Terrible customer service and policy

I have an 898 si that lost the GPS function last fall and just sent it in. They no longer allow you to have someone like Fishlectronics service your units so you have no choice but to use the factory.

They won’t touch the critter until you also give them $259 bucks. If sure seems like only a bad connection, but they want the money up front. When I complained, the woman hung up on me and you have to go through the whole phone tree to get back to someone that will take the money.

For the money you spend on this stuff, it sure spends a lot of time in the shop and they don’t treat you very well. Anyone have a different story with Lowrance or Garmin? I need to buy a new unit for the bow and I am not a fan currently of Humminbird. I just don’t know if there is any better alternative.

We need competition out there, not three “take it or leave it companies”.

well keep complaining like this and they will start changing their act or loose all there business… I’ve herd good and bad from both. good luck!

There is lots of stories on Walleye Central on customer service from Lowrance and Humminbird if you want to do some reading.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34

Yep good and bad for both.

Wish Apple would get in the business of fishing electronics..

Your lucky, I have a cracked screen on my 997si and they want $480 to replace, last fall it was $289.
I have three Hummingbirds, they are my last three.

Thanks for sharing you experience.

FDR

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Yep good and bad for both.

Wish Apple would get in the business of fishing electronics..

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That’s a good idea Scott.

has anyone had a raymarine product just wondering how these units work ?

Here is my Humminbird Customer Service story. I had a 597di that would not load the Lakemaster maps on the screen. The customer service department said to send the unit back along with the Lakemaster chip to see if it was bad. After I received the unit back I fired it up and the same problem. The note from the technician said they found nothing wrong with the unit. I was not happy and called the customer service rep and they said return it again. I sent a note saying that I wanted the unit fixed or a new unit. I received a new hummingbird unit and a note that nothing was wrong with the unit. I tried out the new unit and still would not load the maps. My buddy has the same Humminbird and the same Lakemaster chip. After ice fishing we went to his house and popped in his Lakemaster Chip and you guessed it the maps loaded fine. It was the Lakemaster chip that was bad and after sending it back two times and paying shipping costs, they never even bothered to check the chip. The warranty was over on the Lakemaster Chip so had to eat that cost. I was not happy about that either.

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Here is my Humminbird Customer Service story. I had a 597di that would not load the Lakemaster maps on the screen. The customer service department said to send the unit back along with the Lakemaster chip to see if it was bad. After I received the unit back I fired it up and the same problem. The note from the technician said they found nothing wrong with the unit. I was not happy and called the customer service rep and they said return it again. I sent a note saying that I wanted the unit fixed or a new unit. I received a new hummingbird unit and a note that nothing was wrong with the unit. I tried out the new unit and still would not load the maps. My buddy has the same Humminbird and the same Lakemaster chip. After ice fishing we went to his house and popped in his Lakemaster Chip and you guessed it the maps loaded fine. It was the Lakemaster chip that was bad and after sending it back two times and paying shipping costs, they never even bothered to check the chip. The warranty was over on the Lakemaster Chip so had to eat that cost. I was not happy about that either.

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You sent a Lakemaster chip in with your Humminbird for repair?

Lowrance is much the same. Money up front. I sent a 104 in years ago it cost me close to 500 before they looked at it. If it was a total loss they ate it if it was a minor I ate it. Same price no matter what was repaired. Sorry you had a bad experience it can happen. I think you will find more who have had great service then bad. I run birds now and been very happy with the service and responsiveness. How you communicate to the service dept. can really change how you are treated. Not saying you did wrong but. How your tone or attitude relays over the phone makes a big difference. If you start an argument with them good luck if your understanding that things break and you just want it fixed you will see huge difference. Take it from me I do customer service all the time my wife did it for years with best buy. I could tell you stories all day that reflect that.

Yes, the customer service rep told me to send the Lakemaster chip with the unit so they could check the chip and see if it was the problem. I asked to talk to the technician who worked on the unit the first time and they said they can’t do that?

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Yep good and bad for both.

Wish Apple would get in the business of fishing electronics..

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That’s a good idea Scott.

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This is how I look at it. I have 2 HDS units and the LSS1. All together about $2500-$3000 when new. My HDS7 was replaced 4 times and my HDS8 1 time. Now everything is out of warrantee so if they go down now its going to cost me some $$$. The HDS7 was new in 09 and the HDS8 in 2010. Thats five failures in how many years?

