DJI Refuses to Warranty when Motor Shuts Off and Crashes P4

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So I have a friend who is having an issue with DJI honoring the warranty on his Phantom 4. About a month ago he was taking off and ascending vertically, when at about 200' one motor shuts down and the drone falls out of the sky, significantly damaging the body, landing gear and camera gimbal.

He didn't hit anything, no trees around, no birds etc, so not pilot error. There were no warnings on the app of any kind prior to takeoff and none when the incident happened!

So, he files a repair request, sending in the logs and drone to DJI. A week later he gets a response and repair bill stating that there was an under-voltage and the drone shut down one motor. Now the drone and battery were purchased in June of 2016, with receipts in hand. But because the battery only has a 6 month warranty, DJI is stating that it voids the warranty if it is being used when something happens.

Even though the battery is fine! No uneven voltage on cells, no signs of any issues, and never have had any issues. Not to mention that the app never showed any warnings of battery issues prior or during the flight!

To me the issue would be bad logic in the controller that it would shut down one motor vs slowing all the motors and going into auto land or hover.

Just looking for some opinions and experiences that may help and shed some light on the issue.

Thanks,

Robert
 
That's pretty crapy. Usually they are pretty good about warranty issues. If the battery is not damaged or have any issues then I don't see how it could be the battery if only one motor shut off. Seems like it would have just shut down all together. Why only one motor. I know these motors are prone to bearing issues. I've got one now that has a lot of movement in it.
 
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Also, how can a device have a warranty on some parts for 1 year, and others only 6 months. Come to find out, the main controller board has a 1 year warranty but the propulsion system has a 6 month warranty! In fact, most everything else electronic other than MC board has 6 month warranty!

How is this even ethical? I also thought there were regulations from the FTC on warranty issues like this. Other countries in Europe mandate 3 year warranties on products.
 
Also, how can a device have a warranty on some parts for 1 year, and others only 6 months. Come to find out, the main controller board has a 1 year warranty but the propulsion system has a 6 month warranty! In fact, most everything else electronic other than MC board has 6 month warranty!

How is this even ethical? I also thought there were regulations from the FTC on warranty issues like this. Other countries in Europe mandate 3 year warranties on products.
That's because they want you to purchase DJI Care. That's a pretty crappy way of doing business. If you designed a quality product you shouldn't have to charge people to warranty it. For the $1500 price that most people paid for their p4 you should get DJI Care included. That's a hell of a lot of money for what is essentially a grownup toy. Nobody has to have a drone, they just want to have a drone. For $1500 a lot of people would reevaluate their desire to have one if it's only guaranteed to work for 6 months. Especially when a failure means no more drone. If it's ever gonna fail its gonna do it in flight. I would never spend that much money on a product that only has what is essentially a 6 month warranty. The components that are most likely to fail have the least amount of warranty. Come on DJI, you can do better than that. Your gonna have to do better than that.
 
If Kia can offer a lifetime drivetrain warranty then DJI can offer a full year.
 
Yeah, it does seem that DJI is out for profits only, not worrying about the repeat business that they might get from satisfied customers. From my experience, the Phantom drones are basically trouble free but when you do get a bad one, it is really BAD! I agree with the idea of a 3 year warranty. That would be outstanding! Kinda like Toyota's products, I have been driving only those since 1996 and have yet to have a component breakdown. That is, no repairs needed other than usual wear and tear. They only warranty for 3 years/36,000 miles when they could easily cover 10 years and 100,000 miles and not have much expense. Anyway, not to be a Toyota commercial, I can see where DJI gets around warranty claims because you almost have to have a closeup full color video of your crash that was made by your pastor! As you can probably tell, they denied my Phantom's upside down crash straight down as pilot error! I would think that the battery would be more stable than the aircraft and should carry at least the same warranty since it does have electronics that are compatible with the Phantom-but what do I know? I'm only a consumer.
Good luck!
Jim
WA5TEF
 
First, I understand you are posting this for a friend. Sometimes information gets communicated incorrectly. Did DJI put in writing that they would not honor the warranty on the P4 as the battery was out of warranty?

I've had personal experiences with DJI claiming denials that their warranty does not allow and I've mentioned issues that DJI has with their warranty.

First, DJI does not appear to provide the warranty with the Mavic as required. Instead they only include it online. The problem this creates (and one reason it's not allowed) is that DJI can change the warranty online whenever they want. However, this should not change the warranty that applies that the time of purchase. Unfortunately, here is no way for the consumer to know what and when any changes were made. So DJI can claim that the current warranty information applies when it actually does not. I've cautioned people that they should print up the online warranty right when they buy their Mavic and keep it available.

DJI does not exclude coverage when it's shown that a battery was not fully charged or the battery is found to be defective. However, just because the battery is out of warranty does not mean it's been shown to be defective. So I don't see that DJI could deny a claim for damage to the Phantom because the battery is simply out of warranty and actually, that seems really asinine.
 
, I can see where DJI gets around warranty claims because you almost have to have a closeup full color video of your crash that was made by your pastor!
While mine was not taken by a pastor, I did have a video of the failure and DJI even acknowledged that the Phantom was under warranty at the time and that the failure was covered under the warranty. They still denied the claim. So a video is not always enough.
 
First, I understand you are posting this for a friend. Sometimes information gets communicated incorrectly. Did DJI put in writing that they would not honor the warranty on the P4 as the battery was out of warranty?

Yes, the exact words they are using is "Human Error" because he used a battery that was out of warranty and there for voided the warranty on the Main Control Board.
 
Yes, the exact words they are using is "Human Error" because he used a battery that was out of warranty and there for voided the warranty on the Main Control Board.

My next question to them would be, please show me where in the warranty on the Phantom is states that using a battery that is out of warranty voids the warranty on the Phantom. Actually, I'd probably call as well and, while I'd give the 1st person a chance to understand I'd also see about moving the call up the food chain pretty quick as I'm sure that initial person would nto understand nor have the ability to do anything with the information.

I see this really as a case of getting someone with 1/2 a brain to understand that the denial is incorrect. That can be a challenge though.

Also, in general for everyone... I HIGHLY recommend that you print up the current warranty as DJI can change it online which would not apply to you.
 
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I've had two good experiences with DJI warranty, however I've currently got a weird warranty denial with them. My Mavic all of sudden developed a "gimbal obstruction" all by itself, it won't complete the flight pre-check routine. The gimbal is non functional as a result, even though with power off the gimbal moves around very smoothly, no obstructions. Perplexing, I've never crashed, never dropped the craft, not even a hard landing. 75% of the time I hand catch. But after sending it in, DJI is denying warranty coverage. They want $315 or, make a claim on my Refresh policy with a $79 payment. My other two warranty experiences didn't have a refresh policy and they opted to replace my P4 under warranty, twice, once for the YOYO issue, and once for a cracked body shell (2 days before warranty expired). So it appears that just because I paid $95 for the refresh policy, they think I'm OK with paying another $79 for a flawed gimbal. Hmmm. Oh yeah, if you search the words "gimbal obstruction" in the Mavicpilots.com forum, you'll find dozens of people with similar problems, it's clearly a weak link in the Mavic. Even Tony&Chelsea (see minute 5:25) on YouTube (start at minute 5:25) had gimbal problems, twice.

I'm still pleading my case to DJI, they said they would review my craft, but that was over a week ago and still no joy.
E
 
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