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Why does it take so long for a DJI repair

Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Messages
8
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2
Location
Crawley Down
Website
www.visualchaos.co.uk
I am new to Drones and obvioulsy DJI. As a long term professional photographer I have been using pro suppliers of my gear for decades and used to a certain way that they operate. If I broke my camera or a fault appeared I would send it back on the day of the issue, 2 days later I would get a report of the problem along with notice of whether it would be a warrenty repair or not, then it would be fixed and back with me next day, so a total of 4 days without the gear (Canon). DJI couldn't be further away from this, and appear to me on my first interaction with them, following a crash in early February. It took nearly 4 weeks to get them to ALLOW me to send it back to them on Netherlands. It took, 4 days after I finally set it to them and they signed for it, to acknowledge it on the system.... Now its been a week without any progress and communications, they confused the issue with issuing two RMA numbers, but the right one says that a quote was issued and is now waiting payment, but I haven't heard anything about that in email or how to pay or what to do. I eventually got a response via email to be told that it is with Tech group who are looking at flight records - this was a week ago (nearly).... I have never asked for a warrenty repair, I only had the Inspire One Pro for a couple of weeks and the crash was my fault with a RTH hitting a low branch and it falling just 0.8m but hit the gimbal on a kerb.
Now, this issue is that this equipment is my professional kit! Without it I am not earning any money and therefore DJI is a professional 'kit' provider and I am astonished that this is their process and procedure. There is no recognition of the professional angle and requirement here.... My questions are simply this....

Q: Is this normal for DJI? or is this a one off and I am just unluckly?
Q: Do I/Should I have several back up kit as clearly damage will be an occupational hazard.
Q: If this is normal for DJI is this an industry issue? i.e. the industry still thinks it is serving the hobbiests and leisure users?

Thanks... I need to evaluate my associaition and determine wether I can operate a business and rely on DJI or not...
 
Hi,

sad to hear that. I cannot talk about DJI because i never needed a repair or had a case for warranty. But i can talk about working as a professional and that a backup gear is more or less a must have even more if your business model relies on specific equipments (Camera/Drone/PC whatever)

Chris
 
Q: Is this normal for DJI? or is this a one off and I am just unluckly?
Quite common, but usually not to that extent... you should still expect 2-3 weeks without your kit.

Q: Do I/Should I have several back up kit as clearly damage will be an occupational hazard.
Certainly.

Q: If this is normal for DJI is this an industry issue? i.e. the industry still thinks it is serving the hobbiests and leisure users?
Yep. Or more like they want to serve pros, but given they come from the hobby market I'd say they don't dare pricing their stuff to the level required for the kind of support that goes along.If an I1 was priced the way a pro DSLR is/was you'd probably paid triple for it.
Was easier for camera manufacturers who went the other way, serving the amateur market after catering for the pros.
There's also the speed things go - now you start selling something and it goes worldwide on day 1, and you're expected to have a worldwide support network in 6 months, which is basically impossible. Most of the old large companies you're used to built their sales and support networks over years, if not decades.

Everybody in this field is lagging behind the extremely steep adoption curve.
 
I am new to Drones and obvioulsy DJI. As a long term professional photographer I have been using pro suppliers of my gear for decades and used to a certain way that they operate. If I broke my camera or a fault appeared I would send it back on the day of the issue, 2 days later I would get a report of the problem along with notice of whether it would be a warrenty repair or not, then it would be fixed and back with me next day, so a total of 4 days without the gear (Canon). DJI couldn't be further away from this, and appear to me on my first interaction with them, following a crash in early February. It took nearly 4 weeks to get them to ALLOW me to send it back to them on Netherlands. It took, 4 days after I finally set it to them and they signed for it, to acknowledge it on the system.... Now its been a week without any progress and communications, they confused the issue with issuing two RMA numbers, but the right one says that a quote was issued and is now waiting payment, but I haven't heard anything about that in email or how to pay or what to do. I eventually got a response via email to be told that it is with Tech group who are looking at flight records - this was a week ago (nearly).... I have never asked for a warrenty repair, I only had the Inspire One Pro for a couple of weeks and the crash was my fault with a RTH hitting a low branch and it falling just 0.8m but hit the gimbal on a kerb.
Now, this issue is that this equipment is my professional kit! Without it I am not earning any money and therefore DJI is a professional 'kit' provider and I am astonished that this is their process and procedure. There is no recognition of the professional angle and requirement here.... My questions are simply this....

