DJI Mavic Air Discontinued

[DCT]

Need some advice currently my Mavic Air is on its way back to DJI after there being a GPS fault from opening it out of the box where is wouldn't get a signal DJI instructed me to return the drone and a replacement would be sent, and suggested I buy the DJI Care Refresh Plan for the new drone however DJI website says that I cannot purchase a Care refresh plan because its a discontinued product. I found this out 3 weeks after buying it from a retailer, surely if it is being sold by a retailer Brand New then the product isn't discontinued and the care fresh plan should be available for all Mavic Air drones still in stock and still for sale around the world, The main reason I spent this amount on a drone was the fact that I could buy a DJI Care Refresh plan insuring my advisement, no where on the DJI website or at the time of buying the drone was I told I couldn't buy a care refresh plan in fact DJI service centre encouraged me to purchase one and in fact had to inform the DJI service person that there company had discontinued the product I then asked if im un able to purchase the care refresh plan for the Mavic Air then would they replace my drone with an upgraded drone ( I suggested the Mavic 2 zoom ) and I would pay the extra cost as there is a price difference. I was happy to pay the additional cost as long as I was able to buy the refresh plan to insure the amount of money spent was going to be protected. DJI said they cannot do that they will only replace the original device and not let me purchase a DJI refresh plan, Im curious what people think about this DJI aren't offering much help or putting the customer first, all they have done is agree to replace a drone that was faulty in the first place has anyone else purchased this drone and then later found out they couldn't buy the refresh plan for it ?

 

[Matt M PA]

If I understand correctly...you bought a new Mavic Air at a retailer, and it was defective.

DJI will replace defective unit, but not sell a Refresh Plan as the Mavic Air is discontinued.

If these things are correct...just because a retailer still has inventory of an item...that doesn't mean it's not discontinued. They just have older stock of the item.

I'm no big fan of DJI Tech Support, but would assume that they cannot offer a Refresh Plan on the drone because they cannot guarantee a replacement should one be needed towards the end of the term of the Refresh Plan.

 

[DCT]

If I understand correctly...you bought a new Mavic Air at a retailer, and it was defective.

DJI will replace defective unit, but not sell a Refresh Plan as the Mavic Air is discontinued.

If these things are correct...just because a retailer still has inventory of an item...that doesn't mean it's not discontinued. They just have older stock of the item.

I'm no big fan of DJI Tech Support, but would assume that they cannot offer a Refresh Plan on the drone because they cannot guarantee a replacement should one be needed towards the end of the term of the Refresh Plan.

I agree with you fully that the device maybe discontinued and understand that a retailer may have older stock but surely why DJI were making the Mavic Air and it was in production they should guarantee that each device that was released to its retailers would have ability to have a refresh plan added to those devices and if not that's also fine but DJI should have advertised at the release of the drone that the Care Refresh plan is a limited offer giving the customer the opportunity to find out if the drone they were purchasing could or couldn't have the care refresh plan added to it the refresh plan was the main selling point for me and how I justified spending the money and having the whole drone experience as a hobby, but I understand things change and things happen but DJI wouldn't even let me pay the difference in cost to purchase a more expensive model the device I brought was defective and was a 3 month night mare with Tech support and trouble shooting I still haven't really flown it well not above 8 meters anyway, all im saying is im paying the same as ever other customer shouldn't we all have the same options, I guess its a really frustrating introduction to drone flying but I totally understand what your saying, I just would have like DJI to step up to the plate on this one and at least allow me to purchase a drone that isn't discontinued ( Mavic 2 zoom ) and charge me the additional cost for the device that doesn't unreasonable but they basically said buy a second drone but thanks for your feedback much appreciated

 

[lannes]

DJI Care Refresh is still available for the Mavic Air in the countries where the service it supported, it has always been limited to a few regions and countries, I don't believe N.Z has ever been part of the official scheme unfortunately. I think it's only available in countries with DJI Owned Service Centers e.g. Melbourne, Australia.
This is probably the reason why it doesn't allow you to buy it from the N.Z DJI online store.

From the DJI Store website.

It looks like care refresh might be locally supported by Ferntech the N.Z distributor through themselves and they might not want to support it anymore for the Mavic Air.
If you look at their website they sell a care refresh for the Mavic Mini, but in the official DJI Online store for N.Z they don't sell it.

DJI Mavic Mini Care Refresh | Ferntech your local NZ Drone experts

The DJI Mavic Mini Care Refresh, Drone Insurance.

www.ferntech.co.nz

Buy DJI Care Refresh (Mavic Mini) - DJI Store

Shop for DJI Care Refresh (Mavic Mini) on the official DJI Online Store. Find great deals and buy DJI products online with quick and convenient delivery!

store.dji.com

I checked refresh is still available in Australia via the DJI online store, despite the Mavic Air being discontinued.

 

[DCT]

DJI Care Refresh is still available for the Mavic Air in the countries where the service it supported, it has always been limited to a few regions and countries, I don't believe N.Z has ever been part of the official scheme unfortunately. I think it's only available in countries with DJI Owned Service Centers e.g. Melbourne, Australia.
This is probably the reason why it doesn't allow you to buy it from the N.Z DJI online store.

From the DJI Store website.
View attachment 109479
It looks like care refresh might be locally supported by Ferntech the N.Z distributor through themselves and they might not want to support it anymore for the Mavic Air.
If you look at their website they sell a care refresh for the Mavic Mini, but in the official DJI Online store for N.Z they don't sell it.

DJI Mavic Mini Care Refresh | Ferntech your local NZ Drone experts

The DJI Mavic Mini Care Refresh, Drone Insurance.

www.ferntech.co.nz

Buy DJI Care Refresh (Mavic Mini) - DJI Store

Shop for DJI Care Refresh (Mavic Mini) on the official DJI Online Store. Find great deals and buy DJI products online with quick and convenient delivery!

store.dji.com

I checked refresh is still available in Australia via the DJI online store, despite the Mavic Air being discontinued.

yes you are correct but NZ has Ferntech which is our DJI agent all other DJI refresh plans are available on all DJI drones in NZ I had to tell the after sales support that they were suggesting me to buy something that was no longer available from my knowledge it had been available in NZ as this is one of the reason I decided to get into drone flying and the Mavic Air when release was a great started if I had known or had be told through the buying process it wasn't available I would have opted for the Mavic pro instead but thank you for your feedback ill double check that it was previously available in NZ I may be wrong in which case I do apologise for my "Karen Moment" but ill double check thanks heaps

 

[MavicFlyer]

... I understand things change and things happen but DJI wouldn't even let me pay the difference in cost to purchase a more expensive model the device I brought was defective and was a 3 month night mare with Tech support and trouble shooting I still haven't really flown it well not above 8 meters anyway, all im saying is im paying the same as ever other customer shouldn't we all have the same options, I guess its a really frustrating introduction to drone flying but I totally understand what your saying, I just would have like DJI to step up to the plate on this one and at least allow me to purchase a drone that isn't discontinued ( Mavic 2 zoom ) and charge me the additional cost for the device that doesn't unreasonable but they basically said buy a second drone but thanks for your feedback much appreciated

I totally agree that DJI should have let you upgrade and pay the difference. The problem appears to be that DJI is like a robot: "if this, then that". It seems that they don't give their customer service people flexibility to deal with real world problems. After all, this is a problem DJI created by the way they discontinued the Mavic Air line, and the fact that you got a defective one in the first place .

What DJI should have done was to announce a discontinuation date for retail sale. Until that date, everybody purchasing that model would be able to purchase a Refresh plan at time of sale. If a dealer had inventory, DJI should let them either return to DJI to put in their refurb inventory, or sell it "AS IS", at a significantly reduced price, with no obligation on DJI's part.

Instead of creating a very satisfied customer by letting you pay to upgrade, they chose to turn you into a very dissatisfied customer, who would share his bad experience with tons of potential DJI customers (as you're doing here)...and that is NOT in the company's long term interest. There are a lot of people who are very happy with their DJI drones and rightfully so, but would much prefer to buy from someone other than DJI. Unfortunately, DJI is pretty much the only game in town. When that changes, eventually, DJI will very much regret the way they treated customers.

As to the Mavic Air, I've had mine since they first came out in early 2018...I remember waiting several weeks for them to become available. I could tell you about things I'm not thrilled about, but fundamentally this is a good, solid, quadcopter which can easily do what most people need. Almost every time I thought something was wrong with it, I learned that the situation came about because I didn't know/understand something - and I DID read the manual - cover to cover, before I even got my MA. Sometimes it was something that wasn't explained in the DJI documentation. That's where this group filled a lot of gaps!

