email sent to navico (lowrance)

this is an email i sent to navico’s (parent company of lowrance) global marketing director.

Knut Morten Brekke
Phone: +47 6712 6416
Email: [email protected]

Quote:

---

Hello,

My name is @#$% $%^&*(). I am writing to address the widespread customer dissatisfaction that lowrance has been creating for the past 18 – 24 months. I am attaching links to forums discussing the frustration and anger towards lowrance and its unacceptable handling of many new products and the terrible customer support that followed. Myself and many others like myself, avid outdoorsman, fisherman, and pleasure boaters for many years looked to lowrance for products that not only set the standard in cutting edge technology but also quality. As you will see in the links provided below, the feelings towards lowrance today are almost a polar opposite. i personally would like to thank Mr. Darrell Lowrance, and yourself, Mr. Jens-Thomas Pietralla for alienating the very customers that made lowrance a leader in marine electronics.

Regards – @#$% $%^&*().

---

also included was 5 links from 3 different sites specifically dealing with dissatisfaction with lowrance and there methods.

lowrance –

we once lead, we somtimes find, and if you can get through to customer service – you’ve won.

BigShooter, I am curious. Did you also attach a link to the positive comments myself and others have posted in regards to the outstanding customer service we have received from Lowrance when an issue has come up? Or did you only cherry pick the posts which setup the negative issues with a Lowrance product? I am not familiar with your particular situation but i too had an issue with a Lowrance unit earlier this year and like many others was treated very fairly and timely. In fact i just saw a post the other day which a Lowrance customer (to his surprise) got an out of warranty unit replaced without question.

Quote:

---

BigShooter, I am curious. Did you also attach a link to the positive comments myself and others have posted

---

no, the fact that so many people have had to utalize the “customer service” that lowrance offers is more proof that lowrance is failing in initial product quality.

i refuse to credit them for knowingly releasing products that are flawed and than being the “hero” when a customer calls them on it.

i realize that problems are bound to happen, but no educated consumer can deny that lowrance has dropped the ball big time.

You’ve taken a different approach than most so i wish you the best of luck. However i remember a saying/stance by my grandfather that works wonders: “you get more flies with honey than with vinegar”. I understand your frustration and was able to get resolve to another IDA’r with his repair, if you are interested in finding out how it was done, PM me for info. Good luck. I am a tough consumer to keep happy so i truely understand your frustration, i’m just not sure you will get the best attention or resolve using your method.

Quote:

---

if you are interested in finding out how it was done, PM me for info.

---

thanks, but i don’t believe you have a firm grasp on my true intentions.

i have nothing to gain or loose, currently all my lowrance electronics are operational. they are in need of an update however.

my actions are in response to what i have seen, read, witnessed first hand and anticipate happening as an admittedly frustrated but loyal lowrance customer.

i am just trying to be a responsible consumer and possibly encourage others to expect more from a not so consumer friendly environment.

how do you expect to raise the bar without demanding for it to be raised?.

BTW, if you feel the need to sweet talk your way into a product you paid your hard earned cash for by all means keep doing it your way.

I had to send my 111 back this spring and i don’t think it was gone a hole week. I Feel there customer service is the BEST. At the flw events Capt. Ron Hunter who is the lowrance rep is very help full and eager to show you anthing you in any way he can. I don’t think you can ask much more from a company.

Quote:

---

how do you expect to raise the bar without demanding for it to be raised?.

---

You go out and invent or start a business making a better product or providing a better service is how i would recommend raising the bar. Its the American way.

Quote:

---

At the flw events Capt. Ron Hunter who is the lowrance rep is very help full and eager to show you anthing you in any way he can. I don’t think you can ask much more from a company.

---

I don’t quite think you are comparing apples to apples there. I agree Ron does an excellent job on tour taking care of the $200,000 plus worth of electronics on the tour guys boats. Not to mention Lowrance is a big sponsor of the FLW.

However, when I ran Lowrance, before Ron toured with us, I can remember the days of frustration waiting on the phone..and waiting…and waiting.

Some days I would get through, many days I would not. Once you get and RA everything is great, until you get to that point There are things they can do much better!!

I would have to agree…..I had some problems last summer and untill you got through to a service tech. it was wait…wait….wait on hold sometimes over 1/2 hr to 3/4 hr depends on wheather you could last that long on hold or would hang up. Once I talked with a tech. it was full speed ahead……..they even Fedex over night a new unit to me so I had one!!!!

BUT THAT WAITING ON HOLD SUCKS………..

We do have to remember that there is one Lowrance company and probably hundreds of thousands of customers in the US. With all the new color and fancy units coming out now I would imagine there are ALOT of people with questions calling them about how do I install, how do I do this and work this feature, etc. As we have seen on IDA that there are ALOT of people buying new units upgrading etc every year and are asking different questions for help on how to install etc. Most anglers don’t have much knowledge on the high tech stuff thats in these new electronics either. Plus with ALL manufactures changing things every year its more difficult to learn and/or figure this stuff out. Using myself for an example, I’m not very mechanicly/electronicly inclined and don’t know swat about electronic stuff. Theres probably thousands out there like me too. Sure I can run my GPSs and plotter screens and etc and do use them alot but theres ALOT I don’t know to get the most from a unit. Especially the color ones and networking etc which means a ton of questions from guys like me if I were installing or trying to figure this newer fancier stuff. All my electronics [3 locators and 3 GPSs] on my Alumacraft are all black and white and serve me well. I personally don’t really need color [thats what I tell myself anyway because if I bought one I’d want to replace all of them then] and don’t need the fancier stuff as what I have serves me just find. But other people install most of my stuff on the boat for me because I want it to run correctly without problems and I’m not fishing bodies of water where I need anything more high tech than my Eagle 320s and my Lowrance 4800m GPSs. So I tell myself. lol. All that was said to bring about one point which is I’m sure they are just buried with phone calls every hour of every day which is why its hard to get through to them. Sounds like the customer service is great from what people say its just that hundreds of thousands of people are buying newer products and theres only so many people and phones in a place of business.
Thanks, Bill

Sending out units with known problems.

In talking with the Lowrance company a few years back. They were telling me that the new units are never field tested…because the timeline to get them to the market is so small. This is not just Lowrance, it Garmin too.

I dunno I tend to side with the OP here. I have been less then happy with Lowrance this year. Bought my 113HD in March and it took until early AUGUST to get my hands on the last of the parts needed to take advantage of the much touted networking ability of the units!

I have also had issues with the sonar not working. Buy another transducer, switch units around all sorts of testing over the course of the summer when I should have been fishing with it and they finally tell me to send it in. Before I do, I forget to turn the unit off before going to bed and the unit runs all night, CRAP what did I do I think?? Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, damn sonar works like a charm for some reason. Now, I don’t want to remove any of the connectors, took it to the Croix and it worked all day for me. Go figure.

Biggest gripe is the networking parts that have been non-existent all summer long, and early on even they did not seem to know how to connect a 113 to a 332c. Website was not updated with new connectors for months.

I’m thinking of sending an email myself!