Garmin support (or lack thereof)

[RNR]

About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
from Garmin. Is this typical? If so, I'd hate to have a serious
issue that rendered the unit useless. Doesn't exactly inspire
confidence.
Rich Russell

[Dave Butler]

RNR wrote:
> About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
> that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
> Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
> which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
> from Garmin. Is this typical?

Yes, both the immediate response here and the lack of response from Garmin are
typical of my experience.

[Marco Leon]

Did you try giving Garmin's tech support a call? In my experience emails sit
in some support person's inbox for a while before someone reads it. It takes
quite a while for fast-growing companies to improve their customer service
levels accordingly.

Marco Leon

"RNR" > wrote in message
...
> About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
> that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
> Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
> which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
> from Garmin. Is this typical? If so, I'd hate to have a serious
> issue that rendered the unit useless. Doesn't exactly inspire
> confidence.
> Rich Russell



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[RNR]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:08:17 -0400, "Marco Leon" <mmleon(at)yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Did you try giving Garmin's tech support a call? In my experience emails sit
>in some support person's inbox for a while before someone reads it. It takes
>quite a while for fast-growing companies to improve their customer service
>levels accordingly.
>
>Marco Leon
>
No, I didn't call them. If I didn't get the issue resolved here, I
would have tried the phone route. At this point, I was just pondering
what kind of gyrations someone with a major problem would have to go
through to get some service. On a side note, I recently emailed
Direct TV with a question about expanding my system. They responded
in less than a day. The answer was useless, but at least I heard from
them. I understand your point, but I'm still very disappointed in
Garmin.
Rich Russell

[Bob Gardner]

I've never had a problem getting through to tech support. Of course, I am
calling about my StreetPilot, but they don't know that when they answer.

Bob Gardner

"RNR" > wrote in message
...
> About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
> that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
> Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
> which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
> from Garmin. Is this typical? If so, I'd hate to have a serious
> issue that rendered the unit useless. Doesn't exactly inspire
> confidence.
> Rich Russell

[Peter R.]

RNR > wrote:

> About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
> that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
<snip>

Just to reiterate what everyone else has pointed out, I also have had much
better response calling their tech support line.

Software companies don't even answer email in a timely manner these days.


--
Peter

















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[Nathan Young]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:24:44 -0400, RNR >
wrote:

>About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
>that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
>Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
>which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
>from Garmin. Is this typical? If so, I'd hate to have a serious
>issue that rendered the unit useless. Doesn't exactly inspire
>confidence.
>Rich Russell

I called Garmin tech support for a 'No Sats Tracked' issue on my 295,
and had an answer and workaround (hard reset) within 10 minutes.

[Matt Barrow]

"Marco Leon" <mmleon(at)yahoo.com> wrote in message
...
> Did you try giving Garmin's tech support a call? In my experience emails
sit
> in some support person's inbox for a while before someone reads it. It
takes
> quite a while for fast-growing companies to improve their customer service
> levels accordingly.

Slow growth, even negative growth ones, too.

[Matt Barrow]

"RNR" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:08:17 -0400, "Marco Leon" <mmleon(at)yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Did you try giving Garmin's tech support a call? In my experience emails
sit
> >in some support person's inbox for a while before someone reads it. It
takes
> >quite a while for fast-growing companies to improve their customer
service
> >levels accordingly.
> >
> >Marco Leon
> >
> No, I didn't call them. If I didn't get the issue resolved here, I
> would have tried the phone route. At this point, I was just pondering
> what kind of gyrations someone with a major problem would have to go
> through to get some service. On a side note, I recently emailed
> Direct TV with a question about expanding my system. They responded
> in less than a day. The answer was useless, but at least I heard from
> them. I understand your point, but I'm still very disappointed in
> Garmin.

Many companies don't answer email question quickly unless they don't publish
a phone number and want you to use ONLY email. Amazon, for example.

[Matt Barrow]

"Peter R." > wrote in message
...
> RNR > wrote:
>
> > About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
> > that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
> <snip>
>
> Just to reiterate what everyone else has pointed out, I also have had much
> better response calling their tech support line.

Many companies don't even publish a phone number to call.

>
> Software companies don't even answer email in a timely manner these days.

Some (Microsoft) don't answer AT ALL (short of charging you $80-400).

[Peter Clark]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 16:36:37 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
> wrote:

>>
>> Software companies don't even answer email in a timely manner these days.
>
>Some (Microsoft) don't answer AT ALL (short of charging you $80-400).
>

Let's be fair here, in my experience MS has always answered the emails
sent through their free support page web entry system. It might take
them 2-3 days before they answer you, and the answer is just a
cut-n-paste of whatever template answers keywords the person answering
it picks out of your message (which likely won't be any use - don't
expect any insightful troubleshooting through this method), but they
do get answered...

[RNR]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 20:09:13 GMT, Nathan Young
> wrote:

>On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:24:44 -0400, RNR >
>wrote:
>
>>About one month ago, I emailed Garmin tech support about a problem
>>that I was having updating the operating software in my 196.
>>Fortunately, I also posted here and I received an immediate response
>>which solved my problem. My concern is that I never got any response
>>from Garmin. Is this typical? If so, I'd hate to have a serious
>>issue that rendered the unit useless. Doesn't exactly inspire
>>confidence.
>>Rich Russell
>
>I called Garmin tech support for a 'No Sats Tracked' issue on my 295,
>and had an answer and workaround (hard reset) within 10 minutes.

Thanks to all. I learned one thing, next time I'll call instead of
emailing.
Rich Russell