Shared Drone Rental Pitfalls: Lost 102 Yuan in Just 3 Minutes Near Fish Mouth

At the entrance to Fish Mouth Park, I spotted a small booth advertising a thrilling 3-minute drone experience. But what started as an exciting idea ended up costing me 102 yuan—and a lot of frustration.

First off, the entire process was clunky and far from user-friendly. To begin, you had to scan a code just to watch a mandatory tutorial video. Then came another scan via Alipay to borrow the drone, which required linking your Sesame Credit score. And when it was all over? You were forced to download the DJI app to export your video—only to discover that this final step carried an additional fee of 3 yuan per minute!

To make matters worse, despite the prominent DJI logo, the device turned out to be a knockoff produced by some obscure manufacturer. This left me with no clear way to lodge a complaint or seek support.

After returning the drone, I noticed that the machine remained “in use” for an extended period. When I contacted customer service, they insisted the issue stemmed from the device failing to turn off properly—even though I had placed it back in its charging cabinet. Attempting to reopen the cabinet resulted in an error message, leaving the cabinet locked while charges continued piling up, as evidenced in the second image.

The customer service team was nothing short of unprofessional, slow to respond, and frustratingly difficult to reach. It seemed the machine had been purchased through a third-party agent, and the so-called support team might have been either the seller of the hardware or the software developers. Either way, they spent more time passing the buck than addressing my concerns. Images three through six document our futile attempts at communication.

But perhaps the most alarming issue was the complete disregard for privacy. As shown in image seven, I could easily access every single video recorded by previous users still stored on the device. Does this company not value user confidentiality? Worse yet, anyone who used the drone after me could casually download and view *my* footage without permission.