Let's boycott Garmin products!

Former Member over 7 years ago

I've just purchased a set of Vector 3 pedals after selling my Rotor crankset. After reading all the reviews(especially DC rainmaker)I thought these would be just what I was looking for.Easy to set up, transferable and accurate. Well, they are transferable...Easy to set up? They are the worse power meter I have ever had the misfortune to use. My Rotor was installed, calibrated and (apart from a battery change) worked flawlessly for many years. Accurate? Well unless I'm occasionally Superman and sometimes pedaling with one leg....No.Wild fluctuation in readings, crazy L/R imbalances and loads of dropped readings.Smashing, well worth £900. Tried them on Zwift and I was putting out 1200 watts while hardly turning the pedals. Quality kit! Rotors worked the first time, with no headaches
Garmin you are taking liberties with your customer base. I've used Garmin products from way back and this is the last straw. To put out a piece of hardware and expect your customers to iron out your bugs etc is shocking.
I will be contacting the supplier to see if I can return these,but since you have to mount them and use them to see what a mistake you have made, I doubt if I will get much joy there.I'm going back to a crank based system and shall be looking at either a Karoo hammerhead or Wahoo elemnt.
So long Garmin! I suggest others do the same

0 AllanOlesen67 over 7 years ago

So to sum this up:
You bought a product.
The product does not perform as expected.
You have not contacted Garmin to find out if the product is defective or behaving as designed.
You have not asked other users if this is the performance they experience.

I agree. We should boycott Garmin. You have built an incredibly strong case.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

To sum up:
The product does not perform as expected. I expected it to measure power as per a power meter
Whilst trying to get things up and running from out the box, I visited this forum and behold .....'others' have experienced similar issues. Some even have experienced other flavours of glitches and bugs.
I have already contacted the company from whence they were purchased. I can see no point in contacting Garmin direct as I suspect I'll find little sucker there.This product has been released prematurely in my opinion. However, thankfully people like yourself will shore up this fledgling company by undergoing product testing....and paying for the privilege.
Can I assume that you are happy with the Vector 3? And, can I assume that you feel I am alone in my disdain for this product?Should I be willing to faff around searching for answers on how to get a new product to work straight out of the box? Too much to ask? Your right, we shouldn't boycott Garmin, I haven't got a leg to stand on (my according to my Garmin power meter anyway)
Incidentally, all my Edges have had a fair share of problems in the past. Track record aside, I always stuck with Garmin until now. Without any form of recourse, a rant is all I have left. But thank you for your sarcasm all the same

0 AllanOlesen67 over 7 years ago

You can't assume anything. I don't own a Vector 3. I just hate seeing forum post which skips every kind of investigation - or description thereof - before they jump to a conclusion.

0 t_smit over 7 years ago

To sum up:
The product does not perform as expected. I expected it to measure power as per a power meter

Because Vector is a pedal based power meter, there are a couple of tasks that are part of the initial setup, that other power meters do not require. Most significantly, if you do not do a zero calibration after installing the pedals on the cranks, you are not likely to get good power results.

Whilst trying to get things up and running from out the box, I visited this forum and behold .....'others' have experienced similar issues. Some even have experienced other flavours of glitches and bugs.

It's true that some Vector users are having various issues with their pedals. Most of these issues can be resolved without the pedals needing to go back to the dealer, but it does sometimes require a bit of experimentation to determine the main cause of the problem. I can try to help you get your system going if you're still interested.

0 PaulK. over 7 years ago

Well I've ridden mine for about 20 rides and had no problems whatsoever. I have taken out the batteries and put them back in too. I also used a Stages crank together and taking in account my L/R balance both PMs seem to agree.

0 RobCuadro over 7 years ago

While the products are not perfect, I have always been able to contact the support team (email and phone) and ALWAYS been helped. Most of the time it is a problem that I caused, a few times it was something beyond my control, and on two occasions it was a hardware problem. On the hardware problems they replaced my item quickly! They even have a rapid replacement program where you "pay for a new item" and the ship the replacement item to you right away and you return your old one. As long as you do it in the prescribed time frame you will not be charged for the replacement item.
Don't be a gluteus maximus
Garmin 1-800-800-1020

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

My right pedal its missing. 1000 euros por Vector 3 and after 3 months of use, i am without pedals!

After i contact Garmin Iberia they answer "you have to wait for a solution"

they say in portuguese "Lamentamos comunicar mas não temos informação de quando será solucionado este problema desde a nossa central, assim mesmo não podemos indicar uma data de solução." translate; we sorry to say that we don t have solution about when the problem will be solved"

What?!?!

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Because Vector is a pedal based power meter, there are a couple of tasks that are part of the initial setup, that other power meters do not require. Most significantly, if you do not do a zero calibration after installing the pedals on the cranks, you are not likely to get good power results.

It's true that some Vector users are having various issues with their pedals. Most of these issues can be resolved without the pedals needing to go back to the dealer, but it does sometimes require a bit of experimentation to determine the main cause of the problem. I can try to help you get your system going if you're still interested.

I am aware of the initial requirements and followed them religiously upon installation. What I take issue with is:"Most of these issues can be resolved without the pedals needing to go back to the dealer, but it does sometimes require a bit of experimentation to determine the main cause of the problem". I appreciate that Garmin admins are willing to assist, however, it is why I should need assistance in the first place. I am not a Garmin employee, nor wish to be, so I resent the fact that this product is clearly not ready for market. Using your customer base as Guinea pigs is poor form as far as I am concerned.
Regarding the other replies, Robcuadro, you have missed my point. Which is, why should I have to faff around with 'experimentation' and seeking a replacement product for something literally hours old. I don't have the time to humour Garmin. PaulK, I suspect is in the minority, so good luck to him.Helder_Oliveira is exactly what I'm talking about.At least he got 3 months.....
So to answer t_Smit,...No thanks, I'm not interested, just deeply dissatisfied.But then again you probably picked up on that
Coincidently, There's a 2 hrs old set of Vector 3's up for sale if any Garmin fans want them? Message me if interested(and an Edge)

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Always interested to know what people do with all this dynamic information and how it changes your riding style. With all the problems reported on here I have not upgraded my pedals to V3 software or enabled cycling dynamics, left/right and total power is more than enough info for me and I suspect for most riders. It would seam all the problems stem from Garmin trying to be to cleaver with both the pedals and their computers. For me all the basics work, and until the rest is stable I'll keep it that way. Garmin have always been fairly reliable and have been very helpful when not.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

To be fair, the wild fluctuations may be the cause of "Resetting Install Angles". If you just used your V3 and have not done a few couple minute rides or resetted the install angles, the power in the beginning will fluctuate really high then settle down. As for the drops, it may simply have something to do with your WIFI interfering with ANT+ so change your wifi to channel 1.

I have experienced the problem with the V3 but it seems to have been reliable now consistently.
Things I did:
1.) change wifi channel to 1 to fix zwift drops
2.) bought usb extension cable for ANT+
3.) pulled the inner battery contact spring slightly and used Energizer LR44

As a caveat, they do have some firmware bugs like in the Cycling Dynamics that is taking them too long to release a fix for a new product.