Another Disappointment

Finally I got up enough nerve to tackle the unpleasant task of trying to get my iWay 500c repaired under terms of the extended warranty I purchased.

They have gone out of business! Repair Tech apparently left thousands of folks high and dry. At least I still have my unit, which is a lot more than many folks can say.

Now I'm trying to find some geek who is familiar with this unit to give me some moral encouragement and a hand in trying to fix it. It's a great unit and I hate to declare it pure junk just because a couple of companies don't play fair.

If you have any familiarity with the software or hardware in this unit, I'd certainly appreciate hearing from you!

In the meantime, my Garmin is doing just fine. Of course it has nowhere near the features the 500c had, but it was nowhere near the price, either.

Dissappointed by Lowrance

The support lady at Lowrance today told me that the iWay 500c had been discontinued, probably in the first quarter of 2007.

Worse yet, she told me that they discontinued repair of the iWay 500c, probably in early/mid 2008. She said they "can't" repair them. I suspect she really meant that they chose not to even try to repair them.

As you can imagine, I am not pleased with this turn of events and will try to learn more. And try to get my unit working again, somehow.

In my opinion, it is NOT good customer relations to totally discontinue repair of an item less than one year after the warranty on the last unit they sold expires!

I intend to let Lowrance and anyone else who will listen know my feelings.

If you are thinking of buying a Lowrance product, please go to the top of this message and read it again.

Carefully.

A Problem at Low Temperatures

I'm sorry to say that my iWay 500c has developed a problem.

Whenever the temperature is below about 50*F, touching the "X" to close the initial warning window does not close the window. It does nothing.

I view this as a temperature problem, not a software problem.

But I do have a software problem, too. I was loading some music into the unit when I accidentally disconnected the power to the unit. That seemed to "garble" the software.

I tried a soft reset. Then I tried a hard reset. Then I reloaded the operating system.

It appears to work, but it acts as if the map is totally gone!!!! A GPS with NO map is, well, pretty much like no GPS at all!

Tomorrow I'll call the company with which I have the maintenance contract. I just hope I can get it fixed before I need to use it to find my way back to Texas!

Any ideas? Let me know!

Reverse Route?

How does one reverse a route on the iWay 500c? Surely there must be a way. Who ever heard of a GPS on which you can't do that?

But I can't find it.

If you know how to do it, please let me know!

Thanks!