Someone crashed my drone during shipping

[Yaros]

Hey, this is a strange topic, I don't even know if it belongs here, but let me tell you what happened:

I sold my Mavic Air 2 in pretty good shape for $250 to a guy on in Portugal, the app told me to leave it at a gas station for the delivery company to pick it up from there, they picked it up like a week later, which seemed strangely long for me, but today it finally arrived, and about 10 minutes after I got the notification that it got delivered, I got a text and images of the drone, crashed, dirty, with broken propellers, 2 batteries and the charging hub missing.

I know that spanish post is trash, they already broke my FPV drone last year (Rotor Riot replaced it under their terms for free), but still, this is on another level.
Furthermore, I messaged the delivery company to figure out who had a fun time flying my drone and broke it.
Also I will message DJI to see if they can figure out who activated it after I removed it from my account.

This is not normal…
Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[GFields]

Sounds like someone is trying to SCAM you. I hope you know the serial number of the drone you sold. If so, make the buyer display the SN of the "crashed drone" to verify that it is the one you sold. It may be the one they had and crashed and trying to get one over on you.

How did you receive payment?
Did you take photos of the drone you sent?

 

[mavic3usa]

In the US, we can drop off packages at third party locations but they are generally "authorized" locations who keep records and/or scanning for incoming packages so the sender is able to at least transfer some of the responsibility at the time of drop off. Never heard of dropping off at a gas station and unless you have done this before, you probably should have taken the extra steps to hand it over directly to the shipper.

 

[Droning on and on...]

In the US, we can drop off packages at third party locations but they are generally "authorized" locations who keep records and/or scanning for incoming packages so the sender is able to at least transfer some of the responsibility at the time of drop off. Never heard of dropping off at a gas station and unless you have done this before, you probably should have taken the extra steps to hand it over directly to the shipper.

Well, there's not much to Sa Coma, Mallorca, Spain, so it's conceivable that the gas station in question IS how packages are sent off, and the carrier only comes through there occasionally as needed...

 

[landscapetog]

So many scams against sellers of photo equipment these days. It's become almost impossible for sellers online anymore. eBay is the worst, and they will always take the buyer's side even when they are scamming.

 

[mavic3usa]

Well, there's not much to Sa Coma, Mallorca, Spain, so it's conceivable that the gas station in question IS how packages are sent off, and the carrier only comes through there occasionally as needed...

Agreed and he should know if that's all he can do. Just gotta get use to the risks I guess. Kinda such they likely destroyed his stuff and then shipped it anyway so he would take the blame.

 

[MS Coast]

Hey, this is a strange topic, I don't even know if it belongs here, but let me tell you what happened:

I sold my Mavic Air 2 in pretty good shape for $250 to a guy on in Portugal, the app told me to leave it at a gas station for the delivery company to pick it up from there, they picked it up like a week later, which seemed strangely long for me, but today it finally arrived, and about 10 minutes after I got the notification that it got delivered, I got a text and images of the drone, crashed, dirty, with broken propellers, 2 batteries and the charging hub missing.

I know that spanish post is trash, they already broke my FPV drone last year (Rotor Riot replaced it under their terms for free), but still, this is on another level.
Furthermore, I messaged the delivery company to figure out who had a fun time flying my drone and broke it.
Also I will message DJI to see if they can figure out who activated it after I removed it from my account.

This is not normal…
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Look to the buyer as the problem.

It's highly unlikely that the delivery company or the receiving group tampered with the contents of a package. It's even more unlikely that they opened the package, flew the drone, crashed it, packaged it up again, and sent it on for delivery. Had they flown and crashed the drone, it would have been much simpler and less risky to just get rid of it than ship it.

 

[Melvoid]

I sold one and shipped it in its Pelican-like case (Brand was Nanuck, I think). I not only duct taped the case, I put a combination lock on it and emailed the combination to the buyer 2 days after I dropped it off at the UPS store - after he paid me. All went smoothly. Hope yours works out in your favor.

 

[mavic3usa]

I sold one and shipped it in its Pelican-like case (Brand was Nanuck, I think). I not only duct taped the case, I put a combination lock on it and emailed the combination to the buyer 2 days after I dropped it off at the UPS store - after he paid me. All went smoothly. Hope yours works out in your favor.

LOL hopefully that isn't necessary since in the US, you are generally protected once you officially drop off the product to the common carrier. For portals like eBay and Paypal, they use the tracking number to establish this to some extent. However, if someone were to intercept your package, pretty sure a strong case and combo lock won't stop them, not even for a minute. If you have concerns, shippers like Fedex and UPS have insurance coverage you can purchase.

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

I would say that the buyer crashed it, then has tried it on with you about damage pre delivery.
As stated above get them to send you the S/N of the drone.
You probably won’t get much joy from DJI regarding who has activated it.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I sold my Mavic Air 2 in pretty good shape for $250 to a guy on in Portugal, the app told me to leave it at a gas station for the delivery company to pick it up from there, they picked it up like a week later, which seemed strangely long for me, but today it finally arrived, and about 10 minutes after I got the notification that it got delivered, I got a text and images of the drone, crashed, dirty, with broken propellers, 2 batteries and the charging hub missing.

What was the outcome of this problem ?
A second hand drone should not need activation unless DJI have changed things since I bought my last drone.

But the point of this post is, you know the serial number of the drone, the controller and, assuming you used them, the missing batteries. They are recorded in the txt flight log and normally avaialble in the CSV downloaded from Phantomhelp.
e.g the edited version of an air 2 csv below.

 

[Yaros]

What was the outcome of this problem ?

The buyer told me not to worry, he contacted the shipping company, but they only agreed to replace 1 battery at their cost.
As the drone itself worked, and it was only the props and 1 more battery, so he said that it's fine and paid me anyway.
I was lucky that it happened with such a nice guy and I didn't need to cover the costs on my part.