Q: Is this normal for DJI? or is this a one off and I am just unluckly?
Q: Do I/Should I have several back up kit as clearly damage will be an occupational hazard.
Q: If this is normal for DJI is this an industry issue? i.e. the industry still thinks it is serving the hobbiests and leisure users?

Thanks... I need to evaluate my associaition and determine wether I can operate a business and rely on DJI or not...
Welcome to the world of DJI !
What I would say is since you are in the UK and operating commercially you will have insurance in place. Can you not just let the insurance company handle it?
That's what you pay them for.
 
Yes moving forward I assume insurance company will replace kit, however, I was only testing on my private property and not in a commercial capacity at the time of the cash due to waiting on CAA permissions etc. and hadn't looked into insurance at that time.. Was an unlucky accident really, but seeing how much problems came from a broken gimbal with a bird that fell 0.8m tells me that damage will be part of the business model despite how good I get in piloting and how refined my process and procedure is. I could have dropped the gimbal from my work bench or back of the truck for example it isn't that robust by its nature. Unfortunately gimbals due to their propriety algorithms have to go back to DJI and not an appointed TP shop...

In answer to the other comments, I can forgive to some extent new business and fast growth business for not having the infrastructure in place to deal with demand (forgive it to some extent mind, how hard is it?) but some of the failure in my experience was business 101. Communications, email, RMA numbering, when client doesn't want a warranty repair, why force me through an evaluation of flight data BEFORE allowing me to send the gimbal back? I could have saved weeks why they procrastinated over the process to follow. Their repair form (excel spreadsheet) was something my 7 year old would have done, the questions were irrelevant to my issue, and after sending them their own file from their equipment they said they could read it in the end anyway, despite me being able to import it into my DroneLogBook account... I could have put their P&P together for them while I have waited on this :(

Lack of Tech Resource is a fair enough reason for delay and long time scales, but basic administration...?
 
Yes moving forward I assume insurance company will replace kit, however, I was only testing on my private property and not in a commercial capacity at the time of the cash due to waiting on CAA permissions etc. and hadn't looked into insurance at that time.. Was an unlucky accident really, but seeing how much problems came from a broken gimbal with a bird that fell 0.8m tells me that damage will be part of the business model despite how good I get in piloting and how refined my process and procedure is. I could have dropped the gimbal from my work bench or back of the truck for example it isn't that robust by its nature. Unfortunately gimbals due to their propriety algorithms have to go back to DJI and not an appointed TP shop...

In answer to the other comments, I can forgive to some extent new business and fast growth business for not having the infrastructure in place to deal with demand (forgive it to some extent mind, how hard is it?) but some of the failure in my experience was business 101. Communications, email, RMA numbering, when client doesn't want a warranty repair, why force me through an evaluation of flight data BEFORE allowing me to send the gimbal back? I could have saved weeks why they procrastinated over the process to follow. Their repair form (excel spreadsheet) was something my 7 year old would have done, the questions were irrelevant to my issue, and after sending them their own file from their equipment they said they could read it in the end anyway, despite me being able to import it into my DroneLogBook account... I could have put their P&P together for them while I have waited on this :(

Lack of Tech Resource is a fair enough reason for delay and long time scales, but basic administration...?
Forgive me - I misread your original post that said "without it you are not earning any money" which implied you were using it currently in a commercial capacity and therefore must have been carrying compulsory insurance coverage at the time of the accident.
As an aside, the X3 and X5 hold up a lot better in a knock than professional gimbals that carry Reds, Arri's etc. No cinematography gimbal is designed to take a knock/crash of ANY kind.
 

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