Repair Invoice.......... REALLY?????

[FLPilotshark]

Brewski472001 , I feel your pain! I just got done sending my drone in for a quote since my camera was taking very blurry pictures for being just 6 months old.
This is my second DJI Mavic so it was not the settings, since I pretty much know all of the settings and how to recalibrate the IMU/Compass and etc.
So I sent in my DJI Mavic Pro to there repair facility and they came back the very next day with a quote that was 235.00 and saying even know your drone is 6 months old and should have been covered the came to a conclusion that it was a user error so they sent me the official quote which happened to be $245.00, since PER DJI, said, I needed a new gimbal and camera.
I decided to use one of my Dji care Refresh package since i GET 2 replacements. I did not know this but the replacements are not free, the 1st one is $79.99 and your second replacement is $129.99 with your Dji care Refresh package. Alot a people dont understand that if you fly it your drone you can;t go back in buy the Care package.

PER DJI on my first replacement, and let me tell you this new replacement drone that people say are refurbshied , they may buy everything was brand spanking new, all the stickers you have to take off your dorne were all on there and my new Mavic Pro drone replacement works just like one should perform. FYI, b/c no one told me that I would have to pay another 79.99 on top of the $130 for the DJI Care Refresh Service plan but in the end its totally worth it to spend and buy the dji Care Refresh Service plan so you dont get stuck with a hefty bill from Dji like this Brewski472001 did.

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for writing back.

Regarding your inquiry, if you choose to use your DJI Care Refresh Service plan, our facility will send a quotation to your email containing the details for the replacement fee of your aircraft and once the payment is settled, we will send you a replacement that is new or equivalent to new in performance and reliability. Kindly refer to the image below containing the details of the replacement fee for Mavic Pro:

 

[BigAl07]

The 94 % battery was fully charged before about a four hour drive in the case. The second one was the second flight on that battery shortly after fully charging that morning.

So that first battery went from 100% to 94% while riding down the road in just 4 hours?? Something isn't adding up here. It could be an internal fault in the battery if that's the case.

 

[Brewski472001]

How long after they receive it didyou get a quote?

Less than 24 hours.

 

[Brewski472001]

Brewski472001 , I feel your pain! I just got done sending my drone in for a quote since my camera was taking very blurry pictures for being just 6 months old.
This is my second DJI Mavic so it was not the settings, since I pretty much know all of the settings and how to recalibrate the IMU/Compass and etc.
So I sent in my DJI Mavic Pro to there repair facility and they came back the very next day with a quote that was 235.00 and saying even know your drone is 6 months old and should have been covered the came to a conclusion that it was a user error so they sent me the official quote which happened to be $245.00, since PER DJI, said, I needed a new gimbal and camera.
I decided to use one of my Dji care Refresh package since i GET 2 replacements. I did not know this but the replacements are not free, the 1st one is $79.99 and your second replacement is $129.99 with your Dji care Refresh package. Alot a people dont understand that if you fly it your drone you can;t go back in buy the Care package.

PER DJI on my first replacement, and let me tell you this new replacement drone that people say are refurbshied , they may buy everything was brand spanking new, all the stickers you have to take off your dorne were all on there and my new Mavic Pro drone replacement works just like one should perform. FYI, b/c no one told me that I would have to pay another 79.99 on top of the $130 for the DJI Care Refresh Service plan but in the end its totally worth it to spend and buy the dji Care Refresh Service plan so you dont get stuck with a hefty bill from Dji like this Brewski472001 did.

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for writing back.

Regarding your inquiry, if you choose to use your DJI Care Refresh Service plan, our facility will send a quotation to your email containing the details for the replacement fee of your aircraft and once the payment is settled, we will send you a replacement that is new or equivalent to new in performance and reliability. Kindly refer to the image below containing the details of the replacement fee for Mavic Pro:

I just got a call from DJI in Shenzhen, Guandong, China concerning this case. For the fourth time, I told my story, in length, to someone at DJI. I was told " I can't guarantee anything, but I will do the best I can to resolve this". I guess it has to be approved by the owners. How high up the chain of command does this have to go to come to a resolution? I am seriously having second thoughts of upgrading!!

