My DJI Repair Experience

[fhagan02]

Just tried calling. Told to try back later high call volume. ..bs

Try early morning. They're in California so Pacific time. I called today at 9:02 their time.... immediately got someone with no wait.

 

[beauyoung85]

Just tried calling. Told to try back later high call volume. ..bs

Just call back. I would get that message and just hang up and dial again. I'd usually get an answer after a couple tries.

 

[cott33]

When you sent your copter back do you have to send the radio as well?

 

[fhagan02]

When you sent your copter back do you have to send the radio as well?

Yes.

 

[Phantom751874]

Wow, I'm kinda concerned about getting mine back in working order now. What a absolute mess. All mine had wrong was the gimbal (off level horizon and wandering). Everything else was rock solid. Ugh, come on 3DR develop a Ligjtbridge-Like capability and better gimbals and I'm yours!

 

[beauyoung85]

My impressions are that in the attempt to cut down on that 6-8 week turnaround time they are rushing through the warranty/repair process, and it's causing QC issues. Another reason I felt obliged to send it back to them to make right. Personally, I feel they need to start issuing more replacements and just kill the turn around time there. Accept you're broken/flawed aircraft, send you a new one and in the meantime, refurbish the old aircraft and rinse and repeat. May cost them a bit more money in the long run, but it would greatly boost their already poor CS reputation and give more flight time back to the consumer.

 

[fhagan02]

My impressions are that in the attempt to cut down on that 6-8 week turnaround time they are rushing through the warranty/repair process, and it's causing QC issues. Another reason I felt obliged to send it back to them to make right. Personally, I feel they need to start issuing more replacements and just kill the turn around time there. Accept you're broken/flawed aircraft, send you a new one and in the meantime, refurbish the old aircraft and rinse and repeat. May cost them a bit more money in the long run, but it would greatly boost their already poor CS reputation and give more flight time back to the consumer.

Ditto all this.

When they notified me......
"Upon inspection of your Phantom we found the main board, shell, landing gears, gimbal, and monocular sensor were damaged."

I replied.....
I appreciate the fact you "fixed" the broken parts. But judging by your fix list, 85-90% of the craft was damaged. Unless you're using refurbished used parts (which is not what a professional company's manufacturers warranty should use) why would you bother with the time to basically attach my old motors to all new parts from the ground up? Did you use used parts or ALL brand new parts? This seems counter productive in man hours alone to "build" a new Phantom from scratch to replace one that had a malfunction and is STILL UNDER WARRANTY.

Out of 5 tries they did respond to this email assuring me they used all new parts. Whatever.

 

[fhagan02]

Wow, I'm kinda concerned about getting mine back in working order now. What a absolute mess. All mine had wrong was the gimbal (off level horizon and wandering). Everything else was rock solid. Ugh, come on 3DR develop a Ligjtbridge-Like capability and better gimbals and I'm yours!

I hear you and I hope so much for you that the roll of the dice is on your side. With all three Phantoms that Ive purchased from DJI... it's been just that. A roll of the dice. They either work fine or don't. If they work, you're good. If they don't DJI mandates you send the part or unit in to them for "assessment." The nightmare begins. I tried to get a replacement from US Hobby when one of my P2's showed signs of manufacturer issues. It was still under US Hobby's 30 day return and replace policy time frame. I was told by US Hobby that they no longer offer this on DJI products because DJI has mandated all "returns" be sent to DJI for assessment. I said to US Hobby, "So if I bought a P2 from you today, and the motors don't start up tomorrow, I have to send it to DJI for assesment?!" He replied, "Thats correct."

In addition to your comment about 3DR, I'm anxiously awaiting news on the quad GoPro plans to release in 2016. I've had killer customer service from GoPro on defective merchandise. Even follow up emails a week later asking me if I was satisfied with my new replacement! Wow.

 

[fhagan02]

*****UPDATE******
I did get the email today that they've received the busted P3 for round 2. They've placed it on an "Escalated RMA". It's supposed to be back in my hands 7 to 10 days from today. We'll see what they send and when.

 

[Phantom751874]

Update:

Monday 9/22 - Received an email from DJi asking for $65 to be paid via PayPal. I called their customer service number. They found my repair in the system but said they could not tell me why there was a $65 charge for warranty work. They said their systems are not tied into whatever system indicates why there's a charge. She told me to reply to the email asking about the charge and that it could take a week to hear back. Very weird. Note, no other communication was received before the email asking for $65 do I'm not sure if they repaired the P3 and we're waiting for funds from me before sending it back or if the P3 got to a tech's desk and they were waiting for funds before beginning work.

I replied to the email and 2 hours later they said it was a mistake as it is under warranty and to disregard the $65 charge.

Update:
9/25 - Received email that my P3P was repaired and DJi provided a FedEx tracking number.

No clue as to what they repaired. I looked up my repair # on DJi's site and all is says is repaired and shipped. Let's hope an explanation of what was wrong is included when I receive my P3P. It wouldn't be the end of the world if not but I better not get a P3P back in worse shape than I sent it in as others have reported. I should have taken a video of the thing to record its condition before I shipped it, oh well.

 

[beauyoung85]

Update:

After the third time speaking with Peter, I was told they decided to keep the refurb and opted to send me a brand new unit! They included overnight shipping on return to me as well.

I have a tracking number and can confirm at least a shipping label with FedEx at this point. Pretty surprised after all the back and forth and hellraising I did they went this route but pleased nonetheless.

 

[gfredrone]

I just got this email...

Thank you for your patience!

Your unit has been repaired and shipped via :FED-X. The tracking number is:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So they had it for a total of 8 days not including shipping time. Not bad, just hope it's fixed right.

 

[Phantom751874]

They had my P3P 11 days, not bad.

 

[fhagan02]

Update:

After the third time speaking with Peter, I was told they decided to keep the refurb and opted to send me a brand new unit! They included overnight shipping on return to me as well.

I have a tracking number and can confirm at least a shipping label with FedEx at this point. Pretty surprised after all the back and forth and hellraising I did they went this route but pleased nonetheless.

Great news! Let us know the new bird is Ok and flying .... Like new!

 

[beauyoung85]

Update: Aircraft arrived unharmed and upon inspection everything seems good. It's a new P3P. Just finished updates and installed UAVbits. Will finish calibrating imu/gimble after work. They even included a brand new battery. ( I didn't send them one) All looks good so far. Will test/confirm in a couple hours.

 

[fhagan02]

Update: Aircraft arrived unharmed and upon inspection everything seems good. It's a new P3P. Just finished updates and installed UAVbits. Will finish calibrating imu/gimble after work. They even included a brand new battery. ( I didn't send them one) All looks good so far. Will test/confirm in a couple hours.

Awesome news! Good to hear.

 

[Othan1]

I just received an email stating mine was on its way back. Both my DSLR and Phantom 3 Pro in the same week! I can't wait.

 

[Maxdroneomaha]

That's awesome, hope i have similar experience

 

[Othan1]

That's awesome, hope i have similar experience

I hope yours is even better than mine. I will give my final opinion when I see what I'm getting back. Curious how they repaired it.

 

[Dragonfyr]

I heard from an official DJI distributor that the other DJI repair centres do have a 8-13 week turn around for repairs. But the Netherlands office is down to 2 weeks! That's a hell of an improvement.

In a few hours I'm taking my P3S to a specialist, if he can't fix it iv already arranged with DJI Netherlands to have it sent to them.

And with the contact from DJI so far, I'm pretty confident about there turn around times.