I bought in to all the hype a year ago about the Lowrance products and spent close to $7K worth of equipment including a HDS8, 10, broadband radar, fuel flow, gps antennas, structure scan, etc. The last year has been a total nightmare!!!!
1. My units were turning off and restarting on its own, usually at the worst times
2. My units would turn colors, red, blue, black
3. I had constant clicking on my vhf
4. Interference on my TR1
5. VERY slow redraw

I called Lowrance over and over regarding the problem. Most often I would sit on hold for over a half hour only to have some rookie tell me that they are new and couldn’t help me but a manager could call me back. I can’t tell you how many times I was told a manager would call me back and never did. Therefore I was on my own. My mechanic spent countless hours rewiring the boat, changing out cables, new circuit breakers, new vhf antennas, etc.

We narrowed the problem down to the HDS10, when the fuse was taken out the clicking on the vhf stopped. More calls to Lowrance, more messages left and no return call. I finally ran into a tech at the boat show and he told me that there has been a bulletin out for over a year regarding my exact problem and that the NEP1’s (network expansion port) was defective and needed to be replaced with a new NEP2. So I call Lowrance and again get a newbie that says “what is a NEP?”. Anyways, months go by and I get the new NEP2 but the problems are still there so I say f**k it pull the NEP and wire direct, problem solved. Now I cannot get Lowrance to call me back regarding the return of the NEP, I have logged 11 messages over the last 3 weeks and still no return call. I spent over $3K in labor trying to fix the problems caused by Lowrance, trust me it is not worth the hassle. How can all the people I talked to about my problem not know of a bulletin put out by their own company?

The HDS products are awesome when they work, but the customer service and product knowledge of the reps SUCK big time!! I wish I would have bought Garmin or Furuno. Again let me say the customer service at Lowrance is the worst you can ever imagine and their reps know nothing about their products.

Personally, I had the same unit replaced by lowrance four times in five years...I bought Furuno six years ago and I have no idea what their customer service is like as i've nerer had any reason to contact them.
Yes, it's more expensive but after having the lowrance fail on a big trip a couple times, i can tell you the extra cost is money well spent.

Been there done that Lowrance customer service suck and so do the products

While my experiences are not as profound as yours nor as costly I too can attest to abysmal customer service that I received while trying to track down a problem with two different Lowrance units.Now after seeing what my cousins Garmin can do with less investment I will certainly look at other manufacturers to service my needs in the future.



Fishy

Wouldn't use anything but Furuno or Garmin, everything else might as well say Fisher-Price on them.
My $.02 worth.

Back in the day, they (Lowrance) were the kings of consumer marine electronics.
It's too bad that they have slipped so far down.

A quick Google on "Lowrance customer service" reveals a pile of dirty laundry.

I will NEVER buy another Lowrance product EVER.

Garmin, Furuno or Ray Marine.

Fixed it for ya buddy.

I could live with Furuno as a one brand man.

Happy Easter to you and your clan.

Furuno is what the big boys use.

ive had a few problems with my lowrance gps...thanks that just pushes me to buy something better and spend a little more...you just gave my hubby the go

Same here. After spending HOURS on hold trying to get some help with my Lowrance unit,I'll never own another.

The key to Lowrance is that it is temperamental & if you have someone that understands the systems you can work through it. My brothers Duckworth is decked out but a guy in Portland he bumped into installs, sets up all types, and knows the ins and outs. Hauled the boat down, full install and trouble shoot and go pick it up. Fishing last year crap flying, cell from out a ways on the blue and what hell is this? He walked us through, ABC's and good to go.

There are better systems to be sure but as in all things if you don't have someone who knows the system then with Lowrance your in deep sh--!

I have stand alone Furuno radar and an HDS 8 sounder. I did not buy into the whole joint communications program going thirty plus miles from my home port.
I also have a PLB just in case the VHF data link doesn't work.

Same story heard many times from many Lowrance customers.

I'm done with them. Twenty years as a satisfied customer, shot to hell by a POS chartplotter and over 6 months of hell with their "customer service".

I'm a little surprised that some of the well known folks that are pushing their products locally aren't working a little harder to resolve some of the issues like this one that crop up. Eventually, all the advertising in the world isn't going to keep your customers if the products can't work.

Of course, I was scolded by some on this board that I should have been happy getting 18 months out of a chartplotter that was only warrantied for 12 months. So be it, but Lowrance won't get another dime of my money and I'll enjoy that new Furuno 585 I just put on my boat well beyond the warranty period.

I haven't been on this board fro a while, bushbear forwarded this to me. First off I appologize for the problems you are having tmr360. There are a couple of things that can cause the problems you are having. The first thing to address is the software, go to the Lowrance web sight, hit downloads then go to software updates, check for all of the units you have and make sure you are current, if your units aren't current you can download the software updates to an SD or MMC card, the instructions are there on how to do this, then install them in each unit. The second thing you want to check, and from the nature of your complaint I think is the real problem, your power cord has two cables on it, one is power and the other is a "communications" cable, check all of the wires and crimp butt connectors on the ends that aren't being used, if any of the wires are bare and come in contact with each other it will cause most of the problems you describe and I think this is most likely what is happening, especially when you say they went away when you took the HDS10 out of the loop. The clicking on your VHF can be two things, the first was a software problem and current software will solve it, the second could be from the transducer on one or both of your units and can happen when power comes from the same busbar or when wires for your VHF and Sounder are run next to each other, your can try putting the radio on a different busbar or fuse panel, move the wires so they aren't running parralel to each other or install a RF filter for the VHF. The slow redraw can be a couple of things, first again is the software and there was a software update that specifically addressed this problem, the second can just be that everything is running at the same time, kind of like running several different programs on your computer will slow it down the same thing can happen with your unit, especially if you are using a Navionics "Fish'n Chip". I hope this helps and again I appologize for the problems you have had. If you want to get the most out of the sounder side of your units turn your "ping speed" up, at 15 the broadband sounder kicks in and at 18 the picture definition gets better, if you are running two or more units with transducers for each make sure the ping speeds are different this will stop the interference between the two.

Yes you will, I've used the same Furuno fishfinder FCV582L and radar for 12 years, almost every day of the summer on the ocean in Alaska and they haven"t missed a beat. Got a new Furuno plotter last year only because I wanted better cartography then a 12 year old unit offered, it worked fine though for a antique plotter.

Guess I'll chime in. I got the HDS and structure scan. Only problem I've had is losing bottom contact at 35+ mph. I can live with that.

I have had my Globalmap 7200C for a few years now and have not had any problems. Sounds like alot of people have had problems with Lowrance. I have my fingers crossed!

It's not just problems, it's waiting ~50 days (TWICE) for the replacement unit.

Fortunately, the Lowrance was the stern mounted backup unit.

So long HDS7 ....... Hello Garmin 543C