Standard Horizon UK www.standardhorizon.co.uk

This opinion concerns the United Kingdom division of STANDARD HORIZON, part of the Japanese multi-national YAESU/VERTEX STANDARD group that manufactures two-way radios and navigation equipment. While the products are, for the most part, of high quality and functionality, and the brands therefore justifiably esteemed by users at large, I am unimpressed by Standard Horizon’s UK customer relations, which have often been lack-lustre, ill-informed and, in a few cases, quite boorish.

I was also harshly informed by a representative that Standard Horizon UK does not provide literature for its legacy products, which means that if, several years ago, you purchased a Standard Horizon product that has since been superceded by a newer model, you can no longer obtain from the UK company, or its web site, a manual or any other document relating to the older product you own. The only legacy documents I’ve managed to find on the Internet relate to Standard Horizon products once sold in the US/Canada. Yet, since these products were often slightly different from similar ones sold in the UK during the same period, the US/Canadian manuals are not the most helpful.

Consequently, and given the wide range of competing products in the UK marketplace, I am resolved to think twice before purchasing any more Standard Horizon kit. Apart from the shoddy customer relations mentioned above, it looks as if this firm treats its North American customers more favourably than its UK ones and, in my view, neither of these things constitute what is generally considered to be ‘rewarding behaviour’.