My Garmin Edge 500 has had problems for about 9 months, the buttons sporadically stop working but then just as I’m about the ship it back they usually come back to life. They finally died for good so I called and they were going to have me send mine back and have one sent to me which was fine but I wanted to keep my unit until I got the new one, since I could at least see my power data (although the start/stop buttons don’t work so I cannot record). I paid a $180 deposit on a refurbished unit that I should get back whenever my old unit gets back.
They shipped the refurbished device via DHL, it was supposed to take between 2 and 5 days but because it is DHL it took 7. Anyways I now have my new device, but this device doesn’t work. It will not load GPS and constantly tries to “update GPS software” even though it is up to date with no update files on the device. I just got off the phone with technical support who spent about an hour trying various different things to get my device to work. It seemed pretty thorough, we went so far as formatting the Garmin but nothing came of it. This should not EVER happen, you DO NOT SEND BROKEN PRODUCTS AS WARRANTY REPLACEMENTS. I already had a broken device, I didn’t need another one. Anyways now I’m shipping back the new broken garmin. They wanted me to pay for this however, which was 100% not cool. You already wanted me to pay for shipping for one broken device which I consider lame, but now you send me a second broken device and you want me to pay for shipping for it as well. Luckily I pointed out the absurdity of this and they said they would send me a shipping label, but I’m still going to have to pay to send back my original eventually.
So far warranty service has been acceptable except for sending me a broken unit, which is the biggest customer service fail I have personally experienced. (Although I know others have had far worse)
My Garmin Edge 500 has had problems for about 9 months, the buttons sporadically stop working but then just as I’m about the ship it back they usually come back to life. They finally died for good so I called and they were going to have me send mine back and have one sent to me which was fine but I wanted to keep my unit until I got the new one, since I could at least see my power data (although the start/stop buttons don’t work so I cannot record). I paid a $180 deposit on a refurbished unit that I should get back whenever my old unit gets back.
They shipped the refurbished device via DHL, it was supposed to take between 2 and 5 days but because it is DHL it took 7. Anyways I now have my new device, but this device doesn’t work. It will not load GPS and constantly tries to “update GPS software” even though it is up to date with no update files on the device. I just got off the phone with technical support who spent about an hour trying various different things to get my device to work. It seemed pretty thorough, we went so far as formatting the Garmin but nothing came of it. This should not EVER happen, you DO NOT SEND BROKEN PRODUCTS AS WARRANTY REPLACEMENTS. I already had a broken device, I didn’t need another one. Anyways now I’m shipping back the new broken garmin. They wanted me to pay for this however, which was 100% not cool. You already wanted me to pay for shipping for one broken device which I consider lame, but now you send me a second broken device and you want me to pay for shipping for it as well. Luckily I pointed out the absurdity of this and they said they would send me a shipping label, but I’m still going to have to pay to send back my original eventually.
So far warranty service has been acceptable except for sending me a broken unit, which is the biggest customer service fail I have personally experienced. (Although I know others have had far worse)
I sent in my 705 and got a perfectly working unit back within a week. Their customer service was stellar in my experience.
If I had received a working device back I would be content and this post likely wouldn’t exist. I know many have had good experience with Garmin customer service before. The guy on the phone was nice enough and obviously frustrated he couldn’t get the device working as well, but they sent me a broken unit as a warranty.
Update: Despite being told on the 2nd that my second replacement device would be shipped out that day via UPS 2-day air (I called at 9am eastern time). It didn’t, nor did it it go out the next day, or the day after that. So I called them again yesterday evening and the nice customer service rep said they would get it out ASAP either that day or today (the 5th) in the morning. It shipped today at 3pm. Would should have taken less than a week, is now being dragged out into 2.5 weeks (all without power data collection on my end, which is part of what drives this severe frustration). If anyone wants to buy a garmin unit for cheap, I may be selling me “new” (refurbished) unit when I get it back.
I’d rather buy something I feel as though I can rely on, and get replaced quickly if it breaks.
