GPS Repairs

Contact Jim at Sharcnet-USA.com:

http://www.sharc.net/gps_LCD_repair.htm

The touch screen in my 660 suddenly stopped working. Jim replaced the screen at a very reasonable price and I had my Nuvi back in a week.

I'm not sure if he works on Tom-Toms, but no harm in asking.

Read my experience here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/32226

Jim is also a member of the POI-Factory:

http://www.poi-factory.com/user/99265

I highly recommend Sharcnet's repair service

After reading this and some of the links I thought I would see if I could get my old Lowrance iFinder screen fixed. I liked playing with this when I was traveling years ago.

Anyway, Sharcxnet-USA isn't even letting you fill a quote request or even ask if they still work on this old this.

I just thought it would be fun to play with again if it doesn't cost too much to fix.

I got this iFinder when they first put a map on the screen and navigating to a wp was still in a straight line, pre-routing era. Oh yeah, the screen was 4 gray-scale LCD. A long while back the screen intermittently started going off and on but the iFinder was still running in the back ground.

My 1st GPS before the iFinder was a Lowrtance GloabalNav 212 - no maps at all. It is still working good as can be, still no maps though.

I would call TomTom and see if they can do anything you need done.They have all of the necessary parts and if unrepairable they may give you a discount on a new unit.If you used a credit card to purchase your unit they (credit card company) may cover the unit and give you a replacement.

I cant open the sharcnet site at work, does he also replace batteries on the Nuvi models. Mine is a Nuvi 360, which has since been discontinued.

Yes, he can change the battery for you.

You can also change the battery yourself. There are a couple of threads discussing this, here's two

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/27841

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2562?page=3

I had an old Eagle GPS back in the 90s which was made by Lowrance, but I can't remember the model number. It took six AA batteries and would run maybe three to four hours. That one died on me. Then I had an Eagle Map Guide Pro that took four AA batteries, which would also run about four hours. It had two one meg partitions that you could load maps into, that is if you had their MapCreate software. I still have an iFinder Hunt which is a pretty decent hand held.

I agree with the mdh and do as suggested. If the screen is cracked it may not be worth repairing.

It depends which model it is, but generally to fix the old one, might be more expensive than buying new replacement one.

If you think you can do board and/or screen swaps yourself, check eBay or Craigslist for dead units. I've picked up a couple of guaranteed dead 660s for really cheap and used them for spare parts for my 680 and my son's 660.

Battery swaps on the Nuvis are easy; you can look on youtube for videos showing the replacement process and decide if it's something you want to try yourself.

Contact Jim at Sharcnet either by using the "Contact" tab on his POI Factory Profile page: http://www.poi-factory.com/user/99265 or by sending him an email at: sharcnet-usa at sharc dot net

I sent him an email and he responded quickly. Very happy with his work. My 660 is still humming right along.

I called TomTom's customer annoyance department and guess what, they won't repair a 3 year old GPS with a cracked touchscreen. They stated that I would have to send it to a third party repair facility, but they couldn't recommend one.

They did offer a $10 customer loyalty rebate if I bought a new one.

So, today, I bought a new GARMIN.

Anyone want a three month old TomTom XXL 540-TM with a cracked touchscreen?

I have found with TomTom and any other company it depends on the customer annoyance employee you talk to,if you get the right one you are in luck if not you are in trouble.What kind of Garmin did you get.

...three years old is arguably the life of electronic gadgets these days (think of the yearly refreshes of the iPhone).

Or was it actually three months old, as per your first post?

If the crack was ultimately caused by a manufacturer defect (i.e., it wasn't merely caused by your dropping the unit), they should have stood behind their product...

Heard back from Jim at Sharcnet today and sorry to say, they don't repair old iFinders. I guess it will remain a brick!

I try to buy the cheapest electronics I can get by with because I know it'll be worth nothing in a few years and repairs won't be worth the expense.

Less is more with GPSs, IMHO.

Garmin swapped my new one with a refurb with the same problem.

Are you using 4.0 FW?

Thanks for the links they were very helpful!

With 765t problems were not hardware related e.g. the screen, many units replaced still having the same problem from day one, untill software update to ver 4.0 corrected the issue...Garmin replaced the unit for you, because of peace of your mind and good customer relations...

