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International warranty support issues. Garmin won't fix 2 month old Descent G1?

1831302
over 1 year ago

I'm in Hong Kong, but purchased a Descent G1 from the UK because the local distributor only had the (more expensive) Chinese language version available when I was shopping. It is only 2 months old, but the vibration motor has started to make a broken kind of rattling noise. This is clearly a hardware defect, but the Hong Kong distributor and service centre says I'm ineligible for support because I didn't buy it in Hong Kong. Is this the norm for Garmin? Is there any way to get them to support their products? I move internationally pretty regularly, so this is basically a deal killer for me. I'll look to another company (Apple Watch Ultra maybe) with better international support if Garmin isn't able to stand behind their products.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Oh, I forgot to mention my G1 also performed a reboot about 40 minutes into a dive last week. It was a nitrox dive, and the computer just decided to restart on its own while I was under. Luckily my wife had her computer on and I was happy to rely on it for the rest of the dive. The G1 did pick up where it left off once the restart finished, but dive computers should never be rebooting themselves when in dive mode. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Have you tried going through the retailer? It might be a bit more complex with you being in HK, but if you're getting nowhere with Garmin...

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Unfortunately, this is the case with many companies because a lot of times their local in-country distributor and support is not owned directly by Garmin or is operated as a completely separate company.  If you didn't buy it in-country then the local distributor will not be compensated in any way for the free repair or replacement.

    It might be worth seeing if you can send it to Garmin Taiwan instead of having to send it all the way back to the UK since at least on the US site it says:

    Devices purchased in the United States or Canada must be returned to the Garmin service center in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, or Taiwan for service.

    Good luck!

  • +1 over 1 year ago in reply to ericgottlieb

    Thanks. Despite my requests Garmin has been very unhelpful. Taiwan is a good idea, but I guess not really that much easier than shipping it off somewhere else. It would be quite simple for a large multinational like Garmin to transfer payments across licensees/distributors when they repair/replace defective products sold by another business unit. But it appears Garmin just wants to keep things easy for themselves at the expense of customer satisfaction. I'll just buy an Apple Watch next time and know that they'll stand behind it.

  • +1 over 1 year ago in reply to 1831302

    I am sorry you have had a bad experience. When you buy a device from certain countries, it is not always convenient if your device develops and issue and needs to be warranty exchanged. It strictly depends on where you live.

    Your best bet being in Hong Kong is to go through Garmin Taiwan since they are our SE Asia HQ for the region. I am sorry the Hong Kong Vendor is not able to help you further.

    Regarding your Dive restart, please be sure to report it when you speak with the Taiwan Product Support team.