Virtual partner cannot be switched off

This stalling tactic is simply embarrassing...
What do you want to ask or check in our accounts?

Why would you need this? As you said yourself, this has been requested by tons of people (this thread, but there are many other threads out there asking the same). There is no need to look at anyone's account - as this is not an individual account/data problem. Garmin simply needs to add a feature to disable the virtual partner. That's all there is to it - there are no other details that should be needed. If your development team can't understand the request of "add a setting to disable virtual partner", then you've got much bigger problems.

If I am to escalate this request to my team they will want to see the request came from a specific user who is actively willing to participate in providing us context. I would simply ask a few questions about which devices have been used in the past and which are being used now that this request applies to. Explicit consent from that user is required.

Why do you need to access the Garmin Connect accounts? 

Your team should know this is a silly feature from the beginning. Either you ‘race’ against a preset average speed which is silly because you can’t put your average speed in a data field or you could race against a previous ridden course which is also silly because there is a great chance that the weather conditions where different. VP is just confusing on the map screen. Most people don’t race, they just want to navigate a course. For that we don’t need a VP.  I spent a load of money on Garmin stuff and in general I am not complaining but in this I like to be taken serious without granting to acces to my account. 

Moderator Note: Removed curse word. 

Yes 

I have tried to reply to your direct message, but the site just errors every time I hit send. So, pasting my reply here: I'm fine with the request being from my account (you probably need my email (unless you can get it from the forum user, but since I can't reply to your message, not sure how to do that, since I don't want to paste it in here in a public forum).
But, being a veteran of the software industry (25+ years, CTO, blah blah blah :)  I find it a bit troubling that this is how it works, and that Garmin's product managers don't want to see/evaluate user feedback (especially when so many have voiced it) and be able to factor that into their product management. I don't think I've ever seen a software/tech company need to attach a specific customer's account/info to a request unless it was a bug/customer service issue. As you've observed, this just causes your customers to be even more frustrated. So, pass that along as you see fit, but in the interest of getting this feature into consideration, sure, feel free to use my name & user/account. My current devices are an Edge 1040 Solar and a MARQ Athelete watch.

1. Yes

2. Yes

I had Edge 530, 1040 and now 1050.
I had Fenix 5, 7 and now I'm going to buy Fenix 8.
That said, I don't understand why you need to access our accounts. This problem is not related to our account, it's a generic functionality for everybody and it's a problem reported since many years.
Insted of spending time with these strange requests we would appreciate if you could just develop a switch to disable that virtual partner! Please !!
But if you still want to access my acoount, ok, go ahead

Chiming in to say that virtual partner arrow being on screen was a cause of countless navigation errors for me.

I know it's there, thanks to asking around (good on device contextual help anyone?) I know what it is and I still mistake it for my own position when I need to quickly figure it out.

Reason, as always with Garmin, is bad UI - virtual partner arrow looks exactly like position arrow and is further up on screen so when you're quickly glancing down your brain locks into it. This is especially true in all high workload/stress situations when you have very little time to look at gps.

I almost rode into a swamp more than once because of this. Same goes for making wrong turn decisions in traffic. It's outright dangerous.