Reasons not to buy a Garmin Sat Nav

GS_or_bust said:
Some of the routing can be strange; like taking you off at a slip road only to bring you back on again???
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Check your settings.

I have the same 'issue', but it's because I have set the speed for a minor road as higher than that of a main road, so that it 'sees' the small roads as better options, IYSWIM.

As a slip road is a lower class of road than the main road it's coming off, my unit will send me up and back down the re-joining slip, because in effect, that's exactly what I've told it to do.
 
Fanum said:
Check your settings.

I have the same 'issue', but it's because I have set the speed for a minor road as higher than that of a main road, so that it 'sees' the small roads as better options, IYSWIM.

As a slip road is a lower class of road than the main road it's coming off, my unit will send me up and back down the re-joining slip, because in effect, that's exactly what I've told it to do.
Click to expand...

Do you have a 660 ? because mine does that sometimes but I'm buggert if I can find how to change the setting.
 
AberdeenAngus said:
Do you have a 660 ? because mine does that sometimes but I'm buggert if I can find how to change the setting.
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Do I fuck!

A new fangled 660, poke it up yer totally overloaded with bloatware, multifunction starfish, no disrespect :D

I'm on my third quest 1.....the first detached itself from the Touratwat mount at 120 on the M25...TTs fault, not mine or Garmin's.
The second got crushed, drowned, dropped, sat on, dunked in Moroccan beer (Don't ask :blast) and generally abused for years until it gave up.
This third unit cost me 50 quid with ALL the mounts including a RAM system, and it performs perfectly........I listen to music on an MP3 player and talk on a phone, and I still have my gold star map reader badge :D


I still use Mapsource, because it still does everything I want it to do....with Mapsource, it's a doddle to change the 'rankings' for each class of road.....I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start with basicallycamp I'm afraid...perhaps that nice Mr Wapping may know?
 
stever1 said:
Busterlung. How IT literate are you ?. serious question, could it be that you are not setting it up correctly ?.

Firstly, de-register your old unit off the PC. Then search for and register the new one on the PC. It could be locking up because the PC is looking for the old unit. Is your Garmin software the latest version, if its an older one it may not work with a unit which has a later version.

Remember those famous words. Garbage in = garbage out.:clap
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Thanks for the constructive advice.

The old unit has never been attached to the PC I'm using with the new unit. So it's unlikely that it recognises the old unit.

Once the Zumo is turned on, it does nothing more than show a welcome screen with the Garmin logo. The only way to progress any further than this stage is to wait several hours until it runs out of battery power and turns itself off. I don't believe any amount of computer literacy would sort this problem out.

The whole point of the original post, irrespective of the cause of the fault is; Having spent several hundred pounds on a product from Garmin. It has so far taken over two months and the issue has yet to be resolved.
As a customer of any company or product would the users of this forum be happy with that sort of service?
 
jetjock said:
Use a map

I think you're right there!
I drove down to Spain last december with my 660 as guidance. It was that bad through France I turned it off and bought a Michelin map. I think the Garmin product is a joke. If it wasn't for the fact that it fitted my GS TE and it was expensive,it would have gone out of the window...and I am serious.
Click to expand...
 
Busterlung said:
The only way to progress any further than this stage is to wait several hours until it runs out of battery power and turns itself off. I don't believe any amount of computer literacy would sort this problem out.

The whole point of the original post, irrespective of the cause of the fault is; Having spent several hundred pounds on a product from Garmin. It has so far taken over two months and the issue has yet to be resolved.
As a customer of any company or product would the users of this forum be happy with that sort of service?
Click to expand...

Absolutely....I have an erection even thinking about that level of service compared to some others.


Then again, I already know (as a result of a 4 second Google search) how I could reboot a 550, with just a couple of button pushes.




Nigella, (or whatever your name really is) get some fekking perspective, do a bit of research and you would probably have been sorted out inside a couple of hours.

