Solar Instinct Crashing randomly

I'm extremely surprised at Garmin's response to this issue. My watch also has been crashing for the past month. Even pressing the button to my alarm will cause it to crash. 

Garmin knew about this issue but insisted that it was not their problem. 

"*****:The warranty on the watch is 12 months from the date of purchase. However, because this has come up a number of times, we did extend the warranty for this concern to 24 months. Since you have owned this watch even longer, we do not have a way to replace this within warranty."

Then she tried to sell me that the $140.00 replacement change was better than buying a new one. 

"*****: The purchase price of this watch is $449, so the replacement is much less than the new purchase."

The sickening part is that even after pointing out that this Web page has pages of people saying they are having the same issue... she insisted that we are a small percentage.

"*****:As mentioned, we are aware of a number of reports of this concern. However, there have been millions of these devices sold. So while those reports feel like a lot, this is a fairly small percentage. However, again, our engineers have researched these thoroughly, and determined this is not software related, and instead something they recommend replacement for."

So here's what I've done... I've done a full reset on my watch and immediately disabled the auto software update. I'm only on the second day of putting my watch through the paces, and no crash so far... (Yesterday alone I had four crashes during my run) Which means there was absolutely a Software conflict somewhere. 

I've also pulled out my good old Mudmaster, which still works after seven years. 

In closing, if my nearly 500-dollar watch can't do what I bought it to do... I'll NEVER purchase a Garmin watch again. They are obviously having quality control issues, getting greedy, and their engineers are too busy to solve known issues. 

I'm extremely surprised at Garmin's response to this issue. My watch also has been crashing for the past month. Even pressing the button to my alarm will cause it to crash. 

Garmin knew about this issue but insisted that it was not their problem. 

"*****:The warranty on the watch is 12 months from the date of purchase. However, because this has come up a number of times, we did extend the warranty for this concern to 24 months. Since you have owned this watch even longer, we do not have a way to replace this within warranty."

Then she tried to sell me that the $140.00 replacement change was better than buying a new one. 

"*****: The purchase price of this watch is $449, so the replacement is much less than the new purchase."

The sickening part is that even after pointing out that this Web page has pages of people saying they are having the same issue... she insisted that we are a small percentage.

"*****:As mentioned, we are aware of a number of reports of this concern. However, there have been millions of these devices sold. So while those reports feel like a lot, this is a fairly small percentage. However, again, our engineers have researched these thoroughly, and determined this is not software related, and instead something they recommend replacement for."

So here's what I've done... I've done a full reset on my watch and immediately disabled the auto software update. I'm only on the second day of putting my watch through the paces, and no crash so far... (Yesterday alone I had four crashes during my run) Which means there was absolutely a Software conflict somewhere. 

I've also pulled out my good old Mudmaster, which still works after seven years. 

In closing, if my nearly 500-dollar watch can't do what I bought it to do... I'll NEVER purchase a Garmin watch again. They are obviously having quality control issues, getting greedy, and their engineers are too busy to solve known issues. 

Update: they have been trying to fix our issues with newer SOFTWARE updates but they are causing more problems... 

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/instinct-solar/258409/instinct-solar-is-randomly-freezing-on-software-v13-20

Again *****... this is a SOFTWARE issue not a physical watch issue. 

Moderator: Product Support agent's name removed for privacy purposes.

9951143 said:

Again *****... this is a SOFTWARE issue not a physical watch issue. 

This statement is not accurate. I am sorry your Instinct Solar Tactical developed a hardware issue. My sincere apologies your watch developed the behavior.

So are you saying I could fix the hardware within my watch by resetting it to factory settings? Does that even sound right? What hardware got teleported over the air? How is that SOFTWARE 13.2 going? 

Garmin why are you removing the name of the person name for privacy purposes... yet Garmin-Chris is in plain view? 

It's funny how this issue only started for me after the last update.  There's been no hardware modifications to my watch, but mine has developed the exact same symptoms as others.  It seems linked to the vibration setting.  Yes, there is a remote chance it could be hardware (that causes the watch to immediately crash?) and if so, Garmin ought to really do a recall, but the more likely cause is a software crash.

It is totally a software bug. I got a very empathetic service tech / product support and they allowed me to send in my 2 year old watch for a refurbished one at NO charge. This one has been working perfectly fine for the past few months. Fingers crossed.

I think they are playing with words... They are saying their engineers have thoroughly tested this and its not a SOFTWARE issue. So perhaps they want to hear Firmware issues? 

Totally agree about the recall. if they know they have released CODE that is now causing mechanical issues, then they should recall or fix the code they have pushed out to the watches. 

Nice I'm glad you didn't get mine. Mine said I had a choice... 140 or full price for a new one. Got mine in Aug of 2021 but they said since it's past the two-year mark... I need to pay. 

Sound only... Guess we need to also remove the Tactical from the Name Solar Instinct Tactical edition.