Garmin Australasia Review

Approach S6 stopped charging. No simple way to tell if it was charger or an internal battery. Contacted customer services who informed me that because I charged it via a USB port plug and not through a PC that it was my own fault. I understand the instructions tell you to charge through a PC but as most people have a USB port to charge mobile phones it was very common option. Friends I know who have GPS watches charge them it in the same manner. $460 spent on it and careful usage but now dead. If the battery and life of the watch would be impacted this much (less than 2 years since purchase before it died) I would never have done so. There should be a very clear separate warning. I urge anyone using Garmin products to be wary of this and the treatment of customers. Not the sort of service and care I would expect if they want to keep customers satisfied and build a long term relationship.

The company is a shame on Korea and needs to be closed.

Don't buy Garmin what ever you do. I have owned many Garmin GPS over the years. About 3 and a half years ago I updated to a 2797Lm with life time map updates. I have done a number of software and map updates over that time. After the last update my GPS now crashes after about one minute. Garmin even admitted it was a software bug. They have refused or are unable to roll back the update and will not fix my GPS after they broke it. I gave been told that this is not under warranty. Hello, Garmin broke it not me. They offered me a replacement unit that is well under spec compared to my original and at a ridiculous discount.
Garmin don't care about there customers and take no responsibility for there actions. They gave the worst customer service I have ever come across. Don't waste your money.

As an update. I kept at them and involved the ACCC, consumer affairs. In the end they have replaced my GPS with a refurbished like model for free, well I still had to pay for shipping. It took so many calls and even threats to take legal action before they did the right thing. If the same thing happens to you do not give up and keep at them. In the end if they break your property they need to fix, replace or refund money for it.

Ordered 2x Vivoactive HR charging straps to save on shipping costs. took 10 days just to leave Garmin Australia in Sydney before touching Australia Post's hands. Only received one strap. Contacted customer support and told the next shipment of straps would be very late June 2017 (7 week delay). They offered to refund $39 for one product, but refused to offer to refund 50% of the shipping fee (logically: ship 50% of the order, charge 50% shipping fee). I tried to explain to Maxine (customer support) that I get 50% of the order, I should only get charged 50% of the shipping fee. They charge flat shipping fees and couldn't understand 50% of goods means 50% of charge. Maxine confirmed with a supervisor that they have a policy of not refunding shipping costs for goods not shipped. I tried to explain that the initial call alone has cost Garmin Australia more in lost wages than the $5 refund and it will now nescalate to disputing the transaction, complaint to ACCC and VCAT, which will all incur significantly more costs to Garmin than $5 refund in shipping. BEWARE: GARMIN DO NOT REFUND SHIPPING COSTS FOR GOODS NOT SHIPPED - NEED TO DISPUTE THE TRANSACTION AND TAKE FORMAL LEGAL ACTION THROUGH THE APPROPRIATE CHANNELS at significant cost to Garmin Australia.

Unhelpful staff, the operator had no idea what I was talking about. Ended up switching to fitbit

I use a Garmin Edge 130 & it wastes an unacceptable amount of my time. Synchronisation is a randomly present capability despite the screen below which shows connection. My 20 year old lawn mower is more reliable. The concept is great though. But, I did not buy a concept.

HI DANA THANK YOU FOR GOING THE EXTRA MILE WITH INFORMATION IT IS REFRESTING TO SEE THANK YOU JOHANNES LENSINK

Garmin Swim watch band lasted 3 months. Emailed Garmin. No response. You'd think they'd make them tougher than that or be apologetic when they are not.

The strap fastener on my 2 year old Forerunner 645 broke. Garmin Support Au sent me a new strap free of charge within a week.
Amazing service and standing behind their product.
Garmin forever.

Contacted Garmin Australia to ascertain the difference with their Sports watches. I spoke to Stephen who was more than happy to help me and steer me in the right direction to make a balanced decision as to the best watch to buy. Stephen was patient, professional and very courteous. I will definitely buy a Garmin watch on Black Friday for the best price!

Decent hardware (Fenix 5X) with shocking customer service. Emails go unanswered form local support teams for weeks at a time. Have to resort to other methods of contact (phone and facebook) to get movement.on a simple warranty claim.

I am being generous giving three stars, have had to have a chart plotter replace with a refurbished one twice now, probably will happen again. Not until I complain loudly do they even acknowledge there customers. The first thing they always say is the customer is always wrong. It's impossible for there product to have any defaults.

After replacing two units which they wanted me to pay the postage an go without a chart plotter on my yacht. They pretty much believe that there is nothing wrong with there customer service.

