Thread: Garmin customer support - 67i and Base Camp

Howdy team and compliments of the season
In the spirit of credit where credit's due, let me give you a heads up about my Garmin customer support experience.

This is not a what unit is best discussion, or which is better - phone vs handheld thread for navigation, this is just a story about an experience I had with Garmin.

Back story: I wanted to transfer some tracks and waypoints from Garmin Base Camp (a map viewing / GIS software package offered free for download by Garmin). This is super easy / basic to use. You literally plug your gps into computer and hit the receive from button, and everything is dumped into the program, all icons (symbols) you've used included, so things are easy to filter and sort etc. A great back up for years of data.
As an aside I've also mucked around using Connect and Explore via Blue tooth connectivity, but it's all a bit shit in my extensive experience (across 5 different models) - varying degrees of success and generally not reliable with even the pairing of devices failing etc. at times.

Anyway...having done this heaps, for some reason it would not transfer the waypoints and tracks to the 67i specifically.

I looked up Garmin support online and found the phone number 0800 427 652, called it, got a human - I know right! AND, they spoke clearly (yip - no shit!) AND, they talked to me for 17 mins and solved the problem (which turned out to be some Birds Eye imagery files that they [sneakily] load onto the unit which cause the above mentioned issues so they need to be deleted.
https://support.garmin.com/en-AU/?fa...e55yY9dW7fLrK8 (You may have to copy and paste that link into your browser - if it doesn't work as a click on hyperlink)
Why they do this is another conversation, but anyway...

It was nice to speak to somebody during the holidays that was super helpful and solved the problem. Nice one Garmin!

Cheers.

I have to say this was not the story I was expecting!

I also have had to recently contact Garmin over a tech issue with one of their watches (no longer solar charging).

Within an hour of emailing them had a reponse from the US with things to try and that they would pass my issue on to AU/NZ support who contacted me the next day telling me how to put the watch into diagnosics mode and what the correct values should be showing.

I replied to them the values shown on the watch...Their reply was "send it back and we'll send you a replacement".

More than I was expecting as the watch is now a discontinued model and is out of the warranty period.

Fantastic aftersales service Garmin

Garmin have really good customer service. I contacted them to buy a replacement battery cover for a GPS collar I was fixing for a friend. A pig had punctured thru the original cover. It was well and truely out of warrenty and I was not looking for anything other than to purchase a replacement cover. They requested it back and sent me a complete new collar.

Yeh a few years back when I sold a big inreach unit for the mini inreach and had a bit of a hiccup between disabling the account on the one I sold and trying to get that account onto the new unit, I called their help line not expecting much. Had some lady from Aus sort everything out while I was on the line in quick order. Impressed.

Great to hear good support. Mine was a little different. My Fenix 6X has had the vibration bit come adrift. It now buzzes like it's dying for notifications, not a nice discreet hum. I contacted Garmin and followed their request with a video of the fault and questions answered. Looking online it appears to be a known fault. I purchased the watch NIB with receipt and still in the sealed box but from the original purchaser (insurance replacement). Garmin only offered me a reduced price new watch and no warranty as I supposedly wasn't the first person to register the watch with Garmin. I was a little miffed to be fair. I had pictures of the receipt and the box with seals and original packaging. I declined their offer and will buy a new back cover with new battery from AliExpress for less than half the difference of the offer from Garmin.
YMMV with Garmin support IMO