I have had two apple computers starting in 2002. One was a desktop iMac and the other is my Macbook Pro. Not one issue in 12 years. And of course the Macs can do much much more than the HDS units which are essentially nothing but computers. Are there differences in how they are made and for what purpose? Of course but the electronics for fishing by both HB and Lowrance are so over priced for such a poor product on the reliability side its a shame. The only reason they get the money they do is because we all love our pass time of fishing and just like most the other outdoor sports activities they like to nail us when it comes to price. If either Lowrance or HB had more competition from makers like Apple, HP, Dell, Samsung, LT, Motorola……. things would be much much different in pricing and customer service. IMHO Done with my rant!
Have a great weekend everyone!

One thing I will add to this is if you have a dealer deal with it 9 times out of 10 you will not have an issue. Also a dealer would have probably been able to check if it was the chip.
With that said, as a dealer I don’t believe there was a single repair that we have had to pay for in over 4 years. And trust me we have sent in plenty of units for things that weren’t even humminbirds fault or issue and they still took care of it at n/c.
Its hard to explain to some people but paying a little extra for the unit at your local boat dealer will get you a lot farther down the road such as; updating your units, sending them in for repair, etc. than buying it for $100 less at a big box store or off the web.
One last thing I will add is that 80% of the issues that we have seen with the birds in the last 3 years were corrected by updating the units. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense how something just fails without reason but 8 out of 10 times an update will fix it.

Take it for what its worth but that has been my experience.

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One thing I will add to this is if you have a dealer deal with it 9 times out of 10 you will not have an issue. Also a dealer would have probably been able to check if it was the chip.
With that said, as a dealer I don’t believe there was a single repair that we have had to pay for in over 4 years. And trust me we have sent in plenty of units for things that weren’t even humminbirds fault or issue and they still took care of it at n/c.
Its hard to explain to some people but paying a little extra for the unit at your local boat dealer will get you a lot farther down the road such as; updating your units, sending them in for repair, etc. than buying it for $100 less at a big box store or off the web.
One last thing I will add is that 80% of the issues that we have seen with the birds in the last 3 years were corrected by updating the units. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense how something just fails without reason but 8 out of 10 times an update will fix it.

Take it for what its worth but that has been my experience.

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Good point…When you look at the complexity of these things and also how everything is all intregrated together (chips, firmware rev, unit model no., etc…) its amazing they work at all.

I need to upgrade my old Lowrance GPG/down image unit but I think I will wait a couple yrs for the bugs to be worked out. Unless, they become even more complicated by then.

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One thing I will add to this is if you have a dealer deal with it 9 times out of 10 you will not have an issue. Also a dealer would have probably been able to check if it was the chip.
With that said, as a dealer I don’t believe there was a single repair that we have had to pay for in over 4 years. And trust me we have sent in plenty of units for things that weren’t even humminbirds fault or issue and they still took care of it at n/c.
Its hard to explain to some people but paying a little extra for the unit at your local boat dealer will get you a lot farther down the road such as; updating your units, sending them in for repair, etc. than buying it for $100 less at a big box store or off the web.
One last thing I will add is that 80% of the issues that we have seen with the birds in the last 3 years were corrected by updating the units. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense how something just fails without reason but 8 out of 10 times an update will fix it.

Take it for what its worth but that has been my experience.

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Good point, I forgot to mention that the first time I called Humminbird they did ask if I had checked for an update. There was one and I did upload it to the unit before I sent the Bird back for repairs.

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Yep good and bad for both.

Wish Apple would get in the business of fishing electronics..

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That’s a good idea Scott.

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This is how I look at it. I have 2 HDS units and the LSS1. All together about $2500-$3000 when new. My HDS7 was replaced 4 times and my HDS8 1 time. Now everything is out of warrantee so if they go down now its going to cost me some $$$. The HDS7 was new in 09 and the HDS8 in 2010. Thats five failures in how many years?

