I took my Garmin Forerunner 305 out offroad for the first time today. Great! …for about 10 minutes…

I was wearing it on the quick release velcro wrist strap. It came off without me noticing and I coiuldn't find it (somewhere on the Downs Link, between South Downs Way bridge over River Adur, and the Downs Link road crossing at Bramber Castle, if you happen to have found it!).

Does anyone have experience of Garmin providing replacement under warranty in this sort of situation?

It might be a long shot, and I realise that this could well be said to be my own stupid fault… but I thought the mounting was supposed to be OK for that sort of thing so plan to ask Garmin and see what they say.

Try a claim on house insurance, can't see Garmin doing a warranty on it unless you can prove the mount was faulty/broken.

Having said that Mrs MFL got a replacement watch from Swatch when she nearly lost a second watch due to a clasp problem. Wrote to them, sent the second watch back, they replaced with a new model – but we're talking a £50 plastic watch, not a £00 Garmin GPS.

Warranties don't usually cover losing things. Try your home contents insurance, depending on what level of cover you have.

I don't have house insurance at the moment, unfortunately.

I think you're right. Definitely wouldn't even bother asking them if it was just plain lost. I thought the mount was supposed to be OK for mtb riding, so I will explain to them that it fell off and see if they think the mount was faulty/ineffective. If it wasn't designed for what I was doing then fair enough and I'll just have to pay for another one.

Not holding out too much hope but will give it a go.

More than a bit frustrating as I only just bit the bullet and got a GPS and was finding it great after years of sticking with a range of normal computers/HRMs.

Thanks for the advice.

What? Are you for real?

I appreciate your frustration but you're not seriously going to try this are you? This is why people get insurance. I was lucky enough to be uninsured for ages and nothing went wrong, saving me thousands. Take it from your insurance savings and mark it down to experience.

Seems I was being a bit optimistic…

I have never bothered to try to get a warranty replacement for anything in the past, but given that lots of the people here on STW and elsewhere seem to have had things replaced in a whole variety of odd circumstances, I thought I'd consider it this time. Especially as it was mounted in an official bit of Garmin kit and didn't stay in there.

Oh well, guess I'll put it down to experience and be a bit more sensible/cautious and less foolish/naive in future.

p.s. good point, Barelyincontrol – when you phrase it as taking it out of insurance savings it doesn't seem too bad at all. Thanks.

Can't even see why you think they would, you don't have the item to show where the so called fault is. You have no proof of anything at all.

Unfortunately I think it's one to put down to experience, although I used to use a forerunner 305 & it did have a habit of popping the strap pins, I use a 310xt these days & touch wood it's ok.
Personally I've found Garmin UK extremely helpful & when I lost the charging mount for my 305 they posted me another for FREE, I've emailed you an email address for one of the UK Garmin staff that looks after their bike distributors, he may be able to help.

I took one look at the Garmin QR mount & threw it in the bin
I just use the normal strap on a Polar bike mount

Only one way to find out. Ask them.

Yeah cant hurt to politely ask, even if it is optimistic. The strap didn't do it's job very well if it didn't hold the unit in place.

It sounds like it is very new too, even if they offered you a replacement at a discount it would be better than nothing.

If they tell you that you are having a laugh, well, what have you lost?

I would certainly give it a go, but be polite. Sounds like you were using the device in the manner intended by Garmin, which failed to do its job. It broke either by failure of design or manufacture.

Need to contact Garmin again myself. My N?vi USB port no longer connects, but does still charge. After many iterations to trying to get drivers etc. working (Mac+Linux+XP) and numerous cabels, they said they want it back for inspection, even though it was the one of the very first pocketable car SatNav device (when tomtom were still fat ones).

Thanks all – I will ask nicely, be honest about the circumstances and see what they say. Not optimistic and not going to push my luck, but it can't hurt to ask and at least I'll know then for sure either way.

aikon – Thanks for the contact, too. I've used the generic Garmin email contact system but will follow up with this guy.

I'll report back when I know what's what…

If you've lost the device due to failure of the mount (as opposed to not clipping it in properly), I'd absolutely be persuing Garmin, it's their fault.

OTOH, if you've just been a spoon and not fitted it properly, then you're just going to have to suck it up I'm afraid.

Sucks, mind. I lost 80 quid's worth of bike computer after leaving the house in a hurry to catch a train; for some dull reason I'd left it floating loose in its mount rather than properly snapped in when I put the bike away previously, I guess I'd meant to take it off for storage and forgotten. Ten yards from the house it somewhat obviously parted company with the bike – I heard it clatter to the floor, couldn't immediately see anything I'd dropped and didn't know what it was so carried on pedalling.

I found it later when I got home, but sadly so had several car tyres by that point. I couldn't even salvage the battery, it was that badly mangled.

yep i'd definitely give it a go – obviously it's a tricky one because of the nature of the failure, but that's not your fault. you would have a claim against them, see how it pans out and if they resist for a while then you could raise the prospect of being prepared to take it further. those things aren't exactly free.

Well, I've had a chat with Garmin Support over email.

Essentially, they are happy to replace under warrant if the device (the spring pins most likely) or the mount were faulty.
Unfortunately, I obviously don't have the device as it is resting in a hedge somewhere, so I can't demonstrate if there was a fault there. The wrist mount itself is undamaged and not faulty (although it clearly failed).

Part of me thinks I could/should continue as the mount didn't do its job. But ultimately as far as I can see the velcro one is designed for running and not for the kind of shocks mountain biking produces.

So, I am putting it down to experience. Garmin have really been pretty helpful to be honest. If there was a way to show how it failed they woul be happy replace, but there isn't really so I'm calling it a day.

If you bought on you credit card there is an outside chance it could have had "Purchase Protection Cover". This is occasionally a free cover you get with your card without having to ask for. Worth a call to find out as might help if no other insurance.