LOWRANCE ALERT !
 

If you own a Lowrance Fishfinder and are going to attend the Fred Hall Show
Please make it a point to stop at the Lowrance Truck and confront their rep. in person.
-Several of us have already done this at Long Beach. Their answer to us was:
"Its a game of numbers, the more that complain the better the chance something will get done about it."

For Years now we have been cheated by Lowrance if you bought an HDS Nautic Insight Fishfinder.
-It does Not have any bathmetric lines/contours in the areas we fish the most.
ALL OF LA JOLLA IS MISSING Including the NEW GEN 2 MODELS.

The area Missing is From Cardiff extending to the Mexican Border and extending approximately 2 miles out from shore.
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All Lowrance needs to do in order to fix this problem is purchase the Mapping from the Mapping Company - but they Cheaped Out and Ripped Us Off!

Don't settle for a Black and White Fish-N-Chip it turn your $1000 fish finder into a Black and White TV. Sucks.
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Thank You Guys. I plan on making several appearances to the Lowrance Display during the Show.

Did it at Long Beach and will do it again Tomorrow!

Real Men Don't Have FF....
 

On a serious note, I did not know that was the case w lorance. I was going to pull the trigger and buy it when they had the $100 manufacture rebate....I guess I'll hold off longer until they fix them-selves!

I'll be sure to run my hole at them on Sunday.

Kill!

Some Facts about the Ongoing Problem.

Lowrance's Southern California Rep.
Steve Hamber has been made aware of the above mentioned problem more than a Year ago.
Steve Hamber is a fair man and has tried to help us with the missing contours by supplying some B&W Chips on his own dime. - as per Gretta from West Marine.

We need to work together to get this done.
The Lowrance Company has Not responded to resolve this problem.

In fact, Louis M. Holmes the General Manager of the West Marine Flagship Store in Point Loma took screen shots from the HDS unit and emailed them to the Lowrance Rep. himself, while I was standing there on 8/27/2011
-I was subsequently cc copied on several e mails regarding the problem, however the only peace offering was a Black and White Fish-n-Chip.

This is not acceptable. You will not get ANY Shaded Relief, or 3D Contour with this Chip.
Think Black and White TV.
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The HDS Units including the New Gen 2 Model have the missing information. They have the potential to be fantastic, but Not in their present stage regarding the areas we fish the most.

Please Let the Reps. at the Show Know what You Need to resolve this.
Thanks
Billy V

Thanks for the info. I just installed my HDS - 5 GEN2, didn't realize that is the case.. Will stop by their booth to let them know too.

I am going tomorrow and well bring it up for sure.:)

Lowrance underperformance
 

I guess Lowrance doesn't consider the So. Cal. Kayak market worth worrying about. Looks like I'm going to reconsider a Simrad (as many Party Boats are equiped with and I'm familiar with).
Maybe even a Hummingbird, or Garmin.
FFY

Spoke with the Lowrance rep tonight at FHS. He swears that the 4.1 update (that came out within the last 30 days) contains the fix for the contour lines.

I cannot confirm or deny.

Simrad is owned by Lowrance, and also Does Not have the contour lines I was talking about. I have personally checked the high end units at West Marine, they all have the same missing information.

Cardiff to the Mexican Border and extending out 2 miles.

I was at the show tonight but had limited time to search for the Lowrance Booth, as I was helping out one of our kayak brothers.

Can you tell me where they were set up?
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BTW My Generation 2 Model has all the latest software updates and it does not include the area Cardiff to the Mexican Border.

They also Did Not have a fix at the Long Beach Fred Hall Show last week. Kevin showed them the missing info on a new Gen 2 Model.

You can scroll the mapping at Fred Hall to confirm this info does, or does not exist. I will return Sunday.

Demand that they show you on the display unit !

Lowrance is right next to the Bass Tank in the same building as the Mammoth Lakes Seminar area, Fastlane, & Kevin (Sea Samurai) (third building).

It was Don Lovino (42 year employee of Lowrance) who swore that the fix is in there. I even asked him at his seminar, right in front of the crowd. Maybe the thing to do when you are there next time is - they have an HDS setup right there at the Seminar that he teaches. Walk up during/after the seminar and navigate to the page in front of the crowd. ;)

Wish I would have know about this a couple months ago. Just bought an HDS8.

