Lowrance/navico Customer Service?

[NEWBY]

Some of you will have seen my entries re this topic on other posts. I thought it better to vent my expectations on my own thread so there is no confusion at all on who the whingeing has come from.
The Newby/Lowrance story.
June09, order a new Lowrance HDS 10 with 24 mile Broadband Radar, 1KW Bronze thru hull transducer, GPS with external antennae and the latest mapping software wth 3D and picture overlay.
Excited???? Me????? You bet I was. THEN I get told, 2-3 months waiting. Should I order the Furuno package instead????Nah I will wait....I am told it will be worth the wait.

Late August comes and I get the call from my local guy, Modern Marine Electronics. It's here. I go get it, organise install and get the boat lifted out...

September, Boat back in, test drive, all seems ok just need to do some educational reading and fine tuning on the unit to get it all performing right.
Agnes meet and greet comes, Bertram leaves Gladstone and heads for Fitzroy. Here I will cut the long story short. The sounder cuts out at speed, around 12 kn. No bottom. So I play with settings. Reset the unit. blah blah. No joy.
Then I realise that the external GPS antennae has not been fitted. So on the phone. Waiting on a special T piece apparently. Radar seems fine though. Whats that big boat off to my right showing up on the screen? Also sounder cuts out in 100m water???? Should get at least 1000m...

Agnes M&G over and done I get the installer to come and check everything. He brings a new head unit down. We go out to the harbour and check it out....Still cuts out at speed. Ok it must be the transducer.
Speak to Navico help line, told to do software update first and see if that fixes the problem. So do that, take out for a spin, better but still $hit. Call again, they say to install a secondary transducer to see if it makes a difference. We install a new 600w transom style as a shoot thru hull style and off for another test run. Better, much better but still cuts out at speed. Probably the 600w going thru 50mm of fibreglass???

November....Hervey Bay Game Fish Classic...Sounder still not right...Some fine tuning etc etc and we got bottom at around 250m then cut out...Put in auto mode...Nothing...Hard to find bait in 5-600m of water if your sounder doesnt work. Trip home from Hervey and I was playing with the unit. I find the trip logs...never been there before....trip logs say I have done 279miles....Seems like a lot, I check all my tracks since I put the new unit in, they add up to 216mile????? Now I am thinking I got a "used" or "refurbished" unit... Make the calls, take pics of everything for proof and nobody can explain this...Funny that...But thats another fight for the future.

OK,Call Lowrance after sending pics of transducer and radar problems....Tell them that we are 99.9% sure after all the tests that we have a faulty transducer. I insist that Lowrance pay for the lift out of my boat and re-install of the new transducer. We are now in mid November...Now it gets interesting. Some bloke from Kiwiland, apparenty the bossman, calls me and insists that they will not pay for the re-install but will send a new transducer. I insist that I have already paid for that to happen once and no way was I going to pay twice.

I have now spoken to 4 different people from Lowrance,(plus my lawyer) Kiwiman was away, another Kiwiman calls me and after telling him 4 times that we are sure it is the transducer and if we are wrong, i will pay the bill, not them, he finally agreed to pay some of the bill. I still did not accept that stating that I did not ask them to contribute to the initial install, I was not contributing to the second one. another few arguments, another 3 times explaning that if it didnt work I would pay and eventually he agrees. Sends me an email with 4 conditions attached...1 of which by the way was NOT that I would pay the bill if we have misdiagnosed....Gees....
Condition 4 was that I cease all legal proceedings against Lowrance and, get this, "agree not to EVER commence legal proceedings against them EVER again in relation to the supply, install etc of the equipment" I email back saying that in Australia, it is not allowed that a consumer can just waive their legal rights like that. It is agains the Fair Trading Act I tell him....Rubbbish I get told....agreement ends there. I call the lawyer again and tell him were back on. That was Monday 14th December and over 3 months after install and reporting the problem. Tuesday 15th, I am sitting in the chair getting a tattoo finished and the phone rings, it Kiwiman No1 calling me...Now if you have had a tattoo you know it hurts like hell so was probably not the best time to call me, however, he called to say they would agree with the install quote and to go ahead.

I will let you know if it fixes the problem.....The radar and external anntennae are still to be rectifed ad the last fight will be the 60+ miles that are on the unit that I didnt put on it.