I contacted http://www.sharc.net though their recommend contact though AIM a few weeks ago and after a brief few word exchange I was blocked from two different AIM accounts. I filled out a repair form and wrote a scathing rebuke and it seemed SHARCNET had unblocked my AIM address, but after sending him two more replies today he promptly blocked me again. So we are dealing in the 21st century with a company that states to contact him though AIM for questions but refuses to reply?

SHARCNET He has a repair forum, http://www.sharc.net/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi but it is mostly empty except for the Garmin Section and people ask questions there. If this is true, then why does his webpage highlight his AIM Screen name as the primary, implied "only" means of contact?

Why waste time on a company that offers a sight unseen repair quote and no email or even http:// server based web page based reply method?

Here is a glowing review I found about SHARCNET online:

http://www.complaints.com/2013-02-19/consumer-electronics/sh...

If anyone knows any other out of warranty Garmin GPS repair sites please let me know.

Thanks

Jim at Sharcnet doesn't need anyone to defend him, but from my years on this site I've never noticed a single complaint about the work he does. Jim goes out of his way to respond to questions on this site, so I find it hard to believe he blew you off with no good reason.

@Scarpa_1, welcome to the site.

I was wondering what problem you have with your 680 that led you to this site. If we knew, maybe we could better suggest options for you.

To other members:
While reading the comments which follow the complaint that about SHARCNET that is linked above, I came to the conclusion that the writer of the complaint was misrepresenting the problem. You might want to see what you think.

I have never had to use SHARCNET but must comment that I have taken note of the comments of those that have. In my years on the site, I have never read any negative comments from those using his services.

I couldn't agree more with the last couple of post. I have been active on this and other GPS forums since 2005 and I have never seen a negative comment about Jim or his work at Sharcnet, other than in the old days when he had to stop taking repairs off and on because he was simply too busy to offer adequate turn around times.

Although I haven't used the services of Sharcnet, I know lots of folks that have and can't think of one person that has had negative experience.

I am not sure if SCARPA_1 is the person that I talked to via AIM or not but I do recall that there was a person with a 680 that was rather rude to me from the very start and questioned my GPS repair experience before I even got a chance to inquire about their problem.

Oh, and the site that SCARPA_1 referred to was in reference to a customer that who had deliberately deceived us about what was wrong with their GPS. The customer tried to change the battery and destroyed the unit. What I received was a box of broken parts taped to a piece of cardboard. I took pictures of it if anyone wants to see. They told me that they had never opened the unit and that the touchscreen wasn't working anymore, which is a common problem on the 6xx series. So, if the unit had never been taken apart, how did the parts get taped to a piece of cardboard?

When I followed up with the customer, they then said that a repair shop damaged the unit. Their story just kept changing. When I asked for the name of the shop and suggested they go after the shop to replace the unit, they refused to give me the shops name. I would have tried to repair the unit but they had pulled the PC tracks off the board, so there wasn't anything to solder the replacement parts to. The repair exceeded the value of the unit.

That individual also accused us of conspiring with another business (in his city) that had turned him down on auto repair because they determined that he had tampered with the brakes on his car. I conspired? ... with a company who I don't even know? .... in another state? Really?

I try to be extremely accurate in quotes, that is, provided that people are honest in telling me what is really wrong with their unit and what they may have done to it. We work on opened units from time to time, if we can determine up front that we can really salvage the unit. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can't. When we can't, we often pay the shipping, to send the unit back to a customer...taking a loss!

There is always going to be someone who tries to pull a fast one over on us or doesn't follow instructions when sending their unit in for repair.

A prime example, is someone who refuses to send their charger in along with their unit for a USB repair. The reason we ask for the charger is because the USB port could be fine and there could be a bad wire in the charger or the charger plug is mangled and it broke the USB port. We've seen incorrectly spliced plugs on chargers and even aftermarket chargers attempted to be used with the wrong type of plug!

The bottom line is, if people are honest with us, we will bend over backward to help them with their issue. However, if they are going to try to deceive us, insult us or intentionally not follow our recommendations, then it makes it difficult to help them.

