This is going to be a LONG review, and A LOT of it is directed at DJI as a whole, not so much the quad, so first, let me get the quad out of the way.
1. SO FUN to fly, brings onlookers, and interested people from all around to look at it and visit about it.
2. Very EASY to fly. If you grew up in any part of the video game generation, consider yourself properly trained for this. I never have played with airborne RC devices other than the cheap 40.00 helicopters you can buy at Best Buy, which I can hardly hover with. The Phantom is so easy and user friendly.
3. Videos and Photos were amazing. I developed a following pretty quickly on Facebook of people asking me to try different things with the Phantom. "Fly over and around your car". "How about flying over a forest, or a lake?"
Fun stuff, and kind of a good challenge too.
So here is why DJI failed in my book.
On January 15th, I took my quad out to Wilmington, NC and flew it around the Battleship North Carolina.
A selling point of the DJI equipment is a "Return To Home" (RTH) Feature. Basically if you get too far, too low on battery, into an area you shouldn't be in, the Phantom will switch to "RTH" And come back to it's starting point. Keeping you and the Phantom out of trouble. My Phantom with 12 mins of flight time left (they switch to RTH with 5 mins left) Average battery was 12-18 mins of flight time. My Phantom was 100' ft. away and 60'-100' ft with direct line of site, and in the air on its third battery of the day, in the same location as the previous too, a wide open park. All of a sudden my Phantom shot up in the air like a rocket then flew away from me out of distance and my screen showed, "Going Home" Indicating the RTH feature was activated.
Note: (I followed all the start up procedures between each battery as directed by DJI. Turned on the remote and wi-fi extender, then the Phantom, then calibrated, then flew.)
The Phantom then flew back my direction, and then slowly landed in the Cape Fear River, about 80' ft. from shore, and was swept away in the fast moving current (HA HA...) It's probably in the Bahamas by now.
So I'd heard and chose to ignore the information in negative reviews about the Phantom "going rogue" and flying away never to be seen again, and spend nearly $1500 (with extra battery and shipping). I'd also heard that DJI's customer service was awful, and they didn't care about their customers all that much. (See other reviews on Amazon and elsewhere) I decided to take a chance and post my story on the DJI Facebook page, to my surprise within about 15 mins I was asked to send a detailed account to support@DJI.com where they would be happy to review my case, and assist me if possible. I did so, and within about a week, I got a call from a gentleman named "Anthony" with DJI's Support group. He told me that after reviewing my case, it appeared that I'd done everything I could to regain control of the Phantom, and followed the start up processes and procedures correctly, and that this appeared to be a defect in the Phantom or the RTH function, and he assured me that DJI wanted to get me flying again ASAP! They just wanted me to fill out a "DJI Customer Questionnaire" to get my claim on company documentation, which was fine with me after looking it over.
WELL AWESOME!!! Right? the things I'd heard were either untrue, or DJI had gotten better at customer care.
WRONG. After 3 more days, I received an email from an anonymous supervisor in the support group, stating after reviewing my case, they were happy to help me by offering me a replacement for 50% off, a total of 650.00 before shipping, and another 129.00 for another battery to replace the one that had sank.
I responded to the supervisor and explained that if the issue was 100% a factory/manufacturer defect, then in my mind DJI should replace 100% of the Phantom. He wrote back that I was lucky that they'd even offered me the 50% as they were taking my word for it that it was not operator error. Regardless of information I'd provided, photos and from the previous flights before the crash, and after what I was told during the phone call, DJI refused to truly take care of me. If I'd landed it in the water, or flown it too far away and it didn't have enough battery to make it back, or in an area that could mess with the drones internals...I'd accept it and eat the money spent, but I'd think for the kind of money their customers spend to buy a "hobby" they'd cater a little more and try to grow their poor reputation for customer satisfaction.
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