somewhat dissapointed w/ Garmin

[Sideoftheroad]

Lots of members have used, out of warranty Garmins, called their support and gotten free replacements.

 

I took a chance based on this w/ a Streetpilot 2730 on e-bay in that the remote works (if you hold it less than an inch from it), but the touchscreen doesn't.

 

I called their tech support and tried a couple things. Nothing worked. All they said was because it is a discontinued model and out of warranty I would have to pay $170 up front. I can ship it to them and if they can't fix it then they can choose to send me a refurb.

 

Not what I was hoping to hear.

[Mariner Fan]

I was just on the Zumo forums and they said the 550 is discontinued and no longer supported. Wow....

[LilBeaver]

I was just on the Zumo forums and they said the 550 is discontinued and no longer supported. Wow....

 

This, according to Garmin, is 100% FALSE.

[rumboogy]

I haven't made any announcements on the Zumoforums that the Zumo 550 is officially discontinued.

 

They have stopped production, however they are not "officially" discontinued and Garmin (to my knowledge) has not announced they have discontinued the Zumo 550.

 

If someone said it over there...they were offering an opinion or speculation and should have made that clear (of course most people don't).

 

Anyway, Zumo has 3 GPS units currently in their lineup. The Zumo 550, Zumo 660 and Zumo 665.

 

Now...with that said, if you call Garmin with an OUT OF WARRANTY unit they are under no obligation to replace it for free...yes, they have been known to exchange or repair an out of warranty unit for free, but my GUESS is that with the IMPENDING demise of the Zumo 550 they just won't do that anymore.

 

Thanks.

 

Wally

Zumoforums.com owner and webmaster

[LilBeaver]

Lots of members have used, out of warranty Garmins, called their support and gotten free replacements.

 

I took a chance based on this w/ a Streetpilot 2730 on e-bay in that the remote works (if you hold it less than an inch from it), but the touchscreen doesn't.

 

I called their tech support and tried a couple things. Nothing worked. All they said was because it is a discontinued model and out of warranty I would have to pay $170 up front. I can ship it to them and if they can't fix it then they can choose to send me a refurb.

 

Not what I was hoping to hear.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the unit. If I recall correctly that particular unit was introduced in late 2003 or early 2004 (I used to sell these things) and was terrific for the time.

 

Have you tried updating the unit's software and such? Often times that helps.

Go to: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloadsUpdates.jsp?product=010-00408-04&cID=164&pID=297

 

All the way at the bottom there is a software update that was put out 14-Jan-08. You can check to see if that is actually on your unit or not. Either way, re-loading it may help your situation.

 

Did you buy it from an individual or was it a 'store' type thing. If it was a store, and you paid via credit card you may be able to work something out with the store, or with your CC company (depending on how much you spent on it) under the CC protection act; as a last resort. That is, receiving a defective product, or whatever. It may be a long shot, but may be worth a try (again, depending on how much you put into it).

 

Sorry; I hope you are able to figure something out with it. I have had nothing but good experiences with the many Garmin units I have demoed and the few that I have owned. In fact, my GPS V Deluxe is going on 7 years and still running fine...

[Sideoftheroad]

Now...with that said, if you call Garmin with an OUT OF WARRANTY unit they are under no obligation to replace it for free...yes, they have been known to exchange or repair an out of warranty unit for free, but my GUESS is that with the IMPENDING demise of the Zumo 550 they just won't do that anymore.

 

Wally, I do agree w/ the statement. It is long out of warranty and they don't have to do anything. I was hoping 1 of 2 things would happen. 1. I call Garmin and they say here is the solution for that or there is a trick that most people don't know. 2. Can't get the touchscreen to work and they will do a free fix or exchange as a courtesy just like others have been able to do. Neither one happened.

 

I think this is one way they have built a loyal customer base too. I can't be mad or anything else like that. Can't expect someone (can hope for it at least) to replace or fix something out of warranty for free. Just disappointed abit.

 

I took a gamble based on others experience on this forum and was hoping to receive the same treatment if we couldn't get the touchscreen to work. Gamble didn't work out. But overall I got it dirt cheap (less than $100, when most go for no less than $300 on e-bay) for something that I can still use the remote with to access all the features. Just a hassle to use the remote especially less than 1 inch away. If I didn't have a touchscreen and a remote to use, I would not be happy.

 

I haven't hooked it up to my computer yet (guy forgot to include the ac power cord. He is sending it). If I am able to hook it up to the computer and unhook it w/out it completely crapping out, even without a touchscreen it will still be better than that new POS TomTom I returned like 3 days after I bought it.

 

LilBeaver,

We went over that too when I called Garmin. I have the latest software 7.20 I think. We also reinitialized it. Unit off, Press and hold Menu and Maps (I think) buttons at the same time, turn unit on, keep holding the buttons for 5 seconds.

