Cruisers & Sailing Forums - View Single Post - Navman Wind Instrument--Opinions

Thermal · 26-09-2005, 22:38

I bought Navman's "combo" ( wind 3150, speed 3100, depth 3100, and 3100 repeater). Haven't installed the depth sounder yet - waiting till my next haulout for that. Had a problem with the speed sensor in that the output wire was potted into the sensor such that it was perfectly in line with the holes for the safety clip. That was a malfunction waiting to happen so I wanted it exchanged. Then I discover that Navman had just be acquired by Brunswick Technologies, and as is usually the case when this happens, customer service was dismal. Eventually got the replacement sensor, then everything worked great. Hasn't seen much use yet, so I'll just have to wait and see if it holds up in the long run. Ironically, I picked Navman because I got the impression that they were a smaller company specializing in marine instruments and usually find this sort much more responsive to their customers that the large conglomerates that hire "customer service specialists" or even outsourcing customer servive to India - so you wind up talking to someone that knows absolutely nothing about the products they are supposed to be representing. Enough ranting on that subject, but I would recommend doing some further investigation on the customer service you can expect as you will probably be dealing with then sooner or later.

26-09-2005, 22:38	#7
Thermal Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Honolulu Boat: S2 11.0C 36' Puka Wai Posts: 147	I bought Navman's "combo" ( wind 3150, speed 3100, depth 3100, and 3100 repeater). Haven't installed the depth sounder yet - waiting till my next haulout for that. Had a problem with the speed sensor in that the output wire was potted into the sensor such that it was perfectly in line with the holes for the safety clip. That was a malfunction waiting to happen so I wanted it exchanged. Then I discover that Navman had just be acquired by Brunswick Technologies, and as is usually the case when this happens, customer service was dismal. Eventually got the replacement sensor, then everything worked great. Hasn't seen much use yet, so I'll just have to wait and see if it holds up in the long run. Ironically, I picked Navman because I got the impression that they were a smaller company specializing in marine instruments and usually find this sort much more responsive to their customers that the large conglomerates that hire "customer service specialists" or even outsourcing customer servive to India - so you wind up talking to someone that knows absolutely nothing about the products they are supposed to be representing. Enough ranting on that subject, but I would recommend doing some further investigation on the customer service you can expect as you will probably be dealing with then sooner or later. __________________ In theory, Practice and Theory are the same. In practice, they are not.