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Care refresh cost of broken arm only?

wicko

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Wondering if Care refresh is worth it. for the FPV?
If I break an arm do I have to pay the full 250 or just pay for the arm repair?
 
Wondering if Care refresh is worth it. for the FPV?
If I break an arm do I have to pay the full 250 or just pay for the arm repair?
I'm curious about this myself. Crashed yesterday and the found the drone intact, but the battery was dislodged and said "Battery Communication Error" in the goggles when I tried it again. Luckily I had 2 others to test the drone with and it was fine with them. So I reached out to DJI Care and they had me send just the battery back alone. I'm curious what the cost/replacement will be. Will follow up when I know. Mailed out the battery this morning.
 
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Unfortunately, Im just about to find out ....

Just crashed my drone, low speed, but low to the ground and cracked the front arm.
no other damage, as far as i can tell... (except props)

Ive just filled in the repair request, NOT using my DJI Care Refresh.

in the US, there have been talks of around $100... but Im not sure what the costs are going to be here in Europe. (mine needs to get sent to the Netherlands, from Spain)
Im hoping ~ 100 euro

does anyone know the process once you have filled in the form,
do they they email you a return label... it seems to imply they will?
(rather they just send in the drone - they have supplied the address, so thats a little confusing?!)
 
Unfortunately, Im just about to find out ....

Just crashed my drone, low speed, but low to the ground and cracked the front arm.
no other damage, as far as i can tell... (except props)

Ive just filled in the repair request, NOT using my DJI Care Refresh.

in the US, there have been talks of around $100... but Im not sure what the costs are going to be here in Europe. (mine needs to get sent to the Netherlands, from Spain)
Im hoping ~ 100 euro

does anyone know the process once you have filled in the form,
do they they email you a return label... it seems to imply they will?
(rather they just send in the drone - they have supplied the address, so thats a little confusing?!)
Sorry to hear that. Do you need care refresh to make a repair request?
 
no...

anyone can ask for a repair quote. (if you have dji care or not, doesn't matter)
they assess the damage, will let you know how much, and you decide if to go ahead or not. (*)
then assuming you say yes, will repair drone for you.

dji care refresh gives you 'priority' , and also they wil turn around the drone quicker since
a) they do not asses your drone damage, its just replaced
b) they do not repair your drone they just replace it immediately with a refurbished drone.
note: they apparently don't send out the replacement until they have recieved your drone, which is a pity.



(*) dji reserve the right to charge you $50, if you choose not to go ahead with the repair
 
no...

anyone can ask for a repair quote. (if you have dji care or not, doesn't matter)
they assess the damage, will let you know how much, and you decide if to go ahead or not. (*)
then assuming you say yes, will repair drone for you.

dji care refresh gives you 'priority' , and also they wil turn around the drone quicker since
a) they do not asses your drone damage, its just replaced
b) they do not repair your drone they just replace it immediately with a refurbished drone.
note: they apparently don't send out the replacement until they have recieved your drone, which is a pity.



(*) dji reserve the right to charge you $50, if you choose not to go ahead with the repair
Thanks. I have insurance with coverdrone £68 for a year. DJI care refresh seems a bit steep at £189 + £250
 
Thanks. I have insurance with coverdrone £68 for a year. DJI care refresh seems a bit steep at £189 + £250

cool, Id already bought care refresh by the time I saw the coverdrone insurance (I use them for liability only).

if you are unlucky enough to have to claim for damage, Id be really interested to hear how thats goes, as next year Im tempted to use them.
 
Not necessarily. Probably not a lot of those sitting on a shelf at this point. Good probability they would send a new one.
yeah, I'm quoting what they say they are going to do...

for sure, at the moment its likely a new drone - but you cannot be 'disappointed' if they send you a reconditioned drone, as that is what they are contracted to give you.
 
cool, Id already bought care refresh by the time I saw the coverdrone insurance (I use them for liability only).

if you are unlucky enough to have to claim for damage, Id be really interested to hear how thats goes, as next year Im tempted to use them.
Will do if it happens. Hopefully I get to keep the damaged one for spares too
 
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Will do if it happens. Hopefully I get to keep the damaged one for spares too
I believe that part of getting reimbursement under hull damage coverage with insurance policies is that you send in the drone for disposal.
 
