gps/chartplotter help

[ce560drvr]

Getting a new gps/chartplotter, and I am wondering who has the best customer support and service with reliablility.
Garmin, lowrance or raymarine?
:smt024

 

[nickysc]

Not lowrance

 

[David Morgan]

Furuno has absolutely the best customer support. I have dealt with all of them. I also think that overall they make the best marine electronics. I can tell you Furuno has not hired some company in Bhopal, India to read off a script on a computer screen. The guys with Furuno are in the States and know their stuff. You can even ask for a specific person. Larry is my favorite tech support person.

Go to the various marine electronics websites and see how many layers deep they have buried their technical support number and other help numbers. Call all of the marine electronics manufacturers technical support lines and see for yourself how long it takes to get a hold of a human. Talk to that person and tell them what you are doing....just for a minute so as not to waste their time but long enough to see if they are fluent in English or might be reading off a computer script. You will get a sense of who is good and who is terrible. I will let you decide for yourself.

 

[chuck1]

I like Garmin. You do know that it is kind of hard to recommend what type would be best for your application since we don't know what type of boat, location, etc.......

Are you going to be boating in lakes, river, bays, oceans??? Are you going to be interfacing it with your VHF, etc.........

Please fill out your signature. Most knowledgeable user will not even reply if you don't complete your signature.

Just a heads up.

 

[Henry Boyd]

I can't speak about Garmin, but my experience with Lowrance was not good. When the SR installed Lowrance 3500 depth gauge failed a couple of years ago their customer service was less than helpful. The 3500 was 'no longer supported' and when Lowrance says 'no longer supported' it is equivalent to you not being a customer and they don't have to talk you, period.

I have also found Raymarine to be great from a customer service side, always answering questions promptly, etc. They are also good at helping when the problem is related to my not reading the manuals.

That being said, the fitness of the equipment you are choosing for your particular needs should be more important. A number of years ago I bought new car made by a German company that was supposed to be the most dependable of all cars ever made. Turned out that particular car was a POS (it happens even in the best of families), and what made the time that we owned it bearable was that the dealership was absolutely first rate every time we brought the car in. However, in the end I had to say to them that despite their being first rate, we would rather have a few less pleasant encounters with our old BMW dealer, than the many pleasant encounters we were having with them. Ideally customer service should not matter because if you buy the right product, you won't need to call them that often.

Henry

 

[Sherman Moore]

http://www.standardhorizon.com/

Check these folks out. Spoke with a rep and they seem to be reliable and straight forward. I have a dealer in Houston that was well below anyone else.

 

[Nehalennia]

Garmin is awesome.

Also Garmin is launching it's new 5x6 series this fall. It will be NMEA 2000 capable.

 

[ce560drvr]

Thanks chuck and everybody. Brand new to this stuff and all. Still trying to fugure it all out. Live in toledo, so going to use it in the maumee river and around cleveland, sandusky and detroit area this summer.

 

[Groucho]

Ask our host...Jim @ BOE.
He suggested for my use the Northstar. They were very good when I had a software glitch, and Jim was very helpfull too.

 

[ce560drvr]

Thanks everybody

 

[Nehalennia]

Greg
PM ADMIN(Jim) He'll know when he's going to carry the new Garmin stuff I mentioned. It's really nice stuff.