I got blasted a bit on the Humminbird forum for some comments I've made about their customer service. While others have had good experience, I haven't and maybe 99% of time there are no issues, but when you are the 1%...it sucks. I stand by my initial assessment but wanted to take a minute to explain my position. Over the course of a period of less then a month, I've had several issues that in my opinion could have been avoided. In the past month I've bought 2 HELIX 9s and a Minn Kota Terrova iPilot Link, all in with accessories and cable a bit over $5k, while maybe not alot for some...it's quite a bit for me.
I get "stuff" happens and I generally save my opinion of a company to see how they respond and for the most part Johnson Outdoors customer service has been good, but I've had several issues in a short span that could have easily been prevented. It doesn't make for a good first impression on a new customer.
Issue 1- the HELIX does not display depth at speed. Nowhere in the purchase process are you told if depth at speed is desired a separate transducer and cable adapter is required. I've caught some flack for this but don't advertise depth as a feature without providing the entire story. Some have noted the installation instructions mention this, but it shouldn't be necessary to read installation instructions prior to purchasing?
Issue 2- The HELIX offered a promotion for a free blue tooth remote. I had to pay postage due on mine because Humminbird didn't ship it with the necessary postage. This is time off work for me to goto the post office (I don't work close enough to do it during lunch). When I first contacted Humminbird, I got the standard..."our rebates are processed by an outside organization." More time on my part to get it straightened out. It's annoying.
Issue 3- The Minn Kota Terrova has a promotion for a $75 rebate. I sent everything in as required but get a message that it was denied due to lack of required documents. When I emailed Minn Kota, I got he standard response... "our rebates are processed by an outside organization." Again, more time out of my day to get this corrected. With that said, Keith from Minn Kota eventually contacted me back and he got everything squared away and also offered a complimentary SE Lakes card for the issue with the rebates, the broken trolling motor and the postage issue. Keith was very pleasant to work with.
Issue 4- About the third time I had the Minn Kota Terrova on the lake, it went kinda nuts in auto lock mode. Calm water, no wind and no current, but it started twisting around on itself and before I could stop it I heard a pop and the external transducer cable snapped in two. I had it installed exactly as the instructions require with plenty of slack. As I was removing the transducer I noticed the collar that holds the screw to secure the lift assist strap broke with the lift assist stuck below the steering housing. Still "usable" but not as designed. I contacted Minn Kota via the webpage and get a boiler plate response to call them. Finally got a hold of Jennifer B. (very pleasant to work with). After sending pictures, she requested that I return the trolling motor to Minn Kota. The Terrova is on back order and she said a replacement wouldn't be available to ship to me for about 2-3 weeks. That's fine, this one still works for the most part and she also sends me a replacement transducer.
Fast forward to this weekend and the TM gives up the ghost completely and the lift assist strap pops lose while I was deploying the motor. There is quite a bit of pressure on the strap and it slammed up in my hand hard enough to break the skin with lingering pain a day later, it wasn't pleasant. Anyway, the trolling motor now won't lock into place, the shaft just spins. I contact Jennifer again and told a replacement won't be ready until next week..so with shipping I'm out for 2 weeks on a brand new trolling motor. I understand things get busy, but would think a company like this would keep some number of systems for warranty replacement? Again, annoyed and I'm out of commission for a couple weeks until the replacement gets here.
Anyway, just my experience. Customer service has been good, Keith and Jennifer has been pleasant to work with once I've gotten beyond the initial boiler plate responses, but quite frankly if you want to keep me as a customer, don't make me dig to get a direct response. We'll see how the trolling motor works out. I know this probably comes across as whining or what not, but wanted to clarify some of the stuff from the other posts. So far once I've been able to deal directly with a person the customer service seems to be above average and that's appreciated, it still annoys me I'm having all of these issues in a short period of time.
Picture of broken collar.
Picture of screw lodged in steering housing, this is holding the lift assist strap.
Picture of jacked up lifting strap.