Gimbal Fault / Smoke Out - DJI Service Experience

[UAVXTC]

Thought I'd update this thread with my DJI Service experience.
Short overview of the problem I had with my Mavic, after 4 days and the latest FW update, my Gimbal went crazy 4 minutes into a flight over a Scottish Loch. Managed to RTH while in a Death Spin, Gimbal was hanging just on it's Ribbon Cable which smoked when I landed it. Pulled the battery immediately.

Got a RMA & Shipping label within 48 hours, home from Scotland trip today and have arranged for UPS to pick it up today.

The journey begins.......

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 4
Shipped on Friday 8th Sept as the incident occurred while away from home

MP Shipped to DJI Netherlands on Friday. Picked up with 3 hours of printing the shipping label! Looks like DJI will receive my MP today:

LOCATION DATE LOCAL TIME ACTIVITY
Eindhoven, Netherlands 12/09/2017 3:23 Out for Delivery
12/09/2017 3:23 Import Scan
12/09/2017 3:15 Destination Scan
12/09/2017 1:11 Arrival Scan
Tilburg, Netherlands 12/09/2017 0:21 Departure Scan
Tilburg, Netherlands 11/09/2017 22:45 Arrival Scan
Brussels, Belgium 11/09/2017 21:17 Departure Scan
11/09/2017 11:18 Arrival Scan
Barking, United Kingdom 10/09/2017 13:36 Departure Scan
Barking, United Kingdom 09/09/2017 3:18 Arrival Scan
Tamworth, United Kingdom 09/09/2017 0:37 Departure Scan
Tamworth, United Kingdom 08/09/2017 21:42 Arrival Scan
Bristol, United Kingdom 08/09/2017 19:45 Departure Scan
08/09/2017 12:49 Collection Scan

Current Smiley Level:

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 4
Delivered to DJI (Netherlands) via UPS

Delivered On:Tuesday, 12/09/2017 at 11:44

Left At: Front desk

Received By: H*****RG

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 5

Although delivered yesterday, this is not showing as 'Received' on the Repair Progress Inquiry page today. Status still indicates waiting for to be received. Email sent to DJI Support 09:04

Current Smiley Level:

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Took 2 days for me and got a quote the same day

 

[UAVXTC]

Took 2 days for me and got a quote the same day

Wow! That's fast. But I suppose sending on a Friday doesn't help, I can't really include the weekend I suppose.

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Sorry 4 days shipping 2 days from receiving to them saying received

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 5
Delivery Confirmation received after 24 Hrs

Dear Customer,

The item you sent to DJI for repair has been received and the case number is CAS-963610-Q1V5W4. One of our customer representatives may contact you for further details. You can visit Repair Progress Inquiry or through the DJI GO App to view the repair progress after two working days. Thank you for choosing DJI.

Product Details:

Product Name

Serial Number

Quantity

Mavic Pro Aircraft & Gimbal (Excluding remote controller, Battery, Battery Charger, Propellers, SD Card, and AC Cable)

08QDE5401203E9

1

This is an automated email. Please do not reply to this message. Email sent to this address cannot be answered.

Best Regards,

DJI Support

Status Now: Conducting Damage Assessment

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 6
Awaiting Damage Assessment

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Unlucky mine took 45mins

 

[UAVXTC]

Man, that was quick! Did you pay for expedited service or something?

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Nope, guess it depends on how busy they are, the workers may even pass on yours for the easier ones

I know when I worked in a repair department for an electronics company some would pick the easy stuff by the description and I would pick the ones that looked interesting ie not seen the fault description before, so it's not always first come first serve, it was supposed to be but then you add human factors

 

[normr]

Let us know if they actually repaired yours or are sending you an entirely different MP with a different serial number, that's what DJI here in the U.S. does, they just throw your damaged one in a pile for someone to probably strip or work on later, and grab a replacement 30 seconds later and send it back

 

[isiden]

Thumbs up for Dji EU Support, I had to "refresh" my mavic and they were really fast..

