Best/Worst Warranty and Support

[zboss]

Who has the best and worst warranty and support for marine electronics?

Who has the best compatibility (meaning standard protocols and connectors) and the worst proprietary.

[Teknav]

ut-oh...this is going to be a mile long reply thread!

Mauritz
Going to behave now!

[zboss]

Yea... I am looking to start fresh and replace everything. I want to put everything on a series of ipad mini's enclosed in lifeproof cases. The new ipads are going to be sunlight readable.

If that can't happen, I want to make sure I get a great warranty and that I can get replacements parts anywhere in the world.

[David M]

Furuno has the best support. Nobeltec isn't bad either for chart software support.

[goboatingnow]

In the UK I've found good support from Raymarine, and Garmin. Furuno was OK , Simrad wAs poor

Dave

[zboss]

Too bad about SIMRAD they are very high on my list of vendors. Any others that can offer some opinions?

[monte]

very bad from Raymarine ! Interesting goatboating had a good experience though.
My experience - bought a new boat in 2012. Turns out the charts were 2010 so I asked them to upgrade to current charts. They refused and said I would have to pay for current charts. BAd customer service, then...radar didnt't work properly. Under warranty I had to have it removed, couriered to them and back and replaced all at my expense. All they did was fix it and they won;t tell you what the problem was. So, 200 euro later it works like it should. LAgoon/Benetau have stopped using them due to warranty/customer service issues and switched to Garmin. Apart from the customer service, the products work fine.

[colemj]

I have had excellent support from Simrad (Navico) in the US. You have to send them an email through their website, but an engineer gets back to you within a day, after which you are in direct contact with him/her through normal email. I have never tried phone support.

The initial email contact through the website is the only bad part of the support (I hate when companies do not provide a direct email).

Mark