DJI are awesome

Last week in South Africa, my DJI Mavic 4 Pro drone had a little mishap.  Nothing major, just a teeny tiny disagreement with a tree.  Ok, I flew it into a tree.  Happy now, are ya?!

It then fell about 20 metres out of the sky, shed two propellers mid-descent and became — in highly technical engineering language — utterly fucked.  Astonishingly, it still survived just enough to extract the footage, proving all the gods are in fact real.

Ok, collision detection was enabled, so it shouldn’t have been possible to do this.  And YouTube is filled with videos of people trying – and failing – to crash this thing. But at the end of the day, it’s on me. The drone didn’t wake up that morning and choose violence.

I was literally flying the drone back at the end of a shoot.  Here’s the last pic I took, as the sun was setting. I start flying it back toward me. And then — bang.  Suddenly a tree erm came out of nowhere.  How dare it.  Does that tree even have the right license to operate near a drone?!

Anywho, I sent it off to DJI to repair, fully expecting an invoice.  I knew how this was gonna go: I’d ask to buy just the body. Retail only sells it bundled with a battery and controller, both of which I already had. So I was preparing for a “can I just buy the bit that isn’t smashed into a thousand pieces” email exchange.

Instead, those sons of bitches sent me a brand new one.  Completely free.

Before anyone starts, let me be clear:

• I have no relationship with DJI.  There are no affiliate links anywhere on this website for anything.
• I’ve never even spoke to’em.  I filled in an online repair form like a normal person who crashed his expensive toy into a tree.

They did not do this because of who I am.  If they Googled me, they’d simply find a man who clearly shouldn’t be left unsupervised with flying equipment.  So, DJI have the best product on the market and then back it up with amazing customer service to go with it.  What does this have to do with travel?  Nothing.  But it’s my website, and that’s what I’ve gotta say.

But I suppose I should add some kinda moral of the story.  So, erm, good service is good service.  If you charge premium prices, act like it.  DJI did.  Let that be a lesson to hoteliers that have trees on their property too.  No, I lost the analogy, damnit.

Ok, I’ve got the lesson: the tree can still fuck off.