Suing DJI

[x5yo]

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.

I find it unacceptable that my Inspire 1 and X5R, a setup I paid over £4000 based on the knowledge I knew it would be good for many years worth of drone working due to its bit rate and grading potential has been rendered near obsolete and crashed in value due to the lack of batteries and propellers DJi have stopped producing.

Sadly DJI replaced this drone for me in the past and I had nothing but glowing words for them, so I am not a DJI hater, in fact, I love their products, but what they have done to inspire 1 owners is disgusting and on purpose and I'm sure they'll do it to the rest of you. They get away with it because launching claims usually costs so much money and they have a monopoly in the market, but I can do all the case for very little and I have a personal moral incentive.

DJI went out of their way to monopolize batteries being locked so only they could sell them and as suspected,they've let that power go to their head and all of a sudden I find myself with a product which has lost a LOT of value and I cannot even buy new props or batteries (that's the equiv of tyres and batteries for cars!), and I suspect others feel the same.

What I'm looking for is to gauge support for this idea with the goal of trying to get DJI to reproduce batteries and propellers, or, offer a voucher scheme so users of DJI inspire 1 products can get a good trade in deal against newer DJI products. The other option is to force DJI to offer something to unlock the firmware in the batteries, or something along the lines to make it easier for people to get around what they have done.

Would love to see what the rest of you think about this. Even if you do not have an Inspire 1, DJI will do this to whatever product you have bought.

The video quality of many of its drones are now good enough to last a long long time, many of you might not need to upgrade for many years or ever, so even if you are not impacted by the Inspire 1 saga, you WILL BE in a year or two when DJI decide its time for you spend more money with them.

The more people who get behind this, the more DJI and the judges will see this injustice and the changes could be huge.

If anyone from DJI would like to respond, or contact me you're most welcome.

Imagine buying a car and having to scap it within 2 years of buying because you could not buy tyres or petrol for it.
This is unacceptable.

 

[AMGPilot]

Good luck with that. They superceeded the I1 with the I2 will be the answer and they are not obligated to continue to make spares for an EOL product

 

[x5yo]

Good luck with that. They superceeded the I1 with the I2 will be the answer and they are not obligated to continue to make spares for an EOL product

Every product out there gets superseded with something.

Doesn't mean to say you have to make the old one crash in value by maliciously locking battery firmware so only you can power them to control the battery market before deciding on not making them all together.

DJI were selling the X5R less than 2 years ago for thousands of pounds on their site. Its still one of the best all in one drones out there and still very capable. For them to no longer provide basic things imperative to its operation is not right and worse of all, probably planned from day 1.

If nothing else, people need to be aware this is how DJI operate as company and factor that into their decision making.
They might have gotten away with it in the past as the gains of the new drones were obvious and consumers didn't care.

But for someone with a fully loaded inspire 2, or even X5R, who have invested in lenses, cases, workflows they are comfy with.
I don't think its unfair to expect those products to be usable for a few years after they have been taken off the site for sale.

DJI should provide batteries for drones for at least 5 years AFTER they have stopped selling them on their site or provide a voucher scheme which offsets the crash in value their business tactics cause.

Why should someone who could spend 5k on products at DJI.com two years ago be faced with this?

Its all on them.

 

[The Editor]

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.

I find it unacceptable that my Inspire 1 and X5R, a setup I paid over £4000 based on the knowledge I knew it would be good for many years worth of drone working due to its bit rate and grading potential has been rendered near obsolete and crashed in value due to the lack of batteries and propellers DJi have stopped producing.

Sadly DJI replaced this drone for me in the past and I had nothing but glowing words for them, so I am not a DJI hater, in fact, I love their products, but what they have done to inspire 1 owners is disgusting and on purpose and I'm sure they'll do it to the rest of you. They get away with it because launching claims usually costs so much money and they have a monopoly in the market, but I can do all the case for very little and I have a personal moral incentive.

DJI went out of their way to monopolize batteries being locked so only they could sell them and as suspected,they've let that power go to their head and all of a sudden I find myself with a product which has lost a LOT of value and I cannot even buy new props or batteries (that's the equiv of tyres and batteries for cars!), and I suspect others feel the same.

