Lowrance customer service troubles get worse

[Erbyjoe]

Any one that had problems with Lowrance knows that Linda Colt was the only one that would fix things right, well Navico stuck there foot in there mouth this time and forced Linda out the door. look at these threads and you can see that lowrance is in big trouble everywhere around the globe there is even post from africa saying things.

http://bbcboards.zeroforum.com/zerothre ... nce-navico

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/a ... atim636995

[Mickey Finn]

Wow, I guess I didn't realize all this happened. I just found out yesterday that my tranducer was bad for my LMS520C again. Linda sent me one last June and it has failed again. I sent her an email last night and it was returned so I did a little search on the internet for her name and found all this stuff. That sucks. She's the only reason I stayed with them. Does anyone have another contact like her that I can use or am I going to have to sit thru an hour of elevator music to get someone who probably can't help me?

[seasquirrel]

I didnt now Lowrance customer service could get any worse. I cant believe they sell anything at all anymore

[Mickey Finn]

On hold right now. Listening to Rod Stewart: "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" ! Funny... if I wasn't so frustrated!

[Mickey Finn]

Ok, that wasn't as bad as I figured it would be. Maybe all the bad publicity has made them make changes there. Only on hold for 17 minutes...not sure if that is satifactory or not but better than I expected. They actually had the transducer I needed and are sending it to me. Hopefully it will be here soon. Still not very satisfied with only being able to get one season each out of the previous two transducers. I'm thinking I might put a new unit on the boat and sell this one. Really wish I could get some input from someone about the capabilities of the Humminbird 788c. I'd really like to know how it works picking trout off the bottom in 150 feet or more. Also would be nice to know I'm going to get more than one season out of the transducer. This must be a new unit because I don't see much info on here about it.

[motoman]

Called furuno yesterday too see if a Gps i was looking at would interface with my fish finder, transfered me to a tech got voice mail left message set phone down and it rang less than a min ! grade a customer service.

[seasquirrel]

Mickey, 17 minutes you better go buy a lottery ticket. Furuno customer service is great and they have a super product also.

[Mickey Finn]

We'll see how long it takes to get the transducer before I head out to get that ticket. I'm up in the air on what to look for for a unit. I like the furuno 620 but a couple things I'm not sure about. Verticle pixel count is 320 compared to 640 I think on the Humminbird 788. I've always thought that greater pixel count gives better target seperation which is important fishing lakers in deep water. The other thing is to get a combo unit from Furuno, you gotta put up some big bucks compared to $650 for the Humminbird. I could just go with the stand alone fish finder and keep my Lowrance for the GPS but then I got to find room for both of them and I wouldn't be able to get some of money back by selling the Lowrance. Maybe someone will jump in with some input on the Humminbird 788. Oh..what to do? I wish I could add all the hours back to my life that I've spent contemplating on equipment for my boats! Nothing worse than spending big bucks on something that's not what you wanted or doesn't perform up to expectations.

[motoman]

fish finder quits you can always work off the gps and same goes with the gps if that quits work with the ff , combo unit quits all ya got is the sun super old time told me that and it made good sence too me anyways.infact my eagle gps just quit so that was the reason i called furuno , new gps time linked to my ff , hit mark bottem on FF and my New GPS stores it . and i see them lakers all the time on the bottem in deep water! sorry i don't know about the humming birds.

[Mickey Finn]

motoman, what GPS did you get?

[seasquirrel]

Talk to a rep at furuno. Billy V is on this site and has a lot of knowledge in regards to hummingbird units. You may want to PM him for a few questions to.

[Ray]

I am also thinking about the Humminbird 778 c Sonar....Cabelas has it for $500. Hope someone chimes in.

Ray

[kliph]

I sent my 332C in for repair last month at a cost of $195 +s/h.

It was 2-3 years out of warranty.

They sent me a new unit.

Works great.

No complaints from me.

[Mickey Finn]

[coup]

I got jerked around pretty good. Five units and 1 1/2 years later finally have one that works. Total of about 10hrs waiting then trouble shooting only to receive the same unit back twice with the same problem then on top of that about 12$ to ship it each time X5. Receive last unit in Nov. In Jan. receive an INCIDENT report because I didn't ship back a backup unit they sent me which didn't work right, Sonar only, gps screwed up, but at least I had the sonar. They threatened to put my name on the list of no service till they got back there other unit. I called them up and asked them were nearest launch was were I could test it out. They are simply brilliant and I'm proud to be on the bad boy no service list. I told her if she whats the unit send out a rep.

Good Luck

Coup

[Gator]

In the interest of fairness I'll mention that both my Lund and Nothin' but Net have always run Lowrance units...over half-a-dozen separate graphs or graph sonar combos now (LMS350A, LCX20, LMS332) without a single issue. We had a transducer that needed replaced last year, and we swapped units between boats because of some weird interference, but for the most part it's been problem-free. That having been said, I've never needed to contact Lowrance, either. But I've read enough about Linda over the years to realize that she was a saving grace for some folks. Without that ace in the hole, it's harder to keep faith with Lowrance.

I guess we'll have to look closely at everything out there when we upgrade. Maybe make a few "practice" calls for customer service to sort out what's what...

Gator

[Mickey Finn]

Gator,

Your idea about making a few practice calls to customer service before buying a new unit is a very excellent one! Great thought!

[Misty IV]

Talk to a rep at furuno. Billy V is on this site and has a lot of knowledge in regards to hummingbird units. You may want to PM him for a few questions to.

I was just thinking the same thing about Billy V. I think he is running the 1157C fishfinder and the 955C GPS/Chartplotter. Very nice units!!

[NitroMusky]

I've been looking at the HB 788ci too, but waiting till the price drops a bit more in the next year or so to pull the trigger, or maybe go the next step up with the down scan if it drops in price enough

anyways, as far as target separation, from what I've seen, the transducer is still the same dual frequency as their other dual band units, just the screen has better pixelation for it to display more clearly.

hope that helps a little...

[Billy V]

Just read this thread tonight....Yes, I run an 1157C and a 955C. LOVE them both - incredible units and even better customer service. If you have questions about them feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to answer your questions.