In addition to reading on this forum, you might want to look at the DJI forums, though if I had to choose, this one is far more helpful than the "company" version.

Also, if you haven't done so already, go over to YouTube.com and watch Mavic Air videos. Some are better than others, but you have plenty to pick from.

Another suggestion of mine is to do screen recordings of every flight - as I do, from startup to shutdown. A lot happens during a flight, and things can change very quickly, so there will likely be things that you'll miss during the flight. Play back after landing, to see what you did right, and what you can improve on. In the unfortunate case that you crash, that video will help you find the drone, and find out what happened.

Finally, you can also learn a lot from reviewing the log files that get recorded on your device during every flight. Where to find them is a topic for another thread, but let's just say that you can get a listing of about 200 parameters recorded during a flight that you can look at as a spreadsheet, or plot for a visual representation.

Enjoy the flying when you do get the Mavic Air back!

 

[DCT]

I totally agree that DJI should have let you upgrade and pay the difference. The problem appears to be that DJI is like a robot: "if this, then that". It seems that they don't give their customer service people flexibility to deal with real world problems. After all, this is a problem DJI created by the way they discontinued the Mavic Air line, and the fact that you got a defective one in the first place .

What DJI should have done was to announce a discontinuation date for retail sale. Until that date, everybody purchasing that model would be able to purchase a Refresh plan at time of sale. If a dealer had inventory, DJI should let them either return to DJI to put in their refurb inventory, or sell it "AS IS", at a significantly reduced price, with no obligation on DJI's part.

Instead of creating a very satisfied customer by letting you pay to upgrade, they chose to turn you into a very dissatisfied customer, who would share his bad experience with tons of potential DJI customers (as you're doing here)...and that is NOT in the company's long term interest. There are a lot of people who are very happy with their DJI drones and rightfully so, but would much prefer to buy from someone other than DJI. Unfortunately, DJI is pretty much the only game in town. When that changes, eventually, DJI will very much regret the way they treated customers.

As to the Mavic Air, I've had mine since they first came out in early 2018...I remember waiting several weeks for them to become available. I could tell you about things I'm not thrilled about, but fundamentally this is a good, solid, quadcopter which can easily do what most people need. Almost every time I thought something was wrong with it, I learned that the situation came about because I didn't know/understand something - and I DID read the manual - cover to cover, before I even got my MA. Sometimes it was something that wasn't explained in the DJI documentation. That's where this group filled a lot of gaps!

In addition to reading on this forum, you might want to look at the DJI forums, though if I had to choose, this one is far more helpful than the "company" version.

Also, if you haven't done so already, go over to YouTube.com and watch Mavic Air videos. Some are better than others, but you have plenty to pick from.

Another suggestion of mine is to do screen recordings of every flight - as I do, from startup to shutdown. A lot happens during a flight, and things can change very quickly, so there will likely be things that you'll miss during the flight. Play back after landing, to see what you did right, and what you can improve on. In the unfortunate case that you crash, that video will help you find the drone, and find out what happened.

Finally, you can also learn a lot from reviewing the log files that get recorded on your device during every flight. Where to find them is a topic for another thread, but let's just say that you can get a listing of about 200 parameters recorded during a flight that you can look at as a spreadsheet, or plot for a visual representation.

Enjoy the flying when you do get the Mavic Air back!

WOW that was an amazing breakdown of the everything thank you sincerely for taking the time to speak in such detail every point you made I think was spot on, I did my research of about 4 months watching 100s of YouTube videos my brother brought a Mavic Air and his blew me away not one issue with it my brother is a skilled in flying drones and what I saw this little Mavic Air do the things is could do and not having any issues I knew that was the best choice for my first drone so I saved up and brought it and from day one nothing but gps signal faults Radom fly aways one one occasion it had gps finally and at night just hovering not touching sticks it would move slowing away and drift and then make sharp movements and jolt left right forward and back and started to fly away my brother did the same thing next to me and his was steady as a rock he even grabbed the foot and pulled it away from where is was hovering and when he let it go it flew back to that spot and hovered my had a mind of its own, out of 52 for 3 months we tested everything we could research even DJI instructions the only was I could get a signal was to factory reset and update then reinstall DJI GO4 app and I would get max 8 satellites on start up with 2 bars so unable to set home point but once turning the drone off or moving to another location I would have to reinstall everything again I uploaded flight records to DJI and many videos and photos, but like I said they are replacing it but they won't make an acceptation for the refresh plan or allow me to upgrade and since I returned the Mavic Air direct to DJI I am now unable to return it to the retailer and pay the extra cost for the Mavic 2 zoom which I could buy the refresh plan for because it isn't the original Drone I purchased from them it'll be a drone with different serial numbers ... so im stuck with the Mavic Air now and also 3 weeks after buying find out its a discontinued product, so even Ferntech or agent in NZ no longer stock accessories for the Mavic Air and they are hard to fine because stock once sold won't be replaced by retailers, DJI should have just said look its a discontinued product now but we are more than happy to offer you another drone of your choice and you pay the additional costs its ironic that the sales department said no to money and then tried to sell me something that doesn't exist anymore ( the care refresh Plan ) I hope DJI see this thread and come to the table the excitement of buying vs the 3 month nightmare of trying to get it sorted and fixed isn't worth my $1699 dollars and I just think and upgrade would have be an amazing gesture on there part instead of leaving me feeling a little undervalued, but thank you so much for your feed back you explained it perfectly much appreciated
Thanks Heaps

