Me neither. I hope Humminbird has better CS for your sake...your going to need it more.

That's funny. I have a buddy here at work that could not get any help from Hummingbird and the units did not perfom as good as the Lowrance units that are on my boat. He tossed his Hhummingbird units in the lake when we left...and he was sober!!! Replaced them with the higher end Lowrance and loves them...not a good idea to ask him about his Hummingbird experience...

I'd rather spend 30 minutes on hold and get someone who can fix my problem and speaks English as their primary language than get someone I can't understand. I spent all day Friday talking to someone whose name sounded like a camel spitting in regards to a brand new piece of HP equipment that cost upwards of $10,000.

GAWD, if I had to bitch about every time I called a company and got put on hold, none of you guys would be able to read anything else here on the TFF.

We spend a large amount of time on hold each day ordering parts, ect. But I don't get on here and whine about it.

I just put them on speaker phone, and go on to the next thing I can work on in order to be effective, (most of that time actually is spent here, ssshhhhhh, don't tell anyone please).

But it isn't just about Lowrance, or any other company. I never had a problem with Lowrance for any part, always been quick for repairs.

But, with today's keyboardcommandos, they want to get online and throw a fit because they didn't get exactly what they wanted.

JM2C!

GAWD, if I had to bitch about every time I called a company and got put on hold, none of you guys would be able to read anything else here on the TFF.

...

But, with today's keyboardcommandos, they want to get online and throw a fit because they didn't get exactly what they wanted.

JM2C!

Oh really!! I'm a keyboard commando. At the end of this post, I will give you an example of acting like a keyboard commando!!

Lowrance is a multi million if not a multi billion international corporation. IMO, making customers wait upwards of 30 minutes to speak to a customer service representative is unacceptable post purchase support. Knowing and admitting that customers are waiting 30 minutes is a sign, at least too me, of arrogance. Knowing you have this problem and not doing anything to minimize it, is a sign of skewed priorities within management.

I did not believe their web site last Wed. that I could be on hold for 30 minutes. Stupid me. I also called yesterday, Monday, their busiest day. It took over 5 minutes of redialing just to get through. Perhaps I am incorrect, however I see this as evidence of a company having or beginning to have major problems that if uncorrected will domino throughout the company and ultimately enter their product lines. There is too much concern for the profit margin and not enough concern or expenditure for overhead costs such as adequately staffing customer service with sufficient personnel and equipment. I don't now what numbers everyone is calling and getting through and talking to a rep in under ten minutes, but it certainly can not be the published number on the web site.

If you are wasting your time dealing with large corporations that routinely put you on hold for unacceptable lengths of time, that is your choice. It is not mine. I own a business. I try to support the local "Mom & Pop" businesses. I will tolerate a much longer wait time for these people than a multi billion dollar corporation, yet even the "Mom & Pops" I do business with, don't make me wait as long as Lowrance.

This thread has never been a debate about the quality of Lowrance products. I did a search about Lowrance on the forum and decided, before I purchased a unit, to experience their customer service. Unfortunately for them, it was exactly as described on the posts pulled up by the search.



Lowrance makes a great product, no doubt. But being in business and owning a business, I have learned that it is about more than just the product that the consumer takes out of the box. If post purchase support is inferior or weak, then the product takes on some of these qualities. As a potential new customer, if I can not talk to a rep and have my pre-purchase questions answered, then I will take my business to a company that can.

I/WE ARE THE CUSTOMERS. My customers are the biggest "distraction" in my business but I value each and every one of those distractions. Without those distraction, I would not have a business. Customer service is a distraction to making profit. It is non-value enhancing overhead. It does not directly make a reportable profit. It does however ensure that current customers become repeat customers, and individuals like me, become first time customers. So having a quality customer service department is one of the ways of ensuring the people and sub contractors continue sending product down the line to make a profit.

Now I will give you an example of my "Key Board Commando" skills. Last week I sent you two emails from your web site submission form and one from my computer's internal mail program. Your web site always linked to my mail program after I mashed the submit button so I wasn't sure your web site was working properly. I know for a fact my internal program works JUST FINE!! I haven't received a response. Not even a negative response of, "Sorry, I know you will want this done quickly and we are too busy to do that work in a timely fashion or we don't do that work." My attitude right now about your business is that I wouldn't let you do the work even if you offered to do it for free and you have been crossed off my list as a potential future candidate to do my work. If I was a Key Board Commando, I would have been on here in a heart beat whimpering about you. You don't get to throw stones at me without them getting tossed back. I chose simply to ignore your lack of customer service until you called me a Key Board Commando. I chose to ignore it because, unlike Lowrance you are not a multi-million dollar international corporation. I will be happy to forward the original message with the original time/date stamp for your inspection but I am not longer interested in having you do the work for me. In this case customer service wasn't about post purchase support, it was about about pre-purchase information. Both you and Lowrance failed miserably and the results were identical. A loss of customer revenue.