My turn....
On April 1st, my Parrot decided to go for a swim diving from nearly 100 feet. At the time I had 46% drone battery and no previous incidents. 21 prior flights and 101 minutes of total flight time. I contacted Parrot via their website that same day. They responded with the standard list of questions including the flight data, description, and purchase receipt. I gave them a detailed description including estimated flight time for that flight but since my Parrot was under water, I did not have the last JSON file. The lake had just thawed a couple weeks earlier and the water temperature was only slightly above freezing. Not worth getting hypothermia to retrieve a drone.
The response I received was more questions, replied back, etc. Over the next couple of MONTHS it was just a drip of interest here and a drop there from Parrot. During that time, the water warmed and I was able to retrieve the bird a month after it's swim. After cleaning it up as best I could, I powered it up and to my surprise it powered on and I was able to retrieve the flight info which I submitted to Parrot. Although it powered on, the downward facing camera is non functional and the forward camera has a slight haze in it. From what I've read, it will not function without the downward facing camera and that is not a part Parrot makes available. For all intents and purposes, the bird is dead. One of the Dead Parrot Society.
For all my efforts, Parrot rewarded me with a 'Sorry, out of warranty' email which I appealed and they said tough luck. I tried calling the 877 number in their emails but that only took me to a conference call center system where I was asked to enter my conference number. I wrote one more email to Alex B. of Parrot appealing my case and asking for a correct contact number and only received a "Sorry, out of warranty" email.
At the time of the dive I was taking photos from a still location and panning. The controller was becoming unresponsive as it appeared the photos were not all immediately taken when the shutter release was pressed. I recovered the SD card which also worked and tellingly, some of the last photos only had headers but no image data. At the end, the screen on my phone in the controller went to static and I knew something was wrong. I looked up and saw my Parrot plunge into the water silently. No motors were running.
So now I have to decide, do I risk buying a replacement knowing that it is at my own risk and the firmware is buggy. I have spare parts if I do crash again and Anafi is the only drone that has the ability to look up which is something I really like.
Here is my JSON file and screenshot of the last flight.
On April 1st, my Parrot decided to go for a swim diving from nearly 100 feet. At the time I had 46% drone battery and no previous incidents. 21 prior flights and 101 minutes of total flight time. I contacted Parrot via their website that same day. They responded with the standard list of questions including the flight data, description, and purchase receipt. I gave them a detailed description including estimated flight time for that flight but since my Parrot was under water, I did not have the last JSON file. The lake had just thawed a couple weeks earlier and the water temperature was only slightly above freezing. Not worth getting hypothermia to retrieve a drone.
The response I received was more questions, replied back, etc. Over the next couple of MONTHS it was just a drip of interest here and a drop there from Parrot. During that time, the water warmed and I was able to retrieve the bird a month after it's swim. After cleaning it up as best I could, I powered it up and to my surprise it powered on and I was able to retrieve the flight info which I submitted to Parrot. Although it powered on, the downward facing camera is non functional and the forward camera has a slight haze in it. From what I've read, it will not function without the downward facing camera and that is not a part Parrot makes available. For all intents and purposes, the bird is dead. One of the Dead Parrot Society.
For all my efforts, Parrot rewarded me with a 'Sorry, out of warranty' email which I appealed and they said tough luck. I tried calling the 877 number in their emails but that only took me to a conference call center system where I was asked to enter my conference number. I wrote one more email to Alex B. of Parrot appealing my case and asking for a correct contact number and only received a "Sorry, out of warranty" email.
At the time of the dive I was taking photos from a still location and panning. The controller was becoming unresponsive as it appeared the photos were not all immediately taken when the shutter release was pressed. I recovered the SD card which also worked and tellingly, some of the last photos only had headers but no image data. At the end, the screen on my phone in the controller went to static and I knew something was wrong. I looked up and saw my Parrot plunge into the water silently. No motors were running.
So now I have to decide, do I risk buying a replacement knowing that it is at my own risk and the firmware is buggy. I have spare parts if I do crash again and Anafi is the only drone that has the ability to look up which is something I really like.
Here is my JSON file and screenshot of the last flight.
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