Sad Day - Lost Anafi USA

[BRC]

Lost my Anafi #2 today. Was at an altitude of 200' and distance maybe 300-400 '
Was just hovering and I looked down at video feed on phone -
Just video static and no connection with drone (icon was grey) - looked up and anafi was gone
All happened so fast - no flight log record
I went to last known location but could not find
Only 4 months old and around 150 flights
Had all recent updates and was working fine in FCC mode
I have no clue what happened and am very disappointed

I do have another anafi #1 but its the one that has the FCC issue and locked in CE mode
I opened ticket with parrot 2 months ago but still no resolution
I used it to search but no luck

Do you think I will have any luck getting warranty coverage replacement for anafi that went missing today
Any suggestions

 

[Thanev]

Lost my Anafi #2 today. Was at an altitude of 200' and distance maybe 300-400 '
Was just hovering and I looked down at video feed on phone -
Just video static and no connection with drone (icon was grey) - looked up and anafi was gone
All happened so fast - no flight log record
I went to last known location but could not find
Only 4 months old and around 150 flights
Had all recent updates and was working fine in FCC mode
I have no clue what happened and am very disappointed

I do have another anafi #1 but its the one that has the FCC issue and locked in CE mode
I opened ticket with parrot 2 months ago but still no resolution
I used it to search but no luck

Do you think I will have any luck getting warranty coverage replacement for anafi that went missing today
Any suggestions

Do not email them.Phone them and get them going on the solution.Emails tend to be forgotten/ignored.Personal experience.

 

[d95gas]

You really need to keep pushing to get them to respond. Phone is the best option as they take weeks with emails.
Were you on firmware 1.6.7 and had you done the firmware on the batteries as THEY advised?

 

[Deleted member 3201]

The locked in CE mode is broken and needs to be replaced under warranty

 

[dashSolo]

Lost my Anafi #2 today. Was at an altitude of 200' and distance maybe 300-400 '
Was just hovering and I looked down at video feed on phone -
Just video static and no connection with drone (icon was grey) - looked up and anafi was gone
All happened so fast - no flight log record
I went to last known location but could not find
Only 4 months old and around 150 flights
Had all recent updates and was working fine in FCC mode
I have no clue what happened and am very disappointed

I do have another anafi #1 but its the one that has the FCC issue and locked in CE mode
I opened ticket with parrot 2 months ago but still no resolution
I used it to search but no luck

Do you think I will have any luck getting warranty coverage replacement for anafi that went missing today
Any suggestions

It's baffling Parrot has these updates for ANAFI with "fixes" that do not work.

Last summer I lost three Anafi's (see posts under my username), all were replaced under warranty, it seems your last flight was near exactly what happened on all three of my losses.

Apparently Parrot have not come up with a mysterious reason for ANAFI's falling out of the sky.

How are they still in business?

 

[d95gas]

How are they still in business? I think is the question that must be on everyone's tongue. Its just crazy how they managed to release really bad firmware, not once, but twice in a short period.

I sent in a lengthy email highlighting all the problems we are having as users, and how many have either totally lost their Anafi, or had it fall from the sky and smash to the ground. I sent this to the CEO, but it would seem it got passed down to the VP; Chris Roberts.

He came back to me with some questions, which I responded to immediately, he has now gone away to investigate what has happend, and what is going to happen moving forward.

The guy sounds the decent sort, and I am sure as the VP of Parrot, he doesn't want to see potentially 1000's of customers walk away from Parrot and potentially back to DJI.

So for the time being I am happy to give him the opportunity to look into the complaint and then come back with a response, hopefully a positive response...... We shall see, but I for one and not flying the Anafi anymore until the issues are resolved, its just too dodgy.

 

[BRC]

You really need to keep pushing to get them to respond. Phone is the best option as they take weeks with emails.
Were you on firmware 1.6.7 and had you done the firmware on the batteries as THEY advised?

