My Phantom 4 story

[dguth66]

Ive got one heck of a story to tell, with pictures, about a replacement P4.
When I get some time later this week I'll put it together but here are the basics.
Bought new P4 combo with 2 extra batteries back in April this year, updated firmware, calibrated IMU and compass ... batteries, pre-flight checks etc...

Very first flight my P4 decided to take on a mind of its own and would not respond to any commands for manual return to home or even signal loss return to home. Then signal loss created more confusion at the time and I never got to switch to manual mode as battery went flat and it landed / crashed into lake.

long story short, I also own two P3P's and never had any flight issue, after sending flight logs and paperwork stating what happened and what I did DJI offered me 15% off a replacement ( AC, props, sd and battery ... no RC or charger ) after waiting about 2 weeks for DJI to look at my case I re-stated my case and further requested a better deal based on the AC not responding to two different RTH command types and the fact that I own over $5000.00 in DJI gear. I then waited another two weeks and they came back with 20% off final offer so I decided to take that offer ... paid another $890 ish USD for replacement. BUT this process was not that easy ... sent many unanswered messages and requests on the ticket system and basically they were not in any hurry but eventually a replacement was shipped out directly from China.

When it came in I could feel something heavy moving and sliding around in the paper box it came in. So out phone and took pictures as I opened... found the battery rattling around on box bottom so it had been a battering ram for the camera in shipping ... nice! Further inspection found no protective plastic film on camera lens or battery or anywhere, AC was dirty, it was a model for the EU and all pamplets inside were in Dutch I think. Contacted DJI and got the standard canned answer in email ... of course with their caveat that they do for everything which is a statement that once the damaged item is inspected by their team they would make a decision to approve an exchange ... WTF !!
Once again DJI had me fill out paperwork and send org reciept plus copy of ship docs from the EU P4 and I waited days again.

Another long story short ... fast forward to now about five weeks later. Remember my Phantom flew away in April ... The shipping label DJI sent me to send that broken EU P4 back took just over 3 weeks to make it from East coast Canada to Carson. Example, when I had to pay out of pocket to send one of my firmware update bricked P3's down it got there in a week via standard UPS ( fixed under warranty with new mainboard and new camera assy ) so it looks like DJI took the most cost effective ... good for DJI. So once again with the damaged item in their hands ... many unanswered ticket messages ( we are talking like 9 days ) and a heated call to a DJI supervisor they finally get back that my " request for replacement " has been approved and within 48 hours I should get notice from their shipping department who will then send it to a courier.

I already told that supervisor that if this Phantom 4 comes in damaged or defective I'm taking it out back and it will have a meeting with some gas and a match !!!

 

[CaptainDrone798]

I hear ya buds. I'm in Canada as well and received a new drone from China (DJI ON-LINE STORE) that was defective. DJI website says that if you buy a drone from their on-line store you are entitled to a reimbursement or replacement. Attempted to get a reimbursement, however, they are not set up for this. I had to send the drone to DJI USA so they could inspect it first. 10 days later of ground shipping it arrives and they lose it. They sent a replacement but it was a much older model than the one I had purchased. They also sent me a dead battery and a Remote Controller with a dead USB Port.

Regarding the Remote Controller with the dead USB Port.... DJI has a help video showing how to upgrade the Remote Controller's USB board to an HDMI board. I used that video to take the USB board out and then reinstall it in the hope that it wasn't working due to a loose cable. No luck. Then I emailed DJI, told them what I did (troubleshooting), sent the pics of the board and asked if they could send me a replacement board. Are you ready for this.... DJI said that because I had removed the board I had voided my warranty. These same boneheads have a Help Video showing users how to remove the board to replace it with an HDMI one with no lose of warranty. No wonder DJI Customer Service gets a bad rep.

Hope your replacement is all that you're hoping for!

 

[JWarren]

That's why I tell people to buy from B&H. I purchased my P4 on May 26th and the video card fried on about June 15th. I called B&H, they had me ship it back and I had a brand new one in 8 days. Never had to mess with DJI.

 

[CaptainDrone798]

That's why I tell people to buy from B&H. I purchased my P4 on May 26th and the video card fried on about June 15th. I called B&H, they had me ship it back and I had a brand new one in 8 days. Never had to mess with DJI.

Yup, lesson learned!

 

[rastaman777]

That's why I tell people to buy from B&H. I purchased my P4 on May 26th and the video card fried on about June 15th. I called B&H, they had me ship it back and I had a brand new one in 8 days. Never had to mess with DJI.

Or BB...elite plus...45 day return policy.

 

[alokbhargava]

That's why I tell people to buy from B&H. I purchased my P4 on May 26th and the video card fried on about June 15th. I called B&H, they had me ship it back and I had a brand new one in 8 days. Never had to mess with DJI.

That's the difference between a Chinese company and a US company.

 

[jmkreege]

Returns are a bit taboo in China still. They'll get out of the rut eventually but for now I'd buy through a distributor large enough to handle your issues in house, not one that directs you back to DJI

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[JWarren]

I remember 2 years ago before I knew squat I emailed dji asking how hard the P2+ was to fly. My professional response was, quote "so easy girl can fly". Lol

 

[dguth66]

My orginal was purchased from a local dealer here in Canafa, had no choice but to buy the replacement through DJI's store. After a heated discussion with a supervisor about my requests for updates being unanswered for like 12 days he told me the reps who communicate normally on their ticket support are not from DJI USA support.

Yea I hear ya about buying from a dist, look into how many bought from their Apple store and basically kept returning until they got one with correct gimbal ... some guys say they went back three times.

Actually I asked DJI Ken on an open forum "what they did with all those Apple returns ?" and he banned me

 

[dguth66]

I hear ya buds. I'm in Canada as well and received a new drone from China (DJI ON-LINE STORE) that was defective. DJI website says that if you buy a drone from their on-line store you are entitled to a reimbursement or replacement. Attempted to get a reimbursement, however, they are not set up for this. I had to send the drone to DJI USA so they could inspect it first. 10 days later of ground shipping it arrives and they lose it. They sent a replacement but it was a much older model than the one I had purchased. They also sent me a dead battery and a Remote Controller with a dead USB Port.

Regarding the Remote Controller with the dead USB Port.... DJI has a help video showing how to upgrade the Remote Controller's USB board to an HDMI board. I used that video to take the USB board out and then reinstall it in the hope that it wasn't working due to a loose cable. No luck. Then I emailed DJI, told them what I did (troubleshooting), sent the pics of the board and asked if they could send me a replacement board. Are you ready for this.... DJI said that because I had removed the board I had voided my warranty. These same boneheads have a Help Video showing users how to remove the board to replace it with an HDMI one with no lose of warranty. No wonder DJI Customer Service gets a bad rep.

Hope your replacement is all that you're hoping for!

Thanks, I hope so too !