Garmin Connect Segments

bufordt13 said:

Garmin, if you fix this I will delete my Strava account and move completely to Garmin Connect.

And how do you think Garmin would profit from it, when Garmin Connect is a free application, while Strava pays license fees to Garmin for the use of their API? In fact, commercially taken, for Garmin it is more interesting to keep Segments in GC unusable, pushing so more users onto Strava and profiting so from it a bit.

Otherwise, I agree that Segments on GC are far from being perfect, and need a serious rehaul. I am afraid though that it won't happen any soon. In contrary, with the latest changes I saw serious deterioration of the Segments functionality. I.e. when I re-check old Activities, existing segments are often removed, Segment results now sometimes include even Activities in the reverse sense, and they include also Activities not matching the track of the Segment at all; Running Segments contain Cycling Activities, which was always an issue with incorrectly categorized activities, but recently it happens even if the Activity is truly the "Cycling" type. I have concrete examples demonstrating all of those issues, and sent the evidence to the Support, but frankly told, I doubt it will be addressed, unless there are hundreds or thousands of other people asking the Support the same.

I'm in the same position and am trying to get to the bottom of using Garmin Segments, but I think trux has hit the nail on the head in that Strava and Garmin are partners. I wouldn't have a problem with Garmin making their segments practically unusable if they told you why either segments don't appear on activities after creating them, and they seem to be orphaned segments in many cases, and randomly appear and disappear from both the app and the desktop version. I think this is just a basic feature that isn't used that much by anyone wanting to do any analysis (as it doesn't work). Even when hitting the Match New Segments text it just doesn't seem to do this as for ones I know other people have done them it just hasn't found their runs. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I think our hunt for somewhere else to get this analysis will have to begin, as this is just unusable. This is actually making me think I won't buy a Garmin for the next GPS watch I get. It's not that they might be doing this because of a conflict of interests and not wanting to compete with Strava, it's that they haven't made this clear. Garmin do have the upper hand in this relationship though I would think, as without all the data coming from Garmin then Strava would have to rely on getting their data from elsewhere, so I'm not sure that I buy that Strava paying Garmin for what seems access to their API doesn't necessarily mean that they effectively get paid by Strava not to develop their Segments. I might see if Courses might work better, but I don't think they are meant to be used in the same way.

Not sure of the timing, but I wonder if this had something to do with the hack of Garmin's servers.  Either way, it is incredibly frustrating.  Just returned from a ride where I was really looking forward to checking the segments, but I log in and they are all gone.  I understand the comments about theoretically not profiting from maintaining and improving the segments buy I think that is at best a very poor excuse.  For example, if I take my car into the dealership, they wash and vacuum it.  They do not directly profit from that service, but it keeps me coming back not only for future service, but also for my next vehicle purchase.  Anyone who owns or runs a business understands this.

Between the hacking and now the segment issue (again) my next purchase probably will not be from Garmin (and I am on my fourth Garmin watch, I have Garmin Vector pedals, and have bought three high end Garmin watches for family members).  Business is incredibly competitive.  Garmin has an entrenched position but so did MySpace, eBay, Lotus 123, etc.  Might make sense for Gary and Min to give this a little thought...

My biggest issue with Garmin Connect is that it gives me times for Segments that I never crossed. 

Report all issues with segments to Garmin Support. That will hopefully make them more aware of all the issues with the implementation of segments. When the number of issues for one function rises the support will hopefully escalate it to the developers.