Garmin City Navigator North America NT v 2008 Upgrade Free from Garmin

Either their internal communication sucks or one of them is lying (hopefully mine), because I just talked to a Garmin support after waiting 30 min (his name was Thomas) and he said Garmin has no plan, nor he's heard of such upgrade in the works.

After telling him I could get free 2008 version by exchanging my 660 since it's less than a month old (which will result in Garmin receiving my unit back from Costo for them to deal with), he said that's my choice to decide...I'd love to see their finace department cringe with the thought of truckload of returns...

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4827 - it may be that not all the Support reps are reading from the revised script...

We'll soon find out...so I'm just biding my time.

The rep I spoke to today seemed very informed and technically adept. It seems like a good business decision for Garmin to provide the update. Well, we should know soon...

so if my unit says 2008 NT then those are the latest?

I just spoke with Garmin Tech support and was told the 2008 upgrades are NOT free but will cost $75 even if you purchased a Nuvi today

As I mentioned in this quoted post, the VP told me that formal announce of the free upgrade will occur in two weeks. Until this formal announce, and I expect it will show up on their site, Customer Service trypically has to follow the current play book. I'd wait the couple of weeks unless your 60 days from purchase will be up prior to that to see what they say.

And yes, the new version is 2008 NT.

Rick

I purchased a Nuvi 680 a few days ago and called Garmin support twice today for the 2008 NT upgrade. The first support rep told me that I would have to wait until the end of July for the FREE upgrade. I called back and the second support rep put in an order for the 2008 NT upgrade for FREE. Both reps asked if I had registered (yes I did) the Nuvi 680 and asked for the unit's serial number.

Your mileage may vary per customer service rep.

-----
Blackkbelt

Just spoke to a rep (very helpful) and he put my name "on the list" for a free update. I bought and registered my 350 within the last 90 days. Here's hoping he knew what he was talking about.

Thank you to those that have put effort into this. I have been holding off on buying a new Garmin Nuvi 650 for several reasons, but the update issue is one of the big issues. Thanks again!

I purchased a 650 on the 4th. I called them on 16th when I saw that 2008 NT update was now available for the 650. She asked me to fax her my sales receipt and she sent me the update for free. I received it today, the 18th.

Garmin Support confirmed today that I am on the list of people to get a free upgrade. They even gave me my order number to confirm. Cool...

He also said that it should ship within the next few days or weeks. I guess the release date is still a closely guarded secret. Still, Garmin ROCKS.

I spoke to a very helpful Garmin rep today that allowed me to scan and e-mail my receipt to confirm my purchase and indicated he'll be sending the map updates within the next few days. Hopefully they come through.

Oh thank goodness for this good news. I saw the maps on their web page July 12th, and I bought my Nuvi 660 unit on July 14th. It has the NTV8 on it currently, and I had one of those deep feelings of how unlucky can a person be, now that I have to pay another $75 for new maps on a unit I just bought that was actually backstocked V8 units. Was comtemplating actually returning the item, but a friend told me to contact support first. I have yet to do so, other than through email. I have not recieved a reply yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If I have about 45 min to stay on hold, I may just call them up to make sure. I did try calling yesterday, but I had to leave town before their 45 minute hold time estimate would lend me my turn.

Thanks for the info ! . I love this unit. But it doesn't have an interstate on it, that is 4 miles from my house, because it was under construction back in 2006 when it opened. I was showing it to my non-gizmo-oriented father and he said, "Well that thing's useless because its lost totally lost". We were just on the interstate it didnt have listed, and it kept telling us to turn turn turn to get to the correct route. I don't know if there is a way or not, but I would love to be able to create roads, and take out ones I know don't exist through some kind of map editing software.

That is the same responce i got when i asked about my garmin Tech support told me that mine is $69.99 for the sp2720

I purchased my nuvi 650 on July 5 through PCNation and I called support today and the rep told me I would get the map update free. He asked for my serial # and said I should receive the update in 2 to 4 weeks.

Well, was on hold for 40 min before talking to tech support named Tim. When I inquired him about the free update to 2008 his first response was 'not really', but he asked for my purchase date (6/4) and the serial number. After looking at my registration record, he had me on hold for 5 minutes and then told me that he ordered my upgrade, and gave me the order number.

He did say it may take 2-4 weeks to ship.

All total, I talked to about a dozen people at Garmin. I am impressed that all of their support personnel is very friendly (even the ones that told me no free upgrades). I would definitely recommend Garmin.

P.S. Rick, thanks for getting the ball started.

Yes Got an email reply today from my above post ( about 2 to 3 day turnaround on emails ). All I need to do is show proof of purchase date, and either fax/email the reciept or credit card statement of the purchase to them, along with my address, and they would have a new one sent to me.

I assume they have an elementary time period clause on this proof of purchase date, ( mine was July 14th ) but they did not alude to any date or time period in the email.

I doubt they have even made a specific policy yet on the date of purchase and when the update map came out. So far, it looks like 30 to 60 days ( just a guess ), maybe more, maybe less. I doubt anyone 120 days past (just a guess) may get as lucky, unless they can talk to the right person. Below is the email I got, my name, and support name removed for privacy.

