Garmin support (or lack thereof)

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

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.

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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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

"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.

"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.

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

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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"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).

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...