Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Garmin Responds to BBB

In response to my Better Business Bureau complaint, I received this email from a Garmin specialist (click to enlarge):



In short he's:
  • confirming the $150 fee
  • informing me that my warranty is over
  • letting me know I can repair it myself
  • suggesting where I can buy a battery
  • reducing the fee to $75 (about 1x-1.5x the value of c330s sold on eBay) if I go with Garmin
  • stating that Garmin won't repair the unit but will swap it out for another
No repair? Doesn't their website list a 'repair' fee? Was I right that all Garmin is doing is pseudo-selling a used unit to me with a 90 day warranty instead of repairing my unit with new parts?

My Garmin works fine. The battery is dead. A new battery should last years. If I buy a used c330 from Garmin under their 'repair' offer, I will receive another unit that could have its battery fail in 90 days.

As $75 is still unreasonable to repair a $8 battery and I do not like being forced to buy another used unit under a 'repair' lie, I decided to see about replacing it myself per Garmin's email suggestion. I searched on the BatteryPlus site they recommended - unfortunately they don't sell batteries to fix my unit. As I'm not MacGyver and needed instructions, I sent this reply (click to enlarge):



Garmin remains a Company Acting Badly for not being willing to repair a unit, replace a battery or charge a reasonable fee.

My original post is here and the BBB complaint is here.

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