What I'm looking for is to gauge support for this idea with the goal of trying to get DJI to reproduce batteries and propellers, or, offer a voucher scheme so users of DJI inspire 1 products can get a good trade in deal against newer DJI products. The other option is to force DJI to offer something to unlock the firmware in the batteries, or something along the lines to make it easier for people to get around what they have done.

Would love to see what the rest of you think about this. Even if you do not have an Inspire 1, DJI will do this to whatever product you have bought.

The video quality of many of its drones are now good enough to last a long long time, many of you might not need to upgrade for many years or ever, so even if you are not impacted by the Inspire 1 saga, you WILL BE in a year or two when DJI decide its time for you spend more money with them.

The more people who get behind this, the more DJI and the judges will see this injustice and the changes could be huge.

If anyone from DJI would like to respond, or contact me you're most welcome.

Imagine buying a car and having to scap it within 2 years of buying because you could not buy tyres or petrol for it.
This is unacceptable.

May I remind you of the forum rules appertaining to Vendor/Manufacturers disputes.
DJI have no presence on this community so they will not comment or contact you - nor is Inspirepilots associated or affiliated with DJI and/or its subsidiaries.

In any case, you would be completely wasting your time. If you have a legal background you will know that attempting to bring an action or seeking permission for a GLO against a Chinese domiciled entity is futile and will only be an exercise in frustration, time and money - but hey....it's your money.

Secondly, you are expecting a tech product released in 2014 to still be supported? Try getting Sony to support a six year old TV.

Thirdly, and probably most pertinent. Commercially, your Inspire 1 now has a very limited working life and will be rendered useless for any kind of commercial work fairly soon anyway. Not by some evil Chinese Dictatorship or Communist block but by the UK Government (CAA) adopting EASA regulations which will make the I1 a legacy aircraft after the transition period.
The only SUAS able to usefully legally fly for commercial work after this transition period, and thus be insurable will be aircraft carrying the certification mark. Any aircraft not manufactured with this certification can not be 'awarded' it retroactively.

Finally, if you are working commercially in the UK then you or your accountant will be writing down your assets by 25% per year so if you have owned your Inspire for 4 years or more it will basically have nill value. Any new/updated gear can be offset against tax anyway.

Move on.......Attempted litigation will fall at the first hurdle.

 

[myke]

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.

I find it unacceptable that my Inspire 1 and X5R, a setup I paid over £4000 based on the knowledge I knew it would be good for many years worth of drone working due to its bit rate and grading potential has been rendered near obsolete and crashed in value due to the lack of batteries and propellers DJi have stopped producing.

Sadly DJI replaced this drone for me in the past and I had nothing but glowing words for them, so I am not a DJI hater, in fact, I love their products, but what they have done to inspire 1 owners is disgusting and on purpose and I'm sure they'll do it to the rest of you. They get away with it because launching claims usually costs so much money and they have a monopoly in the market, but I can do all the case for very little and I have a personal moral incentive.

DJI went out of their way to monopolize batteries being locked so only they could sell them and as suspected,they've let that power go to their head and all of a sudden I find myself with a product which has lost a LOT of value and I cannot even buy new props or batteries (that's the equiv of tyres and batteries for cars!), and I suspect others feel the same.

What I'm looking for is to gauge support for this idea with the goal of trying to get DJI to reproduce batteries and propellers, or, offer a voucher scheme so users of DJI inspire 1 products can get a good trade in deal against newer DJI products. The other option is to force DJI to offer something to unlock the firmware in the batteries, or something along the lines to make it easier for people to get around what they have done.

Would love to see what the rest of you think about this. Even if you do not have an Inspire 1, DJI will do this to whatever product you have bought.

The video quality of many of its drones are now good enough to last a long long time, many of you might not need to upgrade for many years or ever, so even if you are not impacted by the Inspire 1 saga, you WILL BE in a year or two when DJI decide its time for you spend more money with them.

The more people who get behind this, the more DJI and the judges will see this injustice and the changes could be huge.

If anyone from DJI would like to respond, or contact me you're most welcome.

Imagine buying a car and having to scap it within 2 years of buying because you could not buy tyres or petrol for it.
This is unacceptable.

I agree with you 100% and the prospect of retiring my Inspire due to lack of spares is very sad. I support you

 

[x5yo]

May I remind you of the forum rules appertaining to Vendor/Manufacturers disputes.
DJI have no presence on this community so they will not comment or contact you - nor is Inspirepilots associated or affiliated with DJI and/or its subsidiaries.

