it has been in town for 3 days now and they plan to deliver it back home tomorrow. If that really happens, the Mavic will have taken just few days short of a MONTH to get repaired.

Here is what I have learned from the experience and here is what I will do different next time.

I think I got unlucky at DJI. Someone really dropped the ball there. I hope this is an isolated case. They obviously did not read my had written note nor the Dji repair order stating that I CRASHED it. It is my fault. And then someone lost my payment.

The really big problem was UPS just taking so darn long. It set at our local terminal 4 days before moving out and then taking 4 days to get to California. The return trip was the same thing. NEXT time I will make sure it at least gets sent out overnight. That would have saved a week. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that everything is properly repaired.

I should add. I did not have Dji Refresh. I don't really see how that would have made much of a difference.

 

[MPPilot]

If it is a few days short of a month then it sounds like it was sent around Christmas. Besides being overloaded that time of year, there are also six non-working days due to weekends and the Christmas and New Years holidays. Eight days is probably not too bad all things considering. Now the return sitting in town for 3 days before being scheduled for delivery, no excuse there.

 

[sonof40]

Good tips. Thanks for posting.

 

[JBasco20]

Did they send the same unit back or a different unit? Any problems since the repair?

 

[Motley]

If you send overnight then you will be paying the shipping, the label they give you is not valid for overnight shipping and they likely will not ship it back to you that way either. I would not say you had a "bad" experience with less than a month considering I have heard in the past that it has taken 2-3 months to get repairs done/returned. I will agree the loss of your payment and mis-handling of your case as far as the warranty issue is a poor experience but at least you were able to get it resolved within a couple of days and not be waiting weeks for that like some other companies will do.

 

[nevets007]

If it is a few days short of a month then it sounds like it was sent around Christmas. Besides being overloaded that time of year, there are also six non-working days due to weekends and the Christmas and New Years holidays. Eight days is probably not too bad all things considering. Now the return sitting in town for 3 days before being scheduled for delivery, no excuse there.

I'm also wondering about my unit. I shipped it out 3/1 and received 3/2. I live close to their center but they said I still had to ship it. They received it and no updates given. After a week I called them and then after the call they showed received on the DJI system.

On 3/11 they said they assessed the damage and it would be covered under warranty. After that I have not heard anything, system show pending repair. I'm almost sure this will go into next month.

My Mavic was not focusing and the gimbal was unresponsive even though it was functioning. I was receiving gimbal disconnect error and the remote started to not receive video transition. I didn't crash it. I landed after it was working just fine, swapped battery and then took it up for flight and noticed it wouldn't focus or tilt.

I thought the repair would be faster. Just for future knowledge were I know warranty will not cover repair, does anyone know of third party repair shops that are known to have a faster turn around time and better customer service?

 

[kona]

OP you stated that having refresh wouldn't have made a difference, but it would have because you could have asked for a replacement right away.

 

[andy966]

They probably have a ton of repairs to do because of warranty claims as well as people crashing their quads. I am not surprised it takes that long. They are definitely not making any money from the warranty repairs so there is no interest on DJI's part to beef up the staffing to move this along quickly. They probably have the bare minimum amount of staff to get stuff done.

 

[nevets007]

andy966 I'm sure they do have lots of repairs but it took over ten days for them to even ***** the damage, if it was a warranty job or if I would have to pay.

Just to UPDATE on how long my repair took. DJI received my Mavic on 3/2, on 3/11 DJI assessed damage and notified me it would be covered under warranty, on 3/22 I was notified it was repaired and Mavic was shipped out. I received Mavic on 3/23, since I live under an hour away from DJI repair shop.

DJI never said what was wrong but by comparing serial numbers I did notice that I received a new Mavic. I had to pair with RC and register the Mavic as you do with a new unit.

The only reason I noticed it was a different device was that I was specious when I had to register the device and then I noticed the Mavic had stickers that I would have removed. Those clear protective stickers and the #1 and #2 on the legs.

I just wish communication was better. They have a good portal setup on the website but it took them 9 days to update they received the unit. They notified me the unit was repaired when the unit was already out for delivery.

I'm just glade I'm out flying again with zero out of pocket.