Then the electronic charts just stop working on the SDCard and the go to response is you must have done somethingtried to copy files or I have corrupted it somehow. (Paid $379 for these charts mate why would I copy it)

Shocking experience with Garmin over the last three years, there customer service has not changed I expect I will be sending the new (refurbished chattplotter with the same problem).

Yet they still have such disrespect for the customer.

3 stars review is generous because my problem was resolved however I believe only temporarily, only from complaining loudly. This should not have to be Garmin standard protocol.

I think the only way they will improve there customer service is if people write a review of there experience.

I hope that Garmin products are top quality because god help you if you have a faulty one, they will not admit there is something wrong and do is little as possible to help you.

The band's of my kids vivofit jr. Keep snapping. It's easy to harrass the operator on the line for a free one but is there a way to minimise the hold time?

My daughter got Leukemia after wearing your defective Vivoactive 3. Her skin started to bubble up and then started leaking pus. Next thing you know, she got Leukemia and it was proven to be linked to your defective watch.

I feel genuine sympathy for anybody that has had to deal with a faulty refurbished replacement, may it not explode on you.

Bought an Instinct Solar, after realising rapid battery drain, full charge wouldnt even last overnight, Ive talked to Garmin consultants to organise a return. Not only did I have to wait hours and hours on the line to you guys and the waiting process just to get a working watch, the mess around of printing and driving to the post, I've had to pay postage to send the faulty product back. After sending an email for a bit of compensation, waiting weeks with no reply, I then have to call them once again and all they could do is pay for the postage. Very poor customer service and very poor product quality from such a big company, will never buy from Garmin again nor will I suggest it to anyone.

Extremely poor customer service. Bought a faulty Garmin Fenix 5S - heartrate all over the place. Gave me more hoops to jump through than a circus to return, but I jumped through them all. They then gave me a case number and from then on, ignored every email for nearly 2 weeks. Not good enough for a watch that cost nearly $1,000.

In the end, took back to JB HiFi who agreed there was a problem and refunded in less than 5 minutes.

Knowing now how they treat their customers if you unfortunately get a dud will prevent me from buying or recommending a Garmin product again. Sorry guys, but you just can't treat people who give you their money like that. No matter how big you are.

Great Customer Service from Garmin Today .. and by far the best Sports Tracking watch I've owned .. Fenix 3 HR ... Thanks :)

On 01/10/18 I bought a Garmin Vivosmart 3 on eBay Australia from a UK company (received and registered on 11/10/18). On 09/01/19 the band of the integrated device broke. I contacted Garmin Australia Product Support the same day on Facebook and via their contact form on their website. On 18/01/19 they offered me to BUY a refurbished device for $99.51 even though there is a 12 months warranty on this device. On 19/01/19 I asked for clarification why I would have to pay for a replacement and why I would not receive a warranty replacement. On 27/01/19 I asked whether they would have received my email. I NEVER RECEIVED ANY RESPONSE even though I was promised on Messenger on 29/01/19:
Hey Helga, sorry to hear that!
We'll have a representative from our team contact you shortly to discuss further. Apologies.
What an appalling or not existing customer support. I will never ever buy any Garmin device again!

Brought a Garmin navigation device with life time free maps only to find out that it was only valid with their previous supplier and must now pay hundreds to update maps not what I would call LIFETIME FREE MAPS very deceptive, very rude and poor on line help from UK operators!

Excellent Experience
I wish there were more than 5 stars to award Paul & Ilce, Wow! Really outstanding customer service to go out of their way to be helpful - is just so rare these days.
They are an asset to this business.

I love my Fenix 5 Plus. Its rugged, accurate and good looking. After swapping from a Fitbit Ionic, I noticed the jump in quality and features. The two times I had to talk to customer service to understand a feature was a flawless experience. To top it off they are in Australia and are easily contactable by phone as opposed to Fitbit, who do not even publish their Australian phone number. About the only thing negative I would say about Garmin is the horrendous price for some of their models but I guess quality has a price.

Wonderful people to deal with, I can think of no other company that gives such excellent support

Ordered a heart rate monitor and it still hasnt been shipped 3 weeks later. Thanks for making it an easy choice to buy the favero assioma power meter instead of the garmin.

Seriously, how long does it take to ship a replacement band?

Have had a trusty Forerunner 220 for years. An issue developed, so I called Garmin Australia's hotline and they strove successfully to resolve the issue. Now my Forerunner 220 is back to full function - thank you for their great customer service!

Fantastic backup service when I lost a transducer. I'll buy Garmin again. Thanks

I bought a brand new Garmin Fenix 5 Plus and when I opened the box the watch had 2 scuff marks and 2 dents on the bezel. I didnt wear the watch nor has it been charged - which I assume can be verified by Garmin. In essence this is a brand new watch.

