DJI Service Kudos

Loyal customers should be just as loud as the angry ones...

I got my first DJI drone back in 2016—a Phantom 3 Standard—and it was the perfect starter drone. I flew it all over the Coast Range in Oregon, random spots in Montana, and a few neighborhoods.

In 2017, I upgraded to a Mavic, and I’m still flying it eight years later. I don’t use it enough to justify buying a newer model, and honestly, the thing just won’t die.

But… (you knew that was coming, right?)

A year or so after I got the Mavic, I noticed the gimbal was acting up. I went through all the troubleshooting steps but couldn’t fix it myself, so I opened a support ticket with DJI. I shipped it back, they looked at it, and sent me a replacement. The replacement had connection issues—it would lose signal with the controller even if I was standing ten feet away. I sent it back again, they checked it over, and sent another replacement. That’s the drone I’m still flying today.

You could argue that I shouldn’t have had to send it back twice, and that would be fair. But working with a company that actually stands behind its product is becoming rare. So, I’ve been a loyal DJI fan ever since.

In 2019, I bought the Osmo Pocket. Great little camera for tracking subjects, but I found myself using my iPhone more for general video.

After cussing out I don’t know how many GoPros, I finally switched to the DJI Action 4 in 2023. Huge difference—I turn it on, and it just works. I like the footage quality, and I love the reliability.

In early 2024, I bought the DJI mic set to use with my iPhone and Sony A7R3. A month or two later, they announced the next version of the mic set, which was a little frustrating. But the mics work great.

Later in 2024, I bit the bullet and bought the Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Bundle. The larger screen, native portrait shooting, and no-fuss wireless mic sold me. The Pocket 3 is night and day compared to the original.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago—I started noticing some battery issues with the Pocket 3 that didn’t go away after basic troubleshooting. Last week, I created a support ticket and sent it in to DJI service. Today, exactly one week later, I received a replacement. No surprise there—DJI stands behind its products.

But the icing on the cake—the "Plus One" in terms of customer service—was that they returned items I had forgotten to remove when I sent the original camera back. When DJI asks you to send hardware in for repair or replacement, they provide a list of things you shouldn’t include. SD cards and third-party accessories are on that list. I failed at both—sent it in with an SD card and an ND filter I forgot was attached. Both items arrived back with the replacement, neatly packed in a little bag. They could have tossed them out and pointed me to their terms and conditions, but they didn’t.

Over a decade ago, I was part of a Customer Loyalty initiative at work. The takeaway? Satisfied customers are fine, but loyal customers are the real goal. You create loyalty by going the extra mile instead of hiding behind policies that don’t truly impact the bottom line. It took the tech just a few seconds to remove my SD card and ND filter and toss them in a bag.

A few seconds to keep a loyal customer.

I don’t know who the tech was, but I hope they get recognized for that small but meaningful gesture—because it’s the kind of thing that will keep me buying DJI hardware for the foreseeable future.