Side note -- the goggles are NOT covered by Care Refresh, correct?

(that's gonna really piss off a lot of noobie noob customers getting in to this for the first time...)
 
I believe that part of getting reimbursement under hull damage coverage with insurance policies is that you send in the drone for disposal.
Maybe remove a few bits and say they were lost in the bushes?
 
Following up here on my case. They told me since I sent the battery in by itself, and DJI Care Refresh is tied to the drone serial, i have to pay full price for a new battery OR send my drone in as well (which is working fine) and pay $259 + use one of my 2 replacements with the plan. In a separate chat they basically said this was it - the components are covered only if you do the full swap. There is no ability to get the separate components replaced despite the terms and conditions making it sound as such (in red below). So be warned. Send the entire drone, battery included for a replacement, or expect nothing.

1618536371419.png
 

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update on my case, so I broke one front arm.

I had dji care refresh, but decided since it was a minor accident - Id send it in and ask for a repair quote, rather than just replace.
(I suspected it would be cheaper, and i get to keep my 'claims'.)

so first the downside,

for me shipping will have taken about a week each way via UPS
(thats not surprising, im pretty remote.. this is not DJI fault, everything takes at least this long)
DJI took about 4 working days to process (inspect, quote, repair, ship) - I think thats pretty quick.

so reasonable turnaround - but still means im without a drone for nearly 3 weeks :(

on to the positive...

repair cost - my total will was 93 euros (ex tax) !
this included 4 props and one arm replacement.

lets break that down (again ex tax)
shipping - 25 euros (12.5 each way, pretty similar to what dji store charges me)
4 x props - 12 euros (same as shop price)
1 x front arm - 5.79 euros
repair cost - 50 euros

so parts were cheap, and shipping is as expected.
I think given the 'round' 50 euros for labour, Id not be suprised if this is fixed rate for repairs.

it not uncommon to have min fees, and 50 euro for inspect/repair/admin is not high for EU,
so I think its pretty reasonable.
this all seems to be in line with what we had heard about US repair costs.

also I should note, when quote came, I was given option to pay (duh!) or instead get a replacement thru dji care refresh... so thats cool, if bill is close to the 250 euro mark.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so my overall thoughts are :

repair costs are not as bad as has been made out.
sure if you crash frequently, even 100 euros a pop is going to get expensive quickly. but generally its not the end of the world.
(shipping time was a buzz kill, but that totally depends where you live)


dji care refresh, is it worth it?
hmm, thats a tough one... it all depends on how severe your damage is...
i reckon if you crash it hard, you could damage the battery, gimbal, a couple of arms, props
you could be looking at perhaps 300 + euros in repair cost. but thats still cheaper than dji care refresh.
but it hard to envisage a crash thats going to cost 450+ euro, which is dji cost of first crash.
I guess you need 2 major crashes ( 300+ each) to break even !

however, IF in 12 months they are still shipping out NEW drones as care refresh replacements, then this might be worth it - also after a big crash, I think i'd prefer a replacement over a rebuild?!

one advantage of care refresh is priority, they dont inspect drone - so, I think Id have got the drone back in 2 weeks, rather than 3 weeks using care refresh replacment.


diy repair,
we are now seeing replacement parts. so Im planning on ordering some spare arms.
not so much because of the cost of dji repair, but because of the 3 week turnaround, and hassle shipping etc - but for sure, here it would have cost me 25 euros vs 90 euros.

however, this is only possible since I already have soldering gear, and a good amount of soldering/building experience.
(not sure if i was new to soldering id want my first project to be a 700 euro piece of kit ;) )


tl;dr
I think the dji repair was pretty reasonably priced, even to the point, where dji care refresh is questionable.
the only big downside for me was shipping time.

oh, other tl;dr; try not to crash your drone ;)

----------
note: drone is currently being shipped back to me- so Im assuming it was repair correctly :)
 
Last edited:
update on my case, so I broke one front arm.

