Beware of Lowrance

This is a warning to all about the extremely poor regard that Lowrance has for standing by and supporting its products and its customers. There is something very wrong at that company - I can't for the life of me understand why they would leave so many loyal customers in such a lurch. After being a very competitive alternative for handheld aviation GPS units for many years (I have purchased 3 of them over the years; an Airmap 100, then a 500, and most recently the 600C), about 6 months ago they summarily discontinued their entire aviation GPS line. I can understand that as a business decision, but what I cannot understand is the sudden stoppage of data update support, with absolutely no warning or communication to its customer base, and absolute disregard for the impact it would have on them, or their own reputation evidently. Aviation data changes are important and are on a 28 day update cycle. My 600c is only about 2 years old, still very functional, with at least several more years of useful life. But without the updates, it rapidly becomes a brick of useless extra weight. The updates were downloaded directly to an SD card, or else a new card could ordered for delivery by mail - both low overhead processes. But Lowrance refuses to do anything to remedy or ease the impact of the predicament it has forced on its loyal customers - say with a gradual phase out, for instance. It would seem like a great business opportunity for some enterprising third party to pick up and continue their data update support, but any attempt to suggest this to their phone support is met with complete disinterest. I wonder if there are others here on the POI forums who have experienced the same frustration? I searched and didn't see any mention of this. I will never buy from this company again - if they can screw one group of customers this badly, they can and likely will do it to others over time. Beware, stay away from this company!