 

[UAVXTC]

Let us know if they actually repaired yours or are sending you an entirely different MP with a different serial number, that's what DJI here in the U.S. does, they just throw your damaged one in a pile for someone to probably strip or work on later, and grab a replacement 30 seconds later and send it back

Well, the report I got back this evening tells me nothing other than exactly the same information I gave in the report form I enclosed with the shipment. Nothing to indicate they have look at the flight data and video, instead, a bill for EU266.00

 

[UAVXTC]

Totally disappointed with DJI 'Support' so much so they can keep the Mavic I purchased, I feel totally ripped off for the £1100, I should of just set light to the cash instead. 4 years of buying their Drones, 1st time using their 'Support' - Never again!

Releasing a video of what happened including flight data next week, i'll leave it for you guys to decided whether I crashed it or salvaged it from an in flight failure.

 

[UAVXTC]

Day 7
DJI Response:

Reynalyn (Support)

Sep 15, 18:20 CST

Hello Mike,

Thank you for writing back.

We understand your concern for your Invoice Quotation that you've received.

With regards with your concern, as your request for refund we are sorry to inform you but we cannot request an refund since the unit is already crashed as per After sales policy the unit is must within seven 14 calendar (What?) days of receiving a product if the product has no manufacturing defect, has not been activated and is still in new or like-new condition we can process an refund.

You can check this link for further reference about the after sales policy After-Sales Service Policies - DJI.

However, we can request to perform a thorough analysis of your aircraft so that our Data Analysis can check the real reason why the unit is crashed. With that, if there is an instances that the result of the data analysis is the aircraft fault there is a possibility that the unit will replace by our repair team but it always depends on the data analysis result and decision. Once Data Analysis done in your aircraft as the results came in they will discuss with you about the charges incurred and possible options that may apply.

In order for us to request a further Data Analysis for the aircraft, we need the following information:

Application you used on your mobile device to operate the drone:
Email address associated with your DJI account used for your last flight:
Date and time of the incident:
Serial Number of your remote controller:
Description of your operation:

Kindly see the attachment below how to extract flight record.

Thank you for kind understanding. (Understanding? Really! What an insult!)

With kind regards,

Reynalyn
DJI NL TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Tel Support: +31 20 654 5202

Attachment(s)
How to upload your flight records.docx

 

[UAVXTC]

had above reply despite already sending Flight info + video nearly 11 days ago!

 

[Haloweenhamster]

Yeah mine had some scuffs on the side and bottom where it flew off sideways, cosmetic damage only, 2 months later it was grounded for old firmware (550), so I tried up updating several times with it stopping at 76%, the last time it stayed on 86% for over an hour until the battery went flat, now its bricked, sent it back for repair not thinking of the cosmetic damage, quoted €500, sent all the stuff they asked for for data analysis, came back with user error, so I asked for the drone back which they did for free (website shows €50 service fee) and I'm now waiting for thunderdrones for the replacement part $75 + p&p

If I was you I would get it back and put it on eBay as spares or repairs, fly more have been going for £500-600 faulty
Or get it repaired 3rd party
Or repair, they are mostly easy to work on

 

[UAVXTC]

Yeah mine had some scuffs on the side and bottom where it flew off sideways, cosmetic damage only, 2 months later it was grounded for old firmware (550), so I tried up updating several times with it stopping at 76%, the last time it stayed on 86% for over an hour until the battery went flat, now its bricked, sent it back for repair not thinking of the cosmetic damage, quoted €500, sent all the stuff they asked for for data analysis, came back with user error, so I asked for the drone back which they did for free (website shows €50 service fee) and I'm now waiting for thunderdrones for the replacement part $75 + p&p

If I was you I would get it back and put it on eBay as spares or repairs, fly more have been going for £500-600 faulty
Or get it repaired 3rd party
Or repair, they are mostly easy to work on

Day 10

Well they said I crashed it, the video quite clearly shows the MP wasn't crashed, the gimbal went crazy while ascending to around 80ft and I managed to just about get the Mavic back. Absolutely no damage to the Mavic at all apart from the gimbal failure which quite clearly performs perfectly for 2-3 minutes then goes crazy.

I've provided them the additional info like App Version, Remote Serial Number, Video file and account details for flight log, let's see what they come up with next. I'm not holding my breath.