In any case, you would be completely wasting your time. If you have a legal background you will know that attempting to bring an action or seeking permission for a GLO against a Chinese domiciled entity is futile and will only be an exercise in frustration, time and money - but hey....it's your money.

Secondly, you are expecting a tech product released in 2014 to still be supported? Try getting Sony to support a six year old TV.

Thirdly, and probably most pertinent. Commercially, your Inspire 1 now has a very limited working life and will be rendered useless for any kind of commercial work fairly soon anyway. Not by some evil Chinese Dictatorship or Communist block but by the UK Government (CAA) adopting EASA regulations which will make the I1 a legacy aircraft after the transition period.
The only SUAS able to usefully legally fly for commercial work after this transition period, and thus be insurable will be aircraft carrying the certification mark. Any aircraft not manufactured with this certification can not be 'awarded' it retroactively.

Finally, if you are working commercially in the UK then you or your accountant will be writing down your assets by 25% per year so if you have owned your Inspire for 4 years or more it will basically have nill value. Any new/updated gear can be offset against tax anyway.

Move on.......Attempted litigation will fall at the first hurdle.

Your post seems hyper odd to me, like someone who almost doesn't have a problem with what DJI are doing and seems more vexed at the fact that someone is bringing this up?

Allow me to explain the short comings in what you said and you can decide....

Firstly, it doesn't matter if I am, or am not a commercial drone pilot. This has to do with the problem of neutering peoples hardware they choose to use by denying them core essentials for it to work after they have decided it should not.

Which not only depletes re-sale value from the product, but makes it unsafe by somewhat forcing people to mod and get around or fly with decaying batteries long past their shelf life or get priced out of the game through no fault of their own.
I will not be selling my inspire 1 and X5R for 1200 and then spending 3500 on an inspire 2 for the sake of 2 batteries, and a small boost in quality which isn't worth paying thousands of pounds for.

I don't recall ever paying £4000 for a bit of hardware and then being told, "oh by way, in a couple of years, you won't even be able to buy a battery to use it because we locked anyone else from making batteries and we're now we're ceasing to make them so your hardware is now worth crap", but hey, you can buy our latest EQUIV drone for £4000 which does not really offer anything you need.

The Inspire 1 especially when paired with an X5R is perfectly capable in a commercial environment for many years.

Not at the highest end, but many commercial drone pilots do things for property, tourism sectors or others with more humble needs. Your claim that the Inspire 1 is somehow justifiably obsolete and therefore the X5R is commercially dead is not true. But that's not really the issue anyway. Even if you own an inspire 2, or x7, there will be people who say your stuff isn't good enough because you can't fly a red epic or arri. The truth is, you can make money selling videos from a DJI spark because aerial video/photography is a powerful tool by default these days.

DJI Europe and their other subsidiaries have to adhere to certain rules and regulations outside of China, the notion that if a company is in china and can behave as they want and will be untouchable is not true. And even if that were true, providing pressure and raising awareness to protect the longevity of your forums users products is, I'm sure a positive thing to anyone whose impartial in their orientation to create such a portal.

While the Inspire was released in 2014, it was STILL for sale on the DJI.com website until MANY YEARS LATER, so those who bought it towards the end with little or no discount to it original price will have had a RAW DEAL with little product support for the product.

I don't consider people paying nearly £3000 for a camera to work on a drone from DJI.com less than two years ago to not be severely compromised.

Even if the legal proceedings go nowhere, the PR it generates could work towards a positive change within DJI.

Finally, here is an ebay scan from when I tried to sell my inspire 1 and x5r. I could not even get £1200 for my drone which DJI would have charged over 4k for on their website only a few years ago.

This is less of a problem for X3/X5 users. Their units cost a fair bit less, the second hand market was saturated with them and the quality due to their low bit rate does cap them a lot more, but they still have the right to decide what level they want to be at. What if someone was flying a drone for sentimental reasons? The reason why people stick with a product are complicated and long ranging, that neither you I can define as being worthless.

People are actively using the fact the battery situation is the reason for their low price, not the lack of quality from the drone which is still very capable.

As the quality of drones is now at a high level in terms of stability, flight time, quality and range many users will be far more content with keeping their hardware for longer than in previous years when we were all trying to get to the stage we're at now.

