DJI Care Refresh Experience

I recently became the proud owner of a DJI Spark drone with lofty goal of learning how to take great aerial photographs. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with DJI, they are the foremost maker of consumer and prosumer drones. They have a lineup of models ranging from the relatively inexpensive Spark to the filmmaker oriented Inspire series. All of their models come with an extended warranty service called DJI Care Refreshwhich covers water damage, crash damage and almost any kind of accidental damage possible. See here for details. The caveat for purchasing this coverage is that you only have 48h from when your drone is activated to make the purchase.

Initially hesitant to shell out an additional $59, my logical senses kicked in and I made the purchase for the coverage hoping to never have to use it. Well, about a week into ownership on my fourth flight, I ended up crashing the drone into a tree while attempting to land near a lake. My drone both hit the tree and fell into a shallow pool of water in the process. Suffice to say, my Spark would not even power on after that. I immediately went home and used the dji repair website to file my claim and shipped my drone out the same day (5/7). The service center is in California so it took about 4 days for it to arrive from New York (5/11). On 5/14 the service center tagged my drone as arrived and by 5/15 my replacement drone was shipped out. Much to my surprise, they even shipped the replacement using UPS 2 Day Air which enabled me to receive it by 5/17. DJI even called me on 5/17 to make sure I had received my drone and I was happy with the refresh service. 

As you can see my experience with the Care Refresh service was excellent and I really appreciated the fast turn-around time. I would highly suggest purchasing this service with your drone unless you are extremely confident in your flying abilities.