Unit was sent to Sydney for assessment and it was deemend cosmetic acording to their warranty department and I was told it will not be changed. Garmin s warranty does not cover dents nor scuff to bezels for brand new out of the box watches.

How is it possible to not replace a brand new watch out of the box with clear damage and classify it as cosmetic?
I assume if any customer buys a new product from Garmin and somehow it arrives with cosmetic damage Garmin will not exchange it?

I am really disappointed in Garmin s response!

I LOVE GARMIN. Aside from their awesome aviation gear I've used over the years piloting, it wasn't until I bought my Vivoactive HR watch on Nov 30 2016 that Garmin changed my life. I started steps the next day by walking, then ran a bit further and further every day, and in just a few months had lost 20kg and am now running every day, with 46 half marathons and 1 full marathon under my belt in just over a year since I got my watch. And I never liked running my whole life, and I recently turned 50. Thank you Garmin!

Incredible difficult to get hold of any support. I bought my 200$ map but cannot use it due to some simple issues with their software. I tried their website and filled the form with no response. Googling for their number helped me to find the number as it is not available on their website. After calling the number and going through the menu of selections I waited for 30 minutes without being informed of progress. I gave up for now and will try some other time. I may have to consider my money lost and buy Hema mapping software instead.

Sorted my issue efficiently and followed up with an email.

Exceptionally awful customer service. Had a defective product, and could not find any contact details other than an Australian 1-800 number... however I bought the unit from them mascaraing as an NZ shop. Sent emails that went unanswered for weeks until I finally had enough and had to charge back the purchase. Under no circumstances would I ever deal with this company again. I've had better customer service from the Tax Department.

Garmin Australia. Thankyou. You fixed & replaced my unit, that was just outside of warranty. I have many gps & garmin products. As of your great after sales service you have a returning customer for future product purchases. Thankyou.

Was working ok then I tried, after advice from the unit to update maps. What a joke 24 hrs and it was still telling me the process needed another 3 minutes. The longest 3 minutes I have ever experienced so I just gave up even though it warned me of dire consequences for doing so. Last time for any garmin products

Wanted to charge me for a faulty device, whilst it was under warranty. Known issue with the Vivofit Jr. Is a blob that randomly appears on the screen. That black blob, called Garmin and they wanted to charge me for a replacement, charging me for a replacement on the basis of a faulty product.
Scum.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to the staff t Garmin for helping me with my Fenix 5s
You had it fixed and returned to me in no time.

One of the best customer service experiences I have ever had.

5 car gps units in two years, all under warranty. Maps out of date, Gps inaccurate. four square not worth a penny. Screen wont scroll.
Poor customer service. Map problems get sent to USA then Garmin USA send it Here maps. then it comes back to USA then Aust. This can take a year or more if at all.
Garmin GPS units have some OK features when the units work, unfortunately this isn't very often.
Great customer service from the place of purchase Harvey Norman/ JB-HI FI

today i received a message from Garmin to send my phone number back when i tried to do this the message deleted so to WHOM IT MAY CONCERN could you send that message to my e mail so we can make contact

thank you

Unfortunately i have had another issue with my Garmin 820 . As the customer service person said to me when when checking my file , today , she could see i have had at least 4 yes 4 garmin 820 's over a relatively short time . Today the problem is with the HISTORY section and trying to get into TODAYS ride which i am unable to yet all other rides i am able to . As i have had many issues as my Garmin file will attest to i really am concerned how Garmin this time will handle another genuine complaint or better a full refund or dare i say a new version that does work ? as a last resort . Is there a time when enough is enough . i gave one star as the Garmins i have had sometimes do work , so i wait for the next instalment after the operator today said check if the problem is fixed on my next ride and report back to her .. I very rarely complain about anything and you would be hard pressed to see a record of complaint by me anywhere for any product other than Garmin because there is none . i wait to see the next chapter dealing with Garmin . Is Garmin a large world wide company who really is not interested in the complaints i have had because / then again who am i / i really hope this complaint is taken seriousley as it is genuine / only time will tell with the response i get or maybe not get .

i thank those who have read this

Not even worth the 1 star.
The products I ordered NEVER got delivered and they dont even acknowledge written customer complaints. 8 weeks now have been waiting for the product and at least 6 weeks waiting for a reply from the company. Terrible service, take your money elsewhere if you actually want to get something for it...
WARNING TO ALL CONSUMERS : DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THE COMPANY ONLINE - THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF, TAKE YOUR MONEY AND NEVER SEND THE PRODUCT