Dead/Defective Batteries

I'm shocked eBay and Amazon still let vendors sell these DJI knock off batteries on their sites, when everyone knows they no longer work (post update)

Really? Do a search for 16GB microSD cards and then sort results by "Price: High to Low". I'm shocked that Amazon lets vendors get away with *that*!
(They have the cards listed for $6,000 and more)

I'm guessing that it must be unscrupulous vendors hoping someone clicks "One-Click Buy" without realizing the price... Or maybe it's some sort of money-laundering scheme. But either way - I don't know why Amazon allows it...
 
Really? Do a search for 16GB microSD cards and then sort results by "Price: High to Low". I'm shocked that Amazon lets vendors get away with *that*!
(They have the cards listed for $6,000 and more)

I'm guessing that it must be unscrupulous vendors hoping someone clicks "One-Click Buy" without realizing the price... Or maybe it's some sort of money-laundering scheme. But either way - I don't know why Amazon allows it...
Man U really are pissed off, I can totally understand where you're coming from though. I'd be real pissed off if I bought batteries then all the sudden my hard earned money went down the f****** toilet. I buy most of my stuff for my phantom on Amazon, but I have been holding off from buying any batteries because there are so many fakes that look like real OEM batteries. Tenly would u still buy new products from DJI or are u done with them??


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I'm really liking Tenly's passion, you guys. I'd be pissed off too. He loaded up on an arsenal of cheaper batteries that worked great. Then out of nowhere DJI comes off the top ropes with a firmware update rendering them useless.

And it ABSOLUTELY IS about the money for DJI. The Chinese steal everything from everyone. They are at the center of making knock off everything.

Frank Wang isn't going to sit back and watch these Chinese battery manufacturers make money off his empire. That's why he told Nick Woodman and GoPro to get lost. Same concept here only with batteries.
 
I'm really liking Tenly's passion, you guys. I'd be pissed off too. He loaded up on an arsenal of cheaper batteries that worked great. Then out of nowhere DJI comes off the top ropes with a firmware update rendering them useless.

And it ABSOLUTELY IS about the money for DJI. The Chinese steal everything from everyone. They are at the center of making knock off everything.

Frank Wang isn't going to sit back and watch these Chinese battery manufacturers make money off his empire. That's why he told Nick Woodman and GoPro to get lost. Same concept here only with batteries.

WTF? 2 posts in a row where I'm not being called a moron or accused of overreacting? Wow. I'm not sure I know what to do with that...! lol

Honestly - the $290 (Canadian) for the 2 batteries is not going to break me - especially in this hobby. I have 2 FPV headsets - the $249 Headplay and a $1300 Sony HMZ-T3W (I might have jumbled that model number). I have a $300 Nanuk Case, an ITElite DBS02 and a pair of 2W Sunhans boosters. I currently have 3 OEM batteries and 2 aftermarket ones. I have a set of Neewer lens filters, a half dozen 32GB memory cards and 2 aftermarket chargers. I didn't buy the aftermarket batteries because I couldn't afford OEM batteries. I bought them because I honestly believe that they are as good as or better than the OEM batteries.

My rants are based on the principle of what they've done: The nerve, the arrogance, the egos and the audacity of the decision makers at DJI is incredibly shortsighted and causes me to shake my head in disbelief. They have consciously and deliberately decided to punish a subset of their customers for choosing to buy some of their accessories from a 3rd party! DJI could have very easily looked after their existing customers a number of different ways - but they chose to do absolutely nothing as a punishment.

But the people they are punishing are people who chose to spend a big chunk of their hard earned money on a DJI drone to start with...and instead of showing these customers that they are valued - and that they should buy their next drone and next drone and next drone from DJI - they are alienating them and ushering them towards the door into the waiting arms of one of their competitors who are coming closer and closer to matching the quality and capabilities of the DJI offerings.

In the very near future, one or more of these competitors will achieve feature parity with DJI and we will see a mass exodus of pilots moving away from DJI because of the way DJI treated them (repeatedly) when they held all the cards.

If nothing happens to force DJI to reverse this decision in the next 6 months, I predict that the Phantom 5 will be released with some mechanism (RFID?) that will allow them to determine if the installed props are authentic DJI props - and the drone will refuse to fly if they're not. As a parallel prediction, I think we'll also see the price of DJI OEM props go up between now and then!

