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Lack of support?

I have emailed support about issues relating to HR Broadcast / Sensor drops and Garmin Pay. Their response after 3 weeks was to restore the default settings. I knew that this will not work but I did it nonetheless. Unsurprisingly the issues remain and actually more issues seem to have appeared.

I next contaced the support number in Australia and after 30 mins on hold managed to speak to someone who advised that they are unaware of any ongoing issues with this watch and I would have to send log files to prove the issues and then they “may” refund my purchase after 10 business days if the issues could be confirmed. I advised the forums are full of people with these issues and I find it impossible for them to be unaware but they just didn’t care. How is it possible that these issues are not known?

Anyone have success I getting Garmin to admit that this watch is “flawed”?

0 an2njo over 6 years ago

The unstable state of new Garmin products is absolutely nothing new. In fact it's so common that you should expect it when buying one of their products these days.
If you don't like it, you shouldn't buy their products. If you don't know it, you haven't done your home work before buying.
This is the unfortunate truth.

Having said that I still think it's a good thing that people report problems trying to get Garmins attention but there is no point getting all wound up.

0 LarsTheBear over 6 years ago

Yes, there is quite a lot of poor consumer electronics out there, the difference is that Garmin is suppose to deliver premium products and we are paying a premium price.

I can understand that, and I've certainly wondered how my VA3 would measure up alongside one of those cheap, unbranded FitBit clones I could buy on eBay for about fifty quid.

But... I remember when a rudimentary digital watch cost a month's pay. We now have devices with a thousand times the computing power at one tenth the cost. Something has to be compromised, to make that possible. The cost of production is pared down to the bone, and still the margin on each unit sold is pennies. In that kind of economic environment, how is anybody expected to maintain quality standards?

I'm not for a moment suggesting that I'm happy with this situation, or that it isn't very frustrating at times. However, knowing the industry as I do, I rather suspect that we are getting what we (don't) pay for :/

0 surfmonkey89 over 6 years ago

To make matters worse, they take so long to respond that (in my case) you drift outside the return window. So you're stuck with a device that doesn't work as promised, you're unable to return it, and unless you're entirely unethical you can't sell it.

Two weeks now, since their last correspondence with me. I'm guessing I won't hear from them again, and I'm stuck with it. Needless to say, I won't be buying one of these devices again.

0 ianno over 6 years ago

What's so frustrating, besides the super buggy products, is that they don't really care to communicate with the users here.
There are a couple of Garmin employees on the forum, but their posts are quite rare. I would feel relieved if someone from Garmin would say what their firmware release cycles are, what are they working on, etc. There was the sensor hub update yesterday, but no one knows what that update was. Users are just wondering if the update fixed some bugs or not.

Oh, and they deleted one of my posts a few days ago without any explanation. It was a funny post, admittedly.
Yet, some communication on the motivation for the removal would be very much appreciated.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

To make matters worse, they take so long to respond that (in my case) you drift outside the return window. So you're stuck with a device that doesn't work as promised, you're unable to return it, and unless you're entirely unethical you can't sell it.

Two weeks now, since their last correspondence with me. I'm guessing I won't hear from them again, and I'm stuck with it. Needless to say, I won't be buying one of these devices again.

Not that it's going to help you out now, but skip emailing support unless you're into inflicting pain on yourself. Always call. I've never had a problem when I spoke to a live person whereas emailing just gets you the standard flow chart questions that you've already answered. "What firmware are you using?", "Have you tried restarting the watch?". Um, yes. That information was already in my email.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I enjoyed your deleted post. I guess the truth hurts. I just tried responding to surfmonkey89 about support and my post was unauthorized. I didn't use any profanity, I just gave my opinion on emailing support as opposed to calling and speaking with a live person. I guess they didn't like what I had to say.

0 SUSSAMB over 6 years ago

There's actually a fair bit of support but asking for help here is a bit hit or miss, some forums are frequented by Garmin staff, others not. You could try the FAQ knowledge base 24/7 here: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/search.htm

If you prefer to email product support or speak to someone live on the phone, you can also find contact info and hours there.

There are also market-specific Facebook pages and Twitter accounts

Garmin on Facebook and Twitter
Garmin Fitness on Facebook and Twitter
Garmin Outdoor on Facebook and Twitter
Garmin Fish & Hunt on Facebook and Twitter
Garmin Marine on Facebook and Twitter
Garmin Aviation on Facebook and Twitter

0 surfmonkey89 over 6 years ago

Not that it's going to help you out now, but skip emailing support unless you're into inflicting pain on yourself. Always call. I've never had a problem when I spoke to a live person whereas emailing just gets you the standard flow chart questions that you've already answered. "What firmware are you using?", "Have you tried restarting the watch?". Um, yes. That information was already in my email.

I'll give that a shot, but I'm not optimistic. If something good happens, I'll let everyone know :)

0 surfmonkey89 over 6 years ago

So, I called support, and they pretty much immediately offered to replace my VA3. They also claim that they've been working with Apple to fix notifications, and that things got bad with iOS11.I'm hoping that a new VA3 will fix this. If not, I guess I wait until iOS12 to see if that addresses the issue.

Either way, calling support was the right call. Thanks for the advice.

0 snappyads over 6 years ago

I’m glad someone is having luck with support. They refuse to believe me that this watch has issues. I have had to send screenshots of HR Broadcast errors, Sensor drops and Garmin Pay issues . They have finally assigned a ticket to me and will aim to contact me within 5 to 10 business days. I am not hopeful that I will get anywhere with this ticket. Most likely just get palmed off until I go away.