Be careful buying electronics from Defender

[nightowle]

did you pay with a credit card? Dispute their policy through your credit card issuer.

[bubb2]

A few years ago I bought a stereo from Defender that was on sale during their Christmas/holiday sale. I did not install the the stereo until May when I launched the boat. With 45 min there was a little puff of smoke and the stereo stopped working. I looked over the paper work and the stereo had a 90 day warranty. I thought what the heck, I will give Defender a call and tell them what happened and if they say no, they say no!

I called Defender the next day and they could not have been better. They told me they were going to ship a replacement out right away. I told them the old stereo was still on the boat and it may be a day or two before I can un-install it and box it up to ship back to them. They said we don't want the old fried stereo. Two days latter a new stereo was on my door step and has been working fine for the last 5 years.

I never had a problem with Defender or Sailnet, and I been a customer for many years!

[PalmettoSailor]

My question is why you hadn't checked the GPS out BEFORE you ordered it online?

Don't you know that's what West Marine is for? LOL

[brak]

Originally Posted by midlifesailor

My question is why you hadn't checked the GPS out BEFORE you ordered it online?

Don't you know that's what West Marine is for? LOL

True That's what I did once. But there were a few conversations on this forum that seemed to indicate this isn't fair to a "brick&mortar" business, and after considering that for a while I decided to limit doing this (at least "on purpose", I'll still browse things if I happen to be at WM). Plus, my local WM didn't have the Colorado (well, I go there often enough anyway) so I pretty much relied on the on-line demos and reviews. I guess that'll learn me too.

[nk235]

Do you mind if I ask why you are returning it anyway?

[brak]

Originally Posted by nk235

Do you mind if I ask why you are returning it anyway?

I sort of spoke about that in the other thread. It appears to be a result of whatever Garmin was doing with their devices and software for a few years now. It aims for some sort of "lowest common denominator" user in terms of what functionality is available. Plus, it seems that its primary market is for land-based users, geocachers etc. Marine functionality looks like more of an afterthought.

I found the user interface (i.e. where everything is and how it is accessed) to be quite user unfriendly. YMMV. That said, as someone who works routinely with multiple software and system packages I am usually easy to please, just lay things out somewhat logically and don't hide common functionality too far and I'll figure out how to get there.

As an example that I researched for a bit, to get to the "tide" data, I had to go to an unrelated menu using scroll wheel (can't even remember the name, but it has nothing to do with tides or navigation), scroll down a page to "tide" option, then once I click on that it presents a few locations (4 or so, using giant ugly bitmap buttons rather than a proper scrollable list) based on distance from my current location (but not from where the pointer is on a chart). I have to select these locations by name without any chart reference shown. One selected, it finally shows a tiny tidal graph overlayed on the chart, but only for the current 24 hour period. At this point to get another tidal graph you have to start from the beginning ("weird menu->tide menu->giant buttons"). There seems to be no way to get tidal graph for any other time period or scroll through the one shown.

Honestly my ancient Magellan handheld had better tidal interface - just click on location, right soft menu - select "tides" and the tide graph pops up, use arrows to go to the next or previous date or input date manually. How hard is that?

And then there is the issue of a dark backlight - pretty difficult to see in the sun.

All these may be just me, perhaps. I am pretty happy with Garmin's previous generation products.

[nk235]

Oh man that stinks. Your right it sounds like the unit is more geared to land based navigation but is trying to pass as a marine unit.

[mstern]

Brak: thanks for the heads up. I too have had nothing but good experiences with Defender, and find their policy as misleading as you do (and I'm a lawyer!). Given their previous high level of customer service, I also find it very surprising. I once went to their spring sale, and found a sunbrella tiller cover; the sign above the covers listed what I thought was a great price (about half of what they normally go for), so I picked it up. When I went to check out, the item rang up at about twice the price on the sign. I told the cashier, who had to call over a manager, who then went to check it out. Of course, the spring sale is a zoo, and there was a huge line of others behind me waiting to pay. The manager was gone for so long that I felt very guilty and was about to tell the cashier to just charge me the full price, but she came back holding the sign with a disgusted look on her face. "He's right, it's mismarked. Charge him the lower price". I've been in similar circumstances where the store will admit that its their fault, but they won't give me the item at a lower price. At Defender, they did give me the lower price, and I didn't even have to argue.

[sailortjk1]

Originally Posted by midlifesailor

My question is why you hadn't checked the GPS out BEFORE you ordered it online?

I agree with Midlife.
This is one of the problems when ordering online, you never really know what you’re going to get until its sitting on your door step.
You have to be diligent in your research before buying.
Go to trade shows, touch, feel, and than sit on your computer and check prices only after you have determined what it is you plan on buying.

[iwm]

I’ve also bought a bunch of stuff from Defender with excellent service. But I’ve never tried to return anything except a cleat I recent bought. The customer service rep seemed more concerned than I had expected whether or not it had been opened (it hadn’t), but no real problems

Stephen Lance, the owner of Defender, is a semi-regular over at CSBB. I’ve been impressed with his accessibility, responsiveness and apparent commitment to customer service and getting things right. If you are interested in pursuing this issue, send might him an email. While one should not have to email the owner to get something straightened out, its kind of nice to think that one can.