Lowrance SA Warranty (or lack of!)

[manus]

This is of particular importance to guys with a Lowrance unit on a jetski.

I have an Elite 5 installed on my jetski. After about 5 months I the finder was not working properly and there was corrosion on the connections at the back.

I returned this to Lowarnace SA and they came back and said there was water damage in the memory card slot and this was due to negligence and they will not replace the unit under warranty!

Their exact statement: "A corroded memory slot card is due to negligence, and negligence is not covered in terms of our warranty (http://lowrance.co.za/content/19-warranty)"

Period! I wonder on what they base this statement?

For the life of me, I can't understand that something made for the water and which has never been submerged, can not be exposed to water!

Their suggestion is that one only mount the unit once you are through the surf!

They were so kind to offer me a upgrade unit at 30% less than the new price. But I wonder why I would buy something which is going to get wet, not work and when I try to have it replaced, have to buy a new one.

 

[About Time]

I agree fully with you !!
Firstly corrosion could occur without direct salt water on the unit, just the environment round the coast make things rust !!

I also have the Elite 5 unit on my Jetski, but luckily no problems yet, was thinking of doing un up-grade so I can use their new charts they brag about.
But now, not so sure !!

You should take this further, these units should withstand some corrosion, otherwise they should not recommend it for salt water use !!

I do use a cover over mine that I got from Mick if I go out and it keeps the unit fairly dry.

 

[manus]

In my opinion, the Navionics charts are unferiir to the Bluecharts anyway.

Macete Electronics sell the Garmin Echomap50 dv for R8350, which is nearly R1000 below the Garmin SRP.


I should have listened to.myself instead of a Salesman when I rigged my ski!

 

[manus]

So no luck with Lawrence SA and I have written this off as schoolfees.

So now, it is R 11000 for the Echomap 50dv with Bluechart G2 Vision maps.

Enter Hookedup Motorsports and Ricky Sneddon, where I bought my jetski.

R 6000 later, the Garmin will be delivered to my door!

Big up to Ricky to help me out, as always.

Great Service!

 

[manus]

And with this, I am closing this chapter.

It is a totally futile exercise to fight this.

I wonder what the response would have been was I a customer with a 60 or 100k installation on my boat?

Dear Manus,

The definition of IPX7 is “Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined condition of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion).”

The Lowrance units are IPX7 rated.

However a unit exposed to elements such as spray of salt water has to be cleaned after every use and all contact points have to be sprayed with some kind of corrosion block after use to prevent corrosion.
All products will corrode if they come into contact with salt water and are not cleaned after use.

As for the card slot: this is water proof, if closed correctly and not opened while subjected to salt water and salty moisture.

Your original complaint was that the unit did not sound correctly in February 2013 (20 months ago). For us to test the unit with the transducer, we need your jet-ski at our premises to test. If you would like us to have a look at the transducer & installation to determine what could cause the problem in sounding, we ask you to make an appointment with our technician, John Minnie, on (031) 368-6649.

We understand that you are disappointed that your unit is not covered under warranty. For this we do apologise.

We would like to retain you as a proud Lowrance user, and for this reason we have offered you a new unit at a very special price. However, we understand that you do not wish to take up this offer. We therefore wish you all the best and should you ever wish to come back as a Lowrance user, we will welcome you back.