What the Heck is with Garmin

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
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Location
Montgomery County PA
Display Name
Display name:
Adam Zucker
I just tried to update my 296 online and the Garmin's UI could not be more difficult. I signed into my account on BuyGarmin.com, had my GPS plugged into the computer and attempted to purchase the current Nav Data Cycle. But the site sends me to "FLYGarmin.com" via a link.

I selected the product, went to checkout and they asked me to fill out a form with my name address, phone and country or region. The Country/Region has a drop down menu, and guess what? No United States, No U.S., No America, No North America, they did have American Samoa and American outlying islands.

I cant skip that because it says information required and won't let me go forward with out putting in a region or country, Soooooo there is a blue link that says " can't find your country" so I click on it and it has a bunch of flags so I click on the U.S. Flag and it take me to a screen back on "Buygarmin.com" That says "your shopping cart is empty"

Its a vicious cycle! Am I missing something? I'm just trying to buy one damn update and Garmin is wasting my time. Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on how to get around it?
 
I agree, Garmin's user interface for updates is terrible.

I updated the NUVI in our car. It took three tries, and when I was done, the unit had literally lost it's voice. We no longer have voice directions available. WTH?

With our 496, I just let the avionics guys at OSH update it for me annually. It was so much easier than futzing around on the Garmin website.
 
Do you have the Garmin Communicator plug-in installed. If not, that might be a fix. I just did the Aera, no issues using the Communicator. Do agree their update functions are clunky.

Gary
 
Reminds me of the internal slogan at a large company that had a very high market share: "we don't care because we don't have to"
 
AdamZ said:
I just tried to update my 296 online and the Garmin's UI could not be more difficult. I signed into my account on BuyGarmin.com, had my GPS plugged into the computer and attempted to purchase the current Nav Data Cycle. But the site sends me to "FLYGarmin.com" via a link.

I selected the product, went to checkout and they asked me to fill out a form with my name address, phone and country or region. The Country/Region has a drop down menu, and guess what? No United States, No U.S., No America, No North America, they did have American Samoa and American outlying islands.

I cant skip that because it says information required and won't let me go forward with out putting in a region or country, Soooooo there is a blue link that says " can't find your country" so I click on it and it has a bunch of flags so I click on the U.S. Flag and it take me to a screen back on "Buygarmin.com" That says "your shopping cart is empty"

Its a vicious cycle! Am I missing something? I'm just trying to buy one damn update and Garmin is wasting my time. Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on how to get around it?
Click to expand...
Can you just type it in or is it only a dropdown?

Try a different browser.
 
wsuffa said:
Reminds me of the internal slogan at a large company that had a very high market share: "we don't care because we don't have to"
Click to expand...

Ernestine at her switchboard, right?
 
Jay Honeck said:
With our 496, I just let the avionics guys at OSH update it for me annually.
Click to expand...
How much does it cost to update a 496? I hadn't updated mine since I bought it around a decade ago. It has outdated / incorrect frequencies and is even missing entire airports.
 
FORANE said:
How much does it cost to update a 496? I hadn't updated mine since I bought it around a decade ago. It has outdated / incorrect frequencies and is even missing entire airports.
Click to expand...

Well, I sold the 496 with our Pathfinder before OSH 2013, so my info is a bit out of date. I think it was a $49 "show special" at OSH 2012.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3...
 
murphey said:
Ernestine at her switchboard, right?
Click to expand...

A gracious and good afternoon. Have I reached the party who I am calling?

+1 for the accurate pop culture reference *snort*

(( love Lilly Tomlin's brand of comedy! ))
 
Gary said:
Do you have the Garmin Communicator plug-in installed. If not, that might be a fix. I just did the Aera, no issues using the Communicator. Do agree their update functions are clunky.

Gary
Click to expand...
Yea Gary, I have the communicator Plugin installed.
pa flyer said:
Can you just type it in or is it only a dropdown?

Try a different browser.
Click to expand...

I'm. Using Chrome.
 
AdamZ said:
I just tried to update my 296 online and the Garmin's UI could not be more difficult. I signed into my account on BuyGarmin.com, had my GPS plugged into the computer and attempted to purchase the current Nav Data Cycle. But the site sends me to "FLYGarmin.com" via a link.

I selected the product, went to checkout and they asked me to fill out a form with my name address, phone and country or region. The Country/Region has a drop down menu, and guess what? No United States, No U.S., No America, No North America, they did have American Samoa and American outlying islands.

