How long should we expect a company to support a product?

[waskawood]

The Kids bought me a Marcum camera a few years back. I do not remember exactly when. The camera housing must have a very slight leak as it fogs over now so I emailed Marcum about service. I was extremely disappointed that after only 4 years they have elected not to support their products. Am I wrong in my thinking?

It is disappointing to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with your VS460/VS560 viewing system.

As you may know, these systems have been out of production for over 4 years and we are no longer able to provide service or offer replacement parts of any kind for these systems. These systems were manufactured when Marcum was under original ownership. My company, Versa Electronics, was not involved in any way with the manufacture or sales of 460/560 underwater viewing systems. We do not have any knowledge of any other companies or individuals who are able to perform any repairs or have any parts for these systems.

Our VS825 and 625sd systems come with a camera panner, a device that grips the camera cable and allows you to rotate the camera 360 degrees

Thanks

Customer Service

Marcum Technology

3943 Quebec Ave N

Minneapolis [New Hope], MN 55427

[Down Deep]

I've had the same problems with MinnKota. Had a board fail on a 6 year old unit and no replacement parts were available. I found a cheap used motor on the CeeList and robbed the board from that unit to get it working again. This was several years ago and they still manufacture the Power Drive units, but for some reason parts for my motor were discontinued.

All electronics are the same. Technology is advancing so fast that the proverbial wheel is reinvented almost on a annual basis. Source manufactures are here today and gone tomorrow. No wonder repair parts are impossible to get. It seems to me that it should be easy to have software updates available for years.

We could all go back to using a good map and really learn a lake by trial and error. No obsolesces then.

[Surface Tension]

Years ago most electronic companies had techs for service & repair.

A good trouble shooter with the schematics, parts/components and a soldering iron.

A long time ago I remember H-Bird had a flat rate of $25 for repairs. Interphase had a $75 flat rate charge.

You send in your unit and it might be a month or more before you got it back.

Today if your out of warranty and model discontinued you'll have to look else where to get it fixed. Fish-Lectronics in Nisswa comes to mind.

I have to agree it isn't reassuring to drop $1000 on new sounder knowing that when the warranty is up chances are your going to have a hard time getting it serviced when the time comes.

If it were my leaky camera I'd be looking on the web for someone that has the same problem and fixed it themselves. If no go there I'd go in cold and tear into.

[Ufatz]

I agree with Dtro that my comparison might have been a bit skewed, but my point really was to show there are SOME company's the DO not only stand behind their stuff but can provide parts and service too. Sure, a Benz is not a fish finder and I understand that electronics models are as fleeting as the breeze and as changeable as the weather, but they might perhaps be urged to do a little better. And I offered the case of Apple: if your laptop is more than five years old, and many of us have them because they are such great machines, don't count on updates or on-line service or warranty of any kind. And many of these are $10000 ++ when you buy them. I think Apple lets it's loyal customers down.

The entire electronics industry is in such a frenzy to produce new products and gobble consumer dollars that it does not CARE much what you think or what you do with your unit-it probably cost them $4.00 per unit.

[delcecchi]

Sure, put a z-series mainframe in your boat. IBM will fix it until heck freezes over. I remember how they were pulling parts out of old machines to fix the ancient FAA systems.

Military has huge problem with this kind of stuff. There is at least one company making a living making IC's from the 60's. Need some RTL?

But you pay for it. Fishing electronics is more like the TV. I bought a Samsung "smart tv" and had to add a roku to get amazon to stream. They never did update the software for that.