2 months old - Faulty Drone/Gimbal - Terrible Customer Service!!!

[Gilescoley]

I purchased a P4 Advanced drone and I had constant issues with it, especially with the "gimbal overload error" and the gimbal vibrating and constantly shaking

I only had the drone for 2 months and had done a handful of short flights in the local park

The drone was causing issues when I needed it for my work and it cost me almost a week worth of work.

I told DJI I wanted a replacement drone and I was going to return it to the place I bought it from and they said I had to send it off to them. I told them I don’t want it to go back to them to have it repaired because what else is wrong with it if the gimbal has been faulty from day I bought it, has it been dropped or are there other faulty components that will cause other issues when its returned

I have had drones that have had hardware issues even after 6 months of owning them and I have asked for it to be replaced and the companies have replaced the drone. Im not sure why a company as big as DJI cant do this.

I told them I didn’t have the time to do this as the drone would gone for a while and I cant go without it for work. I have argued with them for a while and they refuse so I will do my best to make sur other people know about this and don’t buy your product. I have purchased a Yuneec Typhoon H Pro and have had no issues at all.

The drone was sent to them to them on Friday 1st June and I have still haven’t got it back so it was just like I thought it would be. They insist on sending the same faulty drone back so I’m selling the drone on Gumtree when it eventually turns up as I have a drone that is working and I refuse to use a DJI product again

I will be positing this on every drone forum and facebook page there is (dji.forum.com, phantompilots.com, mavicpilots.com, sparkpilots.zone and inspirepilots.com) to make sure I effect your business like you have affected mine, my 5 days of lost work wont compare to what their losses will be.

I would never buy a [Language Removed by Moderator] thing from this company again

 

[Mimoid]

I purchased a P4 Advanced drone and I had constant issues with it, especially with the "gimbal overload error" and the gimbal vibrating and constantly shaking

I only had the drone for 2 months and had done a handful of short flights in the local park

The drone was causing issues when I needed it for my work and it cost me almost a week worth of work.

I told DJI I wanted a replacement drone and I was going to return it to the place I bought it from and they said I had to send it off to them. I told them I don’t want it to go back to them to have it repaired because what else is wrong with it if the gimbal has been faulty from day I bought it, has it been dropped or are there other faulty components that will cause other issues when its returned

I have had drones that have had hardware issues even after 6 months of owning them and I have asked for it to be replaced and the companies have replaced the drone. Im not sure why a company as big as DJI cant do this.

I told them I didn’t have the time to do this as the drone would gone for a while and I cant go without it for work. I have argued with them for a while and they refuse so I will do my best to make sur other people know about this and don’t buy your product. I have purchased a Yuneec Typhoon H Pro and have had no issues at all.

The drone was sent to them to them on Friday 1st June and I have still haven’t got it back so it was just like I thought it would be. They insist on sending the same faulty drone back so I’m selling the drone on Gumtree when it eventually turns up as I have a drone that is working and I refuse to use a DJI product again

I will be positing this on every drone forum and facebook page there is (dji.forum.com, phantompilots.com, mavicpilots.com, sparkpilots.zone and inspirepilots.com) to make sure I effect your business like you have affected mine, my 5 days of lost work wont compare to what their losses will be.

I would never buy a **** thing from this company again

I am not in any way associated with DJI except for flying the Phantom 4 for my own pleasure. But did you know that DJI dominates the drone world with 75% market share? They have a yearly revenue of nearly 3 billion US dollars, so I honestly don't think your disgruntled complaints on a handful of random web forums will do much of a dent in their finances.

Of course it is pretty bad to be left without a critical piece of equipment when you have a looming deadline. And two weeks of repair time is annoying, I give you that, but it is still not much to complain about. You may have to wait just as long if your dishwasher breaks. And why would they replace your entire drone if it can be repaired? You have to remember that the Phantom 4 is mainly intended for the enthusiast market - for professional use you should have looked at the Inspire 2 or Matrice range with interchangeable gimbals and cameras.

Also, professional photographers don't go out on a critical mission equipped with nothing but a single point-and-shoot camera. They are equipped with multiple and redundant camera bodies, lenses and cards, so in case something unexpectedly happens, they can switch to a backup. As a professional drone pilot, so should you. If your Phantom is grounded, just switch to your backup Mavic or Typhoon or whatever. It is a deductible-cost and much better than failing a mission and potentially losing an important customer.

 

[wa5tef]

Yes you are experiencing DJI support! You can find countless harry stories about lying unresponsive personnel at DJI! I fought with them for a month and never found why or how my Phantom 4 suddenly flipped upside down and crashed! Each time I called I was referred to someone else who had no idea what my problem was. Half of the time I got disconnected.

