The FAA Took My Money

vgt · Jan 10, 2016

No timeline was promised, stop whining. They'll probably do them all in a batch once the 'free' window ends, rather than processing them individually.

snerd · Jan 10, 2016

Better call a waaaaambulance!!

JT13 · Jan 10, 2016

Still waiting... its not so much about the five bucks as it is getting lied to again by our government. You would think we would be used to it by now..LOL!

J.James · Jan 11, 2016

I just noticed on the statement for my gift card that its showing the refund as a pending return credit now. So that that should be fully back on the card by tomorrow or the the day after.

mandalay · Jan 11, 2016

I just got my $5 refunded yesterday. So they are not that bad

480sparky · Jan 11, 2016

I don't understand the need to collect the $5 just to refund it.

Why not just turn off the payment option until the end of the month?

Skywalker · Jan 11, 2016

480sparky said:
I don't understand the need to collect the $5 just to refund it.

Why not just turn off the payment option until the end of the month?

Because the credit card confirms the identity info you gave them.

Skywalker · Jan 11, 2016

I registered the first day (later in the afternoon). No refund or "pending" yet.

Mcook929 · Jan 11, 2016

I registered the first day. I received mine this morning. It probably came because I wasn't expecting it and almost forgot about it until I saw this thread.

pb7424 · Jan 11, 2016

Got my refund this morning also.

N017RW · Jan 11, 2016

Got mine on the 8th.

J.James · Jan 11, 2016

I don't understand the need to collect the $5 just to refund it.

Why not just turn off the payment option until the end of the month?

Ya its because they lol some how thing that authorizing the card is some how valid that some one is who they say they are. Even tho they can use any card and it works fine.

They could of just as easily set up there site to only do a pre authentication on to any ones card for $5 and then not charge it as a final charge and then it would of just been put in hold for how ever many days any ones card or bank holds pre auth funds for and then would revert back automatically after so many days usually most places its 7 days some its as long as 10 days if the pre auth dont ever get put threw as a final or completed charge.

480sparky · Jan 11, 2016

Skywalker said:
Because the credit card confirms the identity info you gave them.

I didn't know the Green Card I bought at Walgreens with cash had my information on it.

Skywalker · Jan 11, 2016

Take it up with the FAA. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

Here's what they say on their site...

Q38. Updated: The website said registration is free. Why am I being charged $5?
A. The credit card transaction helps authenticate the user. You will see a credit for the $5 in 5-10 days after the charge appears.

Albert D · Mar 14, 2016

I filed on 12/21/15 (the first day) and received my refund on 1/8/16. (Used a regular VISA card.)

BillH · Mar 14, 2016

To me it's it's worth the $5.00 when someone threatens to shoot my drone down and I tell them, "OK, I'll make a note of that in case that does happen because the drone is a FAA Federally Registered Device, and they would be very interested in knowing who might have a motive to shoot one down"

Gary M · Mar 14, 2016

See, that's the problem here. All these people saying "It's just $5. Are you that cheap?!" Yeah, it is just $5, that I can very easily afford. But it's the fact that it's JUST $5, from MILLIONS of people. You're talking to the tune of tens, if not hundreds of millions of the people's money,,,,for WHAT, exactly? The simple fact that since I own something I should have to pay the government money? I mean, it's not for public safety, because if it was they would have asked for Brand, Model, Serial number, every little detail they could POSSIBLY use to tag you to that drone if you caused trouble. No, they ask for your personal information, take your $5 and assign you some silly number. Wake up people, it's not about a measly $5, it's about FREEDOM.

jonebk12 · Mar 15, 2016

Gary M said:
See, that's the problem here. All these people saying "It's just $5. Are you that cheap?!" Yeah, it is just $5, that I can very easily afford. But it's the fact that it's JUST $5, from MILLIONS of people. You're talking to the tune of tens, if not hundreds of millions of the people's money,,,,for WHAT, exactly? The simple fact that since I own something I should have to pay the government money? I mean, it's not for public safety, because if it was they would have asked for Brand, Model, Serial number, every little detail they could POSSIBLY use to tag you to that drone if you caused trouble. No, they ask for your personal information, take your $5 and assign you some silly number. Wake up people, it's not about a measly $5, it's about FREEDOM.

I would expect that far less than a million Americans own quads that require registration (that would be one out of every 300 men, women and children in this country flying a Phantom equivalent around). Even being very generous, that's $5 million in registration fees (not including what has been refunded to early registers). The FAAs annual budget is about $16 billion. $5 million is a rounding error. The FAA is not getting rich off these registration fees by any means. I suspect that the fee revenue just goes right back in to operating the registry system, which for better or worse is intended to be a step toward greater public safety.

Meta4 · Mar 15, 2016

Gary M said:
it's the fact that it's JUST $5, from MILLIONS of people. You're talking to the tune of tens, if not hundreds of millions of the people's money

Arithmetic Check time
FAA announces today that almost 4000000 have registered. Almost 400,000 drones are registered with the FAA
But They had 300000 registered back in January at the end or the free period. FAA Says Nearly 300,000 Drone Owners Have Registered in First 30 Days
That leaves~100000 paying $5 for three year's registration ... so about 1/2 million for 3 years.
That's somewhat short of tens if not hundreds of millions?

Gary M said:
Wake up people, it's not about a measly $5, it's about FREEDOM.

If that's the biggest imposition on your freedom this year, you're not doing too badly.

ianwood · Mar 15, 2016

Meanwhile the FAA's annual operating budget is something like $10 billion. Half a million is probably not even enough to cover the cost of setting up the registration system and administering it.