I might as well "walk the walk." I bought an ICOM M-88 handheld at West last
July, before taking my new-to-me trawler back to Annapolis. I settled for
their last one, which was an open box item. They said it had been returned
by "someone known to the store." It worked well and then sat unused.
In April, I went to use it and it turned on just fine and worked. They next
day it was dead and I could not charge the battery. I took it back to the
same West store and they did a great differential diagnosis and offered to
sell me a new battery, gave me the number for ICOM customer support but
doubted that the battery was warranted, and declined to give me a
replacement radio. In addition, they could not find my transaction on their
PC terminal and asserted that it was a Port Supply purchase - not true and
those purchases become part of your record.
Later, while on the West website, I saw an opportunity to give West some
feedback and I did so, in detail to include their pricing. It turned out
that my views allegedly coincided with the opinions of their new CEO. West
said that the store should have replaced the unit. They told me to take it
to the store and I would get a new one without returning the old one.
This happened and the store staff was retrained. The regional manager called
and we had a good talk and I am completely satisfied. I got an email from
ICOM detailing the care of the ICOM M-88. They thought that I must have
overcharged the battery. Guess what, the thing was so relatively expensive
that I read the manual before charging!
Finally, I figured-out what probably had happened. The person who first
bought the unit had over-charged the Li-ion battery. Of course, ICOM should
furnish a charger that shuts itself off, but that is another story. All my
other equipment that relies upon Li-ion batteries lets you leave the battery
in the charger - so beware. Oh, and there was something wrong with my
confused Boat US/West account because I just received discount coupons for
all the purchases I made last year.
Ron Rogers
I might as well "walk the walk." I bought an ICOM M-88 handheld at West last
July, before taking my new-to-me trawler back to Annapolis. I settled for
their last one, which was an open box item. They said it had been returned
by "someone known to the store." It worked well and then sat unused.
In April, I went to use it and it turned on just fine and worked. They next
day it was dead and I could not charge the battery. I took it back to the
same West store and they did a great differential diagnosis and offered to
sell me a new battery, gave me the number for ICOM customer support but
doubted that the battery was warranted, and declined to give me a
replacement radio. In addition, they could not find my transaction on their
PC terminal and asserted that it was a Port Supply purchase - not true and
those purchases become part of your record.
Later, while on the West website, I saw an opportunity to give West some
feedback and I did so, in detail to include their pricing. It turned out
that my views allegedly coincided with the opinions of their new CEO. West
said that the store should have replaced the unit. They told me to take it
to the store and I would get a new one without returning the old one.
This happened and the store staff was retrained. The regional manager called
and we had a good talk and I am completely satisfied. I got an email from
ICOM detailing the care of the ICOM M-88. They thought that I must have
overcharged the battery. Guess what, the thing was so relatively expensive
that I read the manual before charging!
Finally, I figured-out what probably had happened. The person who first
bought the unit had over-charged the Li-ion battery. Of course, ICOM should
furnish a charger that shuts itself off, but that is another story. All my
other equipment that relies upon Li-ion batteries lets you leave the battery
in the charger - so beware. Oh, and there was something wrong with my
confused Boat US/West account because I just received discount coupons for
all the purchases I made last year.
Ron Rogers
