Poor customer service by Maxsea and C-Map, or don't sail to Easter Island

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Yea, here's the clear image that Maxseas website shows so "you can see".

See that gap between the coverages?

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Littlechay

See that gap between the coverages?

Yes I do. And it is obvious to you that Easter Island falls in that gap? And that the two adjacent grouping skip one island? Any way, I'll stop my whining now.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Yes I do. And it is obvious to you that Easter Island falls in that gap? And that the two adjacent grouping skip one island? Any way, I'll stop my whining now.

I must say I find the Jeppeson/C-map site a mess....

That said I would expect to find Easter Island amongst the charts that you bought, it is part of Chile after all.....
I would also expect some overlap in their 'portfolios' and expect to find it in their Oceania portfolio as well..

I would give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to an oversight but it would be nice if they thanked you for pointing it out, gave you the missing charts gratis.... and sorted out their stuff... and their crappo website....

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Paul L

So I buy two big electronic chart packs from Maxsea with Jepperson C-Map charts in them. The first one is:
Costa Rica to Chile to the Falklands. The outline of the area shows all of the west coast of S. America on their web purchase page.
The second one is called Oceania.
S. Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia.

The 2nd package goes as far as Pitcairn Island, but does not have the Easter Island chart in it. The first package goes all the way down the west coast of Chile including the offshore islands of Fernadina. But does not have Easter Island in it. Easter Island is a S. Pacific island and it is part of Chile.

So poor Easter Island fell through the cracks. It should have been in both packages. After a dozen e-mails to Maxsea they say ithe Easter Island chart is actually in yet another package of S. America. I said, fine, how about giving me the unlock key so I can get the one missing chart I need. They offered a discount on the other kit of 290euros. No way am I paying to 290euros for one chart that they left out of the packages.

Originally Posted by Paul L

Yea, here's the clear image that Maxseas website shows so "you can see".

Originally Posted by Paul L

Yes I do. And it is obvious to you that Easter Island falls in that gap? And that the two adjacent grouping skip one island? Any way, I'll stop my whining now.

MaxSea has always responded well to my questions, so I looked closer to "see" if I could see what you're on about.

Looking at the source listings on the MapMedia site and on the Furuno site, no, it's not immediately obvious that the Easter Islands aren't included in the megawide South America chart. OTOH, the islands are not specifically depicted, either, unlike Isla Isabela (for example) which is obvious in the display when zoomed at slightly closer levels.

I think MaxSea is slightly at the short end of the stick, though, given that Jeppesen/C-Map is the chartmaker. I'd guess MaxSea can lobby for inclusion in future charts (which would seem to be a no-brainer for C-Map), but not sure that would cause any kind of immediate fix anyway.

Intriguing. I know some makers provide a complete list of included charts, so I went to the C-Map site here (probably, assuming the link translates) C-MAP Online Coverage and searched for "Easter Islands" in their charts. At outermost zoom levels, the marker looks partly inside the megawide chartkit boundaries; at least more in than out. If you zoom in, the marker does appear to be fully included.

And then I looked back at your first message, and it appears to me maybe the SouthAm package you bought is not the one displayed in your post #43? That one is the megawide one, labeled South America and South Caribbean Sea (SDVJSAM504MAP05.dbv)... whereas the Costa Rica to Chile to Falklands (SDVJSAM500MAP06.dbv) you mention in your first note is more obviously less wide.

In any case, I forget whether you said; have you engaged directly with C-Map? I've found them very responsive in the past, too... I have "traded in" (sorta) charts before, at lower costs... Dunno if they still do that...

-Chris

[Paul L]

A followup to this thread. I got a PM from Jepperson after they read this thread with some good support. They have updated their SAM504 chart package to now include Easter Island, plus they offered me an update.
That's good vendor support -- Jepperson gets a . Maxsea still gets a for their poor support.

[ranger58sb]

Good to hear. And that's useful feedback. The plotter in our previous boat used C-Map charts and I considered their service good at the time. Now that we're using Plan2Nav (C-Map charts) as one of our back-ups, it's useful to hear Jeppeson is still nicely responsive.


-Chris

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Paul L

A followup to this thread. I got a PM from Jepperson after they read this thread with some good support. They have updated their SAM504 chart package to now include Easter Island, plus they offered me an update.
That's good vendor support -- Jepperson gets a . Maxsea still gets a for their poor support.

I'm heading for Easter Island soon too, currently in Valdivia, Chile, and contacted Jeppesen to see if I too could get access to the Easter Island chart. It was a long shot and initially they suggested that I buy an update to the latest version of the chart that now included Easter Island. I pointed out that my chat pack is only two years old and that as the surveys for this area are on the main from the 1800s there seems little point in buying new charts.

They accepted this and graciously gave me an update code. I see that Salas y Gomez is also included in the new version of the chart along with some improved satellite imagery. Thanks Jeppesen

Chris Harris
SY "Morgane"
Tweedsworld