Some of the worst customer service I’ve seen.
In the summer of 2017 I dropped off a microphone for an older model Raymarine loudhailer which needed repairing. The plug had become damaged during training with my marine search and rescue station. Being that this is one of the essential pieces of gear we use, my hopes were that it would be a fairly quick turnaround.
About a month later, after not hearing anything from Anchor Marine (and getting pressure from my station), I gave them a call. They explained that because of the age of the loudhailer, it was turning out to be more difficult to source the replacement part than first anticipated. Not ideal, but understandable.
A little while later I dropped in while running errands to enquire about the status. I was told that someone, somewhere was looking through old boxes of parts, or something to that effect, and they would call me when they heard anything.
About four weeks later I received a message on my phone from Anchor Marine. They wanted to know the model of the loudhailer. At this point I knew this was going to turn into a fiasco. How exactly were they looking for a part all this time, when they didn’t even know the model?
I knew that this business was either not interested, capable, or concerned with getting this fixed so I started looking into alternatives. The first thing I did was download the manual. Now, keep in mind that I have absolutely no experience with wiring electronics, but even I was able to see that this device seemed to allow a secondary microphone to be hooked up in the back.
After doing a bit of research on Google, I concluded that trying to fix this myself wasn’t going to be any worse than the current situation. So, I headed down to Anchor Marine and asked for the part back. They handed it to me and…the plug was missing. I asked where it was and they didn’t know. The guy who had been working on it was unavailable that day and they informed me I could drop in later and ask. Being that it is an hour drive each way, I was not impressed. I asked that they mail the part to me when they found it. So in fact when I took the microphone home, it was even more broken than when I took it in. The part has still not arrived and likely never will.
Again, I’m not an expert, but it would seem to me that if you can’t find an original replacement plug, that you would ask that the loudhailer be brought in, and then using their technical wizardry, solder in a new, more current plug. The wiring diagram is in the manual, so this shouldn’t be an impossible task. Regardless, I realized that this was a simple three wire system. Like standard microphones, a red, yellow, and black wire.
I went to the local music shop and purchased a $10.00 microphone cable, stripped the ends, and after about 10 minutes of basic soldering and heat shrink tubing I had a microphone with 5’ of extra cord. Taking this to the boat, I wired it into the back and, like a charm it worked.
So, a guy with little electrical experience, Google, and a bit of, “hmmmm, I wonder…” was able to fix a part in about 4 hours, that Anchor Marine couldn’t do in about 5 months. In my opinion, when you advertise yourself as a repair shop, you should have the ability to problem solve even the most basic issues. Had Anchor Marine actually cared, they would have looked in the manual and offered suggestions (beyond, “Just buy a new one?”).
The attitude I received was also beyond words. Each time I enquired about the status of the repair, I was talked down to like I should know better and they were doing me a huge favour. They didn’t bother keeping me in the loop. They didn’t bother trying to find alternatives. They didn’t bother treating me with respect or at least attempting to make me believed they actually cared. They never even bothered to give me a quote, so I can only imagine the bill that may have been.
I would not recommend this business to anyone needing marine equipment repaired, especially if you are a SAR organization and require this equipment for live saving.