_________________________________________________

Dear ********** **********,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International,

Sorry for any confusion and glad to help.

I would be more than happy to send out the 2008 version for free but I will need to see proof of purchase which could be a sales receipt or a credit card statement by either email or fax.

With Best Regards,

******** *

Product Support Specialist

2nd Shift Automotive Team

Garmin International

I just purchased a nuvi 350 from Amazon. $368 to my door. The description said it came with version 7 maps, but the header on the page said version 8! I'm delighted to say that it arrived today and has City Navigator NA NT 2008 installed! I had purchased the Magellan 2200T from Costco for for $218 for my wife. Being my 1st GPS unit I was very impressed until I rode in a car that had a Garmin! I'm returning the Magellan tomorrow!

I sent in my POP for the 660 I bought on July 4th and received an email back with an order # and an on back order until August 25th note. We'll see what happens around then.

Here's Garmin's response:

=====

Thank you for contacting Garmin International, I would be happy to help you with that. We at Garmin have made changes to our update policies. We no longer offer free mapping on units that are sold with out dated mapping software. If you would like to update your unit, you can order the update from our website at the below link. The cost of the update will be $75.00.

http://www8.garmin.com/unlock/update.jsp

With Best Regards,

=====

Guest I'll try again.

Hi All,

I have to agree with Frank, I sent a nice e-mail to Garmin asking for a free upgrade to my 660 and my daughters c550. Below is the response I received the same day ..... I sent it to techsupp@garmin.com ... Keep your letter nice and brag about how much you enjoy your Garmin. If they are upgrading some and giving negative response to others, it might be because of an aggressive attitude by the customer.

He said:
Thank you for contacting Garmin International,

I have ordered you the 2 update discs you need as a goodwill gesture.
Your order number is: xxxxxxx.

With Best Regards,

www.garmin.com

I just called the Customer Support people at Garmin about the free update. I bought my Nuvi 360 on 4/24/07 and probably registered it in May sometime.

I told her I would like to see about getting my free update that I was told would be available when it came out. She said they were no longer doing that and it would be $69.95. I mentioned to her about the poor public relations Garmin is developing and went through that entire line of verbage hoping to get a positive response from her. Of course, after all that her response was, "I can understand but it is $69.95." I told her I was not happy about this and she told me she was going to put me on hold. She came back and offered it to me for half price. I told her I was still not happy about that and that I was going to write some letters to the main office about how this was not fair since I was told by Garmin I would get it. I told her to mark in my file/registration that she offered it to me for half price.

So after I hung up I thought about it for a while and figured even if I write letters I will probably get nowhere with the corporate HQ and possibly never even get a response back. So I'm on the phone now on hold and will go ahead and take advantage of the half price offer. That's probably the best I can get.

---------------

I just got off hold and ordered the DVD with the unlock code and no other costs for the update. I was worried the customer srvice rep I talked with before wouldn't note the half price deal, but she did. It's on its way -- update solved. I'm still not totally happy but as I've learned many times before, there's no free lunch.

I just bought a Garmin Streetpilot c550 June 15,07.
Under the map info it says V8. Now do I know if it is the latest version of North America NT? Should it be a V9?

I doubt that, mine was probably as nice as yours. Not a good assumption unless you're certain what the content of the email was. Otherwise, you have just offended anyone that got rejected.

Anyone care to post the tech support email address of the person you had success with?

"Verbiage” is an insulting term usually meant to disparage needlessly wordy prose. Don’t use it to mean simply “wording.” There is no such word as “verbage."

Maybe you should have just asked… It seems that a lot of people are getting their's free!

The latest maps (just released) for your unit is v2008. It replaces V8.

I couldn't find their fax number listed on their web site. If you have it, could you post it here?
I have my letter and proof of purchase ready to go.

Thanks!

Phone 1-800-800-1020
913-397-8200
Fax: 913-397-0836
Garmin

I don't have a unit new enough to qualify even remotely for this upgrade but has anyone installed it and used it enough to get a feel for the difference between it and the old version V8? Wondering if it is worth the $70 price on my Mygarmin.com site.

I'm new to this site and adding POIs, so should I check my version, before I try to upload any POIs and how do I check my version? Thanks.

Select the wrench on initial screen, then map, at the bottom look at map info

Just sent an email to Product Support asking for a free map upgrade. I hope they give it to me, but I'm a few days (a week) over 60 days. Hopefully they will give it to me. Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences.

It's out and since I've had my 360 too long to get a free upgrade, I ordered a copy from PROVANTAGE.COM for $59 including shipping.

I purchased mine thru Costco.com 6/4 and still has the NTv8 map, I just sent an email to Garmin hopefully I can get the map update for free. Thanks for all the great resources available on this site.

I just bought the Nuvi 360 this week, and I have the version 2008 maps.

I emailed customer service and got the response that there is no free map upgrade policy. He even asked for the thread where there were claims of a free map upgrade - do you think I should point him to this thread? Why do you think he was asking for that?

