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I bought a mavic spark drone last June and it never worked as it should , dropped connection, refused to return home when it was meant to and had a range of about a fifth of advertised. Dji support was hopeless.
I got fed up with it so put it in a cupboard and forgot about it but now only have a week or so until the one year warranty runs out. Do I return it to the shop or send off to dji directly?
Shop.
Your contract is with them.
Well, no.
If you're returning it under warranty, then that's something the manufacturer provides in addition to your statutory rights and you should contact them directly.
If you're returning it under the Consumer Rights Act then yes, that's a problem for the retailer with whom you have a contract.
I guess the questions I'd have are a) what outcome do you want (refund / replacement) and b) why did you sit on it for months?
I forgot I had it! I'm looking for a replacement.. I'd happily have my money back but don't expect that outcome
If you return it under Consumer Rights Act, since you've had it more than 6 months the onus is on you to demonstrate that it was faulty when you bought it. I had that with a lawnmower, bought in September, did a couple of cuts, wasn't happy but the grass was wet, tried again in April, just as bad, but the supplier wouldn't consider any action without an engineer's report, and for the money it wasn't worth going to court to claim it was intrinsically badly designed.
So manufacturer warranty is your best bet.
I forgot I had it! I’m looking for a replacement..
In which case I'd probably contact both and see which gives you the more favourable result.
To be fair the flight records all show it was faulty . But I doubt they will mean much to the dude in pc world
Consumer Rights Act also gives you up to 6 years in theory, but as said, after 6 months it's down to you to prove the fault. Retailer is the first line of contact, but you can go to the manufacturer if they are unable to resolve it themselves.
Rights are more on your side with it but it may involve fair bit of hassle and potentially taking it to court (small claims).
Manufacturer warranty is down to them. They can argue what they like and refuse without much rights on your side, but it's there and easier than going to court, so if still in warranty give it a go.
I find some shops or manufacturers will just blindly replace stuff without much argument or checking of fault, and some have an immediate response of a big "no!" and have to put up a fight to try to get anything, and even then I've had the "our decision is final, go away" response.
PC World / Currys, they gave me a line of it was over 30 days so not their problem, go to the manufacturer. Err, no, it's very much still your problem, even after 6 months. If you can't resolve it through the manufacturer yourself, then yes I can go to them.
That said, if you paid for their rip off additional warranty they tried to push on you, they might do something about it. It's just passed onto a third party to resolve anyway.
So an update..
Took it back to pc world yesterday, exactly a year to the day after they posted it out so last day I could claim within warrenty. Told the guy at customer services it was not working as planned and despite it looking a bit worse for wear (the result of it landing in numerous bushes after refusing to return home) he just grabbed another out the box and gave me it as a replacement. Didn't even expect me to wait whilst it was returned to dji, which I assumed was the best I could expect.
So well done pc world, impressive customer service. I even have a full years warranty on the new one apparently, so hopefully this one will work as advertised.
Holy crap. Well done.
Hehe. Weekend staff are ace for returns 👍😂
Great result.
Never go for iffy returns during the week when all the “proper” staff are the only ones there, the ones who can actually be arsed to do things properly 🤔
Yep a good result! The chap sent the old one to back to dji, and needed the power socket and cable as well. When he realised the shop shut in 30 minutes and I didn't have it, he just took the new one out and sent that instead.
Thing that surprised me most was when he said I couldn't get a refund without the power cable, only a replacement. I would have thought that after a year there was not even an option of a refund.. If I'd known there was I'd have brought back all the bits!
Which is good news for the forum members.. You can all look forward to some very mundane birds eye footage of me mincing down the trails in The near future.