I think DJI need to recognize this and more awareness is needed for users who are buying their products well into its shelf life. DJI are a hugely successful,rich and advanced company, they don't need to behave like this.

 

[Acronut]

I have an I1 and have invested in several lenses. I cannot justify the cost of an I2 as my film/photo requirements are fully met by the I1.
I agree totally that DJI should offer support with parts, beyond 2 years, as most manufacturers already do in almost all production facilities.
I wish you every success with your intended claim, as success would probably also extend the viable life of my M2P as well.

 

[Bay Hakan]

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.

I find it unacceptable that my Inspire 1 and X5R, a setup I paid over £4000 based on the knowledge I knew it would be good for many years worth of drone working due to its bit rate and grading potential has been rendered near obsolete and crashed in value due to the lack of batteries and propellers DJi have stopped producing.

Sadly DJI replaced this drone for me in the past and I had nothing but glowing words for them, so I am not a DJI hater, in fact, I love their products, but what they have done to inspire 1 owners is disgusting and on purpose and I'm sure they'll do it to the rest of you. They get away with it because launching claims usually costs so much money and they have a monopoly in the market, but I can do all the case for very little and I have a personal moral incentive.

DJI went out of their way to monopolize batteries being locked so only they could sell them and as suspected,they've let that power go to their head and all of a sudden I find myself with a product which has lost a LOT of value and I cannot even buy new props or batteries (that's the equiv of tyres and batteries for cars!), and I suspect others feel the same.

What I'm looking for is to gauge support for this idea with the goal of trying to get DJI to reproduce batteries and propellers, or, offer a voucher scheme so users of DJI inspire 1 products can get a good trade in deal against newer DJI products. The other option is to force DJI to offer something to unlock the firmware in the batteries, or something along the lines to make it easier for people to get around what they have done.

Would love to see what the rest of you think about this. Even if you do not have an Inspire 1, DJI will do this to whatever product you have bought.

The video quality of many of its drones are now good enough to last a long long time, many of you might not need to upgrade for many years or ever, so even if you are not impacted by the Inspire 1 saga, you WILL BE in a year or two when DJI decide its time for you spend more money with them.

The more people who get behind this, the more DJI and the judges will see this injustice and the changes could be huge.

If anyone from DJI would like to respond, or contact me you're most welcome.

Imagine buying a car and having to scap it within 2 years of buying because you could not buy tyres or petrol for it.
This is unacceptable.

?I congratulate and support you for your venture. I believe that the Chinese vulgarity doesn't care the consumer rights and Humanity should stop them.
Tell and advise us what we can do further.

 

[Bruce Sprague]

I'm with you 1000%. Would be very nice to purchase aftermarket batteries.

 

[IronSky1]

The main issue with making replacement aftermarket parts is the tooling costs. If the Chinese don't think it can be justified it wont happen. They flood the market with low cost aftermarket products. I sold my I1 and replaced with I2 begrudgingly since it was a favorite however, tooling is very expensive to create you need to have volume to offset this. (my first life was in the mold and tooling business). DJI will not do this.

 

[Phillip DeVore]

Good luck but I don’t think you have a chance.

 

[huppe]

It's not just a Chinese brand but this will happen with any other big brand.If you try your luck for example in th U.S it will be the same story.
But I agree with you ,spare parts should be avaliable for more then just 5 years.
I have 2 Audi's ,1 is over 15 years old and stil it is supported by them.
Any thing I can help ,you have my support.

 

[The Editor]

Your post seems hyper odd to me, like someone who almost doesn't have a problem with what DJI are doing and seems more vexed at the fact that someone is bringing this up?

Allow me to explain the short comings in what you said and you can decide....

Firstly, it doesn't matter if I am, or am not a commercial drone pilot. This has to do with the problem of neutering peoples hardware they choose to use by denying them core essentials for it to work after they have decided it should not.

Which not only depletes re-sale value from the product, but makes it unsafe by somewhat forcing people to mod and get around or fly with decaying batteries long past their shelf life or get priced out of the game through no fault of their own.
I will not be selling my inspire 1 and X5R for 1200 and then spending 3500 on an inspire 2 for the sake of 2 batteries, and a small boost in quality which isn't worth paying thousands of pounds for.

