DJI fly away. Firmware update. Horrible customer service

[Jason Bougie]

NewI just recently was the victim of a fly away. The aircraft and procedures required were all up to date and performed as manufacturers specification suggest.

I submitted my claim form to DJI along with flight records and a narrative as they requested. It seems pretty clear that this was total malfunction based on a firmware update that had just been performed. '

I just received an email back from them saying ;

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your patience.

We have reviewed your survey, and based on the incident you experienced, we want to provide further assistance.

First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation.

We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30

This is crap. Horrible customer service without really make any relevant claim to the detail of the situation.

This bird is 2 months new and I have had 278 successful flights until this one after the firmware update.

I wrote them back stating this option is unacceptable. We will see how far that gets me.

What a rip off!

 

[Erroll]

Rip of??? I think DJI are being very generous! What is it with this entitlement mind-set?

 

[Meta4]

Without you giving any details of your incident, no-one would be able to offer any meaningful comment.

 

[mphsjeep]

Basically you got the general disclaimer, wait a lot longer, have not looked at anything you sent, may cover you, may not letter. Call them, I have got a live person every time. Good luck!

 

[Jason Bougie]

Agreed, I attached the survey that was sent in.

I would like to state that I am a HUGE fan of drones and UAV's along with have been 100% happy with my purchase of the DJI P3P up until this point.

I DO have a sense of entitlement for a product that I took the time to research and invest in. I also believe I had NO control or influence on the loss of the aircraft other than the fact that I chose to fly it as prescribed by DJI.

I have that sense of entitlement for other products that also have an update process I have purchase or would invest in.

Apple - If Apple were to send out an update and that inadvertently made iPhone 6 batteries melt, I would think that would be Apple's responsibility.

Tesla (which I do not own one) - If Tesla sent out updates to their vehicles that inadvertently made them turn right and run off the road I would think that was Tesla's responsibility.

I would also expect that Apple or Tesla (or any other company) would not make the statements that would mirror DJI's such as "you should turn on or off your phone which may or may not have caused the problem" or "DO NOT drive on a roads that have obstacles that the vehicle may or may not run into".

I followed every single tip, procedure and recommendation. This Fly-away situation seems to be popping up more and more on forums. Seems like something that DJI needs to take responsibility for and fix or recall. BTW, not to add any dramatics here, but the truth of the situation really comes down to this. I was flying over a rural area on the edge of our town with no obstacles. When the aircraft went astray it set a course for the urban area and landed in a housing development. At its point of impact the aircraft hit 57.2 mph according to DJI Go app. Thankfully it hit the fence on the side of a home on not anyone or anything. Im sure if the aircraft had hurt someone or worse, this would be DJI's legal responsibiliy.

 

[KykPhantom]

My dear, unfortunately, when we buy something, it is necessary not only to see what we buy but also to evaluate the after sales support. Do you have any conclusion?

 

[ksavoie]

Agreed, I attached the survey that was sent in.

I would like to state that I am a HUGE fan of drones and UAV's along with have been 100% happy with my purchase of the DJI P3P up until this point.

I DO have a sense of entitlement for a product that I took the time to research and invest in. I also believe I had NO control or influence on the loss of the aircraft other than the fact that I chose to fly it as prescribed by DJI.

I have that sense of entitlement for other products that also have an update process I have purchase or would invest in.

Apple - If Apple were to send out an update and that inadvertently made iPhone 6 batteries melt, I would think that would be Apple's responsibility.

Tesla (which I do not own one) - If Tesla sent out updates to their vehicles that inadvertently made them turn right and run off the road I would think that was Tesla's responsibility.

I would also expect that Apple or Tesla (or any other company) would not make the statements that would mirror DJI's such as "you should turn on or off your phone which may or may not have caused the problem" or "DO NOT drive on a roads that have obstacles that the vehicle may or may not run into".

I followed every single tip, procedure and recommendation. This Fly-away situation seems to be popping up more and more on forums. Seems like something that DJI needs to take responsibility for and fix or recall. BTW, not to add any dramatics here, but the truth of the situation really comes down to this. I was flying over a rural area on the edge of our town with no obstacles. When the aircraft went astray it set a course for the urban area and landed in a housing development. At its point of impact the aircraft hit 57.2 mph according to DJI Go app. Thankfully it hit the fence on the side of a home on not anyone or anything. Im sure if the aircraft had hurt someone or worse, this would be DJI's legal responsibiliy.

@Jason Bougie ......What firmware version did you upgrade to?

 

[flyNfrank]

Can you attach the .TXT file of that flight so I can look and see what provoked this to happen?

 

[flyNfrank]

Btw, I have beta tested the GO app for dji since it 1st came out. The 1.4.5 firmware has shown to be pretty rock solid. In the past 2 months never has there been any had a problem such as this one. Since becoming a tester there is 2-3 things I noticed dji has been very sticky about. One is to uninstall a app before installing a new version. No need to delete folders, just go to the playstore and select uninstall. The other thing is to calibrate the gimbal after every update whether it is app or firmware. And the final thing is to calibrate the compass prior to each flight. They even have the compass calibration notice as the 1st things you see each time you select to go to the camera view from the start page. The compass feature can never be abused.

Also had you flipped the R/C into A-mode when you saw it act strange, neither one of us would be posting in this thread today.

I'm sorry this happened to you, these kind of things are just horrible. I have bought 5 different phantom models since the start of 2014. I made the mistake of taking them for granted that they wouldn't screw up.