I don't believe that there is a free map upgrade policy. I do believe as someone else has posted, that Garmin is taking this case-by-case.

yes. this sounds like either of a few things:

A: They don't have a policy yet on when to put a date, or gradfather puchase date on these items, and it may differ for each item you own. So they do like what rebate companies like to do you. Deny you on maybe a t not crossed or I dotted. And make you make repeated attempts to get what is rightfully yours. I can understand, if you bought this thing, say 8 months ago, but anyone within the last 60-90 days in my opion should be given this update in the mail for free.

B: Tech support, have not fully been updated on procedures yet. You will find, that in that kind of buisiness, it can take up to a month for a simple policy to reach the low end of the totem pole. I've been there and done that, and its something you never want to do, unless you love to deal with people and policy changes. Which by chance is the customers first contact. I don't know if Garmin does it, but we have a 3rd party company in my town, doing official tech support for major computer companies that is simply outsorced to them. Does Garmin do this? and if so, I wouldn't doubt it takes a while for information to get to them. Lot of things is outsourced to India these days...(cough cough Symantec anti-virus products.)

C: they may just want to turn about face on everyone now, and offer nothing for what you bought, and not help at all.

I got a nice response, saying to simply fax reciept, and things first email. But I did mention I was still perfectly able, (and still am and will) to return this Nuvi 660 to my retailer for full refund. My purchase and register date is after the date of the maps anyway.

You bring up a very good point that it may vary depending which gps you purchased. I have a Nuvi 660 that I originally purchased around seven months ago. Twice Garmin has replaced it under factory warranty, new ones in the box with the entire accessory Package (new Traffic subscription and all) - NO QUESTIONS ASKED! I paid somewhere around $600 -$700 dollars and now look at the prices. Costco.com had them a little over a month ago for $499 on special. Am I bitter, not at all? I don't judge a product completely on a defect but more so on how that company resolves it. I was so happy with Garmin and their service that I passed the second replacement (now about 4 months old) on to my brother while it was still new in the box and it works perfect. Do I feel that I should get a price adjustment, No because I was happy with it before the price dropped.

I then purchased a Nuvi 670 (same as 660 plus Europe maps) in April and paid again like $700 maybe more. Had I waited a month I could have bought the 660 from Costco.com for $499 but as I have already mentioned I'm not bitter, I love my Nuvi.

I have no idea what happened with the new maps coming out maybe Garmin dumped there stock that was boxed to discounters like Costco. Great deal for those that bought it and so you have a map that is no more than a year old but that’s really not that big of a deal. After all before GPS Most of us used Thomas guides that were so old that the pages were falling out. It is just so surprising to me that some are unhappy to wait a few weeks to get their free update. I like a good deal just like everyone and I paid a lot compared to some others but the product and service is superior bar none. I don't know maybe I have decompression sickness and need the chamber:)

Are you saying that my Nuvi purchased in June has outdated maps? I have North American NT V8. Before the Nuvi I used a Tom Tom Go 700, and am very happy to have purchased the Nuvi 660. I just wish I could route with it.

Regards;

Gary

I guess it depends on how you define outdated.
99+% of the maps have not changed. If you live in a place like I do Queens NY and don't leave the Metro area I doubt that there would be any change that would affect you from one year to the next.

Double Tap

CLICK HERE to see if you have the latest maps on your Garmin.

http://www.provantage.com/garmin-010-10989-00~7GRMM01N.htm

I have an order # for a free update from Garmin but they told me it was on back order until August 25th. Has anyone else heard of a back order date? I can buy one on the internet for $50 to $70, but the freebies are on back order, if you want to buy one from us we can get that in the mail right away ???

the update is finally out

I decided to just e-mail Garmin Support instead of placing a phone call.
I bought my Nuvi360 on May 20.
I was very nice in my e-mail and this is what I got back:

Thank you for contacting Garmin International,
There seems to be a issue with the place you were told this information.
There is no policy in force from Garmin at this time to offer anyone a
free update for any software no matter what the model or when purchased.
We are however able to look at each case and make determinations on what
we can offer. I have set up an order for you to be sent a update disc
using order number xxxxxxx. These disc's are not in stock as of yet but
we anticipate the release soon.

I have always had great customer service from Garmin, and this just shows how nice they can be.

Comparing a host of resellers, I have found www.provantage.com to generally have the cheapest prices on most items. That is where I purchased my fm traffic antenna.

Has anyone had any problem with the update? I was in the middle of it yesterday when I got an error "Server expecting technical difficulties." I tried again a little while later and kept getting the same error message. Is this due to a problem on Garmin's end? Is my key for the update expired because I already "used" it once? I know my internet connection works because I can get out to other sites just fine and I don't have any sort of firewall enabled. Any info would be much appreciated.

From elearnenglishlanguage.com:

Theirs is the third person plural possessive pronoun. Though you may see their's written even by native speakers, it is incorrect. Theirs should never have an apostrophe.

-Tom

Hey Tom,
To tell you the truth I thought I would get a much harder time about my post but not for the spelling. I wonder if anyone else caught that ) Very funny because I had changed it from There to Their’s and I should have change it to theirs ) English was never my best subject and I can use all the help I can get ) I was thinking of changing it and asking you what you were talking about but you quoted me... LOL.
Thanks,
Monte