 

Still didn't work. Also can't recalibrate the touchscreen since I can't use the touchscreen at all. I would say that would be the only bad thing about it. You would think you could use the remote to recalibrate it. I think that is the only feature I can think of that you can't use the remote with.

 

I wasn't able to register it to my name since it is still registered to a previous owner. No way to tell if it was the person I bought it from unless he says it was registered under him. I also told him about what Garmin said must be done to get it registered to me.

 

Had I never bought a Garmin, honestly if they had a program to just purchase a refurb model for $170 directly from them, I would have easily gone for that.

 

I might try one more time and see if I get different results. Sometimes you never know when you get a different person.

[GunnyButch]

Don't take this the wrong way but put yourself in garmin's position. You said you bought it second hand, out of warranty, and for dirt cheap. Would you support something presented under those conditions? Like you said, you took a $100 gamble. Garmin does support original purchasers pretty well when products are purchased through authorized dealers.

[Sideoftheroad]

No problem Gunny. Didn't take it the wrong way. Can't blame them for saying no at all. With situations like this, I can hope for something as long as I don't hold my breath for it and I didn't in this case. I just hoped that's all.

 

I can say there is another member on this forum that I know. He bought a Garmin via craiglist, guessing a month or 2 after he bought it, it completely went out. He called Garmin and they replaced it for free. Now the difference may be that it was a newer model, but I am sure the warranty was no longer in effect.

 

Seems to me that they stand to make more money by charging to have newer models fixed than the older models in which they have made pretty much all that they are going to make.

 

I haven't gained anything, haven't lost anything and I am liking this GPS so far.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Sideoftheroad

[Cougar]

Don't forget to read his post he got a older Streetpilot 2730.

 

Jerry your friend probably had a newer type of unit. what was it?

As Gunny says Garmin will treat you fair and what I like is that

you told them the truth! . I think what is going on is that they

must draw the line at some point. I have a older Streetpilot 2600

you can have if you want it.

 

Jeff

[Mariner Fan]

I haven't made any announcements on the Zumoforums that the Zumo 550 is officially discontinued.

 

They have stopped production, however they are not "officially" discontinued and Garmin (to my knowledge) has not announced they have discontinued the Zumo 550.

 

If someone said it over there...they were offering an opinion or speculation and should have made that clear (of course most people don't).

 

Anyway, Zumo has 3 GPS units currently in their lineup. The Zumo 550, Zumo 660 and Zumo 665.

 

Now...with that said, if you call Garmin with an OUT OF WARRANTY unit they are under no obligation to replace it for free...yes, they have been known to exchange or repair an out of warranty unit for free, but my GUESS is that with the IMPENDING demise of the Zumo 550 they just won't do that anymore.

 

Thanks.

 

Wally

Zumoforums.com owner and webmaster

 

Geez, I could have sworn I saw that in the Zumo forums. I guess old age dementia is kicking in.

Good news for me since I plan on keeping my 550 for awhile!

 

I think Jerry might be talking about my experience with Garmin which was really good. I bought my 550 used from a guy. It lasted about six months and then would not boot up at all. I tried everything suggested in the Zumo forum but it was dead. Gave Garmin a call and they replaced it. Now the thing is that the previous owner transferred the registration to me. Maybe that is why they did that. I wasn't expecting them to do that but I figured that it was worth a phone call to see what they would do.

[Guest Ken8143]

My streetpilot went wacky - the touch screen was just nuts. It was out of warrenty for coup[le of years. I have to say Garmin went above and beyond to work on the thing via computer - I hooked it up to my PC and they linked to me. Spent oodles of time in tests, uninstalling, reinstalling, updating, and finally concluded it needed replaced.

 

I didn't expect them to replace the unit for free. For $180 they said it would be fixed or replaced. given my past good experience with Garmin, and wanting to keep the StreetPilot I went the $180 route and am glad I did.

 

Plus. I think I was to blame for leaving the GPS in the car when it was hot days.

 

BTW I just bought a Nuvi 255W for my wife and that is a sweet little device. Love it.

[Sideoftheroad]

update.

previous encounters (3 or 4 so far) w/ Garmin have been via phone call. The original owner unregistered the mygarmin account and I registered in my name shortly afterwards so this should be a good indication that I actually bought it and am the rightful owner. My last call to them to work out sending the unit to them as the unit was now registered to me via mygarmin account. They then told me there are 2 registrations (my garmin and hard registration). They didn't tell me about the hard registration at all previously. I have contacted the previous owner a couple times to undo the hard registration. At least from the phone call, until the owner does this, Garmin won't help me. Not sure if the previous owner undid the hard registration or not as I haven't heard anything back from him.

