Who'd of thunked ?? The manufacture disrespecting the end user/customer - but here I am.
Okay short story long - and Joe Kee, I'll also send this to you in an email. The first unit I ordered from the guys here at BuyGPSnow. That part was without issue and flowed smoothly. I'm happy do far. I get my BU-353, installed Prolithic USB to serial port emulator (not happy about that design flaw) and my DeLorme 2006 grabs it and locks with in seconds!!! WOW ... inside my house no less. I'm impressed. I use this over the next few weeks and I'm, like everyone else, hugely impressed with the BU-353's performance. Then at about 6-7 weeks out it dies. No lights. No camera. No action. BuyGPSnow tells me that the manufacture is the first line of defense and that I need to take it up with them and offers that if I do not get resolution quickly that they'll contact them on my behalf. (stellar!) So I send USGlobalSat my BU-353, serial number 23281 which they get a few days later and confirm my findings - it's d-e-a-d, DEAD! and tell me that they'll send me a replacement right away. Okay... so far so good. The unit I get from them is first off serial numbered 7950 (a MUCH older unit) and second doesn't work. Specifically, it powers up, I can see data from it but after an hour or so outside it never gets a lock. Date and time still show a date in 2006 or 2005 if I remember. I try it on another laptop just to be sure. Same results. I try the SatINFO program and it shows the same ... data but no sat lock. So I call USGlobalSAT back. Tell them that I was displeased that I was sent an older item and one that also does not work. They issue me another RMA - they get the unit in hand - and call me to tell me .... it works for us !! (wtf?) Okay ... so ... I said to the lady that I really felt much better if I got a different unit back and one that was closer to the serial range that I had *purchased*. She said okay. Fast forward to today... I get the return package from USGlobalSAT, open it, and what do you think I find? Yeppers ... my BU-353 serial number 7950 back!!! (SOaB) Only now ... when I plug it in .. it actually works ... well sort of. Now I'm connecting it to the very same laptop I'd used just a few weeks prior. It connects and lock fairly quickly. However, it's signal strength is much lower then before. The lock level keeps floating from 2d to 3d and back. No way will it lock while sitting next to the house let alone inside like the first one did. So now I am pissed off. I feel like USGlobalSAT has lied to me. Cheated me by replacing my unit with an older unit. And required me to waste time in resolving this issue just so that I can use the product I purchased in the first place!!! I know that there have been product updates and revisions made to the BU-353 since the first ones rolled off the assembly line. All I'm asking is for 1) one that works 2) at the performance level the first one did prior to it's failure 3) in the serial range close to or later then my first one. And I did provide the serial number info to the lady I spoke with at USGlobalSAT so they did know.
[getting down off soap box] So .. my question here to the fine people at BuyGPSnow is ... what can you do to make me happy again?