# Humminbird 365i Fish Finder GPS combo is rubbish



## outbreakmonkey (Aug 31, 2009)

Long time no post...sold my kayak and been fishing from a jetski.

When the Aussie dollar was high I decided to save some coin and order a Humminbird 365i FF/GPS from the USA.
It lasted a whole 3 trips. On the third trip the LCD had missing lines.

Unfortunately the Australian Humminbird importer does not cover warranty services for units purchased from overseas (I can't believe some companies still do this bullshit) so I would have had to send it to the US at my cost. I decided that a couple of months without a GPS was too much of a pain so decided to open it up (to my detriment) thinking it was probably just a loose cable.

No such luck.

The backlight and LCD had broken loose from their piss poor mounting and the backlight being a glass sheet had cut straight into the LCD data ribbon.

I'm now waiting on a quote for a replacement screen from the USA but in all likelihood it will be a throw away.

Now I'm tossing up b/w picking up a cheap Humminbird second hand (won't give these pricks my money again) or pissing off the whole lot (in hull transducer etc) and buying a Lowrance or Eagle.


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## RangiRocks (Mar 19, 2009)

I sent mine back ($20) and got a free one within 2 weeks


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

So far in the last 12 mths I've gone through 2 Garmin GPS's, 2 Lowrance sounders and 1 Icom VHF. I've come to the realization that's its better to spend extra and get the local warranty service. When the locally bought GPS stopped working after about 3 mths I just took it back and got a new one within a week, all the other stuff was bought overseas and is useless now. Just bought a new Humminbird local cause I like metric and it has 2 years warranty and if it breaks I'll just take it back and get it fixed or replaced.

I think its a bit rich expecting the local distributor to fix up your OS sounder :shock: .


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## outbreakmonkey (Aug 31, 2009)

gra said:


> So, you bought what is arguably the most reliable brand of Sonar/GPS, no doubt because the research told you it was a good choice. Full-well knowing the risks of purchasing overseas, you go ahead and do so anyway. (I am assuming you understood the warranty thing because really, it's been written about on this forum 376.95 times alone, although maybe it's described differently on jetskihoon.com). I'd do the same thing, the saving is worth the hassle. BUT NOTHING IS FREE.
> Then it fails..possibly due to being mounted on a 1000cc wave-jumping rocket ship. At this stage you still have warranty available to you, but you assume it must be a wire off somewhere (this alone says you shouldn't have gone inside) and decide to completely void your warranty by pulling it apart yourself because you don't want to be without your sounder, which you now are. When you realise it's stuffed, possibly with some contribution by yourself, you then decide to come back to the Kayak forum to tell us all what a pack of pricks those Humminbird folks are?
> 
> Interesting. Boring. Dude, you don't even own a kayak, why bother? This is purely product defamation. You took the risk to save the dough. Suck up the downside.
> ...


I've bought numerous devices from overseas including laptops, hifi components etc and most if not all have had international warranties. I should've done my research on Humminbird because it seems they're one of the few companies who in an attempt to justify and protect the exorbitant price increase of commercial imports, don't cover the warranty locally.

I bought a Macbook Pro from the US which later had an optical drive failure. Took it into the local repair shop and they fixed it all under warranty, no questions asked. That's how an international company services its customers. Customer should come first and resellers second, screw your customer and they'll just go elsewhere.

The fact it was mounted on a jetski has nothing to do with it failing. I never went above 60kph with the unit attached and the days I went out were <0.5m swell. So not exactly rough conditions. It could've been mounted on a 5m boat and still suffered the same fate. In fact the unit has done if you check buzillion.com someone else has posted the exact same problem I suffered (wish I'd found that earlier).

I've repaired numerous laptops with LCD problems simply by removing, cleaning and remounting the data ribbon. It would have cost me at least $80 to ship the item to the US and back (almost 1/3 what I originally paid). Should I have sent it in for warranty? Probably but the reality is that it would fail again due to the clear design flaw in the lcd mount plate. So I'll cut my losses and look elsewhere.

I posted on this forum because most of the guys I've met on here were good blokes and I'd hate for them to go through a similar situation with that model. Sure on a yak it's not likely to get bounced around as much but the screen could suffer the same fate bouncing around in the boot of the car.

As a side note the unit also fogged up something shocking which was also a problem I had regularly with the Piranhamax 160 I had on the yak.

Clearly you have something jammed up your arse because not only do you give me stick for providing information on a faulty product but you have a go at me for no longer owning a kayak (I'm gonna buy another one you [mod edit ]) and for riding a jetski (you also assume I'm a hoon, nice one).

