NASA marine - bad customer sevice.

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joss

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Are you thininking of buying NASA marine equipment? Read this, its just staggering.

I apologise if I have transgressed any formu rules in posting this, but it is here for two reasons:
1. To let other people know who they are doing business with and be fore-warned.
2. To get it off my chest

I bought an AIS engine some weeks ago to interface with a Raymarine C80. Bought from JGTech (excellent service). It arrived and I plugged it in and it worked straight away - for about 10 minutes, afterwhich it worked very periodically (could go a few hours without sending out a signal and then only for seconds or minutes). I spoke with NASA and discussed the various possabliities (loose connections, interference, configuration etc.) and couldn't make it work. I spent hours on it. Eventually, aware that the AIS unit could be faulty, I spoke with NASA again and sent it back to them to be tested. A few days later, an invoice arrived for £9.99 (£8.50 postage + VAT) (VAT on postage?) that I had to pay BEFORE they would send my unit (that had been tested OK) back. 'Fine' I thought, 'at least I know its working'....

Unit arrived back and...... nothing.......spent another few hours trying and retrying different aerials in different locations, spoke with NASA, took the unit off the boat and tried it in the house (live in Portsmouth) and still no joy. Took the unit to Portsdown hill with a 12v adapter and laptop - nothing. Spoke with NASA again. Reassured me that it has been tested OK and ran for several hours without problem. Must be the antenna. More hours spent checking, rechecking, rejoining, rewiring all to no avail....

Had been PMing Talbot about this. He answered an earlier post that a made as he has just got his working. He offered to take me to his cat and try my unit there (Gosport). Went there last Wednesday afternoon. He showed me his unit working fine and then we plugged mine in - nothing! Plugged his in - sang like a canary. My unit was evidently duff....

Spoke with Tony the friendly engineer at NASA. He was very surprised. 'send me the unit ' and I'll send a replacement... More money on a jiffy bag and special delivery to send the unit back (interestingly, half the cost that I paid to get it back FROM them). Replacement arrived and BINGO! It works straight away. All weekend, no problem. Solved. Job done. Only thing is....

I'm now the best part of £20, several hours and a gallon of petrol out of pocket for a unit that was duff to start with and sent back as tested OK but still actually duff. I phoned friendly Tony to tell him that the replacement unit works and to say that I think I should AT LEAST gert the £9.99 back that I had to pay in ransom to get the unit back the first time. This was on Friday morning - 'Don't think that will be possible, we can't find anything wrong with the original unit..... should have sent it back via JGTech.... its all in small-print see...MD's policy'
No problem, Tony, you're the engineer. I understand if you cannont make that decision. Ask the MD to give me a bell....
Monday morning- nothing. Phoned Tony. "Well... MD's very busy.. loads of notes on his desk....."
Tuesday morning - nothing
Tuesday afternoon, phoned the MD, Alan Mulley, who is absolutly adament that there is nothing wrong with ther unit and politely told me that they are always getting units to check that turn out to be fine. Apparently the problems are always to do with people not interfacing them properly. Was not even prepared to conceded that despite the fact that the replacement worked stright away, and the origianl unit did not work when tested on the other boat, it must be my fault. No way could he refund me my money. Recommended that I write a letter to be read at the next board meeting. I politely told him that if I wrote a letter, it would be to the sailing magazines to let other potential customers know the attitude of the people they are dealing with!

Thank-you for taking the time to read this. I feel much better now. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
NASA "service" has been widely reported as crap for some time. Support is also poor. specifications minimal to non-existent.

but if it works ok then it is half decent stuff , so you pays your money and takes your chances!
 
I am well fed up with useless service in general. I spoke to C-map yesterday and the rep there sounded like it had been a bit a nuisance to take my call. She seemed quite unable to listen or discuss things fully so I could find out all I needed to know. I gave up and tried two dealers before I got someone who cared. I can handle the 'I don't know the answer but will find out' touch but get steaming furious when people act like it's not their problem or is too much trouble. Here is why it is always their problem and why it is always worth keeping customers happy..... I was about to buy a NASA unit at £99.00. Won't now so there goes their £9.99 profit - your postage costs. Hope this makes you feel better! Companies should be aware of the power of the internet never mind adverse publicity from magazines.
 
I quite simply cannot understand the attitute of companies like this, it costs them very little to provide the generous and excellent service of the type regularly commented on from Garmin, Whale an the like, and which must generate considerable new business for them. Your post, for which I commend you, will however loose them many many customers - all for £9.99 which must be considerably less than the profit they make on a single unit. Quite beyond my understanding!
 