Thanks for the responses, best thing about Anafi these days is this forum
Yes I was on all latest FW updates, including battery & FF6 for IOS,
I was just a few minutes into flight with full battery charge, sat lock, strong signal, etc
This was my anafi that did not seem to have FCC issues - showed channel 36-44

For my other anafi with the CE lock - I have emailed and spoken to service techs may times in past few months
I have been patient knowing they are struggling due to Covid impact and can appreciate their situation
That being said they either need to fix the FW, roll it back, or send out customer notifications they should not fly

I really do love the Anafi, or at least I used to - but the poor quality control and customer service has tarnished my confidence
Invested a couple thousand dollar into these anafi's & parrot - they do need to be more transparent with issues & treat customers better

I will reach out via phone to discuss the missing drone
Hope you all are well and stay safe

 

[d95gas]

Keep us updated. The last few days I am copying and pasting a sort of scrap book of all these incidents to pass over to Chris at Parrot when he comes back to me, just to show we are not talking about the odd one or two. There must be dozens of people who dont frequent forums, who have just written off their Anafi and put it down to experience. Its a real shame as the Anafi was awesome, since getting it, I have never had my Mavic Pro out, I just loved everything about the Anafi.

I did point out to Chris that if there was anyway they could either rollback, or write another firmware based on 1.6.3, then they would have a winner again....... But we will have to see.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Keep us updated. The last few days I am copying and pasting a sort of scrap book of all these incidents to pass over to Chris at Parrot when he comes back to me, just to show we are not talking about the odd one or two. There must be dozens of people who dont frequent forums, who have just written off their Anafi and put it down to experience. Its a real shame as the Anafi was awesome, since getting it, I have never had my Mavic Pro out, I just loved everything about the Anafi.

I did point out to Chris that if there was anyway they could either rollback, or write another firmware based on 1.6.3, then they would have a winner again....... But we will have to see.

Its great your trying to resolve this issue but truthfully these things have been dropping randomly since day one. I follow pretty much every forum for Parrot and facebook group that has Parrot in them and the numbers of Anafi's dropping have not gone up or down since they came out. On the average you would see 2-3 in a week to a week and a half. I used to keep track of them and keep pictures of the damaged ones but I just gave up as Parrot did not care back then and I really don't think they care now. Sorry to say they sell so many of these things that having to replace a few here and there does not bother them.
Good luck on your quest. For the handful that have fallen there are thousands still flying without problems.

 

[julientaming]

I go back to Dji for sure. I hate my Anafi now. And my 25 meters range is useless.

 

[BRC]

Keep us updated. The last few days I am copying and pasting a sort of scrap book of all these incidents to pass over to Chris at Parrot when he comes back to me, just to show we are not talking about the odd one or two. There must be dozens of people who dont frequent forums, who have just written off their Anafi and put it down to experience. Its a real shame as the Anafi was awesome, since getting it, I have never had my Mavic Pro out, I just loved everything about the Anafi.

I did point out to Chris that if there was anyway they could either rollback, or write another firmware based on 1.6.3, then they would have a winner again....... But we will have to see.

So i did speak with Parrot support this morning for lost drone, they opened a ticket and I have supplied them information and documents as requested
Let's see how it goes -

I also asked for status of support ticket for my other drone that is locked in CE mode - It has been escalated to tier 3 support - engineering
They did tell me that they are having issues as staff is short and most are working from home creating some delays - it is understandable
Will keep the forum updated on any resolutions

 

[jaja6009]

How are they still in business? I think is the question that must be on everyone's tongue. Its just crazy how they managed to release really bad firmware, not once, but twice in a short period.

I sent in a lengthy email highlighting all the problems we are having as users, and how many have either totally lost their Anafi, or had it fall from the sky and smash to the ground. I sent this to the CEO, but it would seem it got passed down to the VP; Chris Roberts.

He came back to me with some questions, which I responded to immediately, he has now gone away to investigate what has happend, and what is going to happen moving forward.

The guy sounds the decent sort, and I am sure as the VP of Parrot, he doesn't want to see potentially 1000's of customers walk away from Parrot and potentially back to DJI.

