In the spirit of full and complete disclosure, I'd like to state that this is not, (although it may well read as) a posting that slams a support organization. This is a post of the outright effort involved in, and the costs and pushback associated with a simple repair.
If any of the moderators wish to remove it, or anybody is in any way shape or form offended by it, please feel free to say so and i'll remove it myself.
I had a GX2150 AIS, non GPS radio in my boat, with a Standard extension cable and a CMP30 RAM mic in the cockpit. Since the radio was one revision prior to onboard GPS, the radio needed a feed from the network, and since the network has a GPS enabled chartplotter and a stand alone GPS unit, all that was necessary was a protocol converter, that task being handled by an Actisense unit that came supplied with the proper cables. This installation worked just fine for about three years. We had a power issue, and amongst other things, the data transfer stopped working. Suffice to say that the solution turned out to be a GX1700 series radio for number of reasons, the two major ones being onboard GPS and CMP30 compatibility.
That statement is not true.
The compatibility statement came from the factory supplied technical literature which CLEARLY states that both the CMP30 and the CMP31 microphones are FULLY supported by the GX1700. It is only true if the microphone is at a particular firmware revision, which cannot be accessed or verified by the end user. (and that's not necessarily a bad thing)
Never in the conversation with Standard Horizon was there ever any costs associated with the installation of firmware discussed. I sent the CMP30 to California. I got a call from someone in Customer Service telling me that it would costs $150 USd to do the work. Keeping in mind that a new one, in Canada, is about $170, shipping included, and I've already paid $45, not including the manpower overhead of packing and going to the post office.
After more back and forth, the cost of the work is dropped to $14, which is where it was supposed to be according to the technical lead. The next day I have a charge on my credit card for $150.00 Standard tells me that they do not reverse charges, they can only issue a credit cheque and that is run about once a month. I tell them I will call my bank and dispute the charge. They relent and make adjustments. Only after a number of phone calls and more discussion.
The microphone is shipped from Standard, it had been missing in action for almost 2 weeks, and today it showed up, with only an externally attached invoice that CLEARLY shows that I "purchased" a CMP30 microphone for $60 USd, without ANY indication at all that this was a repair, upgrade, take it out and throw it at the cat or anything, so the fine folk at Customs did what they do best, they charged me $15 for their pleasure. We're way, way past adding insult to injury here now.
I have two statements. First, the customer service at Standard Horizon is nothing short of an insult to the terminology. If we treated our customers like this, we wouldn't have customers. Even when presented with printed documentation, they adopted a careless attitude towards compatibility, which leads me to the second statement, if you are going to upgrade anything in this world of firmware, not only pay attention to the documentation, but be very, very mindful of statements by manufacturers. It's more than a little clear that you, the consumer, are an easy target. It's not about the lack of attention to detail seen here, it's all about the cascading events that happened after, and I would say that I did my diligence, and still got burned.
If any of the moderators wish to remove it, or anybody is in any way shape or form offended by it, please feel free to say so and i'll remove it myself.
I had a GX2150 AIS, non GPS radio in my boat, with a Standard extension cable and a CMP30 RAM mic in the cockpit. Since the radio was one revision prior to onboard GPS, the radio needed a feed from the network, and since the network has a GPS enabled chartplotter and a stand alone GPS unit, all that was necessary was a protocol converter, that task being handled by an Actisense unit that came supplied with the proper cables. This installation worked just fine for about three years. We had a power issue, and amongst other things, the data transfer stopped working. Suffice to say that the solution turned out to be a GX1700 series radio for number of reasons, the two major ones being onboard GPS and CMP30 compatibility.
That statement is not true.
The compatibility statement came from the factory supplied technical literature which CLEARLY states that both the CMP30 and the CMP31 microphones are FULLY supported by the GX1700. It is only true if the microphone is at a particular firmware revision, which cannot be accessed or verified by the end user. (and that's not necessarily a bad thing)
Never in the conversation with Standard Horizon was there ever any costs associated with the installation of firmware discussed. I sent the CMP30 to California. I got a call from someone in Customer Service telling me that it would costs $150 USd to do the work. Keeping in mind that a new one, in Canada, is about $170, shipping included, and I've already paid $45, not including the manpower overhead of packing and going to the post office.
After more back and forth, the cost of the work is dropped to $14, which is where it was supposed to be according to the technical lead. The next day I have a charge on my credit card for $150.00 Standard tells me that they do not reverse charges, they can only issue a credit cheque and that is run about once a month. I tell them I will call my bank and dispute the charge. They relent and make adjustments. Only after a number of phone calls and more discussion.
The microphone is shipped from Standard, it had been missing in action for almost 2 weeks, and today it showed up, with only an externally attached invoice that CLEARLY shows that I "purchased" a CMP30 microphone for $60 USd, without ANY indication at all that this was a repair, upgrade, take it out and throw it at the cat or anything, so the fine folk at Customs did what they do best, they charged me $15 for their pleasure. We're way, way past adding insult to injury here now.
I have two statements. First, the customer service at Standard Horizon is nothing short of an insult to the terminology. If we treated our customers like this, we wouldn't have customers. Even when presented with printed documentation, they adopted a careless attitude towards compatibility, which leads me to the second statement, if you are going to upgrade anything in this world of firmware, not only pay attention to the documentation, but be very, very mindful of statements by manufacturers. It's more than a little clear that you, the consumer, are an easy target. It's not about the lack of attention to detail seen here, it's all about the cascading events that happened after, and I would say that I did my diligence, and still got burned.
