Mavic Pro bought in China - Warranty in Europe?

[remb]

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone has any experince with trying to fix a "chinese" Mavic Pro in Europe?
I.e. A Mavic that is bought in Shanghai or Shenzen.

What's the deal with DJI's warranty? As I understand it, the warranty coveres the region where the mavic is bought from. So Chinese Mavic Pro, you'll have to send it to China to get it repaired under warranty.

Would love to hear if my understanding is correct and if you guys would gamble on buying or importing a Mavic from China to Europe.

 

[remb]

I asked DJI Directly and this is their reply: TLDR: No warranty outside of where you buy your mavic.

"Thanks for contacting DJI Online Store, and it is my pleasure to help you!

Please kindly note that if you purchase your aircraft in China, you can only apply for product warranty service in China.

So if you live in Norway, you are recommended to purchase from DJI Online Store and deliver to Norway.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any other questions.

Sincerely and best wishes,
DJI Online Store"

 

[macmedia]

Well I bought my Mavic in Shenzhen back on Feb 8th. I also bought the care refresh warranty too. The DJI employee (she works at the flagship store) told me not to activate the Mavic until I got back to the HOME country where I will be using it. For the care refresh, I just gave my CHINA temporary cell phone number but my USA email address. So I heeded her advice and when I got back home to NY, I turned on my Mavic and activated it (which would simultaneously activate the Care Refresh in the US.

Fast forward a few days later and Stupid me flew too low and the props hit a top of the tree and that was it - my new mavic crashed below. I called DJI and that was the start of my use of the Care Refresh.

Although it was fully covered with Care Refresh, it took over 2 months to get my replacement - it was just ridiculous how long it took. Just last week they finally contacted me and I paid my $79usd deductible and yesterday it finally arrived!! New replacement. So although it took a long time, I'm glad I am back in business.

So, IF you activated your Mavic in your HOME country, then it should be able to get covered. If you activated somewhere else, then the warranty would only apply there. So if you buy a Mavic somewhere else, make sure it hasn't been turned on yet.

 

[Baldo81]

...
So, IF you activated your Mavic in your HOME country, then it should be able to get covered. If you activated somewhere else, then the warranty would only apply there. So if you buy a Mavic somewhere else, make sure it hasn't been turned on yet.

Hi, please correct if I haven't understood correctly, you're saying that if I buy a mavic in China (let's say from gearbest/bangood or any other vendor from China) and I activate one delivered to me (in EU in my case) I get a EU warranty coverage? is it correct?

 

[macmedia]

I don't know too much about Bangood or Gearbest (do they sell authorized items??)

I bought from an authorized dealer in Shenzhen, CN (there are tons of them there). My friend at DJI (I didn't buy from the factory store where she works) told me that I MUST activate the mavic in my home country which I did - and that automatically provided me with USA coverage even though I bought the Mavic as well as the Care Refresh in Shenzhen.

So my only question that I would pose is that if buying from Bangood or Gearbest give you a Mavic with the FACTORY warranty. If it does and the Mavic has not been turned on (VERY IMPORTANT), then I would assume that you can get EU coverage when you turn it on IN THE HOME COUNTRY where you want the coverage.

A side note, even though DJI's repair service is horrible (meaning they take forever to repair/replace), I do highly recommend that or some kind of warranty/breakage coverage. Since my last post, I crashed it again because it drifted from position and accidentally hit a telephone pole. Luckily I just had some minor scratches but the $100usd insurance is well spent for some unexpected event.

Hi, please correct if I haven't understood correctly, you're saying that if I buy a mavic in China (let's say from gearbest/bangood or any other vendor from China) and I activate one delivered to me (in EU in my case) I get a EU warranty coverage? is it correct?

 

[gavcuk]

I don't believe that is correct. A better answer would come from DJI themselves. Start a live chat with them on their website

 

[Baldo81]

I don't know too much about Bangood or Gearbest (do they sell authorized items??)

I bought from an authorized dealer in Shenzhen, CN (there are tons of them there). My friend at DJI (I didn't buy from the factory store where she works) told me that I MUST activate the mavic in my home country which I did - and that automatically provided me with USA coverage even though I bought the Mavic as well as the Care Refresh in Shenzhen.

So my only question that I would pose is that if buying from Bangood or Gearbest give you a Mavic with the FACTORY warranty. If it does and the Mavic has not been turned on (VERY IMPORTANT), then I would assume that you can get EU coverage when you turn it on IN THE HOME COUNTRY where you want the coverage.

A side note, even though DJI's repair service is horrible (meaning they take forever to repair/replace), I do highly recommend that or some kind of warranty/breakage coverage. Since my last post, I crashed it again because it drifted from position and accidentally hit a telephone pole. Luckily I just had some minor scratches but the $100usd insurance is well spent for some unexpected event.

Thanks for your reply, the drone will be activated in EU (even if bought in China). In case I've to activate the warranty I can send to DJI a EU invoice, so if the Mavic's serial number isn't linked to a region there wouldn't be any issue.
I wasn't thinking to buy the Dji care refresh I fly drone for 6 years and I never had any crash..

 

[Baldo81]

I don't believe that is correct. A better answer would come from DJI themselves. Start a live chat with them on their website

I tried to ask in the past and they always say that the warranty is related with the country you bought the item.

 

[gavcuk]

Which I believe is the correct answer. If you buy refresh in your home country then you can get service in your country

 

[macmedia]

I spoke with DJI when I was visiting their flagship store in Shenzhen in February and that is what she told me (meaning doesn't matter if I buy in China - it's where the Mavic is activated. The servers take note of the IP address to determine activation location).

I have first hand experience with buying in China in a retail store (not owned by DJI but they sold many other drone brands and supposedly DJI authorized), bringing it back to New York, crashing the drone and getting Care Refresh coverage here in the US. It's all documented and I was completely covered.

I don't believe that is correct. A better answer would come from DJI themselves. Start a live chat with them on their website

 

[gavcuk]

But what if you hadn't purchased refresh? You might then have had a very different experience.

 

[macmedia]

DJI never asked me for an invoice - so they never saw my Shenzhen CN invoice. When I needed the repair service, I went to the Care Refresh webpage and they asked for my login information (which was done when I was back in New York) as well as the Care Refresh policy number (and that had a China policy number). That was it and the website was able to verify my coverage.

Another side note: I did complain by phone to DJI repair about the long repair time and when the person was researching my case, they did see that I bought Care Refresh in China and not in the US. It didn't matter to them and 3 days later it was shipped via UPS back to my home in NY.

Thanks for your reply, the drone will be activated in EU (even if bought in China). In case I've to activate the warranty I can send to DJI a EU invoice, so if the Mavic's serial number isn't linked to a region there wouldn't be any issue.
I wasn't thinking to buy the Dji care refresh I fly drone for 6 years and I never had any crash..

 

[macmedia]

That could be a possibility but I'm just reporting my experiences. In any event, I HIGHLY recommend the Refresh. I feel the Mavic is not completely stable and the numerous reports of flyaways are not inconsequential - I always have in the back of my mind that the drone might misbehave during a flight and for the peace of mind of an extra $100 is well worth it.

But what if you hadn't purchased refresh? You might then have had a very different experience.

 

[Baldo81]

DJI never asked me for an invoice - so they never saw my Shenzhen CN invoice. When I needed the repair service, I went to the Care Refresh webpage and they asked for my login information (which was done when I was back in New York) as well as the Care Refresh policy number (and that had a China policy number). That was it and the website was able to verify my coverage.

Another side note: I did complain by phone to DJI repair about the long repair time and when the person was researching my case, they did see that I bought Care Refresh in China and not in the US. It didn't matter to them and 3 days later it was shipped via UPS back to my home in NY.

Thanks for the feedback, bus as @gavcuk said this is a particular case as you had the dji care refresh.
We still have no idea about a normal warranty issue

 

[gavcuk]

Agree that refresh worth it in this scenario

 

[Baldo81]

Agree that refresh worth it in this scenario

for sure for the peace of mind refresh is the best option... I'm still in the doubt if is worth it to me as I never had any problem/crash during the last 6 years and taking in consideration that I change drone every 7-8 months
Mavic is going to be delivered early next week, I've a weekend to get decided on this

 

[macmedia]

Another side note: Perhaps the money saved from buying in China would cover the cost of buying Refresh so you have piece of mind as well as a good price!

Also - after thinking about this... I NEVER discussed about getting care refresh when initially buying the Mavic. Care Refresh was actually an afterthought 1 day later. I purchased the refresh as well as the Mavic from the same retailer on DIFFERENT days. And an important observation is that my DJI friend did not know that I bought the Refresh until afterwards. When I bought the Mavic, she was with me at the store and the funny thing is that the store needed a contact number (when filling out the official DJI online order form) and my DJI friend put her telephone number in because I did not have a China number (it wouldn't take my USA cell phone number). So because of this timeline, I am quite certain that it doesn't matter if Refresh is part of the equation or not - just the activation as she noted.

Thanks for the feedback, bus as @gavcuk said this is a particular case as you had the dji care refresh.
We still have no idea about a normal warranty issue

 

[Baldo81]

Do you think that from the serial number dji know for which market is the Mavic (NA, EU, CN..) or they just confirm it from the purchase invoice requested to the customer when they need to activate the warranty?

 

[Baldo81]

Do you think that from the serial number dji know for which market is the Mavic (NA, EU, CN..) or they just confirm it from the purchase invoice requested to the customer when they need to activate the warranty?

to answer myself and to share with you I chatted with the support to understand if they know from the S/N which is the region of the unit.
It seems that they don't.

 

[b2n]

Hello, for dji warranty i can confirm that you will not be covered outside of your buying area. I bought mine when i was in taiwan from an autorised reseller. Come back to france then after 4 month the mavic crash due to an update (confirmed by dji themself). But no warranty coverage because i am outside of china area (even if i send het drone to them in china)