I cant skip that because it says information required and won't let me go forward with out putting in a region or country, Soooooo there is a blue link that says " can't find your country" so I click on it and it has a bunch of flags so I click on the U.S. Flag and it take me to a screen back on "Buygarmin.com" That says "your shopping cart is empty"

Its a vicious cycle! Am I missing something? I'm just trying to buy one damn update and Garmin is wasting my time. Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on how to get around it?
Click to expand...

It will break soon and solve your problems.:wink2:
 
wsuffa said:
Reminds me of the internal slogan at a large company that had a very high market share: "we don't care because we don't have to"
Click to expand...

Working for a company whose HQ is only a couple of miles away from Garmin I have met a lot of former Garmin employees. IMHO the biggest problem with Garmin is that they are cheap bastards who are not interested in being the best. Only interested in being the biggest and most profitable.
 
ScottM said:
Working for a company whose HQ is only a couple of miles away from Garmin I have met a lot of former Garmin employees. IMHO the biggest problem with Garmin is that they are cheap bastards who are not interested in being the best. Only interested in being the biggest and most profitable.
Click to expand...


Sounds like the health care system. Maybe its ran by the same people...
 
ScottM said:
Working for a company whose HQ is only a couple of miles away from Garmin I have met a lot of former Garmin employees. IMHO the biggest problem with Garmin is that they are cheap bastards who are not interested in being the best. Only interested in being the biggest and most profitable.
Click to expand...

That's truly ashame. They need to take a lesson from the good people at Light Speed and David Clark. Actually what they really need is some serious competition.

Anyway I got it to work. I think the issue was that it appears Garmin has so many dar different sites that are so similar that you can easily end up on the site for some " other than countries"
 
I've always wondered why the United States wasn't the default country on most of these sites? I realize GA is worldwide to a certain extent, but if 80-90% of your business if from one country! wouldn't it make sense for that to be the default? :dunno:
Happy Fathers Day!


AdamZ said:
That's truly ashame. They need to take a lesson from the good people at Light Speed and David Clark. Actually what they really need is some serious competition.

Anyway I got it to work. I think the issue was that it appears Garmin has so many dar different sites that are so similar that you can easily end up on the site for some " other than countries"
Click to expand...
 
ScottM said:
Working for a company whose HQ is only a couple of miles away from Garmin I have met a lot of former Garmin employees. IMHO the biggest problem with Garmin is that they are cheap bastards who are not interested in being the best. Only interested in being the biggest and most profitable.
Click to expand...

It goes a bit deeper than that, but no real disagreement. My former colleagues and I dealt with the company on a couple of potential business deals.

AdamZ said:
That's truly ashame. They need to take a lesson from the good people at Light Speed and David Clark. Actually what they really need is some serious competition.
Click to expand...

Neither are realistic, Adam.

Garmin's consumer business is a losing proposition these days as the proliferation of smartphones can do everything that a consumer-grade portable GPS can do, and then a lot more.

That leaves the aviation & marine businesses (and other specialty commercial businesses) as the revenue streams. Good equipment, but pricy. They have, effectively, become the "Bendix-King" of avionics these days - in other words, the big dogs. With a certain amount of the same arrogance and all the pricing.

In the aviation business, the time and cost of certification are real killers of developing new products. That and the support for ADs and other post-install things should problems develop. There are others trying to get into the market, but given the limited market and certification issues, it's a real slow go. There simply is not enough market to justify the costs. And the quantity of 430/430W/650/750 series boxes that are already installed means that the replacement cycle is still a number of years off (and further dwindling).

Limited market + limited suppliers = high costs.
 
Also remember that Garmin offices & development may be in the US, it's is no longer a US Corporation, and hasn't been for many years. Corporate address is someplace offshore Florida.

As for aviation market - Garmin didn't develop it, they bought it from UPS (which bought it from Apollo). Aviation tech support is still in the original offices (oregon, washington? I don't remember). Development may still be there, I dunno.
 
murphey said:
As for aviation market - Garmin didn't develop it, they bought it from UPS (which bought it from Apollo). Aviation tech support is still in the original offices (oregon, washington? I don't remember). Development may still be there, I dunno.
Click to expand...

I think technically they did both. The 430-series was already on the market when they bought UPSAT. They consolidated, reduced the number of competitors and products & went ahead from there.
 
What every became of the Avidyne products that were so hotly rolled out at Osh about 2 years ago. They were counterparts to the GTN series. Have any hit the market yet?
 
A Garmin 296's is laughably obsolete. Just chuck it and use a Nexus 7 tablet with Avare instead.
 
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