www.garmin.com garmin

[3000psi]

I am surprised they are not on the list yet ...

I have had a Zumo 550 for about 18 months now (I also have other Garmin products) and have had three wonderful experiences with their customer service regarding the 550:

1. I lost the cap on the security screwdriver and could not find the screwdriver for sale anywhere. I called Garmin customer service and they said they would replace the screwdriver, no charge. Wow, thanks! I told them that I also needed an extra power cable for my second bike. Could I go ahead and buy one from them since they were shipping the screwdriver to me. They included the cable in the package - no charge!
2. The rubber dust cap on the cradle cracked and split (covers the contacts when the 550 is off the cradle). Garmin immediately sent me a whole new cradle and a prepaid shipping slip to send the defective one back.
3. My 550 stopped acquiring satellites. After a brief conversation including some diagnostics with a very understandable and knowledgeable customer service rep., he determined that the unit was indeed defective. He asked how long I had the 550. I told him 18 months. He said close enough, we will fix or replace it. I mailed it in and received a brand new unit with 2009 maps within a week.

No, I don't work for Garmin. But I am a Garmin customer for life. I don't care how much cheaper the others are. Not everything is about money.

SS

 

[jocko87]

So my Zumo 550 and XM ant were crushed in my recent accident and the insurance man didn't want them after paying me for them so I called Garmin to ask about repairs. I do alot of work with Garmin Avionics in aircraft so I was pretty familiar with what to expect. $200 flat rate for the Zumo, $125 for the ant and a 1 day turn for exchange units was fantastic. I was told to expect a 12-14 day turn time but shipped the unit Wednesday before I went out of town and it was on my porch when I got home on Friday. Pretty unbelievable. Of course Garmin is only 150 miles from me helped with turn times and maybe I'm in the computer as a preferred buyer since I bought the unit under a dealer agreement but its still pretty fantastic.

I went to Chicago, Osh Kosh, Wisconsin and OK City in the last week and was absolutely lost with out my Zumo. I'm very glad to have it back.

 

[raclow]

I have had nothing but good experiences with Garmin. At this point, I would say they know Customer Service very well.

As long as that doesn't go away......I'm a customer for life.

 

[FjrVfr]

I had a failure on a Zumo 550 cradle (poor audio jack connection) while on a cross country trip back in June. I called Garmin and they sent a new cradle to me in about 4 days. Shawn in customer service was very helpful and a pleasure to talk with.

FWIW - the unit was about 2 months old at the time.

 

[COLDCUT]

I don't have a Zumo (yet) but I am a runner and I have one of Garmin's GPS watches. When I bought it, I found out that I was about three weeks late on a $50.00 rebate deal that Garmin had offered. I thought, "what the heck", and called Garmin to inquire about the expired rebate. The rep I talked to was over the top helpfull and took down all of my contact info. In less than a week, she sent me the rebate paperwork and ensured that I got a rebate check. Garmin didn't have to do this. After all, the offer had expired and I had already given them my money. As soon as I save up the additional $500.00 you can bet I'll be giving them some more of my money for one of those Zumos. Nice work Garmin!

 

[08FJR4ME]

I bought the Garmin 660 and love it sofar.

Dave

 

[Harald]

I can report good and bad with Garmin. I have two of their GPS/GMRS combo's - an older Rino 130 and 1st gen Rino 530, a Nuvi for the wife's car and a Zumo 660 for my bike or truck.

The Rino 530 has had issues with locking up where the display is still on but it completely ceases operating. It's completely locked up and won't even turn off, which requires removing the battery before rebooting. I actually bought 3 of those at the same time and all have had this problem (and from online reporting it appears to be a widespread problem). Despite numerous attempts, Garmin has not fixed the problem. I suspect there's not a large enough user base to worry about fixing the problem.

Now for the good. My Rino 530 electronic compass went kaput and Garmin exchanged it no cost even though it was a couple months out of warranty. I could have had the repair covered under my credit card's free warranty doubling, but thanks to Garmin I didn't have to file any paperwork with Visa.

I would definitely buy Garmin products again.

 

[JR'SFJR]

Mixed also. Garmin replaced the Zumo carrier when a spring loaded brass pin disappeared. However, the 18 mo. old Zumo still didn't work, they won't cover it on warranty, and want $150 to reburish it, without updated maps. Instead, I purchased a cheap GPS to use occassionally. When it's broke or needs maps, I will just buy another cheap one.

 

[SnowAviation]

Another positive Garmin experience.

I dropped my Nuvi760 in the garage, cracked the screen. Sent it to Garmin

and $99 pluse a few days shipping time later I have a "refurbished" unit

(Looks new to me).

 

[midlifeuturn]

One road trip last summer I was having problems with my GPS mount and my Garmin Rhino bounced off my bike twice. Once going about 35 mph and the other about 50 mph. Only a few small surface scratches and still works great!

 

[yamafitter]

I have an older Garmin GPSMap 276c which I have had on both the FJR and my dirt bikes and have torture tested the unit for about 5 years now. I use the tourtech mounts to dampen vibration since vibration will destroy just about any GPS.

