Beagle, that's what I wish I could do. Eat donuts and go fishing. I may have to buy and auger for next winter.
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I'll say a few positive things about HB besides outstanding customer service aka "the only argument we have left".
1-They brought the biggest innovation to sonar since sonar to the market several years ahead of Lowrance.
2-They supported their product well even when they had a monopoly during those early years, and keep in mind this was new technology for everyone, I think in ways they were learning about SI as much as we were.
3-I have a 2007 unit that now has 2011 features on it (including adding DI, free...), added at no cost to me through firmware updates supplied by HB, you think that would ever happen w/ Lowrance? If I had a 2007 Lowrance it would be a paperweight on my desk if I ever had a problem with it.
Project Donut is more about helping HB help themselves than it is about bashing them. Those of us who are concerned about getting this fixed are doing it because we want to eliminate what we see as pretty much the only negative there is with HB right now, albeit a big one and one that several other gps co's out there have had solved for more than a few years.
I'll admit, I am a Lowrance CS victim, I have been burned badly on service for more than one product by them and unless they come with an amazing quantam leap innovation at some point in the future I can pretty safely say I will never do business w/ them again. I have never in my life been treated with less respect in a CS situation (where I was in the right 2 different times, mind you) in my lifetime, and I'm talking about dealing with management and being yelled at by a guy who is wrong and shouldn't raise his voice even if he's right, not some entry level kid. CS is the simplest concept but so many co's get it wrong, especially in the advent of internet forums. You do it right and look at HB to see what happens, you do it wrong and you wind up with a ton of posts like this one about your co., go figure. Also, Lowrance - Gaskets, they keep the water out, look into it....
I agree with you, HB had Side imaging first. No argument there. Does that mean it's better? That's a judgement call. Plenty of things have come out, only to be improved by the originator, and others. Automobiles for example, computers, etc.
Yes they support the unit, especially in the first year. After that, it get's expensive and in some cases you need to either pay it, or bite the bullet and upgrade. True for both units, with the exception that you get an extra year with Lowrance. I really wonder why HB didn't step up and match that?
And thank you HB for the units that can have the new features. I'm sure there are a lot of 797, 9XX people that aren't so happy, because their units are now obsolete for new upgrades. This happens though, with most technology.
There's a lot of mention of "FREE" these days from the marketing guys. Both companies update software and features and don't charge for it. That's a more then fair statement.
If Customer service really fails and screws up, I agree people should complain, from either company. Now as for the obsolete Lowrance units, it's widely known that they are discounting new units for those folks. In some cases it's quite a discount. To me, that's a stand up thing to do.
When most people ask for a comparison of the units, the first thing that's mentioned is customer service, and then some fight ensue's. Why not discuss the features, performance?
The features and performance on my bird are great, I don't own a Lowrance SI unit (and won't ever) so I can't compare the two. It does seem like Lowrances system is a more involved and expensive install and I know I heard a lot of people complaining that their Navionics chips wouldn't work on the HD units, don't know if that issue has been solved or not.
The only thing I want looked at on my HB is the donut and I will shut my piehole.
MD - You sure you don't work for Lowrance?