Am I pissed off at Humminbird? [mod edit] oath. This product should have never made it to market.


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## RangiRocks (Mar 19, 2009)

Mate
U just dont like to listen
Return them to Hummingbird USA ( $20 postage ) and u get a new one
Move on and learn


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## odgers (Sep 30, 2010)

yer got one too its rubbish


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## Eddy (Jan 13, 2011)

outbreakmonkey said:


> Unfortunately the Australian Humminbird importer does not cover warranty services for units purchased from overseas ...


 :lol: :lol: :lol: and why would they?
They made no money from the deal in the first place.

If you want to buy overseas, give the foreigners the profit on a sale, contribute to foreign economies by way of taxes, employment, product turnover etc, you deserve everything you get IMO
Australian business people have to cough up with Australian taxes, Australian Rents on Australian premises, comply with Australian trade practices, all of which you want to bypass.


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## odgers (Sep 30, 2010)

last time i bought australian it was severly overpriced and rubbish


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

Gra mate, have you not had your medicine? ;-) :lol:


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## ELM (Jul 14, 2008)

gra said:


> odgers said:
> 
> 
> > yer got one too its rubbish
> ...


Na trying to sell it on a 400 swing.


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## Slazmo (Oct 18, 2010)

I think this sums it all up here... Seen it before, seen it now and will no doubt see it in the future...

I managed to open my Humminbird Sounder due to having the dreaded screen fog (only issue so far), sent a e-mail to BLA which said send it in with no other warrantable notes or costs associated, and was out of warranty so it could have been open for a $100 cost or more in the end? I tried contacting BLA via return e-mail and all I got was nothing after 3 attempts... So bugger them, I opened it, put it in a bin full of silica for two days, sealed it again with silica packets inside & silicone grease around the yellow seals and it went for a trial swim & dunk with 110% success...

I think we've all figured that this fella had a product that failed to perform, and a fishing craft that failed to float our own boats - and one I personally dont agree on either due to past occurances - but i guess we dont accept anything other than Yak's here. I've spoken to a few 'crutch rocket' fisho's and they seem level headed, and dont carry anything as much as a hoon attitude as others out there, but in the end he had his say and some of the people here are exactly depicted in the picture... For F'ks sake, be helpfull rather than beat people down over trivial stuff like this...

I've owned products such as the Leatherman TTi's ($480) that I managed to snap two of clean through the Ti, found out that the importer was importing defective stock's, and they were a parallele product and not brung through Zen Imports who is the Australian Authorised dealer... Some people dont get any luck and its a shame that money is wasted when it all goes belly up, mind you if BLA didnt put such a gross mark up on the items they import I guess we all would buy more from them than alternative import sites etc...


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## Eddy (Jan 13, 2011)

haha funny post too,

The bloke came on to tell us a product is rubbish.
He also wanted to cry about not getting warrantee from the local distributors;- the same people he'd screwed by buying OS.

It has been well established that no-one cares what boat he has.

... really need to read the whole thing first dude! Won't look so foolish that way.


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## Slazmo (Oct 18, 2010)

Eddy said:


> haha funny post too,
> 
> The bloke came on to tell us a product is rubbish. I guess he gave a fair expression of the product, some say how it is and if you want to guage that it was a 'cry' so be it.
> 
> ...


Pretty sure the only foolish people are those that are dealing the idiotic remarks... What have we turned socialist while i was away?


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## Slazmo (Oct 18, 2010)

Ahh so your into the disco biscuts? Never knew humminbird made those?

Anyhow I like cycling, mangrove revegetation along eroded mangrove forrests, and I'm 5'4", a professional water polo player and I can stick my feet behind my ears...


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## Slazmo (Oct 18, 2010)

gra said:


> Bad image brother.. Maybe not so bad if your name was Jenny.


"you can call me Suzin for all you like"


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## Booyah (Apr 26, 2009)

Would love to know some more details on the $20 postage mentioned! my understanding was you not only oay to get it there but also to get it back..$20 sounds a little too good..but having an o,s humminbird i may need to use this at some stage.

also does it cover any insurance if it goes missing along the way/dameged is it bye bye sounder?


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## RangiRocks (Mar 19, 2009)

Booyah said:


> Would love to know some more details on the $20 postage mentioned! my understanding was you not only oay to get it there but also to get it back..$20 sounds a little too good..but having an o,s humminbird i may need to use this at some stage.
> 
> also does it cover any insurance if it goes missing along the way/dameged is it bye bye sounder?


All they required was return to Hummingbird factory which cost $20 using Aust Post

No charge for replacement post and why should there be


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