Garmin repairs

[Craai]

On 10/20/2021 at 11:53 AM, Vetplant said:

Had a little blip on my run today, GPS didn't log position for about 10mins. I noticed it whille running as the reported running pace did not reflect what I felt in the legs, so I suspected something was odd.

Anyone else experience something similar?

Suspected cause? Wrist unit or something going haywire in the heavens above?

Yup, I've had it a couple of times on my Fenix 3. Had to power off and on again for GPS tracking to start working again.

[JulienR]

Wanted to compliment Garmin for their support. i dropped off a damaged Edge unit on Wednesday, i got a quote yesterday and collected a brand new unit today...i had asked them to expedite as i was hoping to have the GPS for my weekend rides and they obliged!

THANKS GARMIN!

[Jbr]

They replaced a faulty unit outside of the warranty period (device was randomly turning off and required being plugged in to restard, which is annoying when it happens in a marathon race). The replacement unit came without this bug but with a few others, including being very very slow to sync through bluetooth until it wouldn’t want to pair at all anymore. I only syncs on wifi now. Navigation only works when it wants to (so mostly not when I need it to)

Seems the best way to repair a garmin product is to throw it away and buy a wahoo

 

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by Jbr

[DieselnDust]

Buying a Garmin is like buying a lucky packet. Sometimes someone gets a great one and raves about lucky packets. Everybody else thinks they’ll get lucky but mostly they’re just duped on lucky packets 

[rudi-h]

On 7/23/2018 at 4:04 PM, Grease_Monkey said:

My tabs on the back of the Edge 520 (that allows it to grab hold of the mount) broke earlier this year. I sent it back to EvoBikes (bought it there), who sent it in to Garmin SA. They replaced it no questions asked in less than a week even though it was out of warranty - won me over as a client for life.

 

Send it in via the shop you bought it from - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

If only they were consistent...  I have a fenix 6 pro that failed literally overnight through no fault of my own.

Roughly a week ago the battery experienced a sudden malfunction, i.e. it was working perfectly until one morning where it just stopped reading wrist heart-rate.  When I started pushing buttons, there was a massive delay on any menu option and the GPS wouldn't work either.   Took it to Garmin SA and they claim its out of warranty and it will cost R4k (you heard right, I'm still not completely upright after opening the quote) to repair.

So they replace one person's unit who damaged it, while for another customer who's unit actually failed due to poor quality / reliability, they just throw you to the lions with a repair bill amounting to 40% of a new unit...  So much for winning over clients.

 

[Grease_Monkey]

14 minutes ago, rudi-h said:

If only they were consistent...  I have a fenix 6 pro that failed literally overnight through no fault of my own.

Roughly a week ago the battery experienced a sudden malfunction, i.e. it was working perfectly until one morning where it just stopped reading wrist heart-rate.  When I started pushing buttons, there was a massive delay on any menu option and the GPS wouldn't work either.   Took it to Garmin SA and they claim its out of warranty and it will cost R4k (you heard right, I'm still not completely upright after opening the quote) to repair.

So they replace one person's unit who damaged it, while for another customer who's unit actually failed due to poor quality / reliability, they just throw you to the lions with a repair bill amounting to 40% of a new unit...  So much for winning over clients.

 

Different people handling warranty unfortunately since I posted that. Also didn’t have great luck warrantying another unit in the laat year. 
 

Wahoo for me next time around….

 

PS I know my original post says Garmin SA, but I think someone else was handling warranties at the time. I speak under correction though. The unit that I tried to warranty recently was a battery that is giving me 25% of claimed battery life even with bluetooth off. Had a similar offer of a new unit at something like 50% of the new price (I didn’t take them up on it). My memory is a bit hazy on this though so don’t quote me in 3 years time haha
 

Funny how in 3 years my opinion on the brand has changed to much.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Grease_Monkey

[Fisan]

My wife's VA4 died while snorkeling. She barely went deeper than 3m. It's no Tactix, but for a watch that's 18 months old the 50m waterproofing did not last very long... Judging by the history of this thread we probably have to cough up a new one... Any advice?

(FWIW I will email Garmin tomorrow...)

[ChrisF]

25 minutes ago, Fisan said:

My wife's VA4 died while snorkeling. She barely went deeper than 3m. It's no Tactix, but for a watch that's 18 months old the 50m waterproofing did not last very long... Judging by the history of this thread we probably have to cough up a new one... Any advice?

(FWIW I will email Garmin tomorrow...)

 

Where did you buy it ?

 

Take it back there.  They have a standard process to submit it to Garmin .... about 2 weeks later you will get an offer to pay in on a new watch ....

[Fisan]

10 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Where did you buy it ?

 

Take it back there.  They have a standard process to submit it to Garmin .... about 2 weeks later you will get an offer to pay in on a new watch ....

Takealot.

Don't think they'll be helpful.

[ChrisF]

5 minutes ago, Fisan said:

Takealot.

Don't think they'll be helpful.

Sportsmanswharehouse was super when my FR35 packed up .....

 

But all they can do is to book it in and ship it to Garmin.

 

 

Hopefully Takelot provide you the contact details, then you can send it in yourself.

 

 

 

Please keep us posted how Takelot helps .... or does not help ...

[JulienR]

Where are you based? Their shop is in Rosebank next to the mall. You can drop it off there ... If its within the warranty period, then surely you dont need to pay in

[Fisan]

46 minutes ago, JulienR said:

Where are you based? Their shop is in Rosebank next to the mall. You can drop it off there ... If its within the warranty period, then surely you dont need to pay in

Cpt, so no go

54 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

Sportsmanswharehouse was super when my FR35 packed up .....

 

But all they can do is to book it in and ship it to Garmin.

 

 

Hopefully Takelot provide you the contact details, then you can send it in yourself.

 

 

 

Please keep us posted how Takelot helps .... or does not help ...

Ag, I'll courier it myself. I've done this before with my then 6 year old watch..

[Fisan]

16 hours ago, ChrisF said:

Please keep us posted how Takelot helps .... or does not help ...

Respones from Takealot: "You may proceed to contact the manufacturer as the item no longer has warranty with takealot.com, we are unable to provide any advise with regards to repair/replacement of the item."

[Dexter-morgan]

I have had good service from Garmin, recently I bought a Vivoactive and experienced syncing problems with my Samsung A32 phone, it took like 3 months but last week I got an update on my phone now, they are working 100% except for when I run with music with GPS on then the music comes and goes, if it wasn't for vitality points I would probably try something else.

[Fisan]

On 5/29/2022 at 6:11 PM, Fisan said:

My wife's VA4 died while snorkeling. She barely went deeper than 3m. It's no Tactix, but for a watch that's 18 months old the 50m waterproofing did not last very long... Judging by the history of this thread we probably have to cough up a new one... Any advice?

(FWIW I will email Garmin tomorrow...)

Update: Garmin replaced the unit under warranty 😀

[Matu]

How can one check if the unit in question is still under warranty?