I’ll never send anything back to them.
Good luck
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[BigAl07]

The drone was sent to them to them on Friday 1st June and I have still haven’t got it back so it was just like I thought it would be. They insist on sending the same faulty drone back so I’m selling the drone on Gumtree when it eventually turns up as I have a drone that is working and I refuse to use a DJI product again

I will be positing this on every drone forum and facebook page there is (dji.forum.com, phantompilots.com, mavicpilots.com, sparkpilots.zone and inspirepilots.com) to make sure I effect your business like you have affected mine, my 5 days of lost work wont compare to what their losses will be.

I would never buy a [Language Removed by Moderator] thing from this company again

You way over estimate the power of the "negative comments". If you read the forums you'll see people posting negative comments each and every day. DJI hasn't gone out of business over it yet and I'm confident that your personal rants are less than a drop in the ocean.

Your 5 days of lost work are because you aren't/weren't properly equipped to begin with. If you're going to play with the big dogs you gotta be willing to get the equipment to do the job.

Many of us have tried and used several other brands and for some reason (they just perform better than 90% of the competition in every way possible except customer service) we always seem to eventually come back to DJI albeit rather subtly it seems. Go out screaming and pitching a fit and later on come back in quietly in the side door without garnering much attention. I'm as guilty as anyone else on this matter.

But did you know that DJI dominates the drone world with 75% market share? They have a yearly revenue of nearly 3 billion US dollars, so I honestly don't think your disgruntled complaints on a handful of random web forums will do much of a dent in their finances.

Exactly!! Because they have so much of the market shares they have that percentage of the market "Failures & Accusations" as well as the % of bogus complaints. If they simply replaced every unit that a client "insisted needs replacement" they would probably go out of business. That's not how most of the industry works and for good reason.

They didn't get to the top of the food chain through bad business decisions and giving away sUAS just because the client said so.

Two weeks of repair time is annoying, I give you that, but it is still not much to complain about. You may have to wait just as long if your dishwasher breaks. And why would they replace your entire drone if it can be repaired?

So very true. I've had other brands of sUAS gone in for service and be out of pocket for 6 weeks. A 2 week turn around when you factor in shipping etc is not too bad at all.

You have to remember that the Phantom 4 is intended for the enthusiast market - for professional use you should have looked at the Inspire 2 or Matrice range with interchangeable gimbals and cameras.

I don't agree here. We have had similar issues with every model/line of DJI's products so paying more doesn't ensure worry free operations or better customer service. And it's worth noting our company is still flying Phantom3S and Phantom3P doing some fairly high $$ work. It's just a tool in the bag.

Also, professional photographers don't go out on a critical mission equipped with nothing but a single point-and-shoot camera. They are equipped with multiple and redundant camera bodies, lenses and cards, so in case something unexpectedly happens, they can switch to a backup. As a professional drone pilot, so should you. If your Phantom is grounded, just switch to your backup Mavic or Typhoon or whatever. It is a deductible-cost and much better than failing a mission and potentially losing an important customer.

^^^^ Best possible post today!! Very well said @Mimoid

When you're doing this as a professional you always have backups and backups for those backups. You can't afford to disappoint the client because you don't have the equipment needed to do the job. This is a key phrase and it's the LEAST you should consider:

1 drone is NONE
2 Drones are ONE! Always have a spare for everything. You lose one big job and you'll probably never get to work for that client again. Also when you fail your client will "tell your story" 10x over.

We just signed a contact for the biggest job of my sUAS career this week. In order to make sure I am able to fulfill the contract without delay we went out and bought 1 complete system (with spare batteries, SD cards etc) just to be on the safe side. Remember if you lose the job someone else will get it and odds are they will get ALL of that clients repeat business from that point on. It's CHEAPER to Keep Her!! (that saying works in many instances LOL). When this job is over if we don't need to most recent purchased unit we can sell it and recoup some of the $$.

Good luck in your endeavors.

 

[LarBear360]

Did you ever try contacting the seller for an exchange?

 

[Gilescoley]

Yes I did, they needed DJI approval to replace it

@BigA107 You have no idea what you are talking about. I wont be buying another one and I know my comments have an impact. I am the founder of 3 Drone Fishing forums and facebook pages. I get asked all the time about what drones to use and I certainly wont be saying the Phantom 4 so it has a direct impact on drone sales. It obviously wont make them go bust but f I can stop 10, 5 or even 1 sale, it will certainly make me feel better, it makes no difference whether they make $1000 a year of 10 billion a year, its what I can impact and control that makes me feel better about it.