Never mind though, it's easier to whine, we understand that, and good luck to you :comfort
 
GS_or_bust said:
...
On the plus side they don't call it the Garmin box of adventure for nothing. Set it to shortest route and it will take on on an amazing journey.
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Yeah - try that (NOT deliberately!) on a borrowed unit and Leave Paris - aiming for Chatreuse!
Fecking housing estates, back lanes, industrial zones, bits of dual carriageway, ... oh how we laughed. :rolleyes: NOT.
(Mrs Og has a knack of find the gaps in body armour when punching me :eek: )
Only funny bit was its final instruction in Chartreuse referriing to an old town sidestreet; "Continue, to Massacre" i nearly fucking did. :mad:
 
Have been using Garmins for years and also have a TomTom and Copilot on my phone. Prefer the Garmin for a variety of reasons. I rarely use the thing to just get me to a destination other than using it in the car, planning routes on the PC is my preferred method and it's dammed good at that. The earlier post of garbage in garbage out is spot on.

Never had a problem with mapping and software updates, both in the days when you had to order a DVD upto the current LM online method.

Up until last week I haven't had cause to use customer support. On a tour in the Pyrenees a couple of weeks ago the power button went AWOL, everything still works but I need to plug it in, or put in the mount, to power up. Emailed Garmin and was told it would be service exchange which would cost me £120. Too much for what the problem is IMHO. I have taped up the hole and will carry on using it as it is. Do the service exchange units still come with all the accessories despite just returning the GPS itself? If so it might be worth doing and selling the bits on eBay to make it more affordable.
 
The fault described is well known on the zumoforums.
There is also a guide to factory resetting the device, taking the battery out, de registering and reregistering devices. If you did check this out then fair enough but always worth a view on that site. Well informative.
 
My Garmin experience today:

My 550 will only show the logo screen for about 8 seconds before switching itself off and if plugged into the computer it’ll go as far as “Preparing to enter USB mass storage mode/ saving all waypoints...in GPX mode 1%” then it freezes...

Having read this thread I joined Zumo forums, read all I could and tried all suggestions but no joy. So I phone Garmin UK and, after 48 minutes on hold, I got to speak to a guy who diagnosed the problem as being the battery “at least” as being dead. But that was the end of it: they won’t accept it back as they “Don’t have any batteries” and even if I sourced one elsewhere I’d “Be unable to get any further support from them as they don’t offer a repair on 550’s any more”.

I did ask if there would be any ‘goodwill’ shown if buying a new model but the answer was “Sorry, no: it’s six years old - if it was newer then we can do something but not for that age”.

R
 
i'm currently playing with the tom tom app on my iphone. thanks giles for the steer btw :)

much much faster than my clunky 660 and a user interface/experience that garmin couldn't even dream of. there is the downside of not being able to accept imported routes, but that may change and plotting on the device is not too bad.

looking very promising.
 
cookie said:
i'm currently playing with the tom tom app on my iphone. thanks giles for the steer btw :)

much much faster than my clunky 660 and a user interface/experience that garmin couldn't even dream of. there is the downside of not being able to accept imported routes, but that may change and plotting on the device is not too bad.

looking very promising.
Click to expand...

I like the idea of "phone based GPS"
We always carry them and we always work out a way of keeping it charged...

What worries me with most of them is that they assume a working connection is available 100% of the time..
It may have changed recently but my early attempts with this type of app always frustrated when we hit the empty bits... i.e. somewhere with a less than ideal connection...
At least with a dedicated GPS device, they always have the map available and can calc the route or keep you en-route even in a signal free area. (Phone connection not GPS!)
 
2610...............all you will ever need and can still outsmart a later Garmin, with better routing for motorcycles
 
newboy said:
I like the idea of "phone based GPS"
We always carry them and we always work out a way of keeping it charged...

What worries me with most of them is that they assume a working connection is available 100% of the time..
It may have changed recently but my early attempts with this type of app always frustrated when we hit the empty bits... i.e. somewhere with a less than ideal connection...
At least with a dedicated GPS device, they always have the map available and can calc the route or keep you en-route even in a signal free area. (Phone connection not GPS!)
Click to expand...


the tom tom app puts all the maps onto your phone, so there is no need for a data connection.
 
Try MDS batteries on tinterweb for a replacement battery. I think I paid about £12 for the last one I fitted. Its easy to change it.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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