It seems like Garmin is not paying attention to fixing bugs reported for the Fenix 5x series, especially with Fenix 6 series on the horizon. They are forgetting how much damage bugs and Garmin’s response to those bugs may do to the brand and more importantly, their bottom line ($). Not everyone buys the 5 series watches as soon as those devices are launched - tens of thousands of people buy the watches much later than the launch time frame, and around this time, which is the end of the cycle for the 5 series. If these buyers face bugs and Garmin is not paying attention or fixing these bugs, the buyers will return the watch (probably more than once) and tell other people not to buy Garmin.
Just for the returns, think about how many people return the products if the device hardware or the software is buggy. As a conservative scenario, let’s say 10,000 people return the Garmin Fenix 5x plus around this time (which is the end of cycle of Fenix 5 series) and half of them return the device twice - that’s 15,000 returns for about $650 (approximate average of the prices for different Fenix 5x models) per watch, which is about $10M - think about that. Even if Garmin has factored in these financial damages in the pricing of its models, there’s always a threshold (due to returns) beyond which the financial impact is serious. I’m not sure Garmin realizes this or is ignoring this.
I’m curious how their financials look. They’re ignoring the quality of the software, especially - they don’t seem to have developers who can fix issues quickly, or at all.
Let me preempt the people who will say the bugs are faced by a fraction of the people. No, not true. Most people do not report bugs or even understand if it’s a bug, but they will return the device if they think that’s how just the device works or does not work for them. And for comparison, think about any product that charges as much as Garmin does for their devices (e.g., phones, watches, other electronics) - these products may have bugs but they work perfectly well for their core functionality (e.g., iPhone, Pixel phones, Apple Watch, Galaxy watches). These products do not have bugs so severe that the products become useless. Garmin’s watches, especially due to it’s software, appears to be always in a sub-beta state. Just charging premium prices does not make the product premium - you have to earn the premium reputation through products which work with high-quality throughout - hardware, software AND customer support.
Hope someone from Garmin senior leadership sees this post and comments. I’d love to have a discussion since I, like many others, expected the “premium” Garmin watches to work much better than they did for me as a first-time buyer after paying the amount I did.
