Garmin moan
- Thread starter Sticky Fingers
- Start date
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Well, bit of an update to this, with some (probably) good news.
I wrote in to Garmin, an old school letter as no replies to emails and phone support unable to help... setting out the problem and demanding a solution or a refund.
I've now been sent some instructions for how to unlock the mapping card so it can register the so-called-obsolete map for its due updates. Have run the process and it "seems to have worked". Back down to the boat tomorrow week. Will try it out.
So, if that's all true then my "Garmin moan" is about useless tech support and a misleading website, rather than a deliberate policy. And if so, all credit to them. Or maybe, just maybe, being a cynical old IT bod, they fixed it and hid.
I wrote in to Garmin, an old school letter as no replies to emails and phone support unable to help... setting out the problem and demanding a solution or a refund.
I've now been sent some instructions for how to unlock the mapping card so it can register the so-called-obsolete map for its due updates. Have run the process and it "seems to have worked". Back down to the boat tomorrow week. Will try it out.
So, if that's all true then my "Garmin moan" is about useless tech support and a misleading website, rather than a deliberate policy. And if so, all credit to them. Or maybe, just maybe, being a cynical old IT bod, they fixed it and hid.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Further update, and I've updated the thread title as I'm now no longer moaning. Garmin have come through with a proper solution. Summary is that they have offered me a replacement chart SD card of my choice, at no cost. RMA raised for the return of the old un-update-able one.
So that's a good outcome.
So that's a good outcome.
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Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
That's good news, I have to say that i've always found their support people very helpful.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Took two weeks and a lot of chasing to arrive, but the new card has arrived, it's an all-of-Europe chart card dated May 2018 so I have to say that's a good outcome. A year newer, and a bigger area of coverage.
pvb
Well-Known Member
So where's the next trip then?
Sea-Fever
Well-Known Member
As others have said Garmin hardware is excellent. However their software is, as stated, borne of protectionist attitudes that I liken to that of Microsoft. And, just like Microsoft, Garmin should be aware that newcomers can and will usurp whatever market position they had simply by recognising what the customer wants. I too have been wooed in the past by Garmin hardware only to curse their ridiculous processes to get charts or maps onto their tech.
I personally won't buy Garmin again as I believe they are too strongly wedded to their legacy processes to make any significant change. They must have some damn good hardware engineers. What a shame they didn't employ sensible software design practises to boot.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Chichester > Lymington > Poole > Weymouth then we'll see how we do, first 10-day cruise for Scala and us. May possibly get to Brixham / Torquay but I doubt it. Leaving end of July, hope to meet up with some friends and their boat in Poole.
September... might try for CIs. See how we do.
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Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Seems that way. I bought Garmin as it was the default offering on my new boat and I did not want the hassle of speccing something else. I'd had Raymarine before which I also disliked intensely so maybe it's me. No issues with the Garmin hardware, seems very high quality, but charts... not happy at all. Contrast with VMH Raster charts at £7 for the UK with a free update which seems almost bonkers cheap, or Navionics on my tablet for about £40 a year.
However. Can't afford to swap. And no doubt the others have "issues:", I am however planning to spend a few happy hours at Southampton boat show berating them all.
anoccasionalyachtsman
Well-Known Member
I mentioned it elsewhere, but my Garmin story has an end too.
After finally finding someone at Garmin who did everything that he could to help (Robbe, he knows the software inside out) we gave up and I took it back to Force4 for a quibble free refund.
It is possible to get these things to take you round a route if you drill down into all the settings (and investigate how the menu drop-downs vary with the screen/page that you're on at the time). To get it to take you to the first wpt you need to add your present position as a wpt and then 'insert' it at the top of the list. Then activate the route and it will assume that you've passed that first point and are now heading for the second. VMG remained a bit of a mystery, 'next point' was always 001 degrees no matter what we tried, and the e problem with illegible text (not mentioned before, but it effectively didn't have enough screen area so it just overwrote the page headings) would never be fixed on the 276cx. I didn't get offered a replacement chart with the submarine barrier properly marked, or the yellow buoys off Salcombe, but I'd had enough of it anyway by then.
After finally finding someone at Garmin who did everything that he could to help (Robbe, he knows the software inside out) we gave up and I took it back to Force4 for a quibble free refund.
It is possible to get these things to take you round a route if you drill down into all the settings (and investigate how the menu drop-downs vary with the screen/page that you're on at the time). To get it to take you to the first wpt you need to add your present position as a wpt and then 'insert' it at the top of the list. Then activate the route and it will assume that you've passed that first point and are now heading for the second. VMG remained a bit of a mystery, 'next point' was always 001 degrees no matter what we tried, and the e problem with illegible text (not mentioned before, but it effectively didn't have enough screen area so it just overwrote the page headings) would never be fixed on the 276cx. I didn't get offered a replacement chart with the submarine barrier properly marked, or the yellow buoys off Salcombe, but I'd had enough of it anyway by then.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
Well, it may be that my replacement ALSO doesn't have that barrier marked... I'll find out in a couple of weeks.