About playing with the big dogs and having the right equipment, having backup drones etc etc, a little arrogance and ignorance comes across there, thats hardly the case, you dont even know what the drone is used for, so maybe check that first, I have 4 drones that I do demos with and in this case it was a meant to be a P4 demo, so using another drone would be a little stupid. I do demos for Cuta-Copter, Swellpro, and a host of others

Mimoid, I wanted the drone replaced as it was brand new, I have had dud products before and never had an issue having them replaced. Swellpro Splash drone last year was replaced in 4 days, thats customer service, and if companies cant do that., they better find new customers. Your comments about being a pro drone pilot, my drone is not used for photography so maybe check that first before using the photography examples

 

[With The Birds]

If you had returned to the retailer closer to when you purchased the product than two months out there would be nothing to grizzle about. A week or two tends to fit nicely within the reasonable expectations of most people where a replacement item or refund would be a reasonable expectation. What you are carrying on about here could apply equally to any product- it’s not a DJI specific problem.

For what it’s worth DJI’s customer support is probably as bad or worse than I have ever personally experienced. No argument there.

You won’t dissuade anyone from buying from them though- which is a shame. Some serious competition would benefit all of us.

 

[Gilescoley]

I was away so couldnt return it, returned as soon as i tried all the testing and troubleshooting DJI asked me to do and numerous emails back and forth.

I have already turned people off them because people ask me on my numerous drone pages and groups about which drone to get. Ive have had 3 queries in the last 2 weeks and 2 of them bought Swellpros after my advice and the 3rd hasnt purchased one yet so I know it works and I will keep doing it...they think they can treat customers like that because they're a big corp and thats fine but I'll have my impact for sure..this is on every drone forum and fb group/page around. We actually finance drone purchases for members so I have the facts.

 

[SanCap]

"@BigA107 You have no idea what you are talking about" these are words that I thought I would never see in the same sentence!!!

@Gilescoley, good luck with your future endeavors but it appears your approach to problem solving are seriously flawed.

 

[With The Birds]

I was away so couldnt return it, returned as soon as i tried all the testing and troubleshooting DJI asked me to do and numerous emails back and forth.

I have already turned people off them because people ask me on my numerous drone pages and groups about which drone to get. Ive have had 3 queries in the last 2 weeks and 2 of them bought Swellpros after my advice and the 3rd hasnt purchased one yet so I know it works and I will keep doing it...they think they can treat customers like that because they're a big corp and thats fine but I'll have my impact for sure..this is on every drone forum and fb group/page around. We actually finance drone purchases for members so I have the facts.

You being away is bad timing/luck- a bit rich to hold DJI accountable for that. As to the rest of the scenario it sounds very familiar. I persevered with dodgy camera trying different SD cards, firmware flashes etc (all at DJi’s Instruction) to ultimately learn the camera was faulty out of the box. Technically a DOA but I was two months in also by the time they had dicked me around and wasted my time. In my case I insisted on a new camera assay and consent to allow my dealer to instal it. They won’t budge unless you threaten them. I wish intel and the other suppliers of the smarts that allow DJI to be the product it is would launch their own product. We can only hope.

 

[Gilescoley]

Thanks sancap..im pissed off about it

@With The Birds...Its not rich me making them accountable. I was away for work with other drones that all worked. They are 100% accountable for selling a faulty drone..it certainly wasnt my fault.

 

[LarBear360]

I do understand your frustration, however, I've never heard of a retailer that needed permission to accept a return. At least not here in the US. Retailers have the option of doing whatever it takes to make things right with the customer. Typically the manufacturer has an arrangement for accepting returns, often no questions asked. If they wish to keep their distribution partners happy, they expect to get some of their product returned. Where do you think all those refurbs come from? They don't manufacture refurbished drones.

So just for fun I researched Cuta-Copter, Swellpro and drone fishing. I couldn't agree with you more. Do not recommend DJI for this purpose. The Phantom 4 and others are first and foremost marketed toward photographers and as such, I don't believe attaching fishing line and dropping bait in the water was ever considered as an intended purpose. On the other hand, these other quads look truly cool and amazing and perfect for that application.

Moving forward, anyone else considering applications other than photography should be aware of the DJI after sales terms and conditions. I'll mention a couple here.

What Will DJI Do
DJI will attempt to diagnose and resolve your problem by telephone, e-mail or online chat. DJI may direct you to download and install particular software updates.
If your problem cannot be resolved over the telephone or through the application of software updates, you may be required to deliver the product to DJI for further examination. DJI will arrange for repair or replacement service at no cost if the problem falls under this Limited Warranty.

