[Closed] Garmin.... pathetic

can anyone recommend a good alternative?

it's an alternative, I'll give you that, but not a good one!!!

can anyone recommend a good alternative?

Out of warranty repair seems reasonable.

Try an Edge 1000. Mine's been ace for the last couple of years. 🙂

It's out of warranty, but after 18 months, was it "fit for purpose"?

It's surely reasonable to expect it to last longer than that.

Have a look at Money Saving Expert for consumer rights and tell them you expect it to be fixed.

APF

It's out of warranty, but after 18 months, was it "fit for purpose"?

It's surely reasonable to expect it to last longer than that.

Have a look at Money Saving Expert for consumer rights and tell them you expect it to be fixed.

APF

What broke, and how?

Personally I've had no issues with Garmin products over the year, but maybe its a quality control issue. If you want something different the Wahoo computers seem to be getting good reviews.

Warranty should be two years minimum, shouldn't it? Assuming you're in the UK from the £ signs.

Under EU rules you always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost, regardless of whether you bought your goods online, in a shop or by mail order.

This 2-year guarantee is your minimum right. National rules in your country may give you extra protection: however, any deviation from EU rules must always be in the consumer's best interest.

If goods you bought anywhere in the EU turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised, the seller must repair or replace them free of charge or give you a price reduction or a full refund.

From [url= http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm ]here[/url], hidden in the Guarantees for Faulty Goods section. We are still crushed by the oppressive jackboot of the EU, so you still enjoy that right, for now. 😐 Get back onto Garmin and tell them you want a replacement or a refund, sounds like they're trying to fob you off.

My Garnin 305 is still going strong

My Garmin 305 packed up after about five years. I got a refurb for £80 or something. After another few years that fell off my bike onto the road and got crushed by a car. Another refurb for £80. I was prety pleased with that.

I couldn't fault their customer service, and I rather like their hardware, but their software QC is a bit shite. Overall though my Edge Touring is brilliant for the money.

Existing Android mobile or tablet?

My Nexus 7 2013 goes out with me most rides in back pocket of jersey/jacket using Strava/Ghostracer/Polar Beat, it's often better at GPS lock than my Sony Smar****ch 3 (which I tend to take along and use Endomondo, as a backup which has an on-the-fly map and curiously seems to stay better GPS locked than other Android Wear standalone apps).

Warranty should be two years minimum, shouldn't it? Assuming you're in the UK from the £ signs.

Under EU rules you always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost, regardless of whether you bought your goods online, in a shop or by mail order.

This 2-year guarantee is your minimum right. National rules in your country may give you extra protection: however, any deviation from EU rules must always be in the consumer's best interest.

If goods you bought anywhere in the EU turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised, the seller must repair or replace them free of charge or give you a price reduction or a full refund.

From here, hidden in the Guarantees for Faulty Goods section. We are still crushed by the oppressive jackboot of the EU, so you still enjoy that right, for now. Get back onto Garmin and tell them you want a replacement or a refund, sounds like they're trying to fob you off.

Remember your issue is with the retailer and you need to prove its an inherent fault not something caused by misuse.

Plenty of my friends have had issues with them but there isn't a competitive offer from anyone else right now. I'm still using the Edge800 although it is my 2nd one as the first one objected to riding in the rain (out of warranty replacement).

You could look at the Wahoo one, seems to get good reviews but not sure if it has been ridden enough in anger to really test. Was one being bought out by hammerhead in August too - again untested . https://www.hammerhead.io/

I hear good things about the 1000. I'd probably go down that route now rather than and 820 if mine needed replacing.

You could look at the Wahoo one, seems to get good reviews but not sure if it has been ridden enough in anger to really test.

The Elemnt has been out for well over a year... I'd never go back to Garmin for a few reasons as documented elsewhere. Elemnt Bolt is newer but essentially an Elemnt in a smaller casing. Vive la revolution 😀

the hammerhead one looks great, wonder what the price will be

I have a Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt. It's leagues ahead of the Garmin 520.

I never trusted the routing on the Garmin 1000, and it used to give up after 20 miles anyway...

My Wahoo Elemnt is brilliant, much prefer the map style for its intended purpose.

No way my next 'Garmin' will actually be a Garmin....too many problems with my Edge 500 over the years.

There seems to be a few options out there now...

Wahoo
Bryton
Lezyne

I've got Garmin & Lezyne, they are both crap in different ways.

Lezyne Enhanced Super GPS - it isn't touchscreen (so the battery last longer) but I think does everything that the Garmin does without the breakage bits.

The bluetooth connection on mine was dodgy twice when I first had it - not the first 2 times of use, but Lezyne released an update for it and it has been ideal every since.

the elemnt is very good indeed, excellent in fact. But i noticed it's not as cheap as it was at Xmas. Brexit? Or more sales negating the need for discounts?

Lenzyne Super GPS is great!

Lenzyne Super GPS is great!

Does that one have any mapping?

Drac - Moderator
My Garnin 305 is still going strong

My 705 too.

5 years warranty on all electrical goods here in Norway

just saying like

fight for your rights

I have a bryton 100 and it is surprisingly good for the money. Simple but does all the gps and ant+ stuff without fuss

Lenzyne Super GPS is great!
Does that one have any mapping?

It has navigation - but I don't use it - can't be bothered with the faff of adding it to the unit to then be told where to ride - I like to pretend I'm still a free spirit and decide where to go myself...

"Does that one have any mapping?"

Yes kind of, all Y10 have mapping as in you hook it to your phone GPS via bluetooth (witch uses google maps I think)

So you can plot a map on line and save it on line, which will appears on the phone app, select the route and you can follow it.
GPX is breadcrumb, TCX will give turn by turn.

You can also use it as a sat nav, select where you like to go and it give you a couple of routes to get there, (normally cycle friendly)

Or just use it a track where you been.

Few little issues to start with (some user error) but seams all ok with the updates.
Best thing is the price when you compare it to Gamin.

My 510 has a great in built feature.. it over exaggerates elevation by 10-25% and makes me look like a riding god

Best of luck with that 2 year warranty thing. Our Samsung TV needed a new screen after 13 months & 2 weeks. If pursued through the courts it falls flat at an exemption to the 2 year rule that the UK dictatorship agreed upon.

I still have a working 705 (although it's battery doesn't hold much charge). That said I think in general Garmin bike GPS devices are pretty crap, over-priced and under-spec'd but they have little competition and I guess the market isn't big enough to justify a big R&D spend. When I compare my 1000 to what you can get in a smartphone for the same money it pains me.

I too have a 705. The batteries are available on eBay and are a simple change.

Bryton have this great feature where the ride it tracked wasn't the ride you did. It's great for stopping thieves tracking you

Never had a problem with my 500 (circa 5 years) or second hand 800 (6 months) but agree that