My Garmin experience is very similar to yours but probably worse. Garmin simply made me give up. I have a defective/possessed Forerunner 410 that randomly goes switching screens (even with locked bezel) and sometimes just shuts off. It actually likes shutting off during races. I have simply been unable to return it to Garmin as every time I tried, they put me through their insane customer service process that requires I reinstall Garmin software on my desktop, do a firmware upgrade, etc. Even with the latest firmware the device exhibits the described above behavior. They seriously do not want their defective product back and do everything in their power to get you to keep it. At this point it’s out of warranty so Garmin won.
I had no issues and they got it to me all the way out in Korea when I had problems. The refurbished unit has been working great ever since, going on 8 months now. Just out of curiosity what device would you replace it with? A 510
I sent in my 705 and got a perfectly working unit back within a week. Their customer service was stellar in my experience.
John
I had a similar experience with Garmin 310xt. The customer service was amazing! I paid a deposit so I could keep my old watch while they sent me a refurb. Everything went like clockwork and the refurb worked perfectly. This is in stark contrast to the experiences I had dealing with Polar several years ago. After years of owning Polar watches (several different models) I finally got so sick of their shoddy customer service that I dumped them for Garmin. I’ve never looked back.
Good luck with this. I certainly hope it gets better for you.
My experience with them was frustrating as well. They eventually did the right thing, but I felt I had to negotiate with them to actually do it, instead of just doing it in the first place. I even had one of the reps tell me to “take the deal on the table or risk getting nothing”…thought that was tacky…
Sorry for your troubles, but your experience is unusual. Garmin didn’t get to their size by having terrible customer service.
That doesn’t help you of course, but neither will whining on ST.
I know that they typically have good-great customer service, I’ve heard of people getting devices way out of warranty replaced for no cost and rush shipping to get replacements before events. That hasn’t happened to me, and I’m just trying to share my experience. You can call it whining, I’m (trying) to state the facts. Honestly, I might be a one off in terms of my issues with my warranty replacement, but I fail to understand how you send out a broken device to someone who needs a broken device replaced. I’m likely just the guy who got the bad end of some mishaps, the refurbished unit that was never actually fixed and the paperwork lost for the shipping label. And the package the DHL accidentally forgot in their warehouse. Chances of it all happening to someone are probably low but I’ve personally lost faith in the process. WOO lucky me.
I guess you can chalk it up to shit happens. It shouldn’t, but it occasionally does.
I think you’ll get further if you send a personal letter to the VP Marketing (or customer service) at Garmin and lay out the details of your experience.
Warranty with garmin is a complex issue for one simple thing. it s easy to make mistake with those computer. I m in charge of a big part of the warranty for canada and i go beyond and above to make sure no costumer as to miss any workout because of warranty issue.
That said, 95% of the unit return to me because of ‘‘warranty issue’’ can be solve by me within the first 5 minutes of holding the unit in my hands. so i know very well when talking on the phone that the person is often making mistake and not willing to work with me to trouble shoot the unit. they want a new one very often instead of learning to use there unit.
a botton not responsive is a simple and legit warranty issue that should be taken care within a few minutes. That said, all my dealers have stock of units so costumer can be taken care of right away without any wait. That is the big advantage of supporting your local bike/run store in canada at least.
That said, 95% of the unit return to me because of ‘‘warranty issue’’ can be solve by me within the first 5 minutes of holding the unit in my hands. so i know very well when talking on the phone that the person is often making mistake and not willing to work with me to trouble shoot the unit. they want a new one very often instead of learning to use there unit. .
That’s unfortunate! I’m always disspointed when I can’t diagnose something myself, I personally tried everything I knew how to do with the warranty replacement that didn’t work before calling garmin, hard reset, soft reset, reinstalled garmin firmware from computer, all updates. Ultimately it seemed as though it wouldn’t hold the GPS chipset update for some reason, the customer service rep I worked with on the phone spent a good hour with me, and by the sounds of it some time running around the office for other ideas as to went wrong. I would much rather have a working unit than a new unit, no matter how pretty it is. I just want to see the numbers AND record the data.
I just had my 310xt warranted and received the replacement unit yesterday with no issue. My customer service experience with them was flawless, I hope they get this sorted out for you.