So for the time being I am happy to give him the opportunity to look into the complaint and then come back with a response, hopefully a positive response...... We shall see, but I for one and not flying the Anafi anymore until the issues are resolved, its just too dodgy.

Thank you for taking this issue up for us unlucky people who have had their Anafi crash for zero reason. I truly did like the Anafi and found that it was my favorite drone to fly. Out of my Anafi and Mavic 2 Enterprise and my day job's Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual and Evo I, I would usually pick the Anafi to fly with, especially if it were shorter distances involved.

But after my Anafi Thermal fell to its death I have lost all confidence in the Anafi platform. I have grounded my Anafi Work and have moved on to a Phantom 4 Pro V2. Even if Parrot filters down some of its military tech into a civilian Anafi like a better thermal and such, I would be hard pressed to buy another. I had found the Anafi to be a great drone, smooth and easy workflows for mapping with Pix4D, great video and stills and I thought Free Flight 6 was an intuitive and easy to use flight software. I could go on about the other things I loved about the Anafi.

But I fly in urban areas too much and I cannot have to worry about all of the other reasons the drone could crash like pilot error, bird strikes and now on top of that the drone may lose power and fall.

 

[tmgrood]

Keep us updated. The last few days I am copying and pasting a sort of scrap book of all these incidents to pass over to Chris at Parrot when he comes back to me, just to show we are not talking about the odd one or two. There must be dozens of people who dont frequent forums, who have just written off their Anafi and put it down to experience. Its a real shame as the Anafi was awesome, since getting it, I have never had my Mavic Pro out, I just loved everything about the Anafi.

I did point out to Chris that if there was anyway they could either rollback, or write another firmware based on 1.6.3, then they would have a winner again....... But we will have to see.

Yeah. If they would at least roll back the firmware updates to when pilots were having less problems.
This is definitely not a random issue.

 

[d95gas]

Yeah. If they would at least roll back the firmware updates to when pilots were having less problems.
This is definitely not a random issue.

I think you will find that the release of 2 days ago 1.6.8 is a sort of rollback, in that the user experience people are reporting now, is the same as what we had with 1.6.3.

The feedback on the new firmware has been very very positive.

 

[tmgrood]

I think you will find that the release of 2 days ago 1.6.8 is a sort of rollback, in that the user experience people are reporting now, is the same as what we had with 1.6.3.

The feedback on the new firmware has been very very positive.

Good to know. Thank you.

 

[BRC]

So i did speak with Parrot support this morning for lost drone, they opened a ticket and I have supplied them information and documents as requested
Let's see how it goes -

I also asked for status of support ticket for my other drone that is locked in CE mode - It has been escalated to tier 3 support - engineering
They did tell me that they are having issues as staff is short and most are working from home creating some delays - it is understandable
Will keep the forum updated on any resolutions

I received a response from parrot support today they have requested the flight data - I had told them previously it did not register or log flight
I just called them and explained that it never recorded the flight so I have no data to share with them -
I did send them a screenshot of flights - that showed no flights for the day the anafi was lost

In speaking with customer support I mentioned that I thought the flight data would only be recorded & logged after flight was completed???
He had told me that it should record as I was flying - is this true?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I received a response from parrot support today they have requested the flight data - I had told them previously it did not register or log flight
I just called them and explained that it never recorded the flight so I have no data to share with them -
I did send them a screenshot of flights - that showed no flights for the day the anafi was lost

In speaking with customer support I mentioned that I thought the flight data would only be recorded & logged after flight was completed???
He had told me that it should record as I was flying - is this true?

No not at all. It will not record or upload unless you are able to retrieve and turn on your Anafi. Many of us have had this problem. They should know this by now.

 

[BRC]

Thanks Augustine that is what I thought - although I can certainly understand why they are requesting it

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I am a firm believer in screen recordings on your phone or tablet. Not perfect but does offer some proof of what happened. It has helped some with getting Parrot to offer a solution.

 

[BRC]

Yes, very good advice for all and I will be doing so for future flights
Thank you