Garmin

I feel your pain and frustration and I too have had issues with Garmin. But then I look at the bigger picture and realise that software quality is poor across the board, whether it be Microsoft or Apple or anyone else.

I was a software developer for over 15 years and know the ins and outs of the process. In general, it appears many software developers these days have no clue about quality or even basic troubleshooting.

I bought a Mio FUSE in February. It was potentially a fantastic product but the poor design decision, lousy implementation and bad software development has rendered almost completely useless (for me at least). It make Garmin look like geniuses.

Note that Wahoo have been around for some time. I bought the ANT+ adapter for my iPhone a few years ago. They seem to be a long time coming and their software has bugs, too (see above).

...I look at the bigger picture and realise that software quality is poor across the board, whether it be Microsoft or Apple or anyone else.

1. Even if that was true for every organisation producing software, it doesn't excuse the fact that Garmin's software isn't properly QA'd.
2. It isn't true for every organisation producing software.

1. Even if that was true for every organisation producing software, it doesn't excuse the fact that Garmin's software isn't properly QA'd.

I wasn't excusing them all. It is the wrong way to release software. I was merely pointing out how widespread the problem is.

2. It isn't true for every organisation producing software.

Correct... but it is true for the majority of them, Microsoft and Apple included. Just look at how many bugs are introduced with each release.

I've lost count of the number of software developers that have posted in the Garmin forums basically suggesting that they write perfect software, and all the other ones work for Garmin et al.

Seems to me that the hiring policies at these big companies expressly seek less than perfect software writers. Surely not! Maybe there is a difference between the utopian approach espoused by the software developers that don't work for the big corporations but (like to think they would) produce fully QA'd software for an ideal, and the realities of corporate life.

I'm not going to argue that it's possible to write bug free code 100% of the time, but there's a certain ratio of bugs per lines of code you should aim to be under to consider your software to be of a high quality. I'd expect more total bugs in an operating system than a small application simply due to the difference in code complexity.
The fact that Garmin software has bugs isn't the problem, it's expected and acceptable for a certain amount of bugs to exist in any complex piece of software unless that software is mission critical, in which case you'd expect to pay a lot more for the testing required to correct those last few 100ths of a percentage of lines of code with bugs in them.
The problem is that Garmin has set an acceptable (to them) level of bugs per line of code much higher than is necessary to make a product that works in what I'd describe as a reasonable percent of circumstances. Whether this decision on the level of acceptable bugs has been made as a metric, through underfunding QA or by deciding that products need to be released on a schedule that doesn't match up to the maturity of their supporting software I can't say, regardless the problem remains.

I've been in SW development for 20 years. It's true quality is hard, but it's also true that, if you want to make a decent product that depends on software, you have to invest enough in the process to get it done right. Garmin is absolutely refusing to do that, because they don't care, but it IS possible to do.

We're not talking about "nice to have" features here. We're talking about core behavior of the model line (wireless sync). Apple and MSFT have trouble around the edges, but their core features keep working. Garmin can't get core features to work, and their communication is poor.

Comparing Garmin to Chinese audio equipment -- and their build quality is NOTORIOUSLY bad -- is putting your thumb on the scale in Garmin's favor pretty heavily. They're a US-based premium-priced product sold to people with discretionary income, and who are accustomed to the level of finish and function we get from companies like Apple. Garmin's grade on this scale is F.

The problem is that Garmin has set an acceptable (to them) level of bugs per line of code much higher than is necessary

Which is a nice way of saying "Garmin doesn't care."

Their customer service hours make it clear they hold us all in contempt anyway. Who has time *during working hours* to call Garmin about a problem?

So, Garmin called me in response to my ticket, but could only say "yeah, we know, but we don't know when it'll be fixed. Until then, you'll have to use a cable."

My warranty period runs until early November. If this isn't fixed by then, I'll be getting my money back and going with something else, because at this point my trust in Garmin is absolutely zero. They have the worst software quality of any vendor I deal with personally or professionally. It's astonishing.

Have you tried Garmin Connect Mobile 2.14 that was released today?

Under What's New it includes "Bluetooth pairing and syncing fixes".

At the risk of being completely shot down, here goes...

For starters, posting up with the title of "Garmin, you're pathetic" is never going to get people wanting to help you - irrespective of if they are obliged to or not. It sounds more like the kind of strop my 5yr old has when not getting their own way. I'm not saying that you aren't entitled to your own opinion, and it definitely sounds like you've had your fair share of frustrations, however throwing your toys out the cot really doesn't help. Sometimes a slightly more measured & helpful comment or complaint gets a better response. If you can't get Garmin to work with your iphone - then give it back and use something else (Polar or even native phone app?). Is it possible that its something unique to you, as thousands of other people are working & syncing? Out of interest, before posting this, did you comment on all the things that do work without issue and that you don't even think about when using the device?

I've owned multiple Garmin devices (forerunner 50, 110, 305, 910, 920 & the edge 500/510 with multiple speed/cadence sensors and HR straps that came with each of them). In the last 7 or 8 years since using Garmin devices, I've had 1 issue that resulted in a firmware upgrade bricking my 910, but it was replaced without hassle in under a week by Garmin support.

I have never experienced the issues that a lot of people say they have - maybe I'm just lucky, maybe I don't use every last feature to its fullest extent that mean I don't encounter the bugs as they do exist and are documented, so its not that I'm that lucky.

Given the software development team on each of the products are developing an operating system, then overlaying features relying on external/3rd party software providers (eg: iOS/Android) - I think there is a lot more involved than most people think, and the limitations of memory & processing power really come into play that make some issues even more difficult to overcome. I'm not saying that this excuses them and the issues they have experienced, however until you know what is going in within the Garmin dev teams - maybe someone should actually take two minutes to , however sometimes people need to have a bit of a reminder that what they have achieved is pretty impressive.

As I said - everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I'm not saying that Garmin are faultless. I'm just saying that take the time to comment on the good as well as you comment on the bad, and if you don't like what you have, stop complaining, send it back & move on to something else. it will make you much happier & less frustrated, and we might even be able to stop filling up the forum with comments that don't add any value to other readers.