I had dji care refresh, but decided since it was a minor accident - Id send it in and ask for a repair quote, rather than just replace.
(I suspected it would be cheaper, and i get to keep my 'claims'.)

so first the downside,

for me shipping will have taken about a week each way via UPS
(thats not surprising, im pretty remote.. this is not DJI fault, everything takes at least this long)
DJI took about 4 working days to process (inspect, quote, repair, ship) - I think thats pretty quick.

so reasonable turnaround - but still means im without a drone for nearly 3 weeks :(

on to the positive...

repair cost - my total will was 93 euros (ex tax) !
this included 4 props and one arm replacement.

lets break that down (again ex tax)
shipping - 25 euros (12.5 each way, pretty similar to what dji store charges me)
4 x props - 12 euros (same as shop price)
1 x front arm - 5.79 euros
repair cost - 50 euros

so parts were cheap, and shipping is as expected.
I think given the 'round' 50 euros for labour, Id not be suprised if this is fixed rate for repairs.

it not uncommon to have min fees, and 50 euro for inspect/repair/admin is not high for EU,
so I think its pretty reasonable.
this all seems to be in line with what we had heard about US repair costs.

also I should note, when quote came, I was given option to pay (duh!) or instead get a replacement thru dji care refresh... so thats cool, if bill is close to the 250 euro mark.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so my overall thoughts are :

repair costs are not as bad as has been made out.
sure if you crash frequently, even 100 euros a pop is going to get expensive quickly. but generally its not the end of the world.
(shipping time was a buzz kill, but that totally depends where you live)


dji care refresh, is it worth it?
hmm, thats a tough one... it all depends on how severe your damage is...
i reckon if you crash it hard, you could damage the battery, gimbal, a couple of arms, props
you could be looking at perhaps 300 + euros in repair cost. but thats still cheaper than dji care refresh.
but it hard to envisage a crash thats going to cost 450+ euro, which is dji cost of first crash.
I guess you need 2 major crashes ( 300+ each) to break even !

however, IF in 12 months they are still shipping out NEW drones as care refresh replacements, then this might be worth it - also after a big crash, I think i'd prefer a replacement over a rebuild?!

one advantage of care refresh is priority, they dont inspect drone - so, I think Id have got the drone back in 2 weeks, rather than 3 weeks using care refresh replacment.


diy repair,
we are now seeing replacement parts. so Im planning on ordering some spare arms.
not so much because of the cost of dji repair, but because of the 3 week turnaround, and hassle shipping etc - but for sure, here it would have cost me 25 euros vs 90 euros.

however, this is only possible since I already have soldering gear, and a good amount of soldering/building experience.
(not sure if i was new to soldering id want my first project to be a 700 euro piece of kit ;) )


tl;dr
I think the dji repair was pretty reasonably priced, even to the point, where dji care refresh is questionable.
the only big downside for me was shipping time.

oh, other tl;dr; try not to crash your drone ;)

----------
note: drone is currently being shipped back to me- so Im assuming it was repair correctly :)
Thanks for all this information!
 
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update on my case, so I broke one front arm.

