DJI Refresh on a repaired drone

[Shaamaan]

This is probably a grey area, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

I've had the misfortune of crashing my Mini after 3 years of flying (so the old Refresh was long gone), and have sent it to DJI for repairs for which I paid out of pocket; the price wasn't exuberant given that the list of damages appeared to be a broken arm and a torn 3-in-1-cable for the gimbal.

Well, for some reason I got a NEW drone, rather than my old one, with a new S/N and as such I've been automatically given the option to purchase a Care Refresh package for it. Given that it's a "new drone but not really" - CAN I actually purchase a Refresh package for it or is that a bad idea?

 

[cameraz]

I had a Mavic Mini that I crashed, and it was replaced with a new drone under the DJI Care Refresh Plan. This plan gives you two opportunities to have your drone repaired.

Well, when I received my new drone, my remaining Care Refresh was transferred to my new drone. Unfortunately, yesterday I crashed my replacement drone -- about 10 months after I crashed my previous drone. So I went to DJI's support website, and it showed that I still have two months available before my Care Refresh expires. So I am sending my second Mini back to DJI. All I have to pay is a $36 fee.

 

[slup]

...Given that it's a "new drone but not really"

It most probably is new, or at least refurbished ... but it will be considered to be new in the eyes of DJI. This is how DJI usually operates, they rarely repair ...

CAN I actually purchase a Refresh package for it or is that a bad idea?

As it's considered new for DJI ... they offer you refresh for it.

 

[FLDave]

Since DJI offered you the purchase opportunity for Care Refresh, it's totally your option and only you can determine if the cost is worth and future benefit. You are the only one who can estimate your costs risks in case of a future crash or fly away.

 

[Shaamaan]

Since DJI offered you the purchase opportunity for Care Refresh, it's totally your option and only you can determine if the cost is worth and future benefit. You are the only one who can estimate your costs risks in case of a future crash or fly away.

Of course if it's "worth it" is something I need to decide on my own - I was actually wondering if the offer for a Refresh wasn't in error and getting it wouldn't actually get me in some kind of trouble. On the basis that this is a "new drone but not really", as stated (ex. I get the new Refresh and later crash this new drone and then it turns out that "nope, this Refresh is void because the drone wasn't new-new").

 

[FLDave]

It's simple, DJI offered you the option to pay for Care Refresh on your replacement drone. In general, DJI makes a profit on their Care Refresh problem as most owners never use it. You know the cost of Care Refresh and you know the cost of using Care Fresh for new damage. If you damage your drone can afford paying for repair or is your drone near it's end of life and better to just get a new drone upgraded model.

 

[rscheff]

As FLDave said it is your choice, but, I am on my 7th Mini 1 in 3 years. Getting the 7th on this coming Tuesday. 5 of my returns were under warranty and 2 were under the care package. All of my drones were replaced with new drones (or at least new serial numbers). Sometimes I wonder if they are really new or they just replace the battery door that has the serial # on it. After all, why do I keep getting bad drones. DJI also offered me another Care pckg., I jumped on it because my luck with their drones is not good. The 2 drones that I used the Care Refresh program on were drones that I had a problem with but they said there was not a problem. One drone issued an emergency landing with 90% of battery available. They reviewed the logs and agreed that an emergency landing was initiated but they could not find anything wrong with the drone. I told them to keep it and send me a new drone. The other drone flew out of range and would not RTH, just sat hovering about 1,000 feet away for approximately a minute (not 11 seconds like the manual says) I had to go after it in my car to get it back in range. Again they found nothing wrong with the drone so I again activated the care pckg. It is interesting though, about a month after I got a new drone (that only lasted about 3 months before developing Gimbal problems) DJI came out with an update that, get this, addressed RTH problems.

There is a lot of discussion as to when you can and can't use the Care pckg. Most people say that you have to have a drone to return. I have an e-mail from 2 different employees of DJI that contradict each other. One employee said that you had to have a drone to return and another employee said that it was an insurance policy and you did not need a drone to return. I would not like to test it though.

As far as DJI not repairing your drone and sending you a new one, that is a cost efficiency thing. I worked for a company that made MIDIs for the music industry (Music Interface Devices). They had many models that ranged in price from $70 to $10,000. When they got back the cheaper models under warranty they just sent out a new one. They would label the return with something describing the problem and just keep stacking them up. This was cheaper than trying to diagnose and fix. They would stack them up until there was a slump in production and then they would tackle repairing and sell them as refurbished. I am sure DJI is doing something similar.

 

[Shaamaan]

As FLDave said it is your choice, but, I am on my 7th Mini 1 in 3 years. (...)

Wow, talk about bad luck. In the 2 initial years of my Care Package I had 0 issues. No, wait, scratch that - my biggest issue was the drone refusing to take off due to a "restricted zone"... which I wasn't in (there was one around but it was quite a bit away). That said the few times I managed to fly out of range I was always a bit nervous.

Other than that - well, there was my own piloting error that caused the crash in year #3 after the care package expired which I wrote about. Anyway... <shrugs> thanks for the horror story. That'll keep me on my toes next time I fly.

 

[rscheff]

Since I last wrote I got my replacement drone and it lasted about 2 weeks before problems started. This problem is intermittent which makes it even more difficult to solve. It started on 6/19/22, it was at a party with a couple other drone flyers. Someone told me that they were thinking of buying a drone and could he see mine. I took it out and turned it on and I received an error msg., "R/C not connected to mobile device" and a complete black screen except with writing. The drone could be flown manually but I could not see anything. My son has a mini and tried his and he had no problems. I shut down and started back up several times. I disconnected and reconnected and nothing. I checked the firmware maybe for an update but there was no firmware, everything said N/A. I gave up the next day I took it out on my deck and guess what? It started right up as if nothing was wrong. Towards the end of the day I took it out again. I now received another error message saying "Weak Signal". I clicked OK and tried to fly and the message came right back. I checked the firmware and again it was all gone. This happened to me 3 or 4 more times over this week. I have called DJI twice, the first time the drone was working so they said they could not trouble shoot and call back when it was not working. I did this and the drone that was not working mysteriously got better with the tech doing nothing.

I have since then sent 2 e-mails to DJI and they asked for my flight records which I sent them 4 days ago. They just today acknowledged getting them. The problem is, and I said this to them, if there was no flight then there were no records and because there was no connection between the RC and my phone there was no way to record the flight records. That was the first thing I did was check the flight records. There was one day that I flew a little with no connection and that was the 19th, I had flight records for the 18th, the 20th and on but nothing for that day.

If there is anyone out there that has experienced this problem, what is the answer?