Raymarine ripoff - is this a record?

eastcoastbernie

eastcoastbernie

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Me: Cambs Boat: SYH Levington
www.ritzystitches.com
I have a little portable chartplotter, an RC400. Well, I have a very small boat, so it seemed appropriate.

It works OK, the screen is rather small, well obviously, but it is a useful way of making sure you are actually where you think you are.

It has a lead which connects to the 12v thingy - regular cigar lighter thingy on one end and then a special connector on the other end which fits into the RC400.

For some time the special connector has been looking a bit sorry for itself and has come to pieces on the odd occasion and has needed to be put back together again. This weekend the cigar lighter end fell apart and had to be re-assembled. So I thought it might be a good idea to get another lead so I had a spare in case it couldn't be mended next time.

Phoned up a Raymarine dealer and asked if they could send me one and how much would it cost. With postage, about £45.00.

Now I think that's a ripoff. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Bernie
Try contacting Raymarine direct.
My RAY45 vhf grip fell apart when i dropped it.
it was just out of warranty but i explained that i didnt abuse it and having spoken to the local agent understood they had quite a few sets where this had happened.....not fit for purpose.....

New radio arrived a few days later...
 
Definitely!!

Had a somewhat similar situation (not Raymarine) which required a new cable- found an electronics shop on local yellow pages- they reconnected for a tenner.

Big business = big overheads
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have a little portable chartplotter, an RC400. Well, I have a very small boat, so it seemed appropriate.

It works OK, the screen is rather small, well obviously, but it is a useful way of making sure you are actually where you think you are.

It has a lead which connects to the 12v thingy - regular cigar lighter thingy on one end and then a special connector on the other end which fits into the RC400.

For some time the special connector has been looking a bit sorry for itself and has come to pieces on the odd occasion and has needed to be put back together again. This weekend the cigar lighter end fell apart and had to be re-assembled. So I thought it might be a good idea to get another lead so I had a spare in case it couldn't be mended next time.

Phoned up a Raymarine dealer and asked if they could send me one and how much would it cost. With postage, about £45.00.

Now I think that's a ripoff. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really a rip off in my book. Including postage about right.

I doubt if these things are produced on a mass scale. I take it that there is a cigar fitting one end and a special fitting at the other.

Could you not buy a marine cigar fitting for about £10 and then reuse the other end fitting ?
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have a little portable chartplotter, an RC400. Well, I have a very small boat, so it seemed appropriate.

It works OK, the screen is rather small, well obviously, but it is a useful way of making sure you are actually where you think you are.

It has a lead which connects to the 12v thingy - regular cigar lighter thingy on one end and then a special connector on the other end which fits into the RC400.

For some time the special connector has been looking a bit sorry for itself and has come to pieces on the odd occasion and has needed to be put back together again. This weekend the cigar lighter end fell apart and had to be re-assembled. So I thought it might be a good idea to get another lead so I had a spare in case it couldn't be mended next time.

Phoned up a Raymarine dealer and asked if they could send me one and how much would it cost. With postage, about £45.00.

Now I think that's a ripoff. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really a rip off in my book. Including postage about right.

I doubt if these things are produced on a mass scale. I take it that there is a cigar fitting one end and a special fitting at the other.

Could you not buy a marine cigar fitting for about £10 and then reuse the other end fitting ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Apologies - just re-read the post. Other end has had it as well -apologies.

Having had some experience of this kind of thing, it would probably be a fairly low turnover item, so money would be sitting there for some time.
 
45 squids for a bit of wire and a couple of tuppeny plastic duberries!!!!?????

Not a rip off......what planet are you on fella?

You must have so much money that it's caused you to loose touch with reallity! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
That's nothing. It cost me £40 to be to told there was nothing wrong with the instrument head on my Tridata.

What's a rip off is that this is a simple power lead and there must be hundreds of generic common leads available rather than some bespoke small volume production which costs the earth.
 
[ QUOTE ]
there must be hundreds of generic common leads available rather than some bespoke small volume production which costs the earth.

[/ QUOTE ] But then there would be no excuse for charging £45 if you could get a generic one on ebay for £3.50.
 
[ QUOTE ]
45 squids for a bit of wire and a couple of tuppeny plastic duberries!!!!?????

Not a rip off......what planet are you on fella?

You must have so much money that it's caused you to loose touch with reallity! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Just someone trying to make a living for a slow moving item. Most East Coast sail makers charge about £45 plus vat per hour not delivered . I expect Bernie charges something like this. That depends on how much work you can get of course.

Is the same thing very much cheaper somewhere else ?
 
I think the clue is in the 'special fitting.' Im sure that some industry standard fitting would probably do the job just as well.

I'm not in manufacturing, but I was once told that there is not much profit in a manufactured item but the real money was in spares. I also seem to remember an article where a £6k motorbike was priced as a complete set of spares. It came to over £30k.

So yes its a ripoff in terms of the role of the 'special fitting,' but this seems to be standard manufacturing practise. However, just because it's normal doesn't make it OK.

P
 
I think that a lot of yotties have very thick wallets..........








And brains to match! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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