Lowrance has customer no service

If money is no object buy Lowrance. Product works great when it works, when it doesn’t just buy another one and if that one breaks down just buy another one.
So what, buy a HDS 3 years ago if it locks up while trying to update it no bigee, $300 more and they will ship you a “new” unit the same day. 2 months later when the “new” unit has all the pixcels in the lower left corner burn out, send it back in and now it will take up to 8 business days, after determining that, yea we sent you a defective unit to send you a new one.
Oh.. your going on a fishing trip and need it sooner??? Well if you agree to pay a extra $30 we can get your unit out the same day…You need to pay a premium to “jump to the front of the line”
Apparently they have so many defective units it can take up to 8 days after the tech says “yep it’s defective” for your replacement to make it to the front of the line…Never mind from Wisconsin it takes 4 days there and 4 days back…Our summers are short enough, being without your HDS for 3-4 weeks because they don’t give a crap is reason enough for me to ever spend another thin dime with this awful company!!!

Feel better?

Hummingbird

That’s why I went with the Humminbird. I heard too many horror stories about Lowrance before I bought. I’ve been very happy with Humminbird, summer and winter electronics.

Feel better? A little bit. I would feel much better if this company took better care of customers that spent hard earned money on there products… Until then I plan to be a one man wrecking ball.. Just how I roll…get it ball, roll.. hah, hah

If you have been on this site for 10 years you’ll find an equal amount of bad experiences from both companies… But also a lot of kudos too…

Bottom line… its your dime… try the other guy. But then you are out a whole lot more money…

Sorry you had a bad experience with Lowrance. I haven’t heard many negative comments about Humminbird. I’m quite pleased with mine and my experiences with their cs.

I switched all my units to Hummingbird . I will never buy another Lowarance product

Technology! No diffeent than cell phones or other communication equipment. …Just wait until you’re expected to pay a monthly fee to turn on your fishing sonar.

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If you have been on this site for 10 years you’ll find an equal amount of bad experiences from both companies… But also a lot of kudos too…

Bottom line… its your dime… try the other guy. But then you are out a whole lot more money…

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I agree with this. I’ve had Lowrance for 8 years and nothing but good to say about them. Delt with service before and it’s been very good. I’m sure your experience was bad. When that happens, I go up the chain at the company.

Sometimes it makes a difference in HOW they are dealt with as well. (Not that I know anything about this issue)

I have had nothing but good luck with Lowrance. The other day when I was fishing a FLW tournament at Pierre, SD I talked to Ron Hunter about different settings on the unit, rather than explain it to me he took me out in my boat and showed me how to run the HD 8’s. That is good customer service if you ask me. This spring the bird reps were in the shop rigging their demo boat and tried to convert me. The funny thing was they were cutting down Lowrance and really did not know how to set their own equipment up in the boat. This type of banter ticks me off. You would think when they bash another brand they would know what they are talking about. Everybody has their own preferrence of brands of units, but they all have problems of some sort.

I wanted everyone here to know that I sent a PM to jc3363 to get their contact information because the head of Lowrance’s customer care wanted to personally call them and clear up this issue. I have had no contact from the original poster of this thread. This makes me think that this complaint may not be a real issue, just someone with a different agenda.

Been using Lowrance since the “Green Box”. No problems and Don’t plan on switching.

When I upgraded to HDS units last year there was a lot of “chatter” about Lowrance and Linda Colt, I made multiple phone calls to customer service, both Lowrance and Hummingbird with equale wait times and experiences. Was considering HB but stuck with Lowrance and am glad I did.

Ken, you did read my post that said I was anxious to get my unit back because I was going out of town fishing…???

Well I didn’t respond in the last 4 days because I was out of town fishing. I got your PM and forwarded you all my contact info.

I came back to this forum to give kudos when kudos are deserved.

I sent my in HDS5 back in April, because it locked up when trying to update it. I was disappointed to receive my replacement rattling around in a plain a cardboard box, no packing paper, no packing slip, not a explanation of what went wrong with unit, just the head. Then the replacement has pixcels burn out 2 months later… At my place of business I would have bent over backwards to keep my customer happy. When I was told it would take 8 or 9 business days, after determining it was defective, to ship me a new unit, that was not a good answer…

Back to the Kudos…The unit was shipped in 8 days so I was able to contact UPS and pick it up there on my way out of town THIS time I was sent a brand new unit, in the original packaging, with everything that comes with a brand new unit..Transducer, power cord, everything….
So I felt I should come back to the forum and let everyone know how it worked out. Very unexpected,happy ending.

Again I think the product is excellent, I just don’t understand why they would give customers a reason to consider going to the competition because of customer service.

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I wanted everyone here to know that I sent a PM to jc3363 to get their contact information because the head of Lowrance’s customer care wanted to personally call them and clear up this issue. I have had no contact from the original poster of this thread. This makes me think that this complaint may not be a real issue, just someone with a different agenda.

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Nice work Ken!

Funny, I was just looking at jc3363’s posting history last night. He’s been around too long to be jumping in here to just complain about nothing.

I missed the out of town part too.

It still amazes me there’s people on the forums like Ken that are there the help out members to come to a happy ending.

I have never needed to use the customer service dept. but from what I have read overall it seems to be quite good.

