Linda Colt resigns from Lowrance (NAVICO)

Just another reason to get HB. Customer service at Lowrance just went from bad to worse!

This was our take on it from the BFHP post, written by Rick this morning. In contradiction to the opinion here, we saw much worse customer service under the last dated term of Darrell Lowrance. He was marketing the company and managed to sell it, and taking it from a public company to a private one, prior to selling. He also lost his large initiative on selling aviation navigation equipment, when he stripped the company and hired aviation engineers. Which led to road navionic GPS (IWay) and more that were less volume than Garmin, TomTom and Magellan units. We find the more recent Navico/Lawrance really seemed to care and listen and even reacted at the top, which we have not seen at Lowrance since the 90s as they branched out all over the map. Sure they have some challenges, though we see more internal than do some of you. We have stated how positive we felt about Linda Colt, though how many customers can one Linda Colt interact with, or assist thoroughly in one day. How many people can you personally walk through in a single day? This is not your WMT cash register, think about it! Phone calls, e-mails, internal steps for securing replacements and incoming units, UPS in and out, follow up on repair units in service, process any fees or charges, run the credit card, inform the consumer their stuff is on the way. A company like Lowrance has literally hundreds of calls daily. It is not run by one person. One person often seems to, though they are only one person We have seen great care internally and also large frustration from the individuals we deal with at Lowrance. They have greatly improved the image results and sought to develop the down imaging. The continual upgrade and model changes of Lowrance prior to Navico were frustrating to consumers and Lowrance individuals internally. We think that Lowrance has really done well on some aspects of rebuilding. They also had to eat about a quarter of a million dollars in recent bankruptcy losses from one major boat builder and we are sure that put a strain on the financial position selling and designing LCR units. We also have seen more internal openness under Navico. The folks left at Navico we know all care just as does Linda Colt. This thread took a left turn, and while we will all miss Linda Colt, she did not build, repair, design, purchase parts for, invoice and sell electronics. She was an Ambassador for Lowrance you all got to know. There will hopefully be another after Linda who comes through and does an excellent job. We remember when there was a young lady of exposure there at Lowrance. In the 80s and early 90s we at BCB had one person who appeared on the outside to do everything, and internally they were a drag on our efforts. They literally did nothing inside and everyone else covered them, though outside it sounded like they built the boat and delivered it. And we are not saying Linda Colt was like that. It takes many people to run a ship, and this ship may be hard to steer now, though there are other very good folks at Lowrance and they have the same passion and concern as Linda. Plus, there may be more to this than we know, and right now we only have one voice. Management or Supervision can not comment on their story, nor should they. This is between them and Linda. If the person internally is wrong, then those actions will probably be dealt with. And we will probably never know, nor should we. For now lets all wish Linda Colt the best, thank her for the great service she provided, and hope she works her way through this and regains her health. That is what is important here. Maybe the wheels would go back on this wagon in a while then and it will roll down the road. BCBLast edited by Bass Cat Boats on January 20th, 2010, 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, I am sorry to see her go. She really provided me with excellent customer service when my Lowrance 332c went on the blink. I now have a brand new unit due to her efforts and I appreciate her for that. As I always say “nothing gets done unless someone does it” and she went out of her way to make sure I was a satisfied Lowrance owner. If youre reading this Linda, thank you for the help and excellent customer service. You will be missed. Jim HebertEveryone should believe in something. I believe Ill just go fishing!

It certainly runs much deepr than Linda Colt! Why is everyone having to call her in the first place? Consumer confidence in Lowrance products and service is falling at a grand scale, is that our fault? I remember when HB fell out of the market in the 90s with their lack of focus…..looks like for the forseeable future, the shoe is on the other foot! Think Ill stay out of the fishfinder market for a few till things shake-out….if that ever happens! Good grief! Less than two years ago, SI HD units were the bomb, now we have structure-scan, for only a few $hundred$ more…. Meanwhile, everyone whines about the high cost of boats nowadays…that MUST be equipped with electronics that fail or are outdated the following year, and then wont retrofit into your two-year old $55k boats console!

I dont even know who HB has for customer service if that tells ya something.