I don't recall ever paying £4000 for a bit of hardware and then being told, "oh by way, in a couple of years, you won't even be able to buy a battery to use it because we locked anyone else from making batteries and we're now we're ceasing to make them so your hardware is now worth crap", but hey, you can buy our latest EQUIV drone for £4000 which does not really offer anything you need.

The Inspire 1 especially when paired with an X5R is perfectly capable in a commercial environment for many years.

Not at the highest end, but many commercial drone pilots do things for property, tourism sectors or others with more humble needs. Your claim that the Inspire 1 is somehow justifiably obsolete and therefore the X5R is commercially dead is not true. But that's not really the issue anyway. Even if you own an inspire 2, or x7, there will be people who say your stuff isn't good enough because you can't fly a red epic or arri. The truth is, you can make money selling videos from a DJI spark because aerial video/photography is a powerful tool by default these days.

DJI Europe and their other subsidiaries have to adhere to certain rules and regulations outside of China, the notion that if a company is in china and can behave as they want and will be untouchable is not true. And even if that were true, providing pressure and raising awareness to protect the longevity of your forums users products is, I'm sure a positive thing to anyone whose impartial in their orientation to create such a portal.

While the Inspire was released in 2014, it was STILL for sale on the DJI.com website until MANY YEARS LATER, so those who bought it towards the end with little or no discount to it original price will have had a RAW DEAL with little product support for the product.

I don't consider people paying nearly £3000 for a camera to work on a drone from DJI.com less than two years ago to not be severely compromised.

Even if the legal proceedings go nowhere, the PR it generates could work towards a positive change within DJI.

Finally, here is an ebay scan from when I tried to sell my inspire 1 and x5r. I could not even get £1200 for my drone which DJI would have charged over 4k for on their website only a few years ago.

This is less of a problem for X3/X5 users. Their units cost a fair bit less, the second hand market was saturated with them and the quality due to their low bit rate does cap them a lot more, but they still have the right to decide what level they want to be at. What if someone was flying a drone for sentimental reasons? The reason why people stick with a product are complicated and long ranging, that neither you I can define as being worthless.

People are actively using the fact the battery situation is the reason for their low price, not the lack of quality from the drone which is still very capable.

As the quality of drones is now at a high level in terms of stability, flight time, quality and range many users will be far more content with keeping their hardware for longer than in previous years when we were all trying to get to the stage we're at now.

I think DJI need to recognize this and more awareness is needed for users who are buying their products well into its shelf life. DJI are a hugely successful,rich and advanced company, they don't need to behave like this.

You won't be able to realistically use an Inspire 1 for commercial work after EASA regs kick in - Fact. It will be classed as a legacy aircraft and will not be able to be used with close proximity standoffs. Even say with permission from a property owner you will still not be able to fly it closer than 150m from a congested area.
This has nothing to do with DJI or Brexit but rather the CAA adopting EASA UAS regulations.

Also, suggest, you read your EULA. All software/firmware (including what's inside the batteries) belongs to DJI and they can do what they like with it. Lock it down, change it or whatever they want. You have no control over that.

Anyhoo - I've seen and heard it all before on this forum regarding lawsuits, class actions/GLO's etc etc. because people are annoyed their UAV has to be updated/upgraded/crashed/didn't last very long.
None of them ever come to anything.

Go for it - knock yourself out. You will be on a hiding to nothing.

I assure you, nobody from DJI will get on a plane and come over to the UK to answer a lawsuit without any merit that will be thrown out at the first hearing.

Good luck

 

[licensed pilot]

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.

I find it unacceptable that my Inspire 1 and X5R, a setup I paid over £4000 based on the knowledge I knew it would be good for many years worth of drone working due to its bit rate and grading potential has been rendered near obsolete and crashed in value due to the lack of batteries and propellers DJi have stopped producing.

Sadly DJI replaced this drone for me in the past and I had nothing but glowing words for them, so I am not a DJI hater, in fact, I love their products, but what they have done to inspire 1 owners is disgusting and on purpose and I'm sure they'll do it to the rest of you. They get away with it because launching claims usually costs so much money and they have a monopoly in the market, but I can do all the case for very little and I have a personal moral incentive.

DJI went out of their way to monopolize batteries being locked so only they could sell them and as suspected,they've let that power go to their head and all of a sudden I find myself with a product which has lost a LOT of value and I cannot even buy new props or batteries (that's the equiv of tyres and batteries for cars!), and I suspect others feel the same.

