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I’m thinking
of upgrading all my navigation electronics to a single-brand system, but
one friend tells me that Raymarine’s stuff is all junk, and another
says that Furuno has terrible customer service, and so on. Who do you
like? T.Z., via e-mail
Thanks, Tom, for giving
me a chance to rant—err, I mean expound—on one of my pet peeves.
At one time or another, I’ve heard people repeat strong, blanket
condemnations of every single marine electronics company, and I think
they’re all bull. Marine electronics is a relatively young and small
industry, and the gear goes onto a wildly divergent bunch of boats in
a tough operating environment. In the early years a lot of electronics
failed, and so did some companies. Users—now the old hands amongst
us—tended to develop strong opinions about who made reliable, well-supported
equipment. The industry is much more mature today, but there’s still
a lot of confusion in the marketplace, plus there’s no organization
doing Consumer Reports-style product testing (or at least doing it well).
Into this void seep those worn-out, strong opinions and also the occasional
“very unhappy customer.” The guy who hired an airplane at the
Miami International Boat Show to advertise his displeasure with a certain
company’s autopilot is an example.
In short, I think the
big-blanket negatives you can hear around the docks are based on the old
and/or extreme experiences of a few users, perpetuated by the fact that
there are so many good products out there that shoppers are looking for
something—anything—by which they can limit their choices.
The truth is that the
electronics industry today is full of competent companies working hard
to earn your business with good products and service. I like them all.
Of course there’s plenty of room for improvement in user interfaces
and manuals, and some small companies will come and go, leaving customers
in the lurch, and name brands sometimes rest on their laurels and miss
technological advances, at least for one product cycle. But marine electronics
is thankfully not a business suited to unscrupulous types looking to make
a quick buck. It’s much easier, for instance, to sell shoddy, unneeded
electric wheelchairs to gullible little old ladies…but that’s
another rant, a personal one, I need to make elsewhere. —B.E.
Got a marine electronics
question? Write to Electronics Q&A, Power & Motoryacht,
260 Madison Ave., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10016. Fax: (917) 256-2282. e-mail:
PMYElectronics@primedia.com.
No phone calls, please.
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