I have had two apple computers starting in 2002. One was a desktop iMac and the other is my Macbook Pro. Not one issue in 12 years. And of course the Macs can do much much more than the HDS units which are essentially nothing but computers. Are there differences in how they are made and for what purpose? Of course but the electronics for fishing by both HB and Lowrance are so over priced for such a poor product on the reliability side its a shame. The only reason they get the money they do is because we all love our pass time of fishing and just like most the other outdoor sports activities they like to nail us when it comes to price. If either Lowrance or HB had more competition from makers like Apple, HP, Dell, Samsung, LT, Motorola……. things would be much much different in pricing and customer service. IMHO Done with my rant!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Lets see how about taking your Apple or Mac or PC and strap it to the front of a boat pounding waves, sitting out in 110 degree sun, or out in 10 degree weather with water frozen on the screen, and lets see how many failures they have. Electronics will have failures don`t care who made it.

I have had nothing but great experience with Humminbird customer service. They even replaced my Ethernet cord for free.

GordonK I can relate to your story very well. I’m not going to go into details of excuse from HB or try not to bash them. I did buy mine online but would expect the same CS as someone that got it from a dealer. At one time I said I wouldn’t give that company another dime however I will buy another someday because there are a couple features I like and the Lakemaster chip.
I have heard good stories of CS from people that have bought their boat rigged from a dealer. If you bought just a new unit and not a 30K-60K rigged would they have gotten the same CS from the dealer? IDK.
My next unit I will buy from a dealer but if it’s broken out of the box I will let them try all the updates and excuses in the store, on the spot. If they can’t fix it I want a new unit or my money back. I’m not putting up with HB’s CS, excuses or repairs again. I realize it’s not the dealers fault but my pocket book shouldn’t feel it either. HB has come out with a lot of new great innovative products but I feel the quality control feel short, real short IMO. Like others have said for the money spent I expect a little more.
Like said I’ll buy another just hope next goes better.

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Here is my Humminbird Customer Service story. I had a 597di that would not load the Lakemaster maps on the screen. The customer service department said to send the unit back along with the Lakemaster chip to see if it was bad. After I received the unit back I fired it up and the same problem. The note from the technician said they found nothing wrong with the unit. I was not happy and called the customer service rep and they said return it again. I sent a note saying that I wanted the unit fixed or a new unit. I received a new hummingbird unit and a note that nothing was wrong with the unit. I tried out the new unit and still would not load the maps. My buddy has the same Humminbird and the same Lakemaster chip. After ice fishing we went to his house and popped in his Lakemaster Chip and you guessed it the maps loaded fine. It was the Lakemaster chip that was bad and after sending it back two times and paying shipping costs, they never even bothered to check the chip. The warranty was over on the Lakemaster Chip so had to eat that cost. I was not happy about that either.

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Lets see here you had a buddy with the same machine and you never thought of checking if it was the card before you even called Hbird? It still is sad they did not catch the card issue that part does suck.

Thanks for all the input. I know that they’ve got me, so there isn’t much I can do. It just galls me that it’s probably just a bad connection and all they need is a replacement wire and they nail me $259 plus a month gone.

When you could bring it to a Fishlectronics you’d get it back in less than a week and cost $50 for the part and labor.

By the way, I used to run Raymarine. They aren’t very big here in the US unless you are into salt water. Hard to get parts or service in this neck of the woods. I couldn’t find a replacement unit when the old one died. It was solid and I didn’t have any problems with it, just can’t find them anymore.

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Yep good and bad for both.

Wish Apple would get in the business of fishing electronics..

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That’s a good idea Scott.

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This is how I look at it. I have 2 HDS units and the LSS1. All together about $2500-$3000 when new. My HDS7 was replaced 4 times and my HDS8 1 time. Now everything is out of warrantee so if they go down now its going to cost me some $$$. The HDS7 was new in 09 and the HDS8 in 2010. Thats five failures in how many years?

I have had two apple computers starting in 2002. One was a desktop iMac and the other is my Macbook Pro. Not one issue in 12 years. And of course the Macs can do much much more than the HDS units which are essentially nothing but computers. Are there differences in how they are made and for what purpose? Of course but the electronics for fishing by both HB and Lowrance are so over priced for such a poor product on the reliability side its a shame. The only reason they get the money they do is because we all love our pass time of fishing and just like most the other outdoor sports activities they like to nail us when it comes to price. If either Lowrance or HB had more competition from makers like Apple, HP, Dell, Samsung, LT, Motorola……. things would be much much different in pricing and customer service. IMHO Done with my rant!
Have a great weekend everyone!

