posted 09-18-2009 08:19 PM ET (US)
I do not have any recent experience with Lowrance customer support, the wait times necessary to reach them via telephone, or the delay in fulfillment of promised remedies, however I have read many accounts of these problems.The principal complaint has been the time required to establish communication via telephone with an agent of Lowrance. There appears to be a paradigm in which the person calling for the free support equates his own time spent as being valuable, and the free support provided by Lowrance (and the free telephone call) as having no value, so the sum of these components in the value equation is always presented as a loss in value to the person calling for free support.
As for the delay in providing a promised remedy, in most cases the promised remedy contains something of value for the recipient, usually a remedy out of warranty at a substantially reduced cost. Again there is a presumption that the person to whom the remedy is being provided is losing some value by this delay, and the lost value is greater than the value of the remedy being supplied. So, again, the value equation sums to a loss for the customer.
In the current market for recreational marine electronics I do not know if all manufacturers operate with a paradigm that any customer who calls and is forced to wait on the telephone is losing value, or if any customer who is offered a remedy for a problem occurring out of warranty is losing value by not having an immediate replacement. I don't think that companies operate like that in the current economic times.
What I see has happened in marine electronics is that the value of the product and the sophistication of the product has increased enormously while the cost has not risen much in comparison. Let me give you an example. Today, I can buy a GPS receiver, a chart plotter with color display, an enormous catalogue of electronic charts, a SONAR, and a transducer, for about the same price that I could buy a GPS receiver with a very small black and white display just a few years ago. For the same price as I paid six or seven years ago, I now get:
--larger display
--color display
--tons of charts
--SONAR
--transducer
Because the device is much more complex, and its operation more sophisticated, and its interconnection with other devices in the boat much more likely, the burden on customer support has increased, the failure rate of the products has increased, and the internet has sprung up to offer anyone who is not happy a global platform to announce his displeasure.
There are so many reports of delays on the telephone in reaching Lowrance, and so many reports of problems with their units, and so many reports of customers unhappy with the remedies offered, that one might conclude that Lowrance is a dead duck and will soon be out of business. However, if you compare the cost of Lowrance devices and their features with alternative brands, you generally see that Lowrance offers very high value in their products at very low prices.
It is impossible to know the rate of failure for these devices, as no one has any idea at all how many are being sold, how many are out there, and how many are being used. It is hard to judge if the appearance of ten threads about long times spent on the telephone are indicative of all calls or only a few dissatisfied customers.
Another element to consider is the increasing complexity of the devices. This has probably resulted in more calls to customer service for support. It seems hardly anyone reads the documentation that comes with a device these days.
For those customers who are announcing they are through with Lowrance, I caution you that you will probably have to pay more to get the same level of product with other brands. If you find that you can reach customer support on the telephone faster, it should not be a surprise and you have already paid extra for that service.