So in summary....
4 extraordinary trips at 1 hour water time per trip. 1 hour lost with travel and boat launch every time.
Over 40 phone calls
30+ emails.
3 months+ in waiting.
3 different transducers, 2 head units.
Radar still has blip on screen.
External antennae T piece just arrived. Not installed yet.
Boat now up on hard stand. Wont be finished for xmas break cause of all the delays in getting a decision from these guys. Wont see her until mid January now...

Customer service?????? I am disgusted and appauled personally. I will never, while my arse points to the ground, buy another lowrance product or anything that is associated with Navico. When the warranty is over on this unit and it stuffs up, I will bin it and buy Furuno as I should have done in the first place.

By the way, I also emailed the head office in America twice only to get responses saying to contact Australian office.

[bluefin59]

Ask for a refund mate its obvious that its not fit for use and not what it is advertised as ,consumer affairs will support you i am sure phone them and check. Pack it up and buy the furuno its appaulling that they treat there customers this way no wonder people buy o/s since the service you get here is nonexistant bugger lowrance they may have some great features but they're no good if they dont bloody work ,i feel your pain ..matt

[NEWBY]

Ask for a refund mate its obvious that its not fit for use and not what it is advertised as ,consumer affairs will support you i am sure phone them and check. Pack it up and buy the furuno its appaulling that they treat there customers this way no wonder people buy o/s since the service you get here is nonexistant bugger lowrance they may have some great features but they're no good if they dont bloody work ,i feel your pain ..matt

Refund was the next option but with all associated costs being asked fro it would have amounted to 15-20k and I would have had to go through the courts. Would take a while I think...Better part of a year.

[murf]

thanks NEWBY you are teaching me heaps, I just stood my ground and didn't put up with the sellers games with something else and got a satisfactory outcome

I too am feeling your pain as your have paid for the top notch stuff and are getting the cheap knock up style of performance in all areas

have a top xmas with the family even without the old girl in the water and I hope you finaly get a satisfactory outcome

cheers Murf

[murf]

and I did have a Lowrance on my gunna list

Furuno you say

cheers Murf

[Ninja]

Running gear from and dealing with both companies...I'd have to agree. I was only lucky that I knew a decision maker at Lowrance. Getting service on imported Furno units isn't that much easier but all things considered...I'll stick to Furuno. Newby...good to share. Word of mouth and public perception has more affect on sales then big companies like to believe.

[krazyfisher]

must say I have tried lowrance a number of time and never been real happy

[Maccas]

Newby,

Have a read of the thread about importing Lowrance from the US. Mikes states that some US dealers won't even quote you on a Lowrance as they have had two many problems with them and Lowrance service is crap. That is also my experience as well. I guess if you got on the Hull Truth website there would be a few horror stories like yours. I reckon you are entitled to a full refund or at the very least your unit working to the advertised specs.

Beware of legal action though as generally your lawyers fees are not 100% claimable fom the other side even if you win in court. Better to settle before you get that far if you can. I am talking from personal experience but you should check with your lawyer. Good luck.

BTW I went Humminbird for the sidescan.

Cheers,

Maccas

[siegfried]

Mate, I have been following this saga since it started and you are far from alone , after reading this and hearing a few blokes down here going crook ther is no way I would buy Lowrance gear today. When your talking the money you are they shoulda been bending over backwards. One of the blokes I fish with got lcx112 from seppoland via ebay 18 mths ago and it wouldnt work from day one. Lowrance Aust actually swapped it for a new one within days so they have definately let their service go to $hit. Good luck with it and I hope you get a win

[Trekka273]

I have to say that i don't envy the position that you are in. I have had similar experiences with non-marine items and it takes a lot of work, stress and bullsh1t to get them sorted out. Good luck with getting the right outcome.

I was really keen to buy an HDS 5 or 7 in early in the new year, but I have seen too much bad stuff written about them recently that has turned me off. Does anyone know of other options within the price range for similar style units? I had a look at the Furuno GP 7000F which looks beautiful, but the price is a lot higher. What other combo unit options are available?

[DTHCoCo]

Mate i agree the blokes at Navico australia aren't worth pi$$ing on when they are on fire, they are absolutely hopeless. I have a similar setup to yours HDS 10M, LRA-1800 HD RADAR,LGC-400GPS ,SIMRAD Heading Sensor and Broadband Sounder. I rang them and spoke to a fella named rob to enquire about the structure scan unit to find out if it would work with my setup i was told no but if i where to remove the broadband sounder out of the situation it would work. Me thinking that he was incorrect i immediately fired an email off to Lowrance in the states and i was told that 100% my setup would work, like i had thought as all the structure scan unit is another Ethernet connection.

