Not very impressive Garmin customer experience

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

Alfaholic wrote:

Alfaholic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2006 Posts: 15

Just what I was looking for!

What a neat little mounting solution, I also thought I'd route the cigarette lighter charging cable through behind the dash as I did in my old alfa 156. This might be a bit more tricky to do in my current car (BMW 330CI) as there are less nooks and crannies to rout the cable through, but I'll give it a go...

tsdinos · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Jun 03, 2006 Posts: 119

[quote="portman"]

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

[quote="tsdinos"]

Alfaholic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2006 Posts: 15

Agreed, my little i3 is getting pretty old these days and has travelled many, many thousands of miles with me. Cold mornings are always the worst, saliva or not. Strangely it is better behaved in the BMW than it was in either of my old Alfa Romeos, but even so it does have a nasty habit of falling off the windscreen about 30 seconds after it has been stuck on. My record for re-applying the suction mount broke the 25 times barrier one morning last winter... I might have been just a teensy bit annoyed that morning, especially as it was about 5:00am and I had a 4 hour drive ahead of me.

Luckily I don't have to do anywhere near as much driving for work these days and the new voice on my i3 is much more calming than the slightly bossy voice that plotted my progress around the country for so long.

tsdinos · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Jun 03, 2006 Posts: 119

I have tried the "saliva" solution with both snow condition and hell-like heat (in Greece) and never fell! well.. there is always the factor of how clean the suction cap and the windscreen is, as dust and dirt can affect its grip. Also if the suction cup is damages (scars, scratches etc) it will also reduce significantly its grip. The only thing I could suggest in such cases is to buy a dashboard mount unit

Alfaholic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2006 Posts: 15

Well, I'm sad to report that Garmin called me today to inform me that it would cost £73.81 to fix my little i3. Yes, this would mean getting a new unit, but I'm sorry, I really can't see the point in paying £74 for a Streetpilot i3 these days.

Can anyone tell me if it's worth plumping for a Nuvi 300? How do they compare to the TomTom One and can I use my City Navigator V9 to update a new Nuvi with European maps?

stehanson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 13, 2007 Posts: 32

out of interest - Ive got a reception prob with my unit keeps losing signal, ive tried the usual and mailed garmin over a week ago since I bought it on ebay I have no yellow sticker or official receipt, so how will, I fare regarding a warranty repair, given I cant prove its under 12 months but as its a nuvi 660 I dont think tyey have been out a year yet - any advice cheers Ste

swing · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:13 am Post subject:

You are correct the 660 was not out a year ago, but it won't be long until that year is up, so best thing to do is to ring Garmin - it's possible the unit simply needs a firmware upgrade, or a full reset, but Garmin are best to advise.
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Alfaholic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2006 Posts: 15

Well, now I'm really wound up!!

Garmin customer care? Do me a favour....

I recieved my Streetpilot i3 back from Garmin today after requesting that they did not repair it (as detailed above) only to find further damage on the unit. I then phoned up and complained but have been told that the unit left the workshop the way it arrived and that I am wrong in thinking that it has been damaged on it's trip back to Garmin.

Now it's my word against theirs I guess, but they definitely broke it when they had it and now they're denying all knowledge of it.

Who said Garmin Customer Care was any good? So far, to me at least, they have been bloody awful and actually quite insulting by insinuating that I am lying.

:x

swing · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject:

Alfaholic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2006 Posts: 15

The further damage related to the ball clasp which is at the centre of this whole issue. It was partly damaged when it was sent to Garmin but came back to me completely destroyed.

Regardless, I went away, calmed down a bit and called Garmin back explaining that I was particularly dissapointed with my customer experience. Eventually I was put through to a supervisor and I explained the whole situation to him. The upshot of which is that, after further explanation and discussion, he agreed to replace the unit.

I am grateful that this has all been resolved now, but still feel that it could have been handled much better.

locksmith · Lifetime Member Joined: Aug 16, 2005 Posts: 221

I've had mixed Garmin customer care. From spending an hour in a queue and then getting nowhere to them saying "no fault found" on my out of warranty quest returning it FOC yet the broken antenna was fixed!

I,ve currently got problems with my nuvi not pairing with my phone since updating the firmware and it's like talking to brick wall and I never got a reply to my email contact either.

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