No luck with sounders

[daniel944]

Hi all

When I fitted out my first boat in early 2007 I purchased a Lowrance X126DF sounder, which was a great little unit, right up until it died a bit under a year ago. I was quite miffed and deceided to go with a humminbird 718 which I purchased from BCF. That unit has never worked properly, and even when it worked as well as it would it wasn't a pinch of you know what on the lowarance. So this weekend I went back to BCF for the 3rd warranty claim and after a bit of complaining they agreeded to give me a refund, so well done to BCF its not there fault that the sounder is crap and BLA cant fix it.

So I did a bit of research and my heart is now set on the Lowrance Elite 5X DSI. While reading about the sounder I found the Lowrance 5 year loyalty program, stating that if the unit failed in under 5 years they would upgrade it for an 'unbeatable or matchable price'. Great I think, ring them up and get a cheap sounder, might not even have to fork out any money after the refund from BCF. So when I give the operator the serial number of the sounder he spends quite some time looking it up and then comes back and says, this unit was made in 2003! I replied by saying that internally it has a sticker that says 2004 so that is clearly wrong, but he would not have a bar of it and told me that I was eligable for no discount

So has anyone ever used the lowrance loyalty program and if so what sort of discount did you receive?

Thanks

Daniel

[helliconia]

I can't comment on the loyalty program, although it sounds like a great idea to promote a brand.

As for getting some satisfaction in your case I'd try a couple of things. Firstly, find out what you would have to pay under the program for the changeover. Next, find the original receipt. Under the Trade Practises Act 1974 warranties and guarantees start from the day the consumer buys the goods, not the date of manufacture. If they have offered the exchange publicly then I would also contact the ACCC or NSW Dept of Fair Trading. The ACCC now administers the federal Trade Practises Act and the new Competition and Consumer Act that replaces it.

For my two bobs worth, if this is their approach I wouldn't be buying anymore of their products but I have no brand loyalty

[abecedarian]

As Empty Hooks said, the receipt is key. If you have that and it says under 5 years then you're set. If you do decide to go for another Lowrance just make sure the receipt is safely stashed away because you could be sure that the same thing would happen if you lost it or threw it out. Murphy's a bitch!

[fryboy]

Regarding keeping receipts - I learned the hard way recently that it pays to photocopy them! The paper that most registers spit out as a receipt these days does not hold the printing well over time, so you may find in a few years you have a nice blank piece of paper!

Fryboy

[daniel944]

Hi all, thanks for the replies. I have just found the receipt and rung them back. They have offered me a replacement color sounder for $550, cant remember the model but it is $200 cheaper than BCF. Not bad you might think until you realise that you only get the sounder. All the brackets and the transducer carry over from the earlier model and on top of that you only get 6months warranty! Hardly what I would call an 'unbeatable and unmatchable price'

I have half a mind to send a complaint to fair trading about it, but then again what do I have to gain? I think I just get a better humminbird.

[abecedarian]

At the end of the day all these companies are about making money, as are the vast majority of companies. I guess you can't really expect them to give stuff away for little or no profit, in doing so they'd be doomed to failure.

Mind you, honoring a warranty and good service is paramount in maintaining customer loyalty. I personally think that if the transducer and brackets are interchangeable than it's still a fairly good deal, and if the brand is good then it's probably worth it. But then if they only last five years maybe another brand is the way to go...