Garmi ns poor customer relations

... have generally been satisfactory. Not great but not bad. As good as other online support I've received. Admittedly though, my issues have generally been hardware related, not map or algorithmic related.

have so many Garmins, and have given so many to friends, all with lifetime maps, I have called them dozens of times and always very satisfied with the outcome. If you figure, they get 100’s if not thousands of calls a day, I think they do well. I'll stick with them.

I've submitted about 20 map errors over the past 2-3 years, and have had excellent results in getting them resolved. I have a few that are currently "In Process" with Navteq. I'd suggest being as detailed as possible regarding the error, sending in pictures of the area as well. I'm curious to see how they resolve the one issue with a road that is both 1-way and 2-way depending on how you exit the parking garage...

What maps are you currently using in your GPS? If they are old, the directions may not make sense if the roads have changed. Also, check your "Avoidances" as this can make things weird as well...

I had to contact them a while ago - everyone was nice, the hold times sucked though. For fixing maps, Garmin buys the maps from places like NAVTEQ so all of those issues just go into an unanswered, unread bucket I think.

I just found a place on Garmin's website to report map errors, although I don't think I would report it there. As it has been pointed out, Garmin receives its maps from Navteq, so the "proper" way to report a map would be at http://mapreporter.navteq.com/dur-web-external/secured/submi...

Best to report it to the source directly and cut out the middle-man. Funny thing, when I bought my GPS ages ago they said to report map issues to Navteq, no mention of reporting at Garmin.

My biggest gripe with Garmin's Customer Service (email or phone) is one that I also find with other companies: The first CS agent to respond to me (and sometimes the 2nd, etc.) has insufficient information to help me but makes a guess--which they state as a fact--which does not help me, does not solve the problem, or is a downright incorrect answer. What's especially aggravating is when I know that the company's upper level hardware or software folks are aware the issue I'm calling about, but they don't share their information with the CS agents who actually respond to users.

The few times I called they were courteous and didn't rush the conversation until the problem was resolved. I've also sent several emails to support and always received a reply within 3 days. None of my issues were map related though.

I do appreciate that I'm not routed to third world country call centers, those conversations can become quite frustrating since English is not their primary language.

I have never called Garmin about my Nuvi you guys always help me with that But I have called and emailed them about my 62s and always get my problem resolved. Just My 2c

I emailed Garmin regarding the RTL Trap Error issues with the 1xxx 5.70 firmware, and the Customer Service Rep was reasonably courteous. I was annoyed that they insisted on running through their script despite my telling them in my first email to them that I had already done everything they were going to recommend.

It took a rather blunt response of (paraphrased) "I've done all of this repeatedly so stop wasting my time and yours and escalate this to your techs" to get some traction.

IMHO, that's your biggest mistake, you e-mailed them.

I've always got faster, better responses by calling them. Having to wait a half hour to talk to someone isn't always easy but at least I eventually get to talk to some one and not just have some person, reading from a script, e-mailing me 2 days later.

I've called Garmin several times and had nothing but a positive experiences with them. It wasn't the same story with TomTom.

Thanks to all for the tips, especially where to send map corrections. Several people have had the same experiences I've had with emails, why would a tech company be so sloppy about emails? It's faster & easier than phone service & can be answered at their convenience. What I like about it also is that I can print the responses & have proof of what I'm told if further problems arise.
I will try the site to send map corrections.
Also, I sympatize with the person who had bad response from Tom Tom, in my opinion they are terrible.

Have never had a problem with their customer service. Always willing to help.

I always send an email to the same CS. If she can't solve my problem, she takes it to a tech. Always have my problem solve.

The one time I emailed Garmin they did respond. I have called a few times and have always been pleased with the outcomes. I have found their support to be excellent.

that they are very good answer my questions.

Garmin good. Magellan poor. At least in my own experience.

It has been satisfactory

I submitted a support question last November to Garmin about some street numbers being off. I actually received a thoughtful, personal response explaining in detail the issue. I was very pleased.

My expirences with Garmin have been ok..

I have 1 Garmin device and 2 Magellan, I had better support with Garmin and Garmin also upgraded my GPS from a 1350LMT to a 2350LMT without a charge due to all the problems I had with the 1350LMT, I have no complaints at all with Garmin tech support.

I'm curious as to what type of response one would expect from a comment/question such as this.

First of all, it's completely vague.

Secondly, what "fix" would one really think that a customer service or even a technical support representative could really give to that?

Customer service (it would seem) is a two-way street.

If one comes it and just says "Help. It doesn't work.", there's a limited amount of assistance that can be provided.

But if one comes in and says "My nuvi isn't routing properly and it seems to route me out of the way from where I am going and here are all the settings I am using", then MUCH more assistance can be provided.

Just my two cents.

While I don't think he was intentionally trying to be vague, I agree that putting as much information into an email as possible can only help things out. Had I sent an email to Garmin saying "my GPS runs slow" they likely would have never fixed the problems they were having with 1xxx firmware 5.70. However, since my emails were rather detailed and I had copies of my error logs stored on the hard drive, they were able to confirm the problem and fix it.

Well, yes.....I don't expect miracles. Some sort of response would be nice though. This wasn't the only time I didn't get any response at all & sometimes I did send details. And......... corrections sent in years ago never take place as witnessed by several others resposes here. Once I did wait for a phone call to go through & the tech that I reached was very couteous even though he couldn't answer my questions or provide any help.
Oh well, it's not a perfect world is it?

darn few, to my knowledge, give "800" numbers for help. I know that several times I've called with a problem and I'm on the phone for 30-45 minutes to get it resolved. That's just another reason for me to keep investing in Garmin products.

We still have no real idea of the issues you want Garmin to address. You stated you sent in "map corrections" 2 years ago and they still haven't been fixed. That' not as much a Garmin issue as it is a Navteq issue. Navteq is normally pretty good about verifying map errors and getting them corrected but the process isn't instantaneous. It takes months at times as they verify the error either through contact with the road departments if they involve roads, physical visits by members of their teams, aerial/satellite photos and a host of other means. When you also consider they have to work literally thousands of these reports every day it becomes understandable why it can take a while. Then you have the issue of what the person requesting the map data does. Navteq sends Garmin terabytes of data for their maps and Garmin has to reduce that data down to what you see on your unit. It can take up to a year after Navteq incorporates a change for it to work its way through Garmin's process.

As to reporting on the built-in POI, as others have stated, it's almost a lost cause. That information is purchased from yet another party such as Dun & Bradstreet which uses addresses from Business Licenses and tax records. Your local business may have their home listed as the address of record as that's where they receive all their mail but it's no where close to the storefront. As an example, I live in almost a pure residential area of single family homes. In our immediate area there is a shopping center, a couple of fast food restaurants, two light manufacturing plants and a hotel. Yet if i bring up my Gamin map I see about a dozen businesses within the apartment complex and single family residences. These are according to Dun & Bradstreet, and the other problem is some of the houses have turned over at least twice since the business owner went bust.

As neither Garmin nor Navteq control the data, they can only parse it for known errors but the errors are often reloaded with every map update if they aren't applied correctly. To make this a little shorter, it depends on the type of error you are reporting and the number of hands it has to go through. You can't compare map errors on your GPS to what's on Google or Yahoo or the other web based services they aren't limited to a few gigs to store all their map data for the entire country.

For what it's worth, I have never had any luck with Garmin On-Line support.

Always did better with telephone support.