Hi John, There seem to be a few about, I have just brought all my gear from Pat at Fison Marine, I have delt with him a few times over a few years and he has adviced me what to and what not to get to suit my boat, thats what i call service. Here is his LinkOriginally Posted by Gator
http://www.fishonmarine.com/
Cheers
Daz
Agree with Daz, bought 2 items off Pat 18 months ago and looking at buying the Furuno 620 shortly while the dollar is high. Excellent advice and service.
Daz and Malcolm,
Thanks for the info. I'll get in touch with Pat this week.
John.
I bought a Garmin 525s combo unit and a G2 Australian East Coast map from the states about 18 months ago. I think the unit, transducer and map card cost me about AU$900, less than half of the price here. Unit has metric & imperial etc.
Just downloaded homeport and planning my trips is now a breeze.
Hey Gator,Daz and Malcolm,
Thanks for the info. I'll get in touch with Pat this week.
John.
How did you go with Pat in the States?
I am also trying to wade through the issue of a Fishfinder Combo.
I would be interested to know how you went.
Cheers
DD
Hey did you have any trouble getting your credit card accepted for a download? I tried for ages today and eventually gave up.
cheers fnq
Just recieved my humminbird 797 from the states it saved me approx 50%. It does only read in feet and inches but thats a price I was prepared to pay. Long delivery wait approx 1 month. But very happy with item so far. We get robbed in Australia. Cheers Pete
bought a lowrance lcx 27 c colour gps sounder and a navionics card 18 months ago from b-o-n-z-e-r-imports ( lose the dashes when you type in the name ) - very good price saved about 40 % on aus price at that time and no probs to date - can pay direct to an australian bank account as an assuie living in the states
cheer rob
Breakthelines,
I got together with 3 mates and we bought 4 Raymarine DS500x's from B-E-T-H-E-L marine electronics in Florida. Why there were 4 of us was they were so cheap, and they had a minimum of $1000USD for international orders and didn't accept credit cards. We just wire transferred it at the bank.
Di was very helpful and kept us informed all the way. She also included 4 individual receipts for the 4 of us so we never paid duty (they were all shipped in one box via US Postal to keep costs down) and were all addressed to me for distribution.
We were concerned about warranty issues but took the chance. As it turned out, one of the units wouldn't power up (a common fault with them I'm told). One of the other guys plugged theirs in and it worked fine, so that ruled out an installation issue. We contacted Di at Bethel and she said to mail it over marked as a repair to save on freight and speed up customs processing. She took our word for it as we are all fitters and in 2 weeks, a new unit was on our doorstep, no questions asked.
You can't expect much better than that.
But, being a US model, I can't get depth in metres so am getting used to feet. The other option is fathoms - yuk. For the $300 AUD it cost me brand new, I can live with feet.
PM me if you need any further info or some contact details.
Redrocks
i have just bought 10k of electronics from the states for 4800 au now there 's a saving.
Very happy with feet, faranheit and mph because it simply isnt important.
Isnt just electronics of course...just bought a 6' keelguard from the states for less than $130 AUD. Hmmm...$350 here or $130 there ?..gosh what a hard decision for an identical item. I guess they'll probably try to say they were sourced when the dollar was much lower...i luv that old chestnut.
We've been ripped off for FAR too long...from 3 levels of Government and Semi Government all constantly picking our pockets to the multiple layers of grubby fingers all hoping to eek a buck anyway they can out of us... using the word "marine" to justify the ripoff.
Dont mind at all paying good money for essential labour such as mechanics etc....its only the hardware...so i'm happy to assist their introduction to the real world by shopping offshore till they become even remotely competitive... and i dont feel so stupid for supporting the ripoff here.
The only risk to it that I have come across is that I have heard a rumour that the software packages are able to be manipulated so that the unit can ID where it should be i.e. the US and where it is i.e. Oz form the GPS co-ordinates. It then switches of some of the units capabilities. I do not have any proof of this as yet but with the major advances in software of these units lately it isn't an impossibility.
got a humminbird 997si from the states, used pay pal was delivered in 6 days from when transaction approved. do i worry about a c tick ce compatible who cares if it is not legal in europe, naaah. when i saved nearly 50% of the cost i bought an electric trailer winch and a gold card and still have $700 to spare for postage if i have to send it back to the usa. i have purchased 3 humminbirds over the years and the only prob i have had is wiping the transducer out twice. and guess what it still took 6 days from the usa and not 4 weeks like my mates lauwrance took to get from his local supplier.
have a read on the internet mr australian humminbird dealers and see the amount of international posts from norway to australia about being ripped of by international branded humminbirds. as for warranty it is $100 au for an extended 2 year warranty over by the way a 2 year us warranty and not a 1 year as quoted.
by the way the gps and side scan still works fine upside down down under.
still
kind of doubt that units would turn anything on or off depending on what hemisphere it is in, it is called GLOBAL position after all, be a bummer to be sailing around the world, cross the Equator and be lost forever, the unit of distance and so on can be a bug to some, but it does not really matter to most who can use their brain to it's full capacity, you get it cheap, learn to live with a few downsides.
Just read at Fish On Marine which states that Lowrance warranty is not honoured by Australian agents which we all know, nor will Lowrance allow imported units to be returned to US for warranty repair.
This means they are purchased with no warranty.
http://www.fishonmarine.com/page.php?page_id=14710
Does anyone have any more info on this.
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