I appreciate everyone who has defended us and I challenge SCARPA_1 to find ONE complaint that dealt with the quality of our work.

- Jim

Good explanation.

Thanks Jim, for taking the time to explain what might have happened in this case. It takes all kinds but your one of the good guys

It's good to hear from "the other side." As we had expected, there's more to the story than originally reported.

Like others, I've never had the need to deal with Jim or sharcnet...but I would not hesistate if the need arose.

Thanks for all your help here on the forums, Jim.

We may never hear from scarpa_1 again and that's too bad for him/her because we have a lot to offer here at The Factory--and this site continues to have the least "attitude" of the various forums I've visited in the past. And if scarpa_1's goal was simply to vent, s/he had the opportunity and accomplished the task.

Junk it and buy a Garmin...

I normally welcome new members to the forum, but in your case I'll decline.

I too have never used Jim's services but from all the posts I've read he offers exceptional service and should the need arise I would have him repair it.
On numerous occasions I have posted a link to his site for those in need of repair.

I thank Jim for providing the details of your experience with him. If you're rude I don't blame him for blocking you, if that were me I would have done the same. I do believe you were the one he was referring to since he indicates an owner of a 680, that's what you have listed in your profile.

If you would, please refer me to a site that offers as much FREE information as Sharcnet provides. The information on that site is valuable in learning what may be possibly wrong with your Nuvi and the underlying causes.

My Nuvi 680 Touch Screen is frozen or it works intermittently if you press a credit card to the bottom of the screen. Yes, this issue with my 680 led me to this site and this is where I found Sharcnet, actually I saw him on more than one site, but this was the most informative thread. Contacting Sharcnet was clearly a mistake on my part, as my questions must have offended Jim who I am sure makes excellent repairs but no time to answer service questions? Is there no one else that can repair an out of an out of warranty GPS unit?

During my exchange with "Sharc.net" a couple weeks ago, I inquired directly about my Nuvi 680. I probably asked a question along the lines of “what sort of life can be expected out of a repaired Nuvi 680.” I might have asked something about repair experience but if I did, it was not my intention to offend anyone; I always question new/unknown business. During Sharcnet’s brief, curt, replies he referred me to http://www.sharc.net/gps_repair.htm for repair prices. The entire exchange lasted only a minute or two before being blocked on two different AIM accounts.

I promptly filled out a repair form writing a scathing rebuke for Sharcnet blocking my AIM accounts while advertising AIM as the primary means of communication. Sharcnet had several weeks to reply to the repair quote which did not appear in my inbox or spam folder. Sharc.net does not have time to address new customer’s GPS units choosing to use curt responses, and blocking AIM accounts rather than communicating thoughts.

I noticed Sharcnet unblocked one or both of my AIM accounts not long after sending the descriptive note highlighting the rude IM blocking in the repair form notes. I had some extra time yesterday and messaged again only to be immediately blocked with no reply.

This is my last IM just before being blocked sent at 9:10am on 10/8/2013

It is distasteful to say “Open for Business,” “Click here for a quote” “Live Online Assistance” M-F 8am to 4pm EST “Click AIM icon for IM message,” with an obvious animation on the top right corner of the page, and then promptly block the new potential customer with no provocation or warning.

Here is another complaint about Sharcnet which notes “very rude” as their description:

http://www.complaints.com/2013-04-22/consumer-electronics/sh...

Is there anyone else that repairs out of warranty GPS units? I am sure Jim at Sharcnet does great repairs, but he clearly is not able to answer any questions even though his AIM says “Available for service questions.”

Thanks to everyone for their experienced replies and welcome to the group.

Thanks for your reply. You seem to be a very rational individual so I'll make a suggestion.

The 680 is an ancient model and the 6xx series has above-average problems. Given the cost for a repair, if even repairable, if I were you, I'd trash the 680 and buy a new/refurb GPS with lifetime maps and you'll be happier and have a functional nuvi faster than trying to repair your current drive. Nuvis, including great but discontinued models, can be found easily for under $100 or even better models for under $200. You'll gain Lane Assist, Junction View, etc.

And if your 680 still has a functional display/touchpad, you could even offer the 680 on ebay as an "as is" or "for parts" device to help fund your new purchase.

