Raymarine Plotter; Fixed Price repair

[Spirit of Glenans]

I have a Raymarine Chartplotter an A65, a model which now seems to be "obsolete". It was bought new in2010, but due to an unfortunate train of events it could not be used until last year, whereupon it packed up 24 hours into the first passage and will not now power up successfully.
Google research has informed me that I can send it to Raymarine for a fixed price repair @ £190 approximately (+spare parts), while a firm advertising on eBay offers the same service for £65. I am somewhat mystified by the huge divergence in price.
Has anyone on here used either of these services? I would be interested to hear comments.

 

[laika]

If the fixed price repair on eBay is The Service Centre in wareham, you'll find a few threads on here if you search with none that I recall being negative. My experience was positive and I'd use them again. They actually sent my AIS unit to raymarine for a fixed price repair and charged me less (although not much) than Raymarine would have if I'd sent it to them directly. The service centre's main business is fixing things. Raymarine's is flogging new products.

Before you send the plotter away see how it works attached via a fuse and short thick cable to the batteries. Voltage drops and dodgy power connections seem to cause a few problems.

 

[apollo]

I agree, i recently had mine repaired with the Service Centre and they turned it around quickly.

 

[Billy Blue]

Another plus for the £65 fixed price plus cost of parts service centre. I sent my Raymarine C80 plotter for repair recently. I quickly received a quote on the price of the parts, I gave the go ahead and got my plotter back within a few days.

 

[Spirit of Glenans]

The Service Centre it is then
Thanks everyone!

 

[jonic]

The Service Centre it is then
Thanks everyone!

Another plus from me too. Used them several times both personally and for clients.

 

[omega2]

Before you send it pull the power cable out and then stick it back in again, it may work.

 

[Spirit of Glenans]

Before you send it pull the power cable out and then stick it back in again, it may work.

I actually had it off the boat over the winter and brought it back and re-connected it a couple of times to try different tricks to reset it, to no avail. It's in the post now anyway.

 

[Richard10002]

I used The Service Centre for a repair on my Course Computer about 7 years ago. They sent me a report saying they could supply the latest course computer for about a thousand quid. I wasnt impressed. There was no doubt in my mind that it could have been opened up and some electronic bits replaced - MOSFETS I think.