Returning a Mavic 3 to vendor

GadgetGuy · Mar 23, 2024

370Z2017 said:
Such as the DJI white box was not sealed in clear plastic. The white box had no picture of the Mavic 3 drone, all it said was DJI Mavic 3. There were white labels covering the the DJI manufacture bar code labels indicating this was a Mavic 3 and indicating on the label it was "NEW". There was no manufacter "tape" to be cut to open the white box. Inside the box the drone came enclosed with the pouch that a new drone would normally have, except you could tell that drone pouch was previously opened and reclosed. It did arrive with all the other components it should of had and they did not appear to be opened. I activated the drone and noticed that when the power was cut off the gimbal would not "center" and lock in place.. It would lock in place off to the left side. To conclude... If this was a new drone regulated for replacement drones, the serial number would not have indicated it was a refurbished drone by the 5th from the last character as being "S". The drone was advertised on Amazon by the seller as "NEW". It was not sold to me with a refurbished price.

I was referring to the drone itself, and not the packaging. The Refurbs usually lack the fancy retail box packaging, and may even come in a plain black box. The refurb serial number doesn't affect performance, nor prevent defective returns, or purchasing DJI Care. The only difference is that a Refurb must be replaced with another Refurb, but so will any brand new drone, under the DJI Warrantee. If there is ever a problem with a new drone, after the first 7 days, you'll end up with a Refurb anyway. Might as well buy a Refurb from the beginning, and save some money.

Not sure what happened in your case. Might have been a Refurb that the seller exchanged for another Refurb, and then pawned the returned Refurb off onto you as new through Amazon. However, there is nothing wrong with buying DJI Refurbs directly from DJI or an authorized DJI dealer. I own several, usually purchased as backup aircraft, once the Refurbs became available, which often takes a year after release.

StevenBrodsky · Mar 24, 2024

370Z2017 said:
Just purchased a Mavic 3 and found out it is a refurbished unit. The 5th character from the left is an S. It was advertised as new. I have activated this and purchased DJI refresh. I have searched the forum for the procedures but I seem to get lost when reading so many threads regarding the correct return procedures. Can anyone steer me in the right direction please? Thank you!

Can you explain, "the fifth character from the left is an S". Many of us, including myself have no idea what that means.