 

[DrizzyDrones]

If it’s under 30 days return it to the retailer and get a refund.. to be honest if had my time back I probably would have ordered it from Best Buy at the time Best Buy was out of stock and there was a wait for order on the site .. amazon had the non fly more combo ready to go so impatiently I grabbed it up... it took alot longer than expected and I was even thinking about grabbing a air2 and sending back the mini when it got here but the air 2 was on back order everywhere.. when I got it finally the fly more combo was in stock and however if i had to go through Best Buy I could have got a fly more combo or an air 2 delivered to the store and brought the mini back for a refund/exchange.. with covid slowdown of delivery it wasn’t worth sending back to amazon and waiting another month I just wanted to get flying.. and I ordered extra batteries that took a month to get because of a address error in the system. But point is if you got it from a retailer even if u ordered through their site u have the ability to just send it back as an un wanted gift and buy whatever you want

 

[DCT]

Sounds like you have had a never ending story as well lol sorry to hear about that My Mavic Air is currently in Hong Kong at DJI where they are testing the device and sending a new one out, so I won't be able to buy a care refresh plan on the new drone nor will they let me pay the difference to upgrade the replacement to a Mavic 2 Zoom I do rather deal direct with DJI though it does take time but once they send a new one it'll take 7 days to arrive where as a retailer is probably more un reliable than DJI they basically have to go through the same process as me in regards to the return process, to have this kind of problem when you spending $1699 ( NZD ) and then to have a 3 month long battle just to fly a drone isn't cheap, the unfortunate part is I was so enthusiastic about talking on drone flying as a hobby and its been tarnished by DJI support process, people are wonderful to deal with and are as helpful as they can be but DJI should look at special cases and live up to there name they spend millions on marketing but unfortunately in todays world having marketing that gives Customers high exception is let down but there follow through, im sure we are a few small number of people that have had a bad experience but DJI should be committed to backing the value the place on their products and services thanks heaps for you feed back and advice much appreciated

 

[MavicFlyer]

If it’s under 30 days return it to the retailer and get a refund.. to be honest if had my time back I probably would have ordered it from Best Buy at the time Best Buy was out of stock and there was a wait for order on the site .. amazon had the non fly more combo ready to go so impatiently I grabbed it up... it took alot longer than expected and I was even thinking about grabbing a air2 and sending back the mini when it got here but the air 2 was on back order everywhere.. when I got it finally the fly more combo was in stock and however if i had to go through Best Buy I could have got a fly more combo or an air 2 delivered to the store and brought the mini back for a refund/exchange.. with covid slowdown of delivery it wasn’t worth sending back to amazon and waiting another month I just wanted to get flying.. and I ordered extra batteries that took a month to get because of a address error in the system. But point is if you got it from a retailer even if u ordered through their site u have the ability to just send it back as an un wanted gift and buy whatever you want

I purchased a DJI Spark from BESTBUY in Dec 2017, but had technical issues with it, and instead of sending it to DJI for repair, I opted to return to BESTBUY, since I was within the expanded return window. However, Mavic Air had just been announced, so I decided to order the MA, and waited for it to come into stock.

BOTTOM LINE: I was told on forums that I was lucky that BB took it back, because most places will NOT accept returns of any DJI drone that has been activated by DJI, which is necessary before you can determine that it works normally.