Far from being an average internet jockey and following the mantra of what I use is good, and what others use is cr*p. I prefer to be a realist. When looking around the US sites & speaking to retailers, sure you see problems, but in no way could you call it disproportionate to the amout being sold. Most retailers have these walking out the door. Other suppliers are hurting.
For some balance, I fitted a HDS 10 to a new boat 3 mths ago. It's early days but now have 60 hours up no probs. From my experience, lemons in any product seem to show up pretty soon. Besides being a great sounder/gps combo for regular fishing, just last weekend it was still holding depth at a shade over 60mph with the std transom mount transducer.
I added the structurescan last month and it's also working well.
All straight out of the box, as it should be, (and as it is for the vast majority of users).
If it was lost or stolen, I'd buy another tommorow.
and what's the whinge with software updates ?/ crikey, the computer I'm typing on is asking to update crap all the time. Even my stupidly expensive software for work has more upgrades than a politician's travel itinerary.
I see it as a good thing we can update this gear so easily these days.
I know Newby has his problems, and I cant see that ending in anything other than tears. (I should I say 'more' tears ?). There's 3 installers involved, plus Navico as the supplier. Most issues sound like they are or have been related to the location of the transducer and initially installing a faulty one. No one is singley responsible for the job, so no one is singley responsible for sorting it out.
Rightly, or wrongly, each will pass the buck.