 

[Brewski472001]

Soooo, I received an email from DJI Repair Service and they informed me that the repair will be free of charge. As of right now, all I know is they replaced a flight board. I will update when I receive MA in the mail on May 30 and hopefully, details what was actually done.. I informed them that with all your help, the consensus was that it was faulty batteries. I asked that they check out the three batteries that I sent back with my unit and controller. I was assured that the batteries have been checked and they are cleared to use. Obviously, I saved that email for posterity, just in case this happens again. I will be flying this thing until the props fly off, over wide open spaces until I'm absolutely sure these batteries are OK. Of course I will mark the batteries and log the performance of each as time progresses. Once again, thank you very much for all your help. Sometimes, these things work out with the help of great forums such as this one. I still have my fingers crossed though.

 

[Arce101]

Soooo, I received an email from DJI Repair Service and they informed me that the repair will be free of charge. As of right now, all I know is they replaced a flight board. I will update when I receive MA in the mail on May 30 and hopefully, details what was actually done.. I informed them that with all your help, the consensus was that it was faulty batteries. I asked that they check out the three batteries that I sent back with my unit and controller. I was assured that the batteries have been checked and they are cleared to use. Obviously, I saved that email for posterity, just in case this happens again. I will be flying this thing until the props fly off, over wide open spaces until I'm absolutely sure these batteries are OK. Of course I will mark the batteries and log the performance of each as time progresses. Once again, thank you very much for all your help. Sometimes, these things work out with the help of great forums such as this one. I still have my fingers crossed though.

So how did you get them to budge I got a bill for 890 then 139 for a battery that was water damage but I told them my mavic flys and there’s now way I can pay that I’m not rich That’s a lot of money I talked with support once again and got a different response he actually seemed to be on my side. He said he’d challenge the request to have my drone replaced and have the price lowered but I’m just crossing my fingers I told them I’m not gonna pay that did thunder drones help you out or what?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Yes there are always learning experiences. In this case I see a few things to learn:

• Never, ever, ever start a flight with a battery that is less than 100%. No exceptions.

100%?

Just to be clear, a battery recently charged — well before before the self-discharge period -- can show something a bit less than 100% (but above 95%). I think a battery is only going to be absolutely 100% for around 48 hours.

So are you saying a battery charged 3-4 days ago and never used, then showing 96% charge, should not be used in the AC without topping off?

If that is indeed unnecessary, I wonder if such topping off reduces battery life.

Obviously, keeping the craft from crashing or a severe-charge-level forced-landing is the goal here, but hey, I don't want to do unnecessary charging if I don't have to.

Chris

 

[Brewski472001]

So how did you get them to budge I got a bill for 890 then 139 for a battery that was water damage but I told them my mavic flys and there’s now way I can pay that I’m not rich That’s a lot of money I talked with support once again and got a different response he actually seemed to be on my side. He said he’d challenge the request to have my drone replaced and have the price lowered but I’m just crossing my fingers I told them I’m not gonna pay that did thunder drones help you out or what?

I copied and pasted the initial complaint I posted here and listed it on the DJI Forum, stating I have posted this to various other Mavic forums, including this one. I got so much help from the members of this forum. Having said that, I think they looked at the responses and realized it was definitely a non pilot or user issue and a product failure. I consider myself lucky. I beat my head again tree the first time dealing with them.

 

[Arce101]

I’m yet to hear anything but don’t you think 890 is high for repairs I think maybe a gimbal but even water damage can be fixed right

 

[Arce101]

Did thunder drones help you out ?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I haven't crashed a Mavic yet (knock on wood), but when I crashed the Phantom, I could get a camera / gimbal package and replace it myself for about $350.

Water damage is a whole different thing though.

 

[Arce101]

Yea the said they could come down on price hopefully it a very significant come down from 890

 

[Arce101]

I can’t pay it and if I don’t I don’t think they will release my drone back to me on the count of water damage

 

[PhantomFandom]

100%?

Just to be clear, a battery recently charged — well before before the self-discharge period -- can show something a bit less than 100% (but above 95%). I think a battery is only going to be absolutely 100% for around 48 hours.

So are you saying a battery charged 3-4 days ago and never used, then showing 96% charge, should not be used in the AC without topping off?

If that is indeed unnecessary, I wonder if such topping off reduces battery life.

