DJI Care Turnaround Time

BobMcKinlay · May 7, 2016

So, today was my day. Crashed my month old P3 Pro. Hit a tree after going left when I should have went right. The camera assembly and, I think, one motor are shot. Otherwise just a few scruff marks that, as far as I can tell, are cosmetic and can be removed easily. I have DJI Care and will be calling them on Monday to get the ball rolling. I'm hoping the repairs will be made without hassle.

Can anyone give me an expectation of turnaround time? A week? A month? Of course, I have a vacation in Texas planned for May 23rd. I was hoping to take the drone. It's all about the timing.

EDIT: I thought I'd "live blog" the process here for those that are interested. My experience so far? Pleasant, with a hint of "island time" responsiveness. I don't see how this is going to be less than a three week adventure. Remaining cautiously optimistic that I'll be flying again by May 23, but I have a feeling it won't be until June. For a premium priced service, I'd expect more.

Sat May 7 - Pilot error killed my P3P. 100% my fault. A bit frustrated to see that DJI doesn't carry weekend hours. Have to wait until Monday Noon Eastern (DJI is Pacific time only) to get the ball rolling. Oh well.

Mon May 9 - Called telephone support. Waited maybe 10 minutes which wasn't bad considering I'm assuming their phones were lighting up from all the weekend crashes. The service rep (Joseph) was pleasant, prompt and knowledgable. He took my info and I was off the phone quickly. Zero hassle or drama. Disappointed that I need to wait 24-48 hours to get a shipping label emailed. The label, of course, showed up about 10 minutes after my local Fedex Ground deadline for the night.

Tue May 10 - Dropped off box at Fedex. Estimated delivery May 16. I was told the service time once they check in the delivery (I guess that apparently takes a day or so???) is five business days. So, that looks like the earliest return ship date could be May 24, which puts the arrival at May 30. Which, of course is a holiday, so we're looking at May 31 as a reasonable date.

Mon May 16 - Delivery complete by FedEx @ 11am. No indication on DJI's Repair Progress History page (currently Tue May 17) that they've received or begun to process repair. This, apparently, is the "give us 24 hours to open the box and get working" built in delay.

RSO2 · May 7, 2016

Where do you reside Bob?

Sinisalo · May 7, 2016

Yes it depends on where you live. I had to send my P3P to Los Angeles for repair and it took a total of 11 days from the day I shipped it to them until the day I had it back and they had to replace the faulty camera. Once you contact DJI it usually takes a day or two to get a shipping label from them. They usually send you the RMA number in an email one day and then within the next two days they send the label.

BobMcKinlay · May 7, 2016

RSO2 said:
Where do you reside Bob?

I'm in the Midwest. Looks like I'll be cutting it close for the 23rd. The story of my life.

BobMcKinlay · May 17, 2016

Started adding updates as replies as opposed to edits to original post.

Tue May 17 (24 hours exactly after FedEx delivery) - Received case number from DJI. The status page shows only that the drone was received for repair.

BobMcKinlay · May 17, 2016

Tue May 17 (5PM Pacific) - Status shows as repaired and tested! That's great news. The process/timeliness has been sort of blah until now. But it looks like they've turned it around in about 24 hours, so that's fantastic. Let's see when it return ships...

BobMcKinlay · May 19, 2016

Thu May 19 - Return shipped via UPS Ground, so ~4 business days more.

Great response from DJI doing the actual repair (a matter of hours, I think). But the front- and back-ends are a little dodgy.

In the end, 15 days door-to-door isn't all that bad. Assuming everything's fixed, of course.

BobMcKinlay · May 24, 2016

Tue May 24 - On the off chance anyone is paying attention I thought I'd close this adventure.

The drone was delivered this morning. New shell, camera assembly and main board (and replaced gold stickers!!).

Charged everything up and calibrated IMU, compass and gimbal. Took it for a ~40 min spin mostly in P-GPS but a bit in ATTI. The verdict? I'm not sure. The drone seemed to be way more unstable when hovering than it was before. I was flying with near zero wind and 16 satellites. Previously it would hover dead still in these conditions. Now it seemed to jockey around a foot or two in all axis. Flying with the same carbon props that were balanced yesterday. The only other observation (related, I'm sure) is that there is wild vibration/instability (visible to the eye) when the drone is descending straight down at speed. That never happened before. More experimenting needed.

So, the DJI Care experience around shipping, etc was pretty blah (let's call it a C). The turnaround on fixing it was 24 hours or so, so that's a clear A. Let's hope they fixed it properly.