While
in Temagami, I was pounding down Maple Mountain from the summit, my shoelace caught a branch
sticking out on the trail and bodyslammed me into the ground. I stumbled a couple steps, landed sideways
and thankfully I just hit the peaty ground hard, not any big rocks. Also thankfully, I had a backpack full of SLR
cameras which were undamaged.
A short
time later I glanced at my Garmin GPSmap62s GPS which was carbined to a D-ring
on my left hip. The plastic screen cover
(not screen protector) was cracked – looks like my GPS smacked a rock while I
was doing my impromptu luchadore impression on Maple Mountain. Good thing I had a screen protector on top of
it which retained it’s waterproof integrity - the GPS later in the trip fell off my caribiner
into the water while getting into the
canoe where I retrieved it undamaged. Otherwise there would have been shards
of broken plexiglass everywhere leaving the LCD screen unprotected for the
remainder of the trip. I can still read
the LCD under the cracks, and it is undamaged. But I requested
to buy a replacement screen cover... you know, a small, clear plastic part.. a part I can change myself in 5 minutes. Garmin
informs me that they cannot sell me any parts. I can ship the thing back to them for exchange
for a new one or a refurbished one for the low price of $120. Seriously?
Give me a break. A handheld GPS
for use in the backcountry should naturally have a service part available for a
replacement screen cover. I guess they
went the way of Apple products – everything
is serviceable, just as long as you return it to them, wait a month for
it’s return and also pay an exorbitant amount of money.
Really, the outdoor handheld market is the only thing Garmin has potential any more to grow, due to the proliferation of smartphones killing their automotive market and they need to step up the customer service for issues like this to retain customers. Now I have to wait around and monitor eBay for someone to sell a disassembled one for parts or someone to offer aftermarket screen cover, since I certainly refuse to pay $120 just to fix a small $1 piece of plastic screen cover, which should be a readily available replaceable item. Garmin's fixed price 'repair' (more like replacement) policy doesn't make sense to me - you pay the same price whether you destroyed your unit by running over your device with your car or you have a crack in a screen cover.
Really, the outdoor handheld market is the only thing Garmin has potential any more to grow, due to the proliferation of smartphones killing their automotive market and they need to step up the customer service for issues like this to retain customers. Now I have to wait around and monitor eBay for someone to sell a disassembled one for parts or someone to offer aftermarket screen cover, since I certainly refuse to pay $120 just to fix a small $1 piece of plastic screen cover, which should be a readily available replaceable item. Garmin's fixed price 'repair' (more like replacement) policy doesn't make sense to me - you pay the same price whether you destroyed your unit by running over your device with your car or you have a crack in a screen cover.
Update: I replaced my screen by buying some parts off of eBay, instead of getting ripped off by Garmin for their 'repair' costs. Read about it here.
Well, Thanks for sharing such a informative content with us.
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