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I’m done with Garmin

Brisk Walker
2 days ago

I’m done with Garmin. Their device pricing is outrageous compared to the features they actually deliver, and the overall experience has been frustrating.

Every new release seems rushed—watches ship with critical bugs, and some models even crash regularly well into their first or second year. By the time the major issues are finally patched (if they ever are), the device is already considered “previous” and receives no meaningful feature updates.

Take my FR955 as an example: after all this time, its hiking navigation still can’t provide reliable, complete turn-by-turn directions. For a premium-priced device, that’s just unacceptable.

Every day some new annoyances.
Currently, the audio prompts during an activity aren't working ...  
Some days ago, some stupid messages came up the whole day in Connect ...

My FR955 will be my last Garmin watch.

  • 0 2 days ago

    I feel you, brother. Garmin is not serious anymore. Plus, their support sucks now despite being great less than 2 years ago. I don't think they are interested in the wearable market that much, which is why your last sentence above is also my pledge.

  • 0 2 days ago
    Brisk Walker said:
    My FR955 will be my last Garmin watch

    Amen.

    Support now asks me to diagnose other problems, not just the one I'm trying to report else they threaten to not bother investigating.   It is pointless contacting support anyway because it can take years for problems to get fixed.

  • 0 2 days ago

    Absolutely agree. It’s absurd that people pay premium prices for new devices plagued with issues, only to end up doing their testing for them. Then the next model is released and the cycle repeats!

    I mean, what’s the point in owning a feature packed device if its constant issues make it unreliable and stressful to own?

    The hardware’s great. The real issue is the software, all because Garmin are intent on churning out models faster than they can properly develop and test.

    Very disappointing. Unless they get their act together, this business model will be as successful as their software releases. At least the horses have trackers now right—is there even a demographic left that doesn’t have a dedicated model?

  • 0 2 days ago in reply to B1nny

    I am not so sure about the hardware either. Plenty of reports of broken hardware, including damaged flash memory and screen problems. Even if it sometimes appears to be a software issue, it has a hardware cause. For instance, when the watch restarts inexicably, or the battery depletes fast after a sw update, most of the time it's the flash memory gone bust. Garmin knows that and offers a replacement (most of the time paid) although people ask for a sw fix.

  • 0 2 days ago

    I have a long list of grievances too. 

    Ultimately, I think the bottom line is it's not just Garmin but many companies give maybe 70% effort and can still be the market leader and rake in tons of profit.

    Not all companies are like that. I think the difference is some software / hardware folks that consistently put out a good product are the same ones that actually use said product.

    Intervals.icu come to mind