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Lets see how about taking your Apple or Mac or PC and strap it to the front of a boat pounding waves, sitting out in 110 degree sun, or out in 10 degree weather with water frozen on the screen, and lets see how many failures they have. Electronics will have failures don`t care who made it.

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I’m sure Apple could figure it out, they have a lot of fire power in the research dept. Also I think some of the point was they provide great customer service.

I broke the screen on my iPad . For $325 I can send it back to apple and they will send me a refurbished unit that I can buy new for 595 . Ummm no thanks, I’ll take my chances on replacing the screen myself for $24.

I’ve had Humminbirds since 08, the only one that has ever seen customer service department was my 997 that I sent back to have the rear plug replaced cuz it was worn out. 10 days door to door, and yes I paid the fee of 295.

I don’t know of anyone that has a longer wait than two weeks door to door.

Wow, that’s nuts! I was under the impression they had good service. I guess that’s just becoming more and more rare.

As an associate at a “big box store” (in Eden Prairie, MN, off of 494), let me weigh in here.

If you have a map chip/unit issue, bring them both in. I’ll hook your unit up to one of our display models’ power cords, and fire it up. If the chip isn’t reading/acting wonky, I’ll throw it in a display model and see what happens. That’s how we determine if it’s a chip issue, or a unit issue.

The gentleman from Skeeter (sorry, forgot your username) who mentioned updates is 110% correct. It takes a blank SD card (which I almost promise that you have access to, almost everyone has one) that costs $5 on Amazon, or $10-20 at Best Buy/Target/Wal-Mart. Go to Lowrance/HB’s site, go to support, and updates. Then find the latest one and download it. Save it to the card, put it in your unit, and turn it on. Bing bang boom, most of the time the problem is solved. Worst case, you can do a soft/hard reset. Yes you may lose your data (unless you use that handy blank card again to save your way points, routes, and tracks to), but it’ll reset the unit to factory defaults, and that should solve most problems. If neither of those solutions work, you have a serious software issue, or a hardware issue, and it’s time to service the unit.
Oh, and if you’re really technologically illiterate, call our store. A few of us took money/time out of our own pocket and bought cards to download the latest updates to. Bring in your unit and we’ll update it for you.

Having said that, I’ve turned away more than a few people because their units were past 30 days old. Well to make that clear, my manager turned them away while I looked at them sympathetically, since those policies are way above my pay grade.

As a bit of a techy I have to say, having Apple be a main competitor in this race would be terrible! I’d love for one of the other tech giants to get involved, but anyone who thinks Apple products are easy to troubleshoot/fix, or are actually worth their MSRP is sadly ill-informed. No offense, but had to be said. lol

Same here I bought 2 iphone 5s and a $2000 macbook pro. After a software update, one iphone would not hold charge. Appple told me it was software, carrier said hardware. Back and forth till finally apple said to send it in. My carrier would give me a flip phone but my daughter was leaving for college in 4 days. apple said I could go to apple store and have it fixed or pay $29 to get a new one and mail mine back. Well, apple store was 3 1/2 hours away but that was what we had to do. MacBook developed problem with screen, they said it was wear and tear, $500 to fix. It was only 3 months old. No thanks for me for apple fixing my HBirds.

I figured I’d let everyone know how my Humminbird issue turned out. They updated the software, told me my temp was working, despite my never having seen any temp in the year and a half I used the beastie, and said the connection with my antenna was bad and charged me $260 for the new GPS. I don’t know if they just replaced the cord or shipped me a new cord and antenna, but at least it was only gone three weeks.

Of course, Fed Ex left the unit sitting outside my door in the rain. When I got home, it was in plain sight on the sidewalk. We definitely need some competition out there for our dollars.

Man that is not what happened to me, I have sent in a 997, 1198 and a 360 and each time I sent it in I got it back in less than a week. If the temp was not working for a year and a half why did you not sent it back? would’nt it been under warranty?

So what kind of GPS issues where you having? Mine would give a no signal message or another one similar to that. Ended up being power power connection. Just about sent it in but glad I decided to clean up all the wires 1st.