GarminReviews 46

I was told that I could not purchase a reconditioned watch, which Garmin calls decertified. That these watches were not offered for sale. I found a company supposedly out of Nevada that apparently does have these watches that are recertified, from Garmin to sale. So the answer seems to be no for me and yes for other companies. How about an honest answer for an outdoorsman & Boy Scout assistant scoutmaster who believes in Garmin?

Always put on hold. Can never get hold of a rep. Terrible service. Stay away... You won't ever receive product support.

I purchased an InReach Mini to help me be safer on solo backpacking trips. There is a HUGE learning curve to learn how to use the unit, the online accounts to get everything set up, and learn how to use MapShare program which is supposed to allow friends and family to follow me on my trip. Instructions are very user unfriendly and I still don't know how to do all of these things. Maybe it would allow me to be rescued if I am injured (I have not had to test this capability) but other aspects of use are difficult to learn.

I bought this tracker 2 months ago and used less than half a dozen times and had several problem with reception. When it wouldn't acquire signal I called their customer support, several time. They gave me the run around making up excuses and advising me to change the settings. It was clearly a faulty device and they would not even offer to replace it.

The worse online service ever! I definitely won't recommend to buy a Garmin online! I wouldn't buy a Garmin online so, they don't have online service.

Very disappointing

I bought a Garmin tracker over a year ago and was not satisfied with their service from the beginning. Tracking was inaccurate and spotty at best. I just got an email saying they had auto renewed by subscription when I never authorized it and haven't used the device in a year. I called customer service and demanded a refund from the supervisor and received in 3 days. This is auto renewal is a seedy practice that is rampant in virtually all subscription renewal services.

TRUST THAT GARMIN COULD NOT FIX PAIRING ISSUES. I've been communicating with Garmin for more than a month. They did literally a lot to pair my Forerunner 945 to Iphone 12. Until now, they could not solve the basic pairing issue. What is so disappointing is that I first tried a 20USD sports watch to get to feel if I really need a 700USD sports watch. The 20USD watch worked well with pairing and some of the basic features that is helpful; thus, I felt the need to upgrade to FR945. I'm close to begging for Garmin to finally fix pairing issues. If only I could refund, with all the tedious communication difficulties and an unsolved basic issue, I'll never look back at Garmin again!

I am extremely unhappy with Garmin Customer support and would advise anyone thinking of purchasing a Garmin product to reconsider. I bought the echomap sonar fish finder and it was bad out of the box. The Customer Service jerked me around for weeks and when they finally decided to replace the transducer (a $400 piece of equipment) they wanted $900 deposit to make sure they got the bad one back. How does it make sense? It doesn't. Just another way to show they don't care about their customers. My last Garmin product to be sure.

DO NOT order anything from Garmin, go with Wahoo. Garmin has an awful customer support team that is just money hungry. Rather than fixing a defective device that's all over the internet saying it's an issue, KURT from Garmin got very snotty and said, well that's from 5 years ago so it's not at all credible. Then I showed him others and he kept making excuses that it's not a "known" issue with Garmin and I would have to PAY FOR A NEW device.

My vivoactive 4 has been resetting after owning it only 4 months. Garmin support has had me do soft resets, hard resets, and factory resets. Nothing works. Garmin has offered to replace my watch with a refurbished watch and not a new one. They don't seem to understand or care that I do not want to risk inheriting a watch that has already failed and likely has other bugs lurking. Bottom line, the watch is great (if it worked), but Garmin's replacement policies are terrible.

Had an issue with a GPS Unit losing all 250,000 preloaded geocaches. Customer Service spent over an hour with me trying to get them back but couldn't. They apologized and sent a replacement. Can't ask for anything any better.

Will not lookup addresses, by number street city state. Will not look up by building name, will not find any nearby streets. Stuck on 40% brightness, cannot adjust brightness when plugged into outlet or handheld. Can't update program because it only hooks up with computers not tablets. Wasted HOURS trying to get help from Garmin. NO USE WHATSOEVER. Constantly hung on by garmin help desk. Will not save routes when imputed into devise. POS don't waste $ on this garbage devise.

Garmin fenix 3 HR. Paid over $500. In little over a year started having software issues. It's out of warranty. To replace for refurbished is $130.00 plus tax. Meaning I will have refurbished watch and it would cost me more than $600. It's ridiculous. Costumer service not willing to work something out and help. So in plain words. In approximately year and half I supposed to spend $650.00 dollars to have refurbished Garmin fenix 3 watch. For this price they should give better warranties of have some better replacements options. Now you can find this watch online for $320 brand new So decision to make is To have Refurbished for $650 Or new for $850 Since I already spent $500 year and a half ago.
Garmin costumer service doesn't care.

I bought a vivoactive3 smartwatch, very frustrated that I cannot get my notifications, I really wanted this as have a terminally ill brother & as I'm unable to use my phone at work didn't want to miss any msges, the tracking of activity is good as I've lost over 5st it keeps me on track with my exercise, there is no technical support via phone, other companies seem to manage their customer service by phone, I have emailed but have had no reply, spent a fair bit of money on this watch & am pretty disappointed with it, thinking of sending it back & getting something that will do the job
L Morgan (Swindon)

Bought an updated model GPS for wife's car a couple of years ago. After some routes on roads that weren't on the database recently, we decided it might be time for some database updates. Unfortunately the limited memory of the unit wouldn't handle the entire update. Initially downloaded loaded only the Eastern U.S. (our normal touring region), This update went a lot faster than the update earlier on an older unit. Bought some additional storage, reran the update which included the entire U.S.and was done in minutes. Garmin continues to be top notch in my book.

The nautical unit that I used on our boat was equally was satisfying, with lots of nice features. Go Garmin!