Garmin Customer Service is FAB.

[EltonFrog]

This year, back in May I bought a Garmin 410 sat nav watch doodad. It very worked well, though the touch bezel thingy took a bit of getting used to, but I liked the gadget and it did what said on the tin.

Anyway on Thursday it all went a bit Pete Tonge and froze and would not sync to the pooter. So I went to the Garmin site and blow me down with a head wind, there was a UK phone number, which I called and got put through to an English speaking operative in England, who was helpful and not patronising!

Anyway he talked me through a couple of things to see if we could get the watch going, to no avail. He gave me a returns number and I sent the watch back on Friday morning.

I got an email saying that they received the watch, and that they were going to send a replacement, the replacement was the next watch up, a Garmin 610. A couple of hours later i recieved another email telling me the watch had veen despatched. Today it arrived, I was expecting a refurb thing, but I received a brand spanking new one!

I was bit peeved that the watch went wrong, and I thought that I'd have bit of grief getting it sorted. However there were no arguments, no having to be assertive, no having to bang on about sale of goods, not fit for purpose, none of that.

They just replaced it. I am very very pleased with the service that I got from Garmin.


I just thought I'd share. Carry on.

 

[ianrauk]

Yup, they are well known for their excellent customer service.
A lot of other companies could do well to learn from Garmin.

 

[EltonFrog]

Yup, they are well known for their excellent customer service.
A lot of other companies could do well to learn from Garmin.

Too right! BT being one of them.

 

[zizou]

+ to good customer service from Garmin

Have an edge 800 and after about a years use the HRM started acting up, changed the battery and the problem was still there. Phoned them expect to have to complain but they just asked for my details and sent out a new one which i received the next day! This new one itself started acting up after about a year of use so had to phone them up again and again a new one was sent.

Good customer service always pays itself back in the future too - rather than be annoyed and put off with the problems experienced (there is obviously a design fault in the premium strap) i'll be happy to be the customer again in the future.

 

[400bhp]

Another +

They sent me some spare bits & bobs for my 705 free of charge.

It's a French company too

 

[snorri]

I was not too impressed with the 'Handlebar mount bracket' bought for my Garmin Etrex.
This is a two part item, one part is fixed to the 'bars, the other is a replacement cover for the battery compartment which fitted OK but could not be secured until I did some genteel paring of the plastic moulding to allow the locking pin to rotate through 90degrees and hold the cover firmly in place.
Time someone checked the tolerances on their moulding machines

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Def not the experience I had.
Had a Garmin. Edge and a month after the warranty ran out it started turning itself off.
After a web search I found it was a common problem with a design fault, the face and back start to come apart and the battery connection is just a couple of sprung connectors rather than wired.
Kept using it but inundate it turned off more frequently.

Contacted Garmin, explained fault n was told they would fix it for $75.
I said it was a design fault and known for 3 years and that it was just out of warranty.
After a bit of toing n froing, they eventually replaced it with a refurb.
The new one was sh1t getting satt acquisition so I flogged it.

 

[MichaelO]

Yup, they are well known for their excellent customer service.
A lot of other companies could do well to learn from Garmin.

My Edge 500 wouldn't sync with my PC - dropped them an email, and after a couple of efforts at rectifying, it was returned & they sent a brand new one within a week. I was very impressed!

 

[EltonFrog]

I'm in California this week, we're doing a half marathon in Disneyland. Yesterday I broke the pin that holds the strap on the watch whilst on a run.

Today at the event expo, where you collect your bib number there was a Garmin stand, not expecting much success I just asked if they had a replacement pin knocking about. The nice lady there replaced the pin, the buckle part of the strap and gave a complete spare strap free of charge.

Unbelievable! I didn't even buy the watch in the U.S., the watch is over 4 years old.

Above and beyond the call of duty that.

 

[mattobrien]

I have found Garmin excellent. I had an issue with my 510, they helped me resolve it but had said if that didn't work they'd send me a new one. Also I had a vivosmart activity tracker, the screen faded and they sent a new on free of charge.

That said it must pay off as on our household we have;
Edge 510
Edge 520
Edge 820
Forerunner 25
Forerunner 35
Forerunner 230
Vivosmart he

Plus a couple of sat navs for the cars. Very happy with Garmin and will stick with them.

 

[Markymark]

It's good to hear their customer service is good, especially as their products are so crap and freeze all the time.

 

[HarryTheDog]

I sent a Garmin 1000 away for replacement ( It had died in the rain, full of water, out of warranty so paid 85 quid for a refurbished one) on the website it should have been replaced within 15 working days, ended up well over a month, they told me they were out of stock, at least they were pleasant about it but still a pain in the arse. Also I have to agree with @Markymark , my old 1000 would develop some silly fault freezing etc usually every couple of months or so. My refurbished one is only a month or so old and has done it already, had to do the plug into computer hold down lots of buttons trick.

 

[HLaB]

Def not the experience I had.
Had a Garmin. Edge and a month after the warranty ran out it started turning itself off.
After a web search I found it was a common problem with a design fault, the face and back start to come apart and the battery connection is just a couple of sprung connectors rather than wired.
Kept using it but inundate it turned off more frequently.

Contacted Garmin, explained fault n was told they would fix it for $75.
I said it was a design fault and known for 3 years and that it was just out of warranty.
After a bit of toing n froing, they eventually replaced it with a refurb.
The new one was sh1t getting satt acquisition so I flogged it.

Too late now but it wasn't a 305 was it? Mine started doing that quite a bit after it was out of warranty when I phoned them they said exactly that '
it was a common problem' and they'd replace it FOC. I had a sportive that weekend asnd I thought even the it'd be a pain for it to get turned round in time but they did
My other experience of them was a 1000 refusing to switch on but that was in warranty but they were just as quick.
And as things come in threes a year later I was stupid and never attached the 1000 correctly and on a rough section of road it flew off. I searched for ages for it but by the time I found it a HGV and other traffic had flattened it. Chanced my arm and phoned Garmin, 'we are sorry sir as its not a warranty issue we'll have to charge you £75', £75 v £300

 

[huggy]

Another +

They sent me some spare bits & bobs for my 705 free of charge.

It's a French company too

In the same way McDonald's is?

It's American with an administrative HQ in Switzerland.

 

[dim]

I frequent the Garmin Forum often .... one complaint that pops up often is that some Garmin satnavs have bugs ..... they release a new software update which then fixes the problem, but creates a new problem on a different feature on the satnav

many have said that if a new software patch is released, don't upgrade to that until you have read the reports on the garmin forums

but saying that though, my Edge 500 works flawlessly, and my Edge 1000 works fine except once in a while it switches off by itself during a ride. No major problem as you don't loose any info when you switch it back on (Garmin are aware of the problem, and it should be fixed on the next software update)