Lowrance Customer service SUCKS

I have been having trouble with my 12 touch and 9 touch locking up for the last 3 months.These units were 5 months old when I started having trouble. They have gradually gotten worse to the point of not being usable. Called their tech line and all I ever got was some guy reading a script to me and never got any help. Finally found the number of a local Lowrance tech and talked to him. He told me that the Lowrance trailer that services the Elites was going to be at the Skeeter Owner Tournament and they could help me with everything. So 125 mile drive to Lake Fork last Friday. Was there at 8 but nobody showed up till about 9:30. No problem, they showed up. Then another Lowrance employee told me they wouldn't work on my boat because it was at a Skeeter tourny and I didn't have a Skeeter boat.

Now I would have understood having to wait for any skeeter to go ahead of me but there was no one waiting. They could have looked at it while they were sitting there, doing nothing. Am I wrong for being upset? I've got $6000 worth of Lowrance graphs on my boat that are basically useless to me and can't seem to find anyone with Lowrance that will help me. That has to be the poorest excuse for customer service I have ever seen. Lowrance didn't seem to care what kind of boat they were going on when they were bought.

I'd call Tech again and demand to speak to a supervisor. When I got him I try to get something done and I'd also direct him to this post that you made on TFF. Maybe that will get some one's attention.

Went all the way to product engineer and was told they don't know how to fix it yet. Don't know when they will know but they are working on it. LOL Won't replace mine cause he said they may do the same thing. Sounds like they have a bigger problem than just mine.

Have you tried going back on the software updates? Seems like a bunch of people are having issues with the newer updates, do you know what update your graph has in it?

It has the 4.5 for the gen 2. I asked Lowrance about that and they said that was not the issue. At this point I don't think they know what the issue is. And no I wouldn't know how to back out the update.

Try anything before the 4.0

ftp://software.lowrance.com

How do you delete the update that is already installed?

You don't delete the one already installed. You just install the new one and it will over ride the current one. Been nothing but complaints since the 4.0 came out.

Thanks grout-scout

JimmyP you are much more patient then I am...The Lake Fork situation would have put me over the edge!!! Hope it all works out.

Wow!! I am in the market to upgrade my graphs. I have 2 HDS8's Gen 1 and was to up grade to 12 inch and 9 inch but maybe I better stick with what I have. I have heard Lowrance service is pretty slow. There used to be a girl that worked there about 8-9 years ago that I dealt with twice and she was great but I heard they let her go. I am in the service business and that is what keeps our new car customers coming back, superior service.

JimmyP - is it freezing up at the accept screen when you power them on? Mine was doing that after the last update - turns out it wasn't freezing at all, the touch screen just needed to be recalibrated. Looked up a youtube vid on how to do that and all was good from then on.

HolyGrail no it is freezing up on the sonar. It might run 5 minutes then freeze for two to 15 minutes. It will start back up by itself when it gets ready. Have done soft reset, hard reset, but the sonar is useless the way it freezes up. When it freezes only the chart will work, no down or side.

Jimmy, there was a patch a while back by taking the ping rats off of MAX. Try that, any number below max.

Grout I went to 10 but still freezing up. I'm going in the morning to let the dealers service rep try to fix them. If he can't they said they will replace. Only took nearly three months since it started.

Call me I might be able to help you.
817-797-8762.

JimmyP, I spoked the pro staff that you talked to before you made the trip to lake fork. He told me that he thought you had Skeeter boat when you talk to him. Thats why you he told you come on down to lake fork. If he, had know that you didn't have a Skeeter boat or you would have to told him what brand of boat....he wouldn't had you come on down. I'm sorry you couldn't get your units look at Skeeter, but that is a sanction event for Skeeter boats. Thats why they called a Skeeter Owner Tournament.


You can try this and see if this helps with your problem...If you have a Navionics card in your units, you might want to take them out of your unit and see if that will stop your stop and go your 2d sonar.

Jason I don't care if it was a Skeeter Boat event. I didn't know at the time and was told to come down by a Lowrance Representative. I wasn't wanting my boat worked on, it was my electronics and Lowrance was going to be there so It didn't even cross my mind about what kind of boat they were on. The WAY I was treated by the Lowrance Employee was what I had a problem with. They were doing nothing. What would it have hurt to look at my stuff. They didn't ask what kind of boat it was going on when they sold it did they? I was later told they service any brand boat at all the other tournaments so why not at this one? I did get it fixed by Clyde McAfee yesterday so I am back up and running but he is the only person that represents Lowrance that I had contact with that tried to help me. Great guy and wouldn't even let me pay him. They need him to train their customer services reps. I contacted their 800 line several times trying to get it fixed and was finally told by "Linda" (wouldn't give me her last name) that they didn't know what was wrong and when they got it figured out they would call me but she didn't know when that would be. I then asked her about replacing the units and she said " The new ones might do it too, so why should she do that?" Clyde is the nicest guy you will ever want to meet. I will continue to use his help for as long as I have these units and figure out a way to do something nice for him, but when it comes time for new units I will definitely look at other manufacturers because Lowrance customer service at Corporate is sorely lacking. It took finding someone like Clyde, that isn't employed by Lowrance ,to finally help me. And for the kind of investment made, that to me is ridiculous.

Jimmy, what was the remedy so I can pass it on to others. You aren't the only one having issues with this. Seems to be issues with Nav cards.

He did a soft reset after removing all cards. Updated to version 4.5 then went back in and set all settings to Local rather than Global except for GPS and we did away with the US2 transducer in my MinnKota and put a HDI on the trolling motor. As far as the other settings he did I couldn't tell you. Sorry. I put the map card back in and we put it in the water and drove around 2 hours and it never locked up once. All my routes and waypoints were put back in and so far everything is cool. Clyde did a great job and I thank him for that.

Good to hear, there's another site I frequent and the fellas there are also leaning towards map cards. I hope yours stays working and keep us updated if it does not.

Slade thank you for the offer. I really appreciate it. And Grout he also took the ping speed down one number off max. He told me so much I was pretty much on overload. LOL The man is good at what he does.