Fenix 5plus battery drain

I wonder how much of your angst could have been avoided by reading the manual first? 

Hi the Fenix 5 plus and Fenix 5s Plus in Europe have always been supplied with Topo Maps covering all of Europe and this is shown on Garmin's European websites , not sure about other countries . If you purchased your watch in Europe from a genuine Garmin reseller it definitely should have came with the preloaded Europe topo maps as shown on their website , these maps do turn by turn navigation I use them for road cycling .

I have used the locus app before and did find it drained my battery .

The website link below for Garmin UK does show the Fenix 5 plus range supplied with maps as standard .

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/603267

Hope this helps.

Given that the manual did not clarify anything about the firmware update, and considering I DID read the manual first (which is the same doc for 5s, 5, and 5X) AND considering my watch did not include the Maps feature in the expected menu area before the firmware update I described, precisely none of my poor experience was remediated by reading the manual first.

That being said, in the words of Reggie Watts

".. but if you gotta read directions, maybe that should tell you that it's BAD ENGINEERING 'cause the UI should explain how it works! If you have experience with other similar devices you should be able to figure it out." 

(Check it out on YouTube, NPR Tiny Desk performance by Reggie Watts, third song IIRC, quite good performance, and as a technical support rep for an HCI vendor myself I fully agree with his statement.)

Alan,

I really also felt that just deleting folders on the watch was an odd step, which is why I mentioned it as something that stood out to me in my support interaction with Garmin via Chat. While I'm fairly certain it should be possible to factory reset the device afterward, it really did seem the sort of thing a support agent should explain, and maybe give a little more detail on like where the folders are, rather than just tossing it out as next steps with no other clarification why, how, or what it should achieve. I certainly would have clarified what deleting the folders would do, and why I was advising to do that, before going ahead with that step. I definitely would have provided full filesystem path to the folders instead of just the folder names. 

Chris,

Unfortunately I don't have any kind of case number reference on that interaction. I don't think there was any specifics offered there that I haven't offered here. 

My main disappointment with the support interaction was the lack of things I consider basic courtesy in my own work as a support agent. No acknowledgement that the watch should be performing better (suggesting maybe it generally doesn't?), no description of what the plan should be going forward except "wait at least a few days and two full charge cycles before getting back to us" where I would have offered some better clarity and set expectations. It sounds like, to me, since I didn't buy through your website my only recourse is to seek replacement through the retail outlet.

I'm hoping the cause is something like "a few watches were accidentally activated during packing or storage, causing discharge of the battery" and not "all of these Fenix 5s watches were packed before the end of 2018 and those batteries just slowly drained on the shelf, if you wanted a like-new battery you should've bought a year ago or earlier". Personally, as the support agent, I would have specifically addressed that concern one way or another. Given that no attention was offered to that part of the complaint, it simply implies that "this is expected, no we don't care about quality at the time of shipping, it's on you as the customer to go through a few returns if you really want a new device in good condition." Honestly, I'm not surprised when that's the case if I've bought for instance the $35 micro-drone from Estes, or some other low-cost device. I've jumped through a couple returns to get one that's not a lemon, more than a few times. I just don't expect that experience at this price-point. 

The Fenix 5 Owner's Manual is different to the Fenix 5 Plus Owner's manual.

Granted it is not absolutely clear but there are instructions to update via Garmin Express on Page 1-2 of the manual. In the past there was an instruction that came with the watches that suggested the first thing to do was to connect the watch to a computer to charge and update it before first use. Perhaps that is no longer the case since it does not appear to be in the owner's manual now. And to be honest, I don't really care what Reggie Watts (whoever he might be) suggests, these are complex devices that I am not sure that any manual could fully detail the almost infinite number of ways these devices could be used.

Good that Garmin are addressing your issue so whether or not the manual has/had anything to do with your problems is likely to be moot.

"all of these Fenix 5s watches were packed before the end of 2018"

Obviously you don't have a Fenix 5 PLUS which was launched second half of 2018 ????

It is very impolite to waste the time of people trying to help you by providing wrong or at least weird information!