 

Last night I sent Garmin an e-mail to plead my case and to approve me giving them $170 to fix it. Why they are refusing money in this economy is beyond me. I was using POILoader to see if I can get the proximity alerts working. Can't figure it out for the life of me. I have it turned on. Still doesn't seem to work even after using POILoader. I found the link on the Garmin site on how to do it: http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/lang/en/searchsupport It shows a file E85_Final2.csv Is this just a file garmin made up for instruction purposes or this an actual file. The instructions say to use Manual but then you need to locate a file. I could not locate a file with this name.

 

After messing around with POILoader, something said to try the screen calibration test. Can't use it since the touchscreen doesn't work so I am holding the remote literally up to the remote sensor window on the unit to get the remote to work with the unit.

 

Well don't know what happened but touchscreen is now working. For the 3+ months I have had this thing the touchscreen would not work. I quickly did the calibration test so hopefully this takes care of the touchscreen issue. Put it on the bike and rode to work this morning. So far so good, it is still working. Hopefully it will continue to work.

[saddlebum]

Just a point of curiosity, I have a tom tom and on the bottom is a little pin hole that you stick something small into that resets it back to factory settings. Would there not be something like this on the garmin?

[Dave77459]

I was using POILoader to see if I can get the proximity alerts working. Can't figure it out for the life of me. I have it turned on. Still doesn't seem to work even after using POILoader. I found the link on the Garmin site on how to do it: http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/lang/en/searchsupport It shows a file E85_Final2.csv Is this just a file garmin made up for instruction purposes or this an actual file. The instructions say to use Manual but then you need to locate a file. I could not locate a file with this name.

I create my files in GPX format using the MapSource program. Then I put them into a folder, called C:\GARMIN\POI. When I run POILoader, I tell it the folder where the .GPX files live, and it asks me whether I want to load each file individually.

 

I would say that you need to know what folder your .CSV file is in. I'd move it into an isolated folder so it doesn't ask you about each file. Then you can tell POILoader where that folder is.

 

I have never used .CSV files, but if Garmin says they will work, they will.

 

Dave

[Sideoftheroad]

saddlebum

I will back up a bit. When I got the unit, proximity alerts worked. Not sure how the previous owner got them to work. After talking to Garmin the 1st couple times they had me do a hard reset which sets everything back to factory. After that I lost proximity alerts and can't get them back.

 

Dave,

I did a search on my hard drive for all the csv files and it wasn't there. I wonder now that I am thinking about it if I should direct it to the Garmin unit for a csv file?

Edited April 16, 2010 by Sideoftheroad

[Hummingbird]

I sure hope the Zumo 550 still has support. I just bought a lifetime card for mine - actually, I bought one for the Nuvo 1490T and the Zumo. I'm going to get the Zumo set up tomorrow, got the 1490T done today.

[Sideoftheroad]

Well had better luck in e-mailing Garmin. They replied back stating they want to call me to setup an RMA. I replied back stating for whatever reason after 2-3 months of not working, it is now working. I did also say I would like to go ahead and setup an RMA if it is good indefinetly in case it should stop working again in the future and for the future I wanted to avoid the issues of being told I couldn't get an RMA.

 

Another darn weird thing is now proximity alerts are working. I guess whatever I did with the POILoader, worked. When I was going to work this morning I didn't get the icons, but now I am. So guessing it takes a while for things to sync up?

 

So for now, unless the touchscreen stops working again, all is good.

[RoadKill]

Lots of members have used, out of warranty Garmins, called their support and gotten free replacements.

 

I took a chance based on this w/ a Streetpilot 2730 on e-bay in that the remote works (if you hold it less than an inch from it), but the touchscreen doesn't.

 

I called their tech support and tried a couple things. Nothing worked. All they said was because it is a discontinued model and out of warranty I would have to pay $170 up front. I can ship it to them and if they can't fix it then they can choose to send me a refurb.

 

Not what I was hoping to hear.

 

Only time the free servic works is if you purchase a new REFURBISHED unit and register it for a new warranty. Just got a new one from a refurb I purchased from Get Feet wet.com. Even if they hadn't I would have jumped at the $170 price. Lot cheaper than buying a new one and the 2730 is one of favorites I've ever had.

[Condor]

One thing I've noticed about the Garmin Streetpilot c550 I just picked up is the text speech sucks. More like Robbie the robot in 'Lost in Space' than a real person. The Zumo might be better, but I have two other 'El Cheapo' GPS's and the Whistler is head and heels better than the Garmin. I like the Garmin because it has the 'screen', but it is only basic intuitive. The Whistler isn't as user friendly but it has a ton more info and the ability to modified a bunch. I also have an BrandX Micro?? that has a better speech pattern than the Garmin.... My

[Gray Ghost]

They don't always do out of warranty for free for original owners either. I have a Nuvi 765T and it no longer will charge through the USB port, which is what I was using for the bike, only charges with the traffic receiver cradle. They want $90 to fix it. Looks like I am going back to my old reliable Lowrance Iway brick.