What's not covered:

× Crashes or fire damage caused by non-manufacturing factors, including but not limited to, pilot errors.
× Damage caused by unauthorized modification, disassembly, or shell opening not in accordance with official instructions or manuals.
× Damage caused by improper installation, incorrect use, or operation not in accordance with official instructions or manuals.
× Damage caused by a non-authorized service provider.
× Damage caused by unauthorized modification of circuits and mismatch or misuse of the battery and charger.
× Damage caused by flights which did not follow instruction manual recommendations.
× Damage caused by operation in bad weather (i.e. strong winds, rain, sand/dust storms, etc.)
× Damage caused by operating the product in an environment with electromagnetic interference (i.e. in mining areas or close to radio transmission towers, high-voltage wires, substations, etc.).
× Damage caused by operating the product in an environment suffering from interference from other wireless devices (i.e. transmitter, video-downlink, Wi-Fi signals, etc.).
× Damage caused by operating the product at a weight greater than the safe takeoff weight, as specified by instruction manuals.
× Damage caused by a forced flight when components have aged or been damaged.
× Damage caused by reliability or compatibility issues when using unauthorized third-party parts.
× Damage caused by operating the unit with a low-charged or defective battery.
× Uninterrupted or error-free operation of a product.
× Loss of, or damage to, your data by a product.
× Any software programs, whether provided with the product or installed subsequently.
× Failure of, or damage caused by, any third party products, including those that DJI may provide or integrate into the DJI product at your request.
× Damage resulting from any non-DJI technical or other support, such as assistance with “how-to” questions or inaccurate product set-up and installation.
× Products or parts with an altered identification label or from which the identification label has been removed.

All the best to you in your other applications. I am seriously going to check-out those others drones, one of which is made in the USA.

 

[Gilescoley]

In Australia it is different..i asked Harvey Norman to replace it and they wouldnt swap out..it had to go back to DJI to get repaired

The phantom 3,4 and Mavics are more popular for this purpose than any of the other drones, mainly due to their payload and range.

My drone had just come out the box and hadn't been used for anything..that's what pissed me off.

Anyway..thanks for the comments

 

[With The Birds]

In Australia it is different..i asked Harvey Norman to replace it and they wouldnt swap out..it had to go back to DJI to get repaired

The phantom 3,4 and Mavics are more popular for this purpose than any of the other drones, mainly due to their payload and range.

My drone had just come out the box and hadn't been used for anything..that's what pissed me off.

Anyway..thanks for the comments

Actually Australia is a great place as far as consumer protection laws go, especially in recent years where Cwth legislation administered by the ACCC operates to protect consumer rights. Next time don’t let the sales staff at Hardly Normal con you. You purchased from them, it’s their issue to deal with the supplier/manufacturer. They can’t just palm you off. Exchanges and refunds are their responsibility, whatever policy/arrangements they have with their suppliers aren’t your worry. In my case I learnt late in the dealing that the retailer was trying to palm me off to DJI as they claimed to be in a position where they would need to submit a claim to DJI to reimburse them for the exchange camera from their repair stock. That’s their problem. Not mine. Their other option was to issue a full refund to me and wait for credit in the whole package.

 

[Gilescoley]

Believe my I did, I argued with them for ages, they were having none of it and said I need to contact DJI to get it repaired, they went as far as they would send it off for me, but they wont replace it. They have some agreement with DJI because in most cases in the past, Harvey Norman have replaced products without hesitation

 

[Mimoid]

Believe my I did, I argued with them for ages, they were having none of it and said I need to contact DJI to get it repaired, they went as far as they would send it off for me, but they wont replace it. They have some agreement with DJI because in most cases in the past, Harvey Norman have replaced products without hesitation

Jeez, just get the bird fixed and get over it already. Your revenge crusade is ridiculous. Save your energy for more important matters.

 

[Gilescoley]

Trot along Mimoid if you have nothing smart to say...I can do what I want..companies like DJI think they can do what they want..this is not the case

 

[Chris Abram]

After reading your comments I am really beginning to wonder if my next drone purchase should be a Dji as I have had lots of problems with my Phantom 4 pro. Problems with new batteries not charging, another battery with twenty flights getting a cell go down, clips being recorded on the Dji Go4 Dji record file when there is a perfectly good formatted mini sd card in the drone. All those types of clips were totally corrupted.Signal loss when flying within a hundred feet with a resultant RTH command. No help from official UK Dji supplier.
Perhaps your rant will be too minuscule to affect Dji but sooner or later they will have to sit up and take notice because my reading through the various forums is clearly indicating that there are a lot of people across the world who are dissatisfied with Dji.
I have now decided that my second drone will go to Yuneec.

 

[Gilescoley]

Chris..their customer service is shocking

I run 4 forums and Facebook pages with 203k members so might be miniscule but it will at least cost them thousands...i get asked weekly what drones it use for our hobby and there is no way I'll say DJI again...

 

[Chris Abram]

If you want to include my post in your other forums feel free to do so.
Keep up the pressure.
Kind regards
Chris