I had dji care refresh, but decided since it was a minor accident - Id send it in and ask for a repair quote, rather than just replace.
(I suspected it would be cheaper, and i get to keep my 'claims'.)

so first the downside,

for me shipping will have taken about a week each way via UPS
(thats not surprising, im pretty remote.. this is not DJI fault, everything takes at least this long)
DJI took about 4 working days to process (inspect, quote, repair, ship) - I think thats pretty quick.

so reasonable turnaround - but still means im without a drone for nearly 3 weeks :(

on to the positive...

repair cost - my total will was 93 euros (ex tax) !
this included 4 props and one arm replacement.

lets break that down (again ex tax)
shipping - 25 euros (12.5 each way, pretty similar to what dji store charges me)
4 x props - 12 euros (same as shop price)
1 x front arm - 5.79 euros
repair cost - 50 euros

so parts were cheap, and shipping is as expected.
I think given the 'round' 50 euros for labour, Id not be suprised if this is fixed rate for repairs.

it not uncommon to have min fees, and 50 euro for inspect/repair/admin is not high for EU,
so I think its pretty reasonable.
this all seems to be in line with what we had heard about US repair costs.

also I should note, when quote came, I was given option to pay (duh!) or instead get a replacement thru dji care refresh... so thats cool, if bill is close to the 250 euro mark.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so my overall thoughts are :

repair costs are not as bad as has been made out.
sure if you crash frequently, even 100 euros a pop is going to get expensive quickly. but generally its not the end of the world.
(shipping time was a buzz kill, but that totally depends where you live)


dji care refresh, is it worth it?
hmm, thats a tough one... it all depends on how severe your damage is...
i reckon if you crash it hard, you could damage the battery, gimbal, a couple of arms, props
you could be looking at perhaps 300 + euros in repair cost. but thats still cheaper than dji care refresh.
but it hard to envisage a crash thats going to cost 450+ euro, which is dji cost of first crash.
I guess you need 2 major crashes ( 300+ each) to break even !

however, IF in 12 months they are still shipping out NEW drones as care refresh replacements, then this might be worth it - also after a big crash, I think i'd prefer a replacement over a rebuild?!

one advantage of care refresh is priority, they dont inspect drone - so, I think Id have got the drone back in 2 weeks, rather than 3 weeks using care refresh replacment.


diy repair,
we are now seeing replacement parts. so Im planning on ordering some spare arms.
not so much because of the cost of dji repair, but because of the 3 week turnaround, and hassle shipping etc - but for sure, here it would have cost me 25 euros vs 90 euros.

however, this is only possible since I already have soldering gear, and a good amount of soldering/building experience.
(not sure if i was new to soldering id want my first project to be a 700 euro piece of kit ;) )


tl;dr
I think the dji repair was pretty reasonably priced, even to the point, where dji care refresh is questionable.
the only big downside for me was shipping time.

oh, other tl;dr; try not to crash your drone ;)

----------
note: drone is currently being shipped back to me- so Im assuming it was repair correctly :)
Glad its on the way home, curious to see what you think when you get it.
 
well... its just arrived back today !

so, complete turn around was just 16 days - so not too bad at all !!!


BUT the big news.....
yhey sent me a brand new drone, in the sealed box you get off the shop shelf. (also sent me back my combo box - empty :) )
they didn't bother to repair it - so, for 93 euros - I got a shiny new drone, and did not have to use one of my care refresh claims :)

I'm delighted to say the least...

I'm a little surprised, it was very light damage, and went to to repair centre.

if this is the case, definitely its a good idea to send your drones in for repair - wait for quote, then decide to activate care refresh or not


... ok, so now have to re do all the firmware updates :)
(then I get to try out my 'new' motion controller that arrived the day after I crashed the drone !)
 
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well... its just arrived back today !

so, complete turn around was just 16 days - so not too bad at all !!!


BUT the big news.....
yhey sent me a brand new drone, in the sealed box you get off the shop shelf. (also sent me back my combo box - empty :) )
they didn't bother to repair it - so, for 93 euros - I got a shiny new drone, and did not have to use one of my care refresh claims :)

I'm delighted to say the least...

I'm a little surprised, it was very light damage, and went to to repair centre.

if this is the case, definitely its a good idea to send your drones in for repair - wait for quote, then decide to activate care refresh or not


... ok, so now have to re do all the firmware updates :)
(then I get to try out my 'new' motion controller that arrived the day after I crashed the drone !)
This is great to hear! So I guess it is fine to skip on DJI refresh... get it repaired!
 

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