Obviously, keeping the craft from crashing or a severe-charge-level forced-landing is the goal here, but hey, I don't want to do unnecessary charging if I don't have to.

Chris

My apologies. I used 100% to actually mean recently and fully charged. You could fully charge your battery the same morning and by the time you get the drone powered up, the battery could read 99%. However as you said, it certainly shouldn't be 95%.

Having said all of that, yes I personally would top it off if the battery was charged 3 or 4 days ago. Some people (like myself) have auto-discharge set at 3 days so I don't want to risk flying when that process has already commenced. Topping off a battery that is very close to fully charged will not appreciably reduce its life because of the small "charge cycle percentage". If you do that every day and never fly then yes it's a problem, but if you top off a battery right before you head out then to me it makes for a safer flight.

 

[PhantomFandom]

I can’t pay it and if I don’t I don’t think they will release my drone back to me on the count of water damage

You really have very little leverage here since this was not a hardware/firmware/software issue. They will always send you back the drone as is, if you decide to not pay for the repairs. As for the discount, they will probably come down a bit, but don't expect a whole lot. Water damage is serious and if it was salt water then it's usually fatal.

This started out as demanding for a free DJI replacement because it was a hardware failure. The flight logs proved that to not be the case. Flying in fog is always a bad idea. Losing the Mavic in the fog in the vicinity and altitude of treetops is bad news. So DJI is not to blame here.

Then it was sent to a repair center (which now seems to be reputable and honest) that you though was DJI but wasn't. You started complaining about them possibly holding your drone hostage and possibly not returning it, while in reality they were very professional and did not charge you even for the diagnostic work. Kudos to that vendor!

Now DJI has evaluated the damage that you caused, and have given you their estimate for repairs based on their diagnostic work. Is the price high? Sure it is. However this isn't a $99 Tello. It's an expensive piece of machinery and repairs won't be cheap.

 

[dleister]

I’m glad I read this thread. I always like having a full battery but once or twice I’ve taken off with 60-70% thinking it would just be a quick flight out and back. I had no idea the batteries auto discharged or that placing them back into the drone during this cycle would not accurately show you a battery status. Great info!

 

[PunaPhantom]

There is a great youtube afrom a guy in England re. batteries... helped me understand better about storing etc...
This rapid and sudden decline in voltage is explained in the video... but alas my poor mind can't recall the url... just google battery storage (cause that was the gist of the video) ok.... thought that rather lame... so spent a little time looking through my history to find it...

check it out... I haven't experienced this with my birds but did with my iPhone 5 where one minute the battery is indicating 70% and then within 30 secs drops to 4%... ok... back to editing... aloha

 

[Personal Drone Repair]

Thread is saying it’s good practice to launch with a full battery. If it was charged more than a couple of days earlier give it a quick top up (turn in before connecting to charger).

Never fly with a battery than may have entered auto discharge before fully charging.

Just interjecting experience . Not a shot across any one's bow . I store my batteries at 42 percent . I have learned through experience that topping off can give false security and battery readings . The story behind my reasoning is long to tell but bottom line , after any storage time , I have found that discharging batteries (without flight) to fail safe levels , then charging them to 100% has yielded great results .
After storage and before flight , I will use the drone to discharge the remaining charge . I do this by installing the props ( for cooling ) . Power up the drone and monitor the unit while idling . Allow the unit to bleed off the remaining power . I know that this sounds tedious and ocd . It beats dealing with DJI .
After battery is cooled and ready for a charge , I charge it to the recommended 100% . After implementing this procedure , I have been very fortunate that the false readings have not re occured .
I cannot scientifically tell you why this works for me but it does .
I hope that this helps .

 

[quadroger]

Welcome to the club!

Around 4 years ago I had a similar battery issue with my Phantom 2 vision +. Unfortunately it still happening today.

 

[ruggb]

I have a couple questions about all this battery stuff.
1. by "auto discharge" are you talking about the smart battery function of discharging after a number of days of non-use?
2. by "not taking off without 100% charge" are you talking about initiating a flight or actually taking off? I often "take off" multiple times on a single battery during a contiguous flight time.

If 1 is "yes", then I guess 2 would be the former.

Also, the auto discharge function time was settable on my P3S batteries, but I have not seen the same thing on the M2 batteries. Is there a place to set it or is it fixed?