yellowfever
19-08-2009, 07:50 AM
I've posted before about my Garmin Zumo 550 GPS which I've previously described as 'great when it works'. I am on my third unit the previous two having been replaced under warranty after dying on me. Annoyingly this third one also died recently during rainy tour of France, meaning the 550 zumo had never actually got me all the way through a bike tour. Pretty annoying for something supposedly waterproof and vibration proof and specially made for motorbikes with £500 price tag to match....
Even more annoying as I'd just signed up at £100 cost to map updates for the life of the unit - which promptly died and is of course now out of warranty.
Sent a snotty letter (again) to Garmins complaint department with copies of my previous letters of woe and the zumo 550 and cradle for them to repair in all honesty not expecting much as most places these days seem not to give two ****s about their customers.
Posted it to them on Saturday and on Monday got an e-mail saying they'd received it and in view of the problems I'd had how did I feel about them sending me the new model zumo 660 for free by courier asap? After I'd got over the shock (and I'd also confirmed they'd transfer the map updates subscription to the 660!) I was happy to say yes to this and it arrived two days later!
New unit is even better than old one with extra features and quicker routing and they have also redesigned the cradle which should hopefully make it more reliable (2 of the failures I'd had were due to water ingress into the cradle which stupidly had a few sensitive bits of electrics in it and seals which did not work well enough). Only downside is the new cradle design has an integral power cable so I had to remove old cabling and plumb new one in rather than simply plug it in, but not so hard to do.
Anyway sorry for long tale, but nice to see a company that for once believes in customer service. Just goes to show it can be worth a try writing to companies when you have problems. Well done Garmin for restoring my faith in them, fingers crossed the 660 proves reliable, very happy with it so far.
Even more annoying as I'd just signed up at £100 cost to map updates for the life of the unit - which promptly died and is of course now out of warranty.
Sent a snotty letter (again) to Garmins complaint department with copies of my previous letters of woe and the zumo 550 and cradle for them to repair in all honesty not expecting much as most places these days seem not to give two ****s about their customers.
Posted it to them on Saturday and on Monday got an e-mail saying they'd received it and in view of the problems I'd had how did I feel about them sending me the new model zumo 660 for free by courier asap? After I'd got over the shock (and I'd also confirmed they'd transfer the map updates subscription to the 660!) I was happy to say yes to this and it arrived two days later!
New unit is even better than old one with extra features and quicker routing and they have also redesigned the cradle which should hopefully make it more reliable (2 of the failures I'd had were due to water ingress into the cradle which stupidly had a few sensitive bits of electrics in it and seals which did not work well enough). Only downside is the new cradle design has an integral power cable so I had to remove old cabling and plumb new one in rather than simply plug it in, but not so hard to do.
Anyway sorry for long tale, but nice to see a company that for once believes in customer service. Just goes to show it can be worth a try writing to companies when you have problems. Well done Garmin for restoring my faith in them, fingers crossed the 660 proves reliable, very happy with it so far.