FL18??

[IceC]

My buddy was going to buy an FL18 at Cabela's today,and they said that the FL18 had been pulled from the shelves due to a legal issue with the batteries.Anyone else hear this? Or is this just an issue with Cabela's??Sounded weird to me so I went to Cabela's online live help, they told me the FL18 was discontinued.

My buddy needs a vex soon Has anyone had a chance to use the Marcum LX3 yet??It looked like a great unit at Cabela's,very crisp and clear.Any info would be great Thanks

[This message has been edited by IceC (edited 12-01-2002).]

[Guest]

I wrote vexilar on this this morning and they wrote back to me in a very short time,and this was there response!
Cal, I was sent your message about the FL-18, and I was wondering where you remember where the comments came from? There is another copy-cat unit out there called the LX-3 that has failed in our testing within 48 hours, is there some chance the gossip was about pulling the Marcum unit? This makes sense to me, but our FL-18 is working perfectly and to date we have had zero problems.

Many thanks for the heads-up,

Thanks

Tom Z.
My hats off again to the quick response of vexilar!
THANKS again cal

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cal

[IceC]

I sent an e-mail to Vexilar explaining what I was told and this is their responce...

"There are no legal issues. We discontinued all stand-alone ice units. We now only offer FL-8s and FL-18s for ice fishing in the Pro Pack or Value Pack form. We needed to do this because a number of retailers were piecing together their own ice combos (using low quality components such as batteries, chargers, and carry cases) in order to get a cheaper price than our popular, and reliable, Pro and Value Packs. In addition, many of these systems were not preassembled and often had missing or mismatched parts. The result of this was many dissatisfied customers. We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and it's difficult to take care of the customer when he is complaining about product you do not provide, and therefore cannot warranty.

FL-18 Pro Packs are widely available and many retailers have plenty of stock. These Pro Packs are fully assembled, factory tested, and warranted for two years. Cabela's does not wish to offer our Pro or Value Packs. I do not know the reason why."

Looks like Cabela's wont sell them unless they can use their own batteries,chargers,cases.

IceC

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Here fishy,fishy

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

ICE C that is awesome info. Thanks.

Too bad Cabellas is being that way. I would think they are going to be losing a ton of biz, but they are a multi-billion dollar corporation and I am living check to check, so what do I know.

Whats next, they are not going to carry Rapalas because they can't put thier own brand of treble hooks on them? lol.

Geez Rick, for all the business and talk this board gives Vex, you should hit them up for some sponsership and sell them direct from here!

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Born to Fish, Forced to Work!

[Cyberfish]

Does this mean I cannot buy a fl18 to mount on my ice box now? I was thinking about getting one, but if I have to get the whole package, I will pass.

cyb

[CNY Tim]

vern - I will be able to test for first time Friday however it will be on a shallow lake fishing 7' to 11' tops. I have a split screen on this MarCum too so I should be able to see the whole water column on the right and my zoomed mode on the left, so I won't be missing anything. First report I will post Sat a.m. On Sunday I will probably be on the same lake with vex's, than I can test IR and a few other things. I will start a new thread under MarCum Tests in the expert equipment section. Maybe some other guys will post there results in there as well. Can't wait!

[vern]

CNY Tim, nice to hear it has the split-screen. I'm an fl-8 user & I want to upgrade soon, but I will check out both units. I look forward to hearing your reports. Thanks, Vern

[Matt D]

IceC: Thanks for the info. from Vex. I'm looking at an FL-18 and spent last night perusing both Scheel's and Cabela's here in town. I was leaning towards Cabela's because I've got some serious discounts coming (Club Visa is nice!). However, in learning that their set-up is not the Pro-Pack put together by Vexilar so they can save/make money, I'm a bit hesitant. Cabela's has a pretty good reputation with cust. service on anything that carries their name. Having one here in town would be nice should a problem arise, but I still think they're messing with a good thing and will likely lose Vex. business over it unless they change they're practice. If Vex. has decided not sell them individual units in the future, they will no longer be able to piece together their own "Soft Pack" packages. That means sell Vex's Pro or Value Packs or none at all. We'll see what they do! BTY, did anyone notice you can't find Vexilars at all on Cabela's HSOforum? Sign of things to come methinks...

[2dog]

It doesn't make sense to me either why Cabela's wouldn't want to sell the Vexilars. A few years ago they quit selling Outlaw silhoutte decoys because Outlaw wouldn't quit selling decoys direct. I would imagine this will help out the new Marcum. Anyone coming into Cabela's looking for a ice fishing depth finder will be steered towards the Marcum.

[Guest]

CNY
For starters I was not trying to bash any company!I tried to find any information posible on on both units earlyer this year because I also liked the zoom any depth feature that marcum had to offer.BUT!I found verry little information on the marcum and that is probably because it is so new.I personally would like the features of the marcom but no one has been able to make a good statement about them because they are so new or some other reason.One of my buddys asked which unit to buy so I explained my reasons to buy a vexilar!
FOR VEXILAR:
1-web site!
2-send a responce in on the web site and it is answered in a reasonable amount of time!
3-Ive owned an FL8 for 10 years and never any problems with the unit other than self inflicted!
4-every one on this site and that i've talked to has had great customer service if they have had problems through vexilar service
5-when I make up my mind to buy any product this expensive I also want to know they have good servise and not get the run around!And get it back in a timely manner because three weeks of ice is a very long time with out a unit!For some that is all the time they have for the hole season!
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MARCUM
1-No web site that I could find!
2-people on this site said they have had letters in to them with no response!HOW IS THAT FOR START UP SERVICE!
3-No one has any thing to say about marcum!How do I know what to expect out of the unit!Why should I try a new unit when they suposidedly dont even answer there letters!HOW IS MY SERVICE GOING TO BE!Probably not very good when they dont feel they need to answer a letter!Are they above us?Do they FEEL they offer that great of a product that they can afford to do that?NOT IN MY BOOK ON ANY PRODUCT I BUY FOR THAT MUCH MONEY!!!!!!!
I wish you all the luck with your marcum LX3 and I hope it workes great for you because I like the product features also!But even if it does work great for you and there customer service stinks I will never buy one for that reason alone!
I WANT MY CUSTOMER SERVICE AND I FEEL THAT I PAY FOR IT ON THAT DOLLAR AMOUNT OF AN ITEM!

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cal

[Guest]

Lets not let this Vex v.s Marum get out of hand. The Marcum may turn out to be a good unit. It's hard to be a Vex.

CNY Tim. I think its great your going to post your results with your new Marcum. Thanks for takin the time and can't wait to hear what you find.

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MILLE LACS AREA GUIDE SERVICE
651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
click here

[Pherris]

Marcum does have a HSOforum. It is www.marcum.com I have the FL18 and am very happy with it.

[Guest]

Cal,
Sounds like Zercom and Marcum may be sharing the same customer service department? My experience with Zercom made me buy a Vexilar. My experience with the FL-18 so far has made me wish I would have never bought that p.o.s. Zercom in the first place (in all fairness, I'm sure I had a lemon).