Finally - in terms of how worked up I am about this... Yeah - it obviously bugs me. I hate to see companies bully/mistreat their customers just because they can - but I think I come across on the forum as more intense than I really am. I can assure you all that I'm not losing any sleep over these issues and they are not in any way affecting my health. But when I focus my attention or thoughts on these issues, the abuse and the bullying is so obvious and so clear that I'm baffled why some forum members don't see it even after being walked through it multiple times!

Thank you 0DRK3RT for posting here that you understand the *why* of it all even if you'd never choose to use aftermarket batteries yourself.
 
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Man U really are pissed off, I can totally understand where you're coming from though. I'd be real pissed off if I bought batteries then all the sudden my hard earned money went down the f****** toilet. I buy most of my stuff for my phantom on Amazon, but I have been holding off from buying any batteries because there are so many fakes that look like real OEM batteries. Tenly would u still buy new products from DJI or are u done with them??


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No. Not yet. I wish I could be - and as soon as one of their competitors is able to release a model with feature and cost parity, I will be first in line to switch over.

DJI has put together a quality product at a reasonable price. I don't think I have any problems with their engineering department. It's their marketing department and I suppose the executive management team that are making all these stupid decisions and are going to be responsible for the eventual demise of the company.

Profit is good. It's the reason they're in business - but they need to strike a balance and ensure that they maintain and build a customer base that is happy and loyal and will keep coming back to DJI for all their drone needs well into the future. The current management team is increasing profits in the short term at the expense of their future pipeline. He is eroding customer loyalty and laying the groundwork for the collapse of the company. The board of directors needs to recognize this and reign him in before it's too late.

I'm not sure. Did I answer your question? lol
 
This post brings a new twist to the battery saga:
Standard - New DJI Phantom 3 Battery To Be Released?!?

Interesting - but my guess is the B&H rep was just bullshitting or wrong. If you follow all the of the links, the pictures show the same battery capacity on all three models - 4480mAH

Also - how often would a sales guy at B&H get this kind of news scoop?

It would be nice though if they were able to pack a few more minutes of flight time into the existing package...but if think the only way it would be possible would be by lengthening the battery and having it stick out further than it currently does. That would would from a physical space standpoint but it would also shift the center of gravity and alter the flight characteristics. Not completely impossible though....but I don't think this is it...
 
Had an incident occurred involving a loss to your bird or even worse, an injury to someone, there's no doubt you would have never admitted using anything but a genuine DJI product in order to place the blame solely on DJI rather than risk yourself being found negligent for using such product

Really? You know him that well?
 
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PThe aftermarket batteries were solely designed to steal from the manufacturer that designed them for use in their product, no one elses.

To steal? Are you out of your mind? Have you ever put a higher quality than stock air or oil filter in you car or truck? Were the people that made them stealing from the people that made your vehicle? Or are you one of those people that still takes it to the dealer for a $150 oil change years after your warranty has expired?
 
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Tenly: "The only reason for it - no matter how they try to spin it for the media - is higher profits."
(emphasis mine)
DFD: "are you able to use aftermarket batteries with the Phantom 2, or did they pull the same ****..."
(emphasis mine)
  1. same ****: There's nothing wrong with making a profit. In fact, sales on accessories can be the main source of profits for a lot of products. It's called a business model.
  2. The only reason besides making a profit (which is not inherently evil)? DJI tests their products with their own batteries. Not having tested their UAVs using 3rd party batteries, they understandably cannot warranty their product if the 3rd party battery contributes to a crash or other malfunction that requires repair.
Tenly has been out here on these boards for about a week now pushing his case on how evil DJI is for having done this (upgrading the firmware to not allow 3rd party battery use).

How much money did he save buying those 2 knock-off batteries?

The concept of 'profit' aside, how much does he consider that just his free time might be worth, I wonder, that he can afford to put so much effort into this campaign? To him.

Chris

If I'd bought batteries that were rendered useless without warning, I'd be preaching it too.

How much is his time worth? How much is yours worth? You're here replying, and you're not even out any money..
 
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No, I understood you perfectly. DJI releasing "a firmware updates that caused people to not be able to use aftermarket batteries" is not "****".

Re-read my post again. Is it profitable to them? Yes. Is that bad? No.

Do they also have a valid business justification for doing so aside from profit? Hell yes.

