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Garmin is digging their own grave

2199455
21 days ago

This will be my last Garmin product. 

The Fenix 8 is the current flagship device for Garmin.  Since its release, it has been plagued with bugs. Getting close to a year in and the software is still hit or miss.  Then the brightness issue in low ambient light became a pressing concern for Fenix 8 users.  Instead of Garmin providing some kind...any kind of meaningful customer service, we were initially told it would be corrected in a software update. Months later, we were then told this issue is "by design" and basically closed the door of hope to ever get a fix for this.  Now Garmin releases a subscription service and is already threatening to tie additional features behind the paywall, ignoring the fact that their customers already spent a small fortune purchasing one of their products.

If Garmin makes any current included features blocked behind a paywall in the future, a class action suit will be filed. 

The direction this company has taken lately is baffling and I wonder if the suits even realize how much bad sentiment they are creating and the business they are losing.  

Garmin, I've spent over $2000 in the last 1.5 years on your products.  Hope you invest it well as you'll never see another dime from me.  There are plenty of alternatives after I sell this Fenix 8 to recoup some of the money I feel I wasted on what was supposed to be a flagship device. What good is a watch if I struggle to see the display half the time?

I can't wait to be completely done with Garmin. I'll never look back, that's for sure 

  • 0 7 days ago in reply to 7000518
    7000518 said:
    these watches that take at least a year to mature because of this fractured glitchy firmware/ui development

    Having multiple models (some of which have significant differences) share similar or even identical software will only lead to more bugs, not fewer bugs imo. I've already seen it happen.

    One advantage of the unified approach is that usually when a bug is fixed for one model, it will be fixed for all models.

    I agree that making the models themselves more similar (in terms of hardware/design) will probably lead to fewer bugs. e.g. if and when MIP is finally phased out, then there will be zero bugs related to inappropriately applying AMOLED code to MIP devices.

    Probably the biggest change Garmin could make to reduce software issues would be to significantly reduce the number of models (which would be another way of reducing complexity due to differences between models). I bet they won't do that bc they seem to love their market segmentation via hardware/software differentiation across different models and lines.

    But I don't think having all the models use software that's increasingly similar (if not identical) is a magic bullet for any real or perceived Garmin software dev issues. Again I don't think it's possible for the device firmware to be identical across models in the first place. But also, I've seen a ton of issues in things like the Connect mobile app and the Connect website which wouldn't be solved by reducing differences in device models or using completely unified firmware for all the models. I don't claim to know Garmin's internal processes (so I'm not qualified to judge them), but let's just say Garmin has always had a rep for not being the greatest at software. That's the perception I've seen online, and when talking to runners irl, I hear the common sentiment that Connect is confusing and clunky (most ppl would rather use Strava for everything).

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to FlowState

    Less watch lines, standardised experience of ui on the watch irrespective of type or price, faster, make them look better, thinner, with square and round versions of the 3 sizes currently on offer, issues around amoled, mip, black/white screen thats probably all going to consolidate on one tech over time

    I had a descent mk2i before and they ditched the T1 transmitter for mk3i added new features and increased price massively, cant add air integration on any line but for descent line with no 47mm version, so i get fenix 8 instead sans Air integration,

    plenty of silly variants, fenix 8 E for example or fenix 8 recreational dive which is worse than G2 in terms of dive features, G2 doesn't have air integration either, and marq line which is ridiculously priced and not massively well specced, quatix another line makes little sense imo, Garmin isnt and never will be a luxury watch brand, unless there are dramatic upgrades in hardware and consistency/improvement in software in next lines I'm sticking with fenix 8 for foreseeable future I'm not going to finance this development cycle for marginal iterative changes for a watch that costs £1000+, in case of fenix 8 whose internals have been same since fenix 7 release 4yrs ago with next update due in 2y time

  • 0 5 days ago

    Garmin's not gonna care what you think. They never did, unless it was praising the company. Either put up with Garmin's inability to fix their software or move to somewhere else. They're releasing way too many products with the same or similar features and not focusing on fixing their software issues.That's my opinion on Garmin. I put up with them until something better comes along.

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to 7000518

    Less watch lines, standardised experience of ui on the watch irrespective of type or price, faster, make them look better, thinner, with square and round versions of the 3 sizes currently on offer, issues around amoled, mip, black/white screen thats probably all going to consolidate on one tech over time

    I had a descent mk2i before and they ditched the T1 transmitter for mk3i added new features and increased price massively, cant add air integration on any line but for descent line with no 47mm version, so i get fenix 8 instead sans Air integration,

    plenty of silly variants, fenix 8 E for example or fenix 8 recreational dive which is worse than G2 in terms of dive features, G2 doesn't have air integration either, and marq line which is ridiculously priced and not massively well specced, quatix another line makes little sense imo, Garmin isnt and never will be a luxury watch brand, unless there are dramatic upgrades in hardware and consistency/improvement in software in next lines I'm sticking with fenix 8 for foreseeable future I'm not going to finance this development cycle for marginal iterative changes for a watch that costs £1000+, in case of fenix 8 whose internals have been same since fenix 7 release 4yrs ago with next update due in 2y time

  • 0 4 days ago

    Whats thedifference between the forerunner 970 and fenix 8 E...Are garmin feeling ok...do the various watch line developers talk to each other about what theyre doing?

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to Hilikus

    I don't even have to start an activity. I just need to walk outside and the display fades to black, sun or shade doesn't matter. Not dim, but black in the sun and the shade. I walk back inside and the display lights up, I walk outside and it fades to black. Very repeatable, even after a full factory reset, so it's not my settings.

    I've been talking to Garmin for months. I've created a Youtube channel, which is currently private, with videos of the failures. I recommend sending Garmin support videos of the failures on your watch, too.  I know there are a number of people who are having the ambient light sensor problems and who are sending videos. I wonder if I should post a contact email and try to gather all the people who have the crap Fenix 8s? I'm really curious how widespread this ambient light sensor failure is.