Lowrance install question

[Z521Bass]

I have a quick question, my son's marina charged him for 10 hours to install a Lowarance without the side imaging hooked up. That sounds like an awful lot of time for the basic install. Or is that the norm?

It was the HDS-7 Gen 2 on a 22' CC bay boat. I just cannot see how someone can take 10 hours to install that.

[lilmule]

Some boats are not easy to run wiring in,but that does sound excessive ask the lowrance guys.$60 dollars an hr,as that is pretty much normal shop fee?
I run my own but takes awhile,couple of hrs .

[bassboogieman]

I did a couple installs on my boat - a 21' bass boat. First a lowrance 510C in the dash and a 5200C beside the helm. Two seperate units, one sonar the other GPS. I did both which included installing a new transducer for the sonar in the hull, an external GPS antenna, a RAM mount, a seperate fuse panel and indivisual power switches in under 4 hours.

A few years later I replaced the 5200C and my unit on the front deck with Humminbird SI units. The fuse panel and switches were already in place. I had to change the GPS antenna, the RAM to a heavier unit to hold my 1197 and a 797 replaced a Lowrance unit on the deck and the transducer on the t/m and add a new transducer mounted on my jackplate. That was close to 3 hours including removal of the old units.

I did it all myself, no special tools or training. If a shop charged you 10 hours - they are thieves.

[nobass]

i just install a gen two in my boat. it was a hds5 but wiring and all are the same. even with bum knees was done in a little less than four hours

[lilmule]

I think center console is the root of the problem,yet still excessive.
About half that if they had feed problems.

[Z521Bass]

Thanks guys. The shop rate was $95.00 an hour. I called them today and they said it was 10 hours because 2 installers worked on it for five hours and I called BS. I called Visa today and put a stop on the payment and told them I was doing so. There were not happy but then all of the sudden a shop manger gets on the phone and says they will look into it. Well a few hours later after they seen I was not kidding with Visa, they all of the sudden got the billing "error" fixed and it was only five hours. They did explain that a CC is harder than a bass boat but this was an upgrade to what was already on there. They just tried to pull a fast one.

[Z521Bass]

*They excuse the typo

[bassboogieman]

EXCELLENT! Glad they reconsidered and gave you what was a fairer price. I still think a $500 install was excessive, a flat rate would be much better for the owner, but the shop has to make a profit. I much prefer negoiating a flat rate whenever possible, as we all know not every minute of that hourly charge is devoted to the actual work. AND WHY were two guys doing a sonar install? Four hands are certainly NOT required, and I would bet the farm, two of those hands were not very productive - likely the reason the manager reduced the charges. Again, happy things worked out better for you.

[Z521Bass]

I tell what bothers me as much as trying to get away with it, is the fact that we need to go this far with things when doing business. I no longer have confidence that when I buy or pay for anything that it is going to be as expected. Seems like we are on the phone with credit card companies, insurance companies, utility companies, etc all the time trying to get billing issues corrected. I wonder how many people never look and just go on about their business just to be taking it in the shorts and never know about it.