Truth of the matter is that NASA are on to a good thing with the AIS engine. There's nothing else on the market close to the price and the unit's hidden away so even the folks who wouldn't normally have 'cheap' NASA gear on the boat can fit one. Until someone comes along with a competitively priced alternative I can't see them being too worried.
 
I am actually surprised ....

I believe your post and cannot agree that NASA ae right in this given your text. I assume - and please I am not trying to be rude - that all is reported straight and without embellishment.

NASA on many occasions - contrary to a post replying to you - has been commented on as being good service even though they are a budget company.

I am appalled at the disregard shown by NASA here and hope that it is a one-off and MD / staff take note.
 
Very pleased to say that I have had a totally different experience with NASA. My Clipper digital compass went on the fritz after about 18 months, ie out of guarantee. Called NASA & got straight through to someone who clearly knew what they were talking about. He asked several pertinent questions & then said to send it back (just the compass unit, not the display). Did so, it was returned in about a week & only charge was postage. As far as I am concerned they got full marks for that one, and remainder of the NASA stuff, ie log & Echo sounder, has remained fully functional since purchase about 4 years ago. Good value for money IMHO.
 
Have used NASA kit for years, and they have been unfailingly helpful to me, both with a warranty failure on Target Log, an out of warranty repair on Target Log, and a tech problem with interfacing Clipper GPS repeater to Garmin.
Never been charged much either.
Dont know whats going wrong now, but I hope they get back to their old level of service before my next visit to them!
 
Hi,
I have heard that there will be another really decent price AIS engine available for the Southampton boat show with Maptech. They will not give out much information but are hoping to have something available to go with their new software.
 
NASA are completely wrong. The problem is borne by the fact that they cannot accept that their test procedures are wrongly showing the unit as OK. Clearly the unit is faulty. It was tested in a working setup and didn't work. A different unit did! When the replacemnet arrived, I plugged it into my boat and it worked immediatly. There is no configuration, just wires to connect! I was not prepared for their response, it is just crazy!

Surely, if they are testing the unit OK, when it is in fact faulty I have done them a favour by showing that their test procedures aren't reliable. That, or they assumed it was 'user error' when I sent it back the first time and they didn't actually test it. Its the wasted time that gets me, the money is secondary really....
 
I've also found NASA to be excellent when I've had dealings with them. Friendly, helpful and reasonably priced. Their equipment may not be super high tech but it's good value for money and I've always found it does what it says on the box.
 
certainly agree that good customer service should be publicised and bad service also .

Agree based on what you explain that nasa not covered themselves in glory albeit if it had been me suspect I might have approached supplier in first instance (who you praise) as my understanding is that our rights as purchaser lie with the supplier not the manufacturer,

would love to know if your original unit that they maintain was tested and fault free is reboxed and sent out for the next buyer to suffer?
 
i bought a nasa clipper navtex, straight out of the box, it did not work properly, black screen, the manual mentioned the contrast adjustment, but nothing happened, so i rang nasa and whoever i rang, basically said that it worked when we sent it out, so we can't do anything for you, he was that abrupt. so i ended up sending it back to the chandlers who did replace it for a new one, the new one has been great for the last 5 years, and has been an irreplacable bit of kit. The off handedness of the few is appalling, any company are only as good as the customers think it is.

i think you should have sent it back to the chandlers you got it from, and asked for a new one before reverting back to the manufacturer, the chandlery will have more clout then 1 customer.. (although i think that a lot of people will sit up and take note of your complaint), write a letter to the editor, to highlight your bad service, you might not get your £9.99 back, but you could be a bottle of whiskey better off to drown your sorrows, whilst watching you ais...

but with the bad service you have had, forewarned is forearmed....

good luck on whatever you decide....
 
I accept that the normal recourse would be to take it back to the supplier, but the supplier was mailorder (JGTech) and I couldn't conclusivly say that it was faulty, just that I couldn't get it to work. I sent it back to NASA after speaking to them, with the intetntion of confirming that it was definatly OK rather than because I suspected it to be faulty. I just wanted to eliminate it as a potential problem before buying new coax and aerial. After all, its a black box. What could be wrong with it?

All I wanted from NASA was for them to refund the £9.99 that they'd charged me to send it back (which, incidently, was a bit crisp!) as it turns out the box was faulty. I wasn't even quibbling about the postage I'd paid (twice!) to send the boxes back to them.

What goes around comes around.....
 
I have to say that I have had good service from them. Spoke to them regarding depth sounder installation and fittings, ordered part and arrived 2 days later. They produce budget priced kit that does what it is designed to. As has been mentioned previously, until there is kit at this price they have nothing to worry about... just look at Raymarine's prices for exmple!! (£1k for log, depth, wind as supposed to £300 from NASA)
 
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