It appears that SCARPA_1 has an underlying agenda here. The content and context reminds me a lot of the fellow that I described in the complaint above. Could it be? Hmmmmm..... He has been posting that link all around the web. It also looks like he just joined the forum to begin bashing us. Pretty sad.

What is interesting is that this individual is putting forth an extreme effort in searching the web trying to dig up anything to discredit us. The second link they posted, I already addressed in a previous post on this string above. -- A woman who didn't send her charger as requested, with her unit.

The USB port on her unit was probably the worst mangled connector I have ever seen. I have pictures of that one too. When I asked her how it happened and inquired about the charger that she was using, she became hostile. I posted the email conversations between the customer and myself there. Nothing to hide.

Why would we replace a USB connector, not knowing what was used to damage it, then send the unit back to the customer, only to have it damaged again by a damaged charger plug. I am sure the customer would send it back, saying we repaired it incorrectly.

Having both the charger and unit to inspect, allows us to know if the proper charger was used and that it wasn't damaged.

Now, that I know this is the person AIM Screen Name = (...) that I talked briefly to on AIM, you sir, did in fact, initiate the conversation by questioning my experience, education and background in GPS repair.

I then referred you to check out our website. I don't believe it is necessary for me to give you, a stranger, the name of the Electronics schools that I have attended and courses that I have taken.

At no time on AIM did you ever give me your "first" name or anything personal about you.

So there are (2) customers that were unhappy because we sent their units back after taking our time to look at them, didn't charge them a penny and even paid for the return shipping out of our own pocket. In fact, we even reimbursed the women the cost of what she paid to ship the unit to us. Who does that these days?

You are posting links in an attempt to discredit us, yet you obviously haven't read them to understand the issues and facts.

We are logged into AIM 24/7. That doesn't mean we are always at the keyboard. If we are away, we'll answer the questions as soon as we get back. I've answered questions and corresponded with people many times at 2AM or later in the morning.

I apologize to those on the forum for this dialogue but I just couldn't sit back and not defend our position.

- Jim

CraigW, thanks for your suggestion.

I am new to GPS units I also have a Street pilot C580 with some damage to the LCD which is now my primary GPS. I like your suggestion about a refurbished unit, it sounds like you have personal experience with refurbished units. I am pretty new to GPS’s but knowledgeable about computers, and appreciate learning new things. Since the average GPS cost seems to be around $200, I normally would guess that something like a 2595LMT or 2555LMT or the older 2455LMT, 2495LMT would be best? Traffic updates seem helpful but I have never had a gps with that feature, and it is certainly not mandatory.

Here is a Nuvi 50LM 5” Touchscreen that is Refurbished and it seems to have lifetime maps for $129.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858108...

Here is the same Nuvi 50LM for $89.99 not sure what the difference maybe one has lifetime maps and the other does not:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0FA-0005-000...

Here is the non-refurbished 50LM with lifetime maps for $149.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858108...

Sometimes Garmin Lifetime maps drops down to $50 on Amazon, but right now the price is higher.

It seems that the most versatile option is to get a hand held GPS with a vehicle mounted adapter, but they are more expensive and I do not know their product life cycle, something along the lines of a Garmin Montana 600 4.0” GPS. For now, my budget includes only a vehicle oriented GPS.

Any suggestions for an automotive vehicle type GPS? I do not have any specific requirements, I am still relatively new to GPS units, but any feature that improves the efficiency of travel such as traffic updates is very interesting. I do not mind paying more for a GPS, but it seems that one only needs to pick one that is reliable and that there is nothing gained picking the most expensive unit unless you have special requirements.

@SHARCNET

Thank you Jim for sharing my personal information in your post, this is consistent with the requirements of your unsecured “Quote Request Form” I sure hope you keep up with your regular customer’s information more carefully than the AIM information you recently posted about me.

The Sharcnet “quote sheet” forces you to fill in all personal information on a non https:/ webpage before you can even know if the GPS unit can be repaired:
Your name
Your street
Your city
Your zipcode
Your home number
Your cellphone number
Your email address
Your comments

Jim, can you please edit your post and remove my AIM Screen name & personal reference information? Thanks.

~