Lack of support?

I don't think it's so much a lack of support but rather a poorly organized support group.
They don't provide coverage on weekends and email leaves a lot to be desired.

I think the crew that I've been working with want to be of help, but it shouldn't take days to get a response through email (especially when you're responding to their email).
I don't know if customer support agents are pulling double duty within the company and simply cannot deal with customer issues promptly or the volume of customer complaints are overwhelming.
I just get the feeling they want to help but Garmin is holding them back somehow.

Whatever the case, Garmin needs to increase the customer service staff to cover weekends and be more prompt in their replies/actions.

Providing a support service costs money. How much more would we be prepared to pay for consumer electronics devices, to have prompt, 7-days-a-week after-sales support? My guess would be a number close to zero percent.

I'm not so sure about that Lars. I can see your view as the watch already cost $417 US dollars in your neck of the woods. But here in the states, I could see people willing to add a few more dollars to a $249 watch if better customer support could be guaranteed.

Really? $249 may not be a lot of money for you but for most of us it is. Customer support is built into the price already.

Most? Where did you find this information so I can reference it later? My comment was made based on the near 0% comment Lars made. People, not just US residents, have always been willing to pay more for a better product or service. Are you going to tell me that you've never done so in your lifetime? Just because you would not be willing to pay more for better product/service than what you've already paid doesn't mean others wouldn't. Of course I have no idea what percentage of people would be willing to do so, but I imagine it would be far from near zero.

Update: Got a new VA3 today. Set is up fresh, and...still not text notifications. I guess I have to assume it's iOS, and wait until their next release. And if that doesn't fix it...I have no idea what to do.

People, not just US residents, have always been willing to pay more for a better product or service. Are you going to tell me that you've never done so in your lifetime? Just because you would not be willing to pay more for better product/service than what you've already paid doesn't mean others wouldn't.

I'm sure plenty of people are willing to pay more for a "better product or service". The problem lies in deciding what kind of after-sales provision is interpreted as a better product or service. I have no idea how much people would be willing to pay for improved after-sales support; by guess of "zero" is inferred from the fact that in the consumer electronics industry, after-sales support is almost universally dreadful.

Sorry to see others are having similar issues to me. Bit of a relief to see I'm also not going mad. I too had the run around with support. Turn it on and off etc. send print screens but despite really basic advice none of the issues I found were resolved. Is my first Garmin product and really disappointing as data isn't really worthwhile if it isn't consistent or reliable. I find the stress app fails to record data alot (and have tried adjusting fit every way imaginable). Heart rate records fine so i dont understand why the stress fails all the time. Also flights of stairs seem pretty random in terms of if it records or not and finally VO2 max is bascally 50/50 whether it records.

Heart rate records fine so i dont understand why the stress fails all the time. Also flights of stairs seem pretty random in terms of if it records or not and finally VO2 max is bascally 50/50 whether it records.

"Stress" requires better quality data than simple heart rate, because it can't be averaged out over tens of seconds like HR is. If it's based on heart-rate variability, as Garmin says, then it does need to be able to distinguish individual beats. The "stress" data on my VA3 is collected about half the time but, when it is collected, it's often essentially random, so far as I can tell. My cheap VS3 recorded this data more consistently. Frankly, however, I'm not sure what "stress" really is a measure of, if anything. The fact that it isn't recorded properly doesn't worry me all that much, since I think it's pretty meaningless.

As for VO2Max, I note that it is collected less often since the 3.3 firmware release. I hope that's because Garmin has reduced the willingness of the VA3 to record VO2Max in circumstances when it can't possible be reliable. The method that Garmin uses to estimate VO2Max has been found to be reasonably accurate in closely-controlled conditions -- basically running or walking briskly and at a constant pace on firm, level ground. Data collected in other circumstances ought to be excluded. I don't know if Garmin made a conscious decision to exclude more data from VO2Max estimation, or if it's just a bug; I hope the former.

I'm not sure if it's "lack of support" but I'm starting to have very little to no faith that Garmin cares about consumer feedback.

I was on the phone with customer support and we got cut off -- they did not bother to call back even though they obviously had my number/ email.
I wouldn't be surprised if the person just hung up. They didn't seem too enthused to hear about pool swim issues.

"GARMIN... You paid. You get what you get. You don't get upset."

(this is not to say I'll return the watch. i do not know of another watch that does what i want without paying 2x more. i'm just giving up on them listening)