Customer service ARGH!

I started out with Lowrance. Pops had a tan box flasher & got a green bo later.
My 1st graph was a. LMS 360 A. Still have it bit not on the old Lund.
1st color sonar (I still have it and use it) is a X510c.
I previous had an issue with the original X510c & Lowrance replaced it out of warranty with me paying a fair amount when it couldn’t be fixed.
I now have a Gen2 HDS 8 with a Gen2 HDS 7 cabled the newer one. All is good so far. This is my pontoon and I’ll troll the badin some pulling cranks on boards with a bunch of not so serious anglers having a few beverages. No Structure Scan needed for DI / SI with the gen 2 touch screen unit. All good so far.
Now my 1st HDS set up on my fishing boat has a SS box & another Gen 1 HDS 7 coupled to a HDS 8. It appears that the 8″ unit has a bad power switch. It won’t fire up at all yet the 7″ works on either power cable.
Fish Lectronics in SLP told me they can’t get parts from Lowrance & Lowrance won’t even do ANYTHING on units older than 5 years.
I call Lowance customer service and am # 48 in their queue & please have my units serial # for faster service. While I’m on hold for the next 2 hours I now am # 22 in the queue.
I did run over to Reeds Outpost and young Nathan, the young sonar guru, told me the wonders of the Bird and how Lowrance customer service is HS.
It is worse than horse poop.
I’ll NEVER buy another one of their products. Never.

Jumped to bird a few years ago and no regrets.

Not to rain on your party but if you think there are any manufactures besides vexilar that is going to bend over backwards on a unit over 5 years your dreaming. I have both and neither last forever and there customer service is one in the same. Good Luck

I’ve dealt with Lowrance twice for customer service and they resolved my issue in a timely manner both times. Bear in mind these were for units less than 3 years old each time though.

Bird customer service has been very good to me over the years, with sonars for both the ice and boat.

Hummingbird CS tried to sell me a new “replacement” ICE 55 for full retail when mine would only read anything when switched to the 10x depth setting. Pretty much told me tough cookies. Swore then I’d never own another HB product.

Those units are over ten years old and 4-5 systems old.

I get the frustration but I don’t think this is a Lowrance issue by any means.

There was an update released recently that caused some issues w/ Lowrance’s Active Target.

I called HB a couple of years ago trying to get a unit fixed… It was too old to get fixed. It was only 5 years old. It’s not a Lowrance problem. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Lowrance customer service so far. Only needed them once.

I didn’t expect Lowrance to warranty the units.
A 2 plus hour wait to talk to a human is crazy.

The_Bladepuller wrote:

I didn’t expect Lowrance to warranty the units.
A 2 plus hour wait to talk to a human is crazy.

The recent update has had the phone lines very busy I’ve heard… That’s certainly not the normal wait time. Did you not want to receive a call back when it was your turn in line? It usually asks if instead of waiting they’ll call you once you’re up…

I never had a call back as an option offered.
2 hrs & I got approximately half way through the queue. That was enough wasted time for one day.

The_Bladepuller wrote:

2 hrs & I got approximately half way through the queue. That was enough wasted time for one day.

I don’t blame you for that one, 2 hours waiting is 3 times as long as I’d give it. Maybe try later after the “wave” of people that are having trouble with the new software update has subsided.