for years; I've been a garmin fan -- I've liked their UI and generally; I've
been really pleased with their products. I sitll have a working 12xl...

2 years ago I bought, what I thought was, a nice system (Garmin 498 sounder) --
however, I soon found out it was discontinued.

I began to have problems with it. So I hauled and replaced the tranducer as
that's what their tech support said it was... Same issues remained.

I have been told "no more software updates for it" -- but they'll take $175 from
me to "look at it and fix it if they can"

I thought I'd update to a non-discontinued model so I can get software updates
as they come out -- however, I need to use an external antenna.
I wanted their G2 Vision cards --- but the jump from 498 cost to a 4xxxx series
is 3x the cost ($2000 for a cheap 4xxxx series) . Apparently that's the
cheapest unit that uses an external atenna according to their tech support; the
rest are internal antennas.

Is it time to move on to something different? I've been responsible for close
to $10,000 in garmin purchases and feel like they've always been helpful; but
now that it's just little old me, "thanks for your money send us more" is their
attitude....
They won't say if the issues I'm having are 'fixable' -- so Im stuck with
sending my unit for a month or more + 175 or putting that 175 towards towards a
new (non-garmin) unit.

Anyone have any helpful thoughts?

Thanks
-josh

Don't you just hate that? Happened to me with my JRC 1800 radar, a
Lincoln Tig welder; the list goes on and on...

JR

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:


however, I soon found out it was discontinued.

I

Thanks
-josh
HOME PAGE:
http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
--------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Anyone have any helpful thoughts?

I've been saying this about Garmin for years - their attitude changed
when they started to takeup market share and apparently it's gotten
even worse.

I switched to Raymarine years ago and haven't looked back since. Their
new A-65 is a great unit and the RayChart 435 has an internal antenna.

Good luck.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Anyone have any helpful thoughts?

I've been saying this about Garmin for years - their attitude changed
when they started to takeup market share and apparently it's gotten
even worse.

I switched to Raymarine years ago and haven't looked back since. Their
new A-65 is a great unit and the RayChart 435 has an internal antenna.

Good luck.

I have Furuno sounder, and a Garmin GPS160. The 160 is old, but still works
fine. I have a Garmin 45 my gave me for Christmas in about 1991, other than
a couple of lines of pixels missing, still worked a year or so ago when I
last turned in on. For a handheld and hte ditch bag, I have Garmin 76Csx.
Other than it needs to go to Garmin for a new screen cover as it cracked in
a drop test, still works great.

Thanks -- I'll check it out -- I want an external antenna -- but I'm sure they
have something that will work.

This last (G498) was the 1st unit from garmin I purchased in about 8 years... I
recall emailing their tech support about a problem on a unit that was out of
warranty "yes; we've had sporatic reports -- if it's an internal problem, we'll
prelace it" -- less than 10 days later I had a new gps and an apology for the
problem...

They've definately changed.

-josh


On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:43:15 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Anyone have any helpful thoughts?

I've been saying this about Garmin for years - their attitude changed
when they started to takeup market share and apparently it's gotten
even worse.

I switched to Raymarine years ago and haven't looked back since. Their
new A-65 is a great unit and the RayChart 435 has an internal antenna.

Good luck.

"Josh Assing" wrote in message
news
Thanks -- I'll check it out -- I want an external antenna -- but I'm sure
they
have something that will work.

This last (G498) was the 1st unit from garmin I purchased in about 8
years... I
recall emailing their tech support about a problem on a unit that was out
of
warranty "yes; we've had sporatic reports -- if it's an internal problem,
we'll
prelace it" -- less than 10 days later I had a new gps and an apology for
the
problem...

They've definately changed.

-josh


On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:43:15 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Anyone have any helpful thoughts?

I've been saying this about Garmin for years - their attitude changed
when they started to takeup market share and apparently it's gotten
even worse.

I switched to Raymarine years ago and haven't looked back since. Their
new A-65 is a great unit and the RayChart 435 has an internal antenna.

Good luck.


Why an external antenna? My internal has no problem getting lock while
mounted to the dash.

Why an external antenna? My internal has no problem getting lock while
mounted to the dash.


My (stolen) 300 series with internal antenna kept loosing locks and had ****
poor accuracy; unless I moved it away from the window frame....

"Josh Assing" wrote in message
...

Why an external antenna? My internal has no problem getting lock while
mounted to the dash.


My (stolen) 300 series with internal antenna kept loosing locks and had
****
poor accuracy; unless I moved it away from the window frame....


Borrow someones newer model and see if it has a problem.

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Is it time to move on to something different? I've been responsible for close
to $10,000 in garmin purchases and feel like they've always been helpful; but
now that it's just little old me, "thanks for your money send us more" is their
attitude....

You could have had a very nice, professional quality Furuno system for
less than that - typically with no service required.

On Apr 17, 7:28*am, Wayne.B wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:39 -0700, Josh Assing
wrote:

Is it time to move on to something different? *I've been responsible for close
to $10,000 in garmin purchases and feel like they've always been helpful; but
now that it's just little old me, "thanks for your money send us more" is their
attitude....

You could have had a very nice, professional quality Furuno system for
less than that - typically with no service required.

Or you could do like I and not worry about having such frills.

"Save yer' money and vote for Truman!"