I’m glad you feel better but i will not buy another Lowrance again. I don’t have alot of money and had to save and sell to buy my first lcx 28c.after a year and a half it started to shut off on its own and it had a one year warranty. So when i sent it in they told me they did a bench test and it was internal and i would be eligible for an upgrade because they don’t make parts for that model anymore.so now I am happy because i get a hds7 but then realized it’s going to cost me another $500 toget this unit.(so my options were not to have a unit on my boat that i spent a $1000 on already or spend another $500 just to get a working unit )and this brand new unit only comes with a 60 day warranty because thats what i would have got if they repaired my unit.so when this one goes bad i screwed again because this brand new unit won’t be under warranty and i’m right back to square one.

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So when i sent it in they told me they did a bench test and it was internal and i would be eligible for an upgrade because they don’t make parts for that model anymore.so now I am happy because i get a hds7 but then realized it’s going to cost me another $500 toget this unit.(so my options were not to have a unit on my boat that i spent a $1000 on already or spend another $500 just to get a working unit )and this brand new unit only comes with a 60 day warranty because thats what i would have got if they repaired my unit.so when this one goes bad i screwed again because this brand new unit won’t be under warranty and i’m right back to square one.

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Ok slow down, I may have miss understood what you were saying, But,,,,

Would you mind saying that over again so I (an old mind)would give it another hearing in my deaf ears?

If the same scenario happened with hummingbird, would they have given you money to upgrade to a newer unit? Answer is probably No! I have never heard of hummingbird doing that. Working at a dealership I have seen plenty of bad hummingbirds in my time. If my transmission went out in my car 2 weeks out of warranty would a manufacturer cover it? Answer is no! Would the manufacturer give you allowance for an upgrade to a new transmission? Answer is No! So really Lowrance has stepped up to help with their customer service. If they did not care about the people that buy there equipment they would not offer the upgrade incentive into a new unit.

I had an “83” pickup that had the auto tranny trash out at 52,000 miles. My dealer talked to the manufacture and I paid 52% of the total cost.

I’m a little bit over the top in maintenance for my vehicles. Always sooner is way better than later.

A year later the same truck spun a main center carrier bearing. A used motor got run in it for a year and I peddled it!

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I had an “83” pickup that had the auto tranny trash out at 52,000 miles. My dealer talked to the manufacture and I paid 52% of the total cost.

I’m a little bit over the top in maintenance for my vehicles. Always sooner is way better than later.

A year later the same truck spun a main center carrier bearing. A used motor got run in it for a year and I peddled it!

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Moral of the story… Buy a Chevy… Those Fords suck! Ha! Sorry couldnt resist for this topic!

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If the same scenario happened with hummingbird, would they have given you money to upgrade to a newer unit? Answer is probably No! I have never heard of hummingbird doing that. Working at a dealership I have seen plenty of bad hummingbirds in my time. If my transmission went out in my car 2 weeks out of warranty would a manufacturer cover it? Answer is no! Would the manufacturer give you allowance for an upgrade to a new transmission? Answer is No! So really Lowrance has stepped up to help with their customer service. If they did not care about the people that buy there equipment they would not offer the upgrade incentive into a new unit.

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Humminbird doesn’t offer that because they service older models still. I can still get service on my 5 year old 997c. The day a Lowrance goes legacy they stop servicing it and require to upgrade.

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I can still get service on my 5 year old 997c.

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…and you’ll still have an obsolete 5 year old 997c.

Which is exactly what i paid for. My “obsolete” 997 can do everything the current 998 does with the main exception of ethernet. Humminbird has continued to refine and add functionality to it, something Lowrance never does. It is great to know a company services the units it builds, especially after warranty expires. I have never had to send in my Bird for service, and I have had trouble free Lowrance units as well. It is nice to know that if there ever was a problem it can get taken care of through repair intead of paying quite a bit more to upgrade to a current model.

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My “obsolete” 997 can do everything the current 998

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Good point.

“My “obsolete” 997 can do everything the current 998 does with the main exception of ethernet. Humminbird has continued to refine and add functionality to it, something Lowrance never does.”

Just a quick question, how is this refining and adding functionality? You just said your obselete unit performs the same function as the new one. Getting updates and extra options are improving functionality. Lowrance does this on a constant basis in my opinion.

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“My “obsolete” 997 can do everything the current 998 does with the main exception of ethernet. Humminbird has continued to refine and add functionality to it, something Lowrance never does.”

Just a quick question, how is this refining and adding functionality? You just said your obselete unit performs the same function as the new one. Getting updates and extra options are improving functionality. Lowrance does this on a constant basis in my opinion.

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Yea but can you take your obsolete Lowrance and actually get it fixed for a reasonable price? If you so choose.

I dont own a obselete Lowrance. I buy new Sonar’s every other year, typically.

The anwser to your question is you need to call Lowrance and see what units they work on, just like any other manufacturer you need to call and find out. Lowrance has stepped up and offered a rebate for units they dont maintain anymore. It is tuff to argue with any kind of rebate in todays times. This whole argument is a Ford vs Chevy type of argument. The “ifa, coulda, woulda” is always out their, my sugestion is to just enjoy the equipment you own and be happy knowing it is what “you” want. Others will buy and enjoy what “they” want. I enjoy owning a Lowrance for instance, but I am not going onto the Hummingbird thread and knocking their units down. Have a nice day!