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CIQ App Support Requests with no email are useless

FlowState
over 6 years ago
Unless I'm missing something, if a Connect IQ app user sends a dev support request (Contact Developer) and declines to fill in their email address in the form, it is impossible for the developer to reply.

I just received a support request asking for help uninstalling a widget with no reply address, and no way to contact that user.

Would it possible to do one of the following
1) Make it very clear on the form that the developer cannot respond to a request in any way (*) unless an email address is present. The current wording is that the user should fill in the email address if they want a "direct response", which seems to imply that they could get some sort of indirect response otherwise. As far as I know, they can't.

or

2) Actually provide a way to indirectly respond? As in an intermediate Garmin email address that forwards mail to the email address associated with the user's Garmin account?

I don't like the idea that a user tried to contact me for help and now thinks I am ignoring them.

I have seen other devs post a notice on their app description that they are unable to respond to requests that don't have an email address, so I know this has happened to other people.

Sorry, this is just another thing that makes me not want to participate in the Garmin dev/user ecosystem. I don't see the point of being able to contact a dev with no way to get a reply. In 99.9% of the cases, you'd think that the user wants some sort of acknowledgement.

(*) Unless I am missing something.

It seems like the only reason this is a problem is because Garmin has not provided a way for the developer to reply without exposing the user's email address. But maybe I am missing something.
  • over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58
    jim_m_58 said:
    There is clearly a technical or legal reason the email can't be filled in on the web based store.

    If it's a technical reason, then that's just sad.

    If it's a legal reason, then it still makes no sense considering that they're able to do so with the Connect IQ App.

    I'm struggling to guess what legit combination of legal and technical reasons could prevent the web-based store from auto-filling your email address when somehow the app is able to do so.

    Someone from Garmin also said years ago that they wanted to implement Markdown in the store description, but that never happened either.

    From my POV, if Garmin (the company) cared enough in either case, they could make it happen. Seems to me it's not worth their while to try.

    My best guess is that it's a resource allocation issue.

    jim_m_58 said:
    Or do you think this was just ignored by Garmin for years?

    Coleman replied to this thread years ago, and we've heard nothing since, so you tell me. I don't blame him personally, but it does seem that Garmin as a company doesn't care a whole lot about developer relations.

    It would have been nice to hear back, even if the follow up was "we're not going to change this".

  • over 3 years ago

    Thanks for the input you both. I also noticed that now this just seems to be a problem when submitting the request on the webpage, as you said everything is already pre-filled when doing so via the app. I'd expect that most of these request are nowadays sent from the app, so maybe Garmin just fixed it for this way and then decided that it's not necessary to correspondingly adapt the webpage form as well.

    Nevertheless it's quite unfortunate. What I now did (in addition to adding the information on the app description page) is to write to ConnectIQAdmin, asking if they can forward my answer to the user since I cannot. Let's see if they do that, if it works it might be a workaround for the cases where it's needed.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to FlowState

    Oh speaking of "things that were just ignored by Garmin for years":

    https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/activityinfo-distancetodestination-seemingly-incorrect-reflects-distance-to-next-point-not-distance-to-end-of-course

    2019: Bug report filed

    2020: Comment added:

    "WTF is going here? :D Why is Garmin not going to fix this bug?"

    2020: Bug status changed to completed

    2020: Comment added:

    "omg, I am totally freaking out. There is a status change. From Jun 20, 2019 till now :D Garmin, you are really fast ;) Unfortunately I have to say BUT:

    "This has been fixed on fenix 5 Plus and Forerunner 935 devices"

    This bug is not only on this devices. For example, this bug is also on Fenix 6S Pro. In my world of developing, I would investigate if a bug exists on other watches by myself. In germany you would now say "Einmal mit Profis... (Once with professionals...)".

    btw: I'd kill to have your code or git repo, to fix your problems by myself."

    Here's the followup ticket which has been open for over a year:

    forums.garmin.com/.../fix-distancetodestination-on-all-affected-devices

    Sorry, but it's part of a larger pattern.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to doubleoseven1986

    I probably get an average of 10 "contact developer" messages a day, and I can't recall the last time I got one I couldn't reply to.

    I also get some weird ones - today one where the message was just "sb".for example.

    The ones I have to translate can also be odd.  Another I got today, the translation made no sense, and I replied with the translation, stating I didn't understand the question.  

  • over 3 years ago

    To me it seems, that the real problem is, that Garmin has no clue (or at least not much clue) about UX (User Experience). I am a UX/UI designer, and I see this (the lack of UX) everywhere at Garmins services and products. The problem with the missing email, could simply be solved by making it absolutely clear, that developer cannot answer if email is not provided.

    Just wanted to ad my 2 cents, because I also receive request/reports which I cannot answer.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Makkas-CIQ
    Makkas-CIQ said:
    To me it seems, that the real problem is, that Garmin has no clue (or at least not much clue) about UX (User Experience). I am a UX/UI designer, and I see this (the lack of UX) everywhere at Garmins services and products.

    This forum itself is a case in point. There are so many usability issues which will apparently never be fixed.

    Garmin didn't develop the forum platform, but they chose it.