I very much appreciate the larger screen of the 276c but I can see a new Zumo in my future though I'm not sure about the cradle on a dirt bike.

 

[cruppelt]

I have a GPSMAP 478 and my riding buddy has a Zumo, don't know what model. They are both equally bad when it comes to the distinction of gravel vs. paved. Obviously that's based on the quality of the map package. I have the newest Garmin update on mine, Scott has last years, and we got stuck on gravel now at three different occasion in the last 2 months in Northwest and Southwest Oregon. Pretty bad in my book.

 

[BackintheSaddle]

Mostly happy with Garmin stuff...my e-Trex has literally saved my bacon during an elk hunt where I spent 16 hours clomping around in the wild. What chaps me is their suggestion that I cough up another $90 bucks for new maps 6 months after I bought my wife's Nuvi. $300 bucks for a GPS unit and then another $90 in that time period?????

Kiss my furry butt Garmin! :angry2:

 

[fastpappy]

I was using a Nuvi 255W out of my truck for the bike for about a year now without any problem just can't hear it at any type of real speed but just takes a little getting used to watching the upcomming turns etc. and low and behold a new Zumo 660 appeared "Happy Father's Day". I'm loving the MP3 and directions piped to my blue tooth helmet. How did I ever ride without the tunes in my ears?? :yahoo:

 

[Patriot]

dated today...Wed July 7th...in an email sent to me from Garmin...I purchased two Nuvi 1490T (and registered them) for my vehicles (cages)

Mandatory Software Update

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, Garmin released a free, mandatory GPS software update to correct some software issues that cause select GPS devices to repeatedly power on and freeze at the Garmin logo. The product models affected are models in the nüvi 1100 series, nüvi 1200 series, nüvi 1300 series, and nüvi 1400 series. Not all individual devices in these series of models may experience this freezing condition.

You can download a free firmware update immediately that will prevent these software issues by using Garmin's WebUpdater program. This update will prevent the freezing problem caused by these software bugs but it will not correct the problem if your device has already experienced this problem.

If your device has already experienced problems, you will need to return your device to Garmin for repair. Please allow 10-14 days for the repair and return of your device.

We know our customers rely upon their Garmin GPS device(s), especially during the summer travel season, and we regret any inconvenience this situation may have caused. We are committed to developing products that are known for their quality and reliability and will continue to work diligently to earn the trust of our customers.

 

[old Pilot]

Have a love/hate relationship with Garmin.

In the early 1990s I bought one of the first Garmin handheld aviation units. It was simply fantastic, no more flying VOR to VOR. It was liberating.

Over the years I've owned a number of marine units, from handhelds to larger chart plotters, all performed flawlessly. Only had one bad experience. One of the chart plotters came with a connecting cord with a serial (?) port connection. My puter had only USB ports and Garmin charged my an outrageous price for a USB cord. They would not do an exchange. It was an example of Garmin not staying current with the technology.

Presently I've got a Nuvi 780. When i bought it I opted for the free map upgrade on DVD instead of a down load. Shortly afterward, I acquired an Acer netbook that has no optical drive. I've been hounding CS almost on a daily basis to allow me a down load to install Mapsource and maps on the Acer but keep running into a brick wall with them. The fight is not over tho, I've got lots of time to devote to the battle.

 

[Harald]

Another good/bad experience with Garmin.

My Zumo 660 developed a problem with the on/off button early on. The button would stick depressed. I called and they told me to send it in for repair/exchange.

A couple weeks later, a refurbished unit showed up at my door. As a bonus, it had a newer map installed. I had to call customer service to authorize a download of the map into my laptop/Mapsource so that I can accomplish route planning there (much easier than on the Zumo!). The map that downloaded was the latest and even newer than the one that the refurbished unit came with. Yippie! Hopefully this new map won't try to direct me through a cow pasture in Montana like the older version did!

 

[Ian Stephens]

I've had a Zumo 550 for over 4 years and until this year, it had been flawless. Any issues that I did have with it were related to downloading routes and they all turned out to be UBD (User Brain Damage). I pretty much use it all the time on the bike, for tunes and for accurate speed - usually not for navigation. So it's in the sun quite a bit.

I suspect that that's what caused it to act up over the last few months and finally die on me this year at WCR.

The failure was in the touchscreen panel that is over the LCD display. Apparently this is a somewhat common issue - I discovered this while surfing the Zumo forum after mine died. The fix is pretty simple - send back to Garmin (or in Canada their designated representative) and pay $150 or so for a refurb, or do what I did and many others, and just get the screen assembly and replace it yourself, for about $50.

But after 4 years of constant use during the riding season, I'm still pretty satisfied with the unit.

In addition, I use a Mac, so RoadTrip is what I use for route planning. I've tried MapSource for Windows and it's frankly terrible, especially the interface.

I'd heartily recommend anyone looking for a GPS to go with the Zumo 550 - without hesitation.

ian