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Are all Garmin Products that bad?!?

2722202
over 4 years ago

I've been running for a while and finally decided to take it more serious. So i bought a Garmin Forerunner 235 to track all of my stats. I chose a GARMIN Device because the name had somewhat of a good reputation and this is why i was willing to give it a go.

I really have to say i am so disappointed with the Product. I do have this watch for 2 month now and i have nothing but Problems with it.

1)The bluetooth is never connecting correctly so i have to do it like 5 times until it finally works.

2) My walked distance is not tracked correctly. I walk on a treadmill and the walked distance that the treadmill shows me never lines up with the distance shown on my watch... Sometimes it's as far of as 1 KM.

3) Sometimes my heart-rate monitor decides not to track my heart rate for 30 minutes or something ...(Rarly but it happens)

4) The overall quality of the screen and the menu is also not that good ...

5) Garmin Express does not work at all. I never got it to connect correctly.

This was the first time and the last time i bought a Garmin Product. I just wanted to post my frustration here because i never have been so disappointed in a product and i hope i am not the only one.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I'm quite happy with my FR235. Sure, sometimes things don't work quite right, but hey, that's technology for you. After having very bad experiences with Fitbit quality, I switched to Garmin. But, based on experience with Fitbit, one thing I did when I bought my FR235 (on Amazon), is I bought the extended warranty. Hopefully I won't need it (knock on wood), but it is piece of mind. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to EricJRW

    Hey Eric!

    Thank you so much for your reply. Did you use any other products then FitBit or Garmin? May i ask how intensly you are using your device?!? Do you only wear it when you workout or do you wear it 24/7? Just interested in Feedback from user users! ;)

    Thanks!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 2722202

    No, Just FB and Garmin. I wear my FR235 pretty much all the time. FB got me in the step count habit, and I was pleased to learn the FR235 also counts steps. So I want to count as many as I can. I think my health insurance gives perks for steps too. I do take it off if I'm doing a project that might have me bumping the FR around though, but since I have the extended warranty, I don't worry about it too much (not sure if that's the exact term of what I bought), But still, I don't want to be without it, so I baby it a bit. I typically run 3 or 4 times a week, about 3 to 5 K. I'll try go get a couple walks in each week too (I'm using this app - Simple Walk - https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/028c5a06-48ed-4a5d-9910-236a7ef10ce0 It just saves me me from having to change "Other" activity to walk, since walk is not an option on the FR235). 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've used Garmin wrist watches for a number of years, starting with the FR 25. Over this time, I've also used the FR 230, 235 and, most recently the Venu SQ. My wife has used these as well. Things I've learned:

    Bluetooth connectivity may not be a watch issue. It could be an issue with the device you're trying to connect to.

    I prefer Garmin over FitBit

    A chest strap generally clears up all heart rate issues when a Garmin is being used to collect data during exercise. My experience is that wrist based HR monitoring is fine when not engaged in strenuous exercise, at which point it can become problematic. A quality chest strap that provides ANT+ connectivity has cleared this up for me. 

    Distance discrepancies when using a treadmill is usually the result of improperly measured/estimated stride length. Even so, this can be corrected/edited using the Garmin Connect app or web portal.

    Screens and menus are generally a matter of adjusting expectations and adapting to the functions of the device. There are at least a couple of data fields for running that could improve your use of the 235. Check out the Garmin IQ pages.

    Garmin Express has rarely let me down. I do not know what device(s) you may be using, but I have yet to have an issue using/connecting Garmin Express on my Mac. Garmin Connect also works well across all my Apple products. I have found that when I have experienced issues with these, it was generally operator error.

    Have you asked for help regarding specific issue with your device(s)? Contacted customer service? If you were to address these issues individually (starting by searching this forum for previous post from users having the same issues) I would not be surprised that you find your enjoyment of your Garmin improved.