I then rang the idiots at Navico aus to inform them of my finding i spoke to a Graeme and i informed him of the situation and rob making a mistake i was then called a liar and that rob wouldn't have told me this. What i also found it that none of there workers are experienced in any of the radar field area they are absolutely dumbfounded.

[mojoe1]

good luck newby too much outlay for this sort of result. i just got my hds5 head unit replaced under warranty the unit lost sound was only 6 months old.so far the thing has not set the world on fire slow to pick up the bottom even in shallow water and drops out at speed over 12kns fed up with stuffing around with the tranny.had a garmin 140 on my old tinny worked at any speed cost less than 200 bucks.

[NEWBY]

Newby,



Beware of legal action though as generally your lawyers fees are not 100% claimable fom the other side even if you win in court. Better to settle before you get that far if you can. I am talking from personal experience but you should check with your lawyer. Good luck.

BTW I went Humminbird for the sidescan.

Cheers,

Maccas

Cheers Macca, I dont really care about the money.....Its the principal and they knew it in the end. F***K em. Funny thing is, they didnt have a leg to stand on and they were aware of that but they still pi$$ed me off with delay delay delay and lost me for life now. Go figure....These companies spend Millions of dollars to get me to buy their product and they lost me for a few bucks....

[NEWBY]

Mate i agree the blokes at Navico australia aren't worth pi$$ing on when they are on fire, they are absolutely hopeless. I have a similar setup to yours HDS 10M, LRA-1800 HD RADAR,LGC-400GPS ,SIMRAD Heading Sensor and Broadband Sounder. I rang them and spoke to a fella named rob to enquire about the structure scan unit to find out if it would work with my setup i was told no but if i where to remove the broadband sounder out of the situation it would work. Me thinking that he was incorrect i immediately fired an email off to Lowrance in the states and i was told that 100% my setup would work, like i had thought as all the structure scan unit is another Ethernet connection.

I then rang the idiots at Navico aus to inform them of my finding i spoke to a Graeme and i informed him of the situation and rob making a mistake i was then called a liar and that rob wouldn't have told me this. What i also found it that none of there workers are experienced in any of the radar field area they are absolutely dumbfounded.

I have dealt with Rob a few times and he has been fine with me so far. I haent even started on the Radar problems with them yet. Apparently its just a "setting" on one of the filters...We will see....
They seem to $hitcan each other a lot at Lowrance in Sydney. everyone I deal with is crytical of the last one I spoke to. My dealer reckons that before they were bought out by Navico, Lowrance guys were awsome in NZ and if there was a problem, they were on it and sorted it. How things change..

[NEWBY]

[quote=Trekka273;1109582]I have to say that i don't envy the position that you are in. I have had similar experiences with non-marine items and it takes a lot of work, stress and bullsh1t to get them sorted out. Good luck with getting the right outcome..quote]
I promise you that I will get the right outcome. One way or the other. I dont cop inferior service from anyone at any time anymore. When I purchase somthing, I even pre warn them now I have got so bad. So if what I get is $hit, the are fully aware that I will be back and will not go away. Most of the time, I dont get too many problems. My local guy did what he could so not his drama.

I own and operate a 5 franchise car yard. If I ran my business like Navico, I would be out of business in 3 months. My guys are under strict instructions, "Our customers do not have problems" its our motto. If something breaks, get the customer mobile and get to the root of the problem PRONTO...sometimes it is the customers fault sometimes its parts failure and sometimes we have stuffed something up.(Not me personally of course) either way, find the problem and resolve it with no fuss. Problem with some of the bigger companies these days is they assume the client has done something wrong and avoid warranty problems as long as they can....Old school attitude....Ignore you long enough you will go away...Samsung tried that on me too years ago. I hate to think what it has cost them in lost sales.
Subaru are about to launch a new program in February its called A4TD All 4 The Driver. Probably the most exciting customer service program ever attempted in Australia. We have had the attitude for years but now the manufacturer will back it up. They have already implemented the changes and are fine tuning for a public launch. This will set a precedence the likes you lot have never seen before in Australian Motoring. I cant wait...Makes our job easier when your suppliers are not ducking and diving.