iCN630 Feeling Conned / Worried

[jmuk]

After my 1st few posts (in the POI for 630 thread) and a bit more time with the unit I am feeling more and more conned.

In addition, an email (and web form) to them is not answered and they seem to do their utmost to NOT provide telephone contact number anywhere. The only number I DID find (on a link from their NZ site) was answered with:-

"Navman Mobile no longer have an office here"

None of the various addresses I have found for them produced a result from BT directory enquiries :-(

Companies house shows there isn't a Navman Mobile Ltd (it is now Navman Europe) and I always get worried when companies are this hard to contact and change their company name.

Can anyone PLEASE shine a ray of light on the subject and tell me that Navman ARE contactable, and DO want to speak to the customers who spend the thick end of £1000 on their flagship products.

I really thought I had purchased a product from a large, reputable company and never thought to question that they would be contactable, approachable and ready to help.

I really hope I'm wrong and that they ARE all of the above. I found a number quoted on the forum here somewhere and I intend to call tomorrow... I really hope I get some Joy..

[Telboy]

JMUK,

I share your frustration. I recently (until today) had a problem with my Navman sleeve and sent two web forms to Navman support. Neither have been answered and like you I tried their office number only to get the message 'Navman Mobile no longer have an office here'

Fortunately, my problem is now resolved, I'm not sure how, but it is, but that's besides the point. I spent a period of time with a GPS sleeve that I paid good money for only two months ago not working with no way of contacting Navman support directly to seek advice in getting the unit working for when I needed it!!!

Unlike you I have a relatively 'low end product' (a 3450 sleeve) so to a degree I should expect a lower level of technical support, but now Navman have moved into the 'bigger' league with the icn630 costing in the region of £1,000, they need to seriously review how they provide support to their customers. No longer is it satisfactory to rely on a 'punter' submitting a web based support form and then having to wait for Navman to respond as and when it suits them!! :x

In the meantime, if you feel you have a problem with you unit, speak to the people you brought if from, you never know, they may have a direct line to Navman.

Good luck.

Terry

[jmuk]

Terry

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear of your problems too. I sent an email to navman in NZ with a copy of a server read receipt for my email to navman UK pointing out the only numbers I could find were for Navman Australia and got a reply with a UK address and phone number, asking me NOT to phone Australia as they had their own customers to deal with.

I'll try the UK office number I was given tomorrow and post back results.

[nmc]

I share your frustrations. It took ages for my upgrade to arrive. I sent emails to the French sales guy for Navman, in English and in French...no reply. I then wrote complaining to the email address under OEM Navman Europe. Eventually I received a copy of an email from the French outfit to someone else unknown merely asking if the upgrade had been sent.

Top quality customer service that. No personal reply, no apology, no acknowledgement, nothin'.

[AlfieB]

Hi there

Having seen the comments from jmuk earlier this week I wonder if he has sorted out his problem with contacting Navman

I've been dealing with them since July of last year when we bought our first iCN 630. To be honest, I've not had any problems contacting the UK office in that time, then perhaps I've been lucky.

One thing I would say though and that is, if I need information urgently, I always phone them. I think the problem with e-mails, and this goes for most Helplines/Call Centres, is that because the operators are busy on the phone dealing with queries then e-mails tend to sit on the back burner. No it's not right but unfortunately it's a fact of life, it happens.

Navman Europe's website is www.navman-mobile.com, once you are into that, click onto CONTACT and you will find a whole list of support e-mail addresses for various countries.

By the way the telephone number I call from within the UK is:

0129 344 9882

This will give you a list of options, select 1 for iCN's and then 1 again for Technical Support.

You may have already sorted out your problems but I thought you might find this useful.

Best of luck

Regards

AlfieB

[jmuk]

Alfie B

Thanks very much for your reply.

I posted an update in :-
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6256&sid=ad1d0fcea342e86bf869683bb20877af

and probalbly should have put it here in this thread instead.

In the end I found them and spoke with a Mr Khambhaita who was about the MOST helpful and honest tech support person I have ever spoken with.

After quite a bit of research and two attempts at GPS with two differing systems, I'm not sure either solution is right for me.

The Navman iCN630 is a lovely elegant bit of kit with some software problems that really put me off (great shame). It's also a bit of a shame that it's not possible to do things like edit POI's for it, have features on like those available on this forum for downloading POIS alerts etc - but I suppose that would make it more complicated for those who just want 'plug into the lighter socket and go'.

The other options (iPaq & Tom Tom / Bluetooth GPS) can be a nightmare to make work. In fairness the one I tried turned out to have an intermittant fault with the Bluetooth Connection (just bad luck). Also even some of the better brackets/speaker mounts (for the car) have a bit of a 'cheesy' feel and you end up with a less elegant solution BUT more flexibility to add POI's, Alerts etc etc.

If, or probably WHEN, Navman sort out their mapping and software problems they should consider adding the ability to:-

Have a battery so you could use it out for the car (like walking around London Streets)
Add Custom POI's
Have the ability to set audible alerts for them

Even if these were an upgrade or bolt-on extra (maybe for a fee - like a 'developer kit' charge or something). This would leave them, in my opinion, with a total winning product. The people who didn't want to / know how to fiddle and twiddle would have a simple to use, easy to install (REAL nice screen with only 1 wire) unit that would look good in most vehicles.

Those who wanted to twiddle and edit things could just plug in to USB and bingo.

I can't see that this would need THAT much work to achieve as it would really just be a software thing.

A big vote of thanks to those that have posted to my threads and to Mr Khambhaita at Navman and the support team at www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk (I didn't get the iCN630 from them).

I'm probably either too fussy, unlucky, or just haven't found the right solution for me (yet)

[nmc]

Just to confuse matters, my second copy of the upgrade arrived this morning.

[AlfieB]

[ziggy]

This is another number I used today also with Tec support option:

01293 780500

The address is:

4G Gatwick House
Peeks Brook Lane
Horley
Surrey
RH6 9ST

Regards Tony

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