What I'm looking for is to gauge support for this idea with the goal of trying to get DJI to reproduce batteries and propellers, or, offer a voucher scheme so users of DJI inspire 1 products can get a good trade in deal against newer DJI products. The other option is to force DJI to offer something to unlock the firmware in the batteries, or something along the lines to make it easier for people to get around what they have done.

Would love to see what the rest of you think about this. Even if you do not have an Inspire 1, DJI will do this to whatever product you have bought.

The video quality of many of its drones are now good enough to last a long long time, many of you might not need to upgrade for many years or ever, so even if you are not impacted by the Inspire 1 saga, you WILL BE in a year or two when DJI decide its time for you spend more money with them.

The more people who get behind this, the more DJI and the judges will see this injustice and the changes could be huge.

If anyone from DJI would like to respond, or contact me you're most welcome.

Imagine buying a car and having to scap it within 2 years of buying because you could not buy tyres or petrol for it.
This is unacceptable.

Your suit will fail.

 

[S White]

Sorry to hear of your problems x5yo. I fly commercially in the USA and I have used the I2 since it was introduced. I still have my I1 with lots of batteries as a backup. The I1 does a great job, but the I2 is solid beast in the air. I am always hoping that the I2 hangs in there and I do not need to fly the I1. The tech side of anything is an issue. I was in the software biz for many years and was always needing to deal with computer platforms changing or disappearing. My first big bummer was when I had all my stuff running great on IBM equipment, and they pulled the plug on the entire line. I had to start over. Windows or IOS or Android, tech march on. And of course they plan on us dumping old stuff and buying new stuff. I think DJI has discovered that the market is huge with the small birds, rather than big stuff. But here in the USA the FAA's plans for Remote IDs could cripple everyone anyway, and that would be a huge disappointment. Not DJI's fault, but the FAA's. Time will tell. Sorry that you (and thousands of others) have suffered, but you would spend more money and headaches chasing them - as the Moderator said.....

 

[robport]

This is a market problem. The reason batteries aren't being made is because no company thinks they can make money off them. There is a high barrier to entry to start making batteries, less of a barrier in China because of the environmental situation there, but still pretty high. I don't even think they could make them in the states.

 

[robport]

I sympathize, but as far as the law suit...I'm afraid you have no chance at that. You are going to sue a Chinese company (backed by the Chinese Communist Party) in a London court? How could a judgement even be enforced? The only way to get them to change their ways is to vote with your money, and sadly, there aren't a lot of choices.

 

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

Given your legal background it would be interesting to hear your legal argument against DJI. Even the new euro ecodesign regulations only cover a range of household white goods and displays (televisions/monitors). DJI offers warranties and will repair or replace damaged goods. Frustration may not be enough legally.

Having said all that, “informed” people on this forum told me I should not waste my time pursuing an OSC on a quadcopter. I ignored them and now have a successful consultancy business helping others do just that.

So if you want to pursue a claim against DJI, then find a legal basis for it first then go for it!

 

[Ralph thompson]

I support X5yo, I find it unconscionable that DJI obsolète a perfectly useable device that was still being sold In 2017 (I have 2 I1Pro). In Canada the only reason there are restrictions on its use in controlled airspace is because DJI has not submitted the necessay paperwork, a fairly trivial task, to Transport Canada, it’s nothing to do with it’s serviceability, safety or reliability. I hope you have success if only to take a shot across the bows of the good ship DJI.

 

[hhung516]

I support you 100%. But as an alternative, maybe ask DJI to open source their smart battery design so other manufacturers can start making after market batteries.

Had DJI open sourced some of their stuff and showed they are not “collecting” any personal info, they wouldn’t have become an easy target as they are now in the US and many other countries.

Hi Guys,

I have a legal background in a previous life and I'm looking to make a claim against DJI at the royal courts of justice in London for the discontinuation of batteries and propellers for the DJI Inspire 1.

Best of all, this could open the portal for many of you who have found your inspire 1 being rendered nearly obsolete in terms of perceived and actual worth due to the lack of batteries and propellers.
If successful, this could cost DJI millions or invoke the release of a voucher scheme from DJI so you can trade your now obsolete hardware against something new. Not because its useless, but because DJI are trying its best to make it useless.