RTH button felt inside the remote

xbiron · Dec 31, 2015

Hi guys,
I've bought a P3P one month ago.
I've flown many times with it. And today, when I was trying to press on the return-to-home button on the remote, a weird plastic sound happened and the button felt a little inside the remote.
I still can press the button, but it's loose inside the remote. When you try to see inside through the hole, you clearly see the plastic holding the screws are broken.
I attach you some videos :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18568770/P3P RTH button/IMG_1830.MOV
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18568770/P3P RTH button/IMG_1831.MOV

I've started a support request to DJI. Have you guys ever dealt with DJI after sale service ? Do you believe they will send me a new remote or I would have to wait weeks for them to repair my remote ?

Thanks and happy new year !

Lou O'Reilly · Dec 31, 2015

xbiron said:
Hi guys,
I've bought a P3P one month ago.
I've flown many times with it. And today, when I was trying to press on the return-to-home button on the remote, a weird plastic sound happened and the button felt a little inside the remote.
I still can press the button, but it's loose inside the remote. When you try to see inside through the hole, you clearly see the plastic holding the screws are broken.
I attach you some videos :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18568770/P3P RTH button/IMG_1830.MOV
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18568770/P3P RTH button/IMG_1831.MOV

I've started a support request to DJI. Have you guys ever dealt with DJI after sale service ? Do you believe they will send me a new remote or I would have to wait weeks for them to repair my remote ?

Thanks and happy new year !

Please excuse my interruption but I am new and looking for a user group in Memphis, TN.

xbiron · Dec 31, 2015

Lou O'Reilly said:
Please excuse my interruption but I am new and looking for a user group in Memphis, TN.

Hum, maybe create a new thread man.

Dirby · Dec 31, 2015

good luck.

msinger · Jan 1, 2016

xbiron, DJI will most likely repair your RC. Whoever you're working with should be able to give you an estimated turnaround time. I'm assuming that estimate is a moving target.

xbiron · Jan 1, 2016

thx @msinger you re always there to answer my questions

Happy new year man.

fiber0pti · Jan 1, 2016

Bought my P3P on 12/05 and pull everything out of the box, start charging the battery, then I push the RTH button and it did this the first push. I took it back to BestBuy and exchanged it for a new one and checked before leaving the store. The on 12/25 I pushed the RTH button for the second time and it did the exact same thing again. I filed for a support request through DJI on 12/26 and hadn't heard anything back up to yesterday. So, I took it back to BestBuy yesterday and exchanged it for a new one again.

Haven't pushed the button on the new one so I don't know if it'll break. Please let me know how your support request goes and what they end up doing (i.e. replacing or fixing).

xbiron · Jan 1, 2016

fiber0pti said:
Bought my P3P on 12/05 and pull everything out of the box, start charging the battery, then I push the RTH button and it did this the first push. I took it back to BestBuy and exchanged it for a new one and checked before leaving the store. The on 12/25 I pushed the RTH button for the second time and it did the exact same thing again. I filed for a support request through DJI on 12/26 and hadn't heard anything back up to yesterday. So, I took it back to BestBuy yesterday and exchanged it for a new one again.

Haven't pushed the button on the new one so I don't know if it'll break. Please let me know how your support request goes and what they end up doing (i.e. replacing or fixing).

Wow that's crazy. It's now more than 30 days i've buy it in a online store, so I don't think they will exchange mine. I will keep you updated for sure for DJI's answer.

What DJI had answered you?

fiber0pti · Jan 1, 2016

DJI hasn't answered as of me writing this. Quite disconcerting, but from everything I've read on DJI it's par for the course.

xbiron · Jan 1, 2016

Once i've contacted the support for a bad flight behavior. It took them more than 2 weeks to answer me

I guess we have to be patient. But at least I'm happy to see i'm not the only one with this problem.

xbiron · Jan 6, 2016

I did still have no answers from Dji support. So I decided to try the online chat support (on China opening hours). They answered me in some minutes but transfered my case to the North America support as I'm in Canada. I've received some minutes later an email from the US support with some questions. And during the evening they sent me back my RMA number for the return. The ETA for repair is 2-3 weeks they say. So I have to wait all this time including the shipping time. I still don't know if they will pay the shipping fees and if I have to send them the aircraft too or only the remote. I'll call them today.

fiber0pti · Jan 6, 2016

Thanks for the update. Although moot, I still haven't heard back from them on the unit I returned to the store.

I'm interested to know they make you pay shipping.

Do you know if there's a way to access North American support directly without having to go through China?

xbiron · Jan 6, 2016

Apparently the only way to contact us support is by phone 818-235-0789 or email [email protected]

xbiron · Jan 6, 2016

I've called the US support. They will send me a shipping label. I have to send them back the aircraft and the remote. They will pay for the shipping fees. The ETA for repair is 2-3 weeks but can be less (excluding shipping time). So that's good news ish. It means I won't have my baby for 4-5 weeks ! Only for a stupid button, that still works, but broken inside the remote ;(

fiber0pti · Jan 6, 2016

Thanks for the info. All good to know for future reference.

wings1 · Jan 8, 2016

My P3P did same thing. Still works tho. Bought at Best Buy so I'll try and swap mine too!! Thanks for the info on that. Mine happened the first flight as well.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Radar335 · Jan 9, 2016

This is well known issue with the remote controller. The screws are undersized and the button breaks loose if you press more than just a touch. You can easily fix it by yourself, but that will probably void your warranty.

xbiron · Jan 10, 2016

Thx @Radar335. I didn't want to void my warranty. So I suppose the best choice was the dji support. I hope they will fix this with better screws.

xbiron · Feb 1, 2016

A little update about my warranty experience.
I had a very bad experience with Fedex ground. They have forgotten me with my pickup because apparently I'm not not in the Fedex Ground territory but in the Fedex Express… After the fedex driver lost itself and said my address doesn't exist. Then my package was not checked in by fedex for 48h and stuck at Fedex facilities ! And finally they have lost my commercial invoice for the customs and they said they have to ship me back the package !!! I had to deal with a manager to send them the commercial invoice (that was included in my initial package).
After that, the package took 7 business days (9 days) to arrive at DJI support in California !!! I've lost so much times because of stupid Fedex…

My package arrived on a Friday at DJI support center, and has been checked in on the Monday. Today, the next Monday, I've received an email from DJI telling me my unit has been fixed on warranty and been shipped back by Fedex. No details about my reparation. I've called and they said they have replaced the remote, and they've found a problem with the gimbal pitch axis gimbal. They have replaced the bracket of the aircraft…

So now it's on Fedex' hands… again.
I will confirm later If my aircraft and remote are well fixed. But so far, what a great experience with DJI support (except Fedex).