Just after a 16 days stay in the market, GoPro has issued a recall notice of all Karma drones in a press release today.
The GoPro Karma drones were available for purchase from Oct. 23, and until now, approximately 2,500 units have been sold out. The company is recalling all Karma units to resolve a performance issue related to a loss of power during operation, GoPro announced on their official website. GoPro also confirmed to resume shipment of Karma once the issue is fixed.
There will not be any exchange offer. The Customer has to return back the whole unit (including the Hero5 Black and Karma Grip, if purchased as a package) to the company or at the point of purchase in exchange of full refund. Even if your Karma drone is working fine, GoPro still wants it back.
On behalf of GoPro, CEO Nicholas Woodman made a public statement. In the statement, Woodman made it clear that safety is the top priority to GoPro. Although few cases of Karma malfunctioning have been reported, still they are recalling all the units from the market with immediate effect.
"We are working in close coordination with both the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration. We are very sorry to have inconvenienced our customers and we are taking every step to make the return and refund process as easy as possible" Engadget quoted Woodman.
Consumers can go to the official GoPro site to keep a tab on new updates regarding the recall. They can also read the return instructions here along with several FAQs posted on the website.
Single Karma drone unit costs approximately $799. GoPro was gearing up to challenge the market leader DJI in the drone manufacturing business with the Karma drone.
The company is currently going through a tough financial patch. With this recent recall phenomenon, the stock price of GoPro is falling free. Production issues paired with estimated $160 million drop in year-over-year sales dragged the stock price to below $10 per share which was flying around $80 per share two years ago.
The market is already reacting to the Karma recall news and per-share price of GoPro dropped from $10.86 to $10.13.
See the introduction video of GoPro Karma Drone: