Thumbs-up to Garmin

[ABCandJRC]

In a previous post I asked if it was worth repairing my Garmin GPS 12 so I could use it in an aircraft cockpit. It had been a "faithful companion" to the panel-mounted Garmin 75 on many a boating trip, but had sat on a shelf with no batteries in it for several years. It apparently had either a memory failure or an internal battery failure (potentially both since it lost memory on power-off even with external power applied).

I contacted Garmin via e-mail and they sent me an RMA. To make a long story short, I had the unit back about a week after they received it. The total cost to me was less than what a moderately-priced meal for one at O'Charlie's might cost. (Details withheld to prevent "carping".)

!!How can you beat that for customer service?!!

 

[Eamon]

Re: Thumbs-up to Garmin - Down to Lowrance

In a previous post I asked if it was worth repairing my Garmin GPS 12 so I could use it in an aircraft cockpit. It had been a "faithful companion" to the panel-mounted Garmin 75 on many a boating trip, but had sat on a shelf with no batteries in it for several years. It apparently had either a memory failure or an internal battery failure (potentially both since it lost memory on power-off even with external power applied).

I contacted Garmin via e-mail and they sent me an RMA. To make a long story short, I had the unit back about a week after they received it. The total cost to me was less than what a moderately-priced meal for one at O'Charlie's might cost. (Details withheld to prevent "carping".)

!!How can you beat that for customer service?!!

Great !

That is the one reason I would think twice before buying another Lowrance Product.

I had an Airmap 300, bought new, for 2 years before the internal battery crapped out. Lowrance said the didn't fix 300s anymore & then they also pulled out from updating the database.

No fixing of a 2 year old product? It was just a simple battery replacement. The funny thing is that the 300 was still being sold in the same month that they stopped supporting it.

 

[etsisk]

Re: Thumbs-up to Garmin - Down to Lowrance

Thanks, Eamon - THAT'S good to know . . . you just made my decision-making that much easier!

How's things up north?

 

[ABCandJRC]

Re: Thumbs-up to Garmin - Down to Lowrance

.......Lowrance said the didn't fix 300s anymore & then they also pulled out from updating the database.

No fixing of a 2 year old product? It was just a simple battery replacement. The funny thing is that the 300 was still being sold in the same month that they stopped supporting it........

Software in my GPS 12 was also brought up to the latest version that was created for the unit. Now includes a battery-saver which updates a bit more slowly but doubles battery life. I am sure there is a point where product support has to cease due to parts availability or such, but surely not while the units are still being sold.

I was traveling through KC, K about 3 years ago and happened to see a husband/wife team in a pizza joint wearing "Garmin" shirts. I struck up a conversation and told them how well my two GPS units had pleased me when we were traveling by boat. I was in the process of trying to decode some of the internal messages from the GPS 12 so I could write some software for my notebook computer (retired computer weenie and I was doing it just for fun). They said "Give us a call anytime, and we will help you any way we can." Could that be the company-wide attitude?

 

[wsuffa]

Re: Thumbs-up to Garmin - Down to Lowrance

Software in my GPS 12 was also brought up to the latest version that was created for the unit. Now includes a battery-saver which updates a bit more slowly but doubles battery life. I am sure there is a point where product support has to cease due to parts availability or such, but surely not while the units are still being sold.

That, unfortunatly, is the business model of a lot of companies these days. Take, for example, Quicken financial software that will cripple (as in: make it stop working) the downloading capability at the end of the "support" life. In the quest to create a "services" model with recurring revenue, they are effectively forcing you to "rent" the software from them.

 

[Matthew]

Re: Thumbs-up to Garmin - Down to Lowrance

Could that be the company-wide attitude?

I'd say 'yes'.

I don't work for Garmin, but I know quite a few people that do ( I live less than a mile from there).

Garmin has a pretty good neighborly reputation, I think it shows in their customer service.


Matt