Chris

Their **** falls out of the sky all by itself. This was not done fore safety reasons.
 
If they were concerned about safety, they would have done a recall on every single one of the early P3A/P3Ps with the thin shell that breaks were the motors mount. But, nope.

We will continue to see those fall out of the sky.
 
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No. Not yet. I wish I could be - and as soon as one of their competitors is able to release a model with feature and cost parity, I will be first in line to switch over.

DJI has put together a quality product at a reasonable price. I don't think I have any problems with their engineering department. It's their marketing department and I suppose the executive management team that are making all these stupid decisions and are going to be responsible for the eventual demise of the company.

Profit is good. It's the reason they're in business - but they need to strike a balance and ensure that they maintain and build a customer base that is happy and loyal and will keep coming back to DJI for all their drone needs well into the future. The current management team is increasing profits in the short term at the expense of their future pipeline. He is eroding customer loyalty and laying the groundwork for the collapse of the company. The board of directors needs to recognize this and reign him in before it's too late.

I'm not sure. Did I answer your question? lol
Ya, that answers my question. I only have one phantom and as much as I don't agree with the way DJI runs there Business and the prices they set, if I want to continue to fly I'll unfortunately have to buy there products and deal with there people if I ever have to send it in, knock on wood. lol I don't want to get off topic but if u were to go with a different company, Who would it be...


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Is it legal? I don't know. As far as I know there has been nothing written about drone aftermarket parts by the FTC. Maybe because the market is so new they haven't come up with a ruling on it. They (the FTC) do not allow auto makers to require OEM parts for warranty purposes. Unless the manufacturer can show that the aftermarket part caused the problem that makes repairs necessary. With all that being said, they may never make a ruling on it because the drone market is much smaller than the auto market.

Some say the change is for safety reasons. And that safety makes it ok to do it. So will that be the general consensus when DJI puts a limit on distance? According to the FAA guidelines that we all agreed to follow when we registered, we would maintain line of sight. So how far is that? It's different for each person based on their eyesight, but I don't think anyone can see their bird over 1/2 mile. If DJI put in a distance limit of 2640 ft there would probably be outrage from almost everyone. DJI could say it was for safety reasons since you no longer have sight control of your bird, you are not fully in control.

Some (maybe most?) say that it is for profit. I agree with this and believe a company should make a profit. If they don't they will shut down. I also think that they should make a profit legally. And since I know of no current law preventing them from making/increasing profit by requiring use of OEM parts, I don't know it to be illegal. So whether I like it or not, until proven otherwise, they have the right to do it. Is it fair for them to do this? I personally don't think so. Until the consumer (or law) forces them to change their practices that are seen as unfair, they will continue to maximize their profit any way they can.

Anyway, happy flying everyone.
 
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Ya, that answers my question. I only have one phantom and as much as I don't agree with the way DJI runs there Business and the prices they set, if I want to continue to fly I'll unfortunately have to buy there products and deal with there people if I ever have to send it in, knock on wood. lol I don't want to get off topic but if u were to go with a different company, Who would it be...


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I would look at Yuneec. I've heard good things about them - but I haven't researched any other companies enough to provide any kind of recommendation. If I were to go with another company - I'd do a LOT of research - and it wouldn't be all technical and specifications. I'd check out the forums where those pilots congregate and I'd look at what they complain about - especially those who have had to deal with the company for repairs - in and out of warranty.
 
Dji why not just lower the price and and sale more ,works out the same, but they don't care.
 
LOL - it's therapeutic...! I'm not about to order any rally's, boycotts or marches upon DJI headquarters...but I feel better after venting. If my stories about DJI customer care (or lack thereof) sway even one person away from DJI and towards one of their competitors, thats a big bonus.

I was pretty amazed to find out how many people don't understand what happened and don't think that DJI did anything wrong whatsoever! I thought people here were smarter - but obviously not! Apparently a company can screw over its customers and treat them as unfairly as they want - and if they can convince some of their low-end, naive and/or unsophisticated customers that the hand reaching into their wallet is part of a "business model" - well, hell - they'll actually leap to the company's defence! LMFAO!

1) The Chinese concept of capitalism is brutal and doesn't give a hoot about its customers.

2) The "average" punter is very compliant and has been trained by many large companies ( e.g. Apple) to be "treated badly, nicely."


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