When I return Sunday I will find a Lowrance rep and pull up La Jolla.

I just did this 2 weeks ago with a lowrance customer service rep on the phone.
-He also swore it was there, until I gave him the GPS #'s to look at - then I was placed on a loooong Hold.

I was told my Gen 2 has the most recent software version, buit the contour lines are not there.
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Its simple enough to do. Make them show you La Jolla Canyon on the chart.:)

Thanks Billy. I was going to step up to a Simrad NSE and based on what you have posted, this will seriously alter my plans. Ron ad the big West Marine showed me both the Lowrance HDS-10 and the Simrad 12. No mention of the most important areas to us local fisherman. Again, thanks!
Dan

OK Guys here is the follow up to this story...

As promised I went to FH on Sunday and tracked down the Lowrance booth. It was actually fishing legend Don Iovino, a Lowrance Pro staffer that was displaying the Lowrance Banner.

-I asked him if he was aware that one of the most productive fishing area of Southern California had missing cartogrophy ? He said he was unaware - so I showed him.;)
He stood there in disbelief, and asked if I could return to the booth in 1 hour so we could talk more, as he was busy selling his fishing goods. He said he could help so I agreed.

-I returned in an hour and he was alone. I pulled up the chart and told him the saga. He was very cool about it and pulled out a phone number off his cell phone. He gave me the number for the 2nd in command at Lowrance and told me to explain the situation. He told me I had to get it to this guy to make it happen, anyone else was the wrong people.

-So today, Monday morning at 8 am I was on the phone, then fired off and email. It was very detailed with times, dates, and every person who I have dealt with to present date regarding this problem. By 10 am I had 2 responses from the big guy and the engineers in charge of cartography.
It reads as follows:

Mike's message to me
FYI here is the email I received , thank you again for your feed back . We’re thankfully for customers like yourself and your fishing bud’s.

Thanks for the continued feedback Mike. We are currently researching content to fill this gap as the official surveyed data that we rely on for our contours does not cover this area.

From a timing perspective keep in mind that we typically lock down requirements in April for the following year’s product. So fixes and requests for improvements received after April will not be included in the next release. So in the example below we received feedback in August 2011 which is too late to incorporate a fix in the 2012 product. The 2013 product is the next version we can update so we’re still working on this item. It hasn’t been forgotten.


Best regards,
Mike

-So in conclusion its coming, but it won't be here until the next update in 2013. I thanked Don Iovino for the immediate attention he gave toward helping us with this problem.

Thanks Billy!:you_rock::cheers1:

Thanks Billy !

A couple issues don't pass the smell test.

1) The issue is not with the product line, but with the software. I make my living in Software, you buy software, we all buy software. With every product we have bought, patches can be released at any time, especially for important issues. If this issue was costing the company money, or costing stockholders money, there would be a patch. Not in 2013, but now.

2) There is a fix, right now! Fish-N-Chip from Navionics. Lowrance already partners with Navionics and it's products come with Nautic Insight. If they want this fixed while they "fix" their product line, then start dishing out the Fish-N-Chip from Navionics.

Are you still in contact with Mike to give him some more feedback? Or willing to share his Contact info, and we can all let him know how to run his company and fix these issues now and keep face and customers.

Thx
Greg

I sent a follow up e mail this morning lets see what response I receive.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the fast response. The cartography that is missing from the HDS Nautic Insight fish finders can be found on Navionics Chart Cards like the Fish-N-Chip, or Navionics Gold, or Platinum Chart Cards.
What has puzzled us for so long is the information is readily available through Navionics, but has not included in any of the updates.

The cartogrophy guys wrote this in their e mail to you:
"Thanks for the continued feedback Mike. We are currently researching content to fill this gap as the official surveyed data that we rely on for our contours does not cover this area."

I really appreciate any help you give us.
Respectfully
Bill Vitale

Thanks Billy :cheers1:
And thank you for the updates as well.

He was pretty quick to answer the first time, but not so quick when you proved you knew what you were talking about?