Lowrance Issues

[shrapnel]

Have bought 2 Lowrance units in the last 3 yrs, and one Garmin. NEITHER of the Lowrance units worked as they should out of the box, one was resolved with a call to tech support last year. Have a brand new Hook 2 that was installed, needed a reset? to get working properly, had the transducer sheared off 2 weeks later and ordered a new one, installed it this past weekend and now that doesn't work! AFTER 1 HOUR AND 20 minutes (most of that on hold) they want me to send them a $499 deposit to send me a new unit and will return the money when they get my broken one back.

It just doesn't sit right with me, I already paid for the product, and they want more money (temporarily) to send the replacement for that product? 60 minutes on hold is unacceptable customer service.  How about you send me a paid shipping label I can print out to return the unit and you send me a new one when you get it!

Not happy.

P.S. The Garmin is solid.   Rant over.

[fishinwrench]

I had what sounds like the exact same issue with a Lowrance x5.  They sent me a new unit (and yeah I had to give them money up front), and when I plugged in the new unit it booted up right away but then started acting stupid after about 5 minutes.  I swapped out the power/transducer harness and poof....worked again for about 5 minutes then went haywire.   Even though everything tested good at the fuse panel I bypassed it and wired straight to the battery.... Problem solved for good.     Has worked flawlessly ever since.   There was never anything wrong with the original unit so I understand why they wanted money to cover the replacement unit.  

[shrapnel]

I am wired directly to the battery.  Not looking forward to pulling a transducer cable through the boat for a 3rd time this year.  I am so tempted to tell them to shove it, cut my losses and use the $500 deposit to buy another Garmin.

[slothman]

I have been pretty happy with my garmins. I do wish I had 9” instead of 7, but I’m plenty happy with what I have (echomap 73sv- console, and 73dv-bow).