Great Repair Service from Scotty!

rowswell

Member
Had another impressive Service experience from Scotty this week & wanted to share it.

On my boat, I have a pair of Scotty downriggers that are both over 15 years old that get regular use 12 months of the year on both sides of the Island. Over the years, they have given me great service & helped me catch a lot of fish. While they have needed the odd bit of maintenance (no surprise in the environment they live in), I've never had a quibble when I have taken them in to the local repair depot (Gone Fishin' in Nanaimo) when I've had a problem (both have had the switches replaced at least once and one had a cracked take up spool replaced).

Mid week two weeks back, I found on arriving at the boat to go out fishing that the house battery was flat. Pretty quickly (by bridging the house & starter batteries), I found that the problem was that the power switch on one of the riggers had failed after I had returned to dock & it had drained the battery. I took it into Gone Fishin' the next day & dropped it off, telling them I was pretty sure it was a problem in the switch. They warned me it would take a few days as switches were on back order & they had a backlog in the shop - not surprising it being the tail end of the season for most & labour day weekend was in the way. Friday PM I got a call it was ready to pick up & that the reason it had taken a bit longer to repair was they had to send it to Scotty for the repair.

Saturday I picked it up. I think the reason it had gone to Scotty was they weren't able to replace the switch on site as when they had replaced it a few years back, the leads were too short to splice a new one in. Fair enough I thought, as it meant there weren't 2 splices in the leads which would have been an extra place for a future problem . However, on looking at the rigger when I got home, I found there is also a new power cord - which wasn't necessary for a switch replacement. Being a curious sort - I took a peak inside the relay housing to see how they had done the replacement & found Scotty has replaced not only the switch & power cord, they have replaced the relay, circuit breaker &, because the leads look new, I think possibly even the motor!

While I know Scotty promises lifetime warranty of the product, for a rigger that has had regular use for such a long time to get such a total overhaul with no questions asked has blown me away & I had to share my experience.

2 thumbs up!!
 
Scottys customer service really is the best. I live in Sidney so whenever I have a problem I just drop my gear off at their facility and its ready to go within a couple days, shortest turnaround was about 5 minutes. Never costs me a thing either, at least for the 2 riggers I bought brand-new. I believe they charge for repairs on previously-owned gear (as they should) - I mean we want to keep them in business, right?
 
i have always had good service , EXCEPT , now with this new digital depth counter .....
if it ain't broke dont fix it...is my believe but they had some genius convince them to change to the digital and it is a complete failure.
I have taken mine in twice now and have used it a couple months at most and is leaking not working again.
I took it back to service and they are not warranty this F-up.....i have to BUY a new replacement....WTF?
50 something bucks and its probably going to do the same thing...
i think they should do a complete RECALL....
I,m Not Happy ....
 
i have always had good service , EXCEPT , now with this new digital depth counter .....
if it ain't broke dont fix it...is my believe but they had some genius convince them to change to the digital and it is a complete failure.
I have taken mine in twice now and have used it a couple months at most and is leaking not working again.
I took it back to service and they are not warranty this F-up.....i have to BUY a new replacement....WTF?
50 something bucks and its probably going to do the same thing...
i think they should do a complete RECALL....
I,m Not Happy ....

On the salt sometimes simple is better, sure they fog up and are hard to see in low light but they just keep working. But hey digital is cool.
 
its only cool if it works....
mechanical is simple ...every revolution the pin hit the counter...what was wrong with that?
Dave at HWT says its a headache and big screwup...Scotty needs to stand behind this poor design.
 
I have the old (20 + years) down riggers that are working as good as when they were new. Never found the counters hard to read. In my mind hard to read is better than nothing to read.
 
go to scotty website...
they design crap digital counter that does not work , then make a strong point and post that warranty only good for original buyer with proof of purchase ,
and expires after 2 yrs.
not standing up for their crap new product tells me that this once great company is changing.....the wrong way.
They should do a recall..... more of us need to complain to dealers for this as you cannot email direct.
 
Too bad this thread can't have the title corrected to "Great [and Crappy] Repair Service from Scotty"

I have the older riggers with the mechanical counters. They cease and jam up eventually ( I have had newer ones do this as well ) so not perfect but at least they replace them free with a registered rigger. One of the reasons I have not purchased the HP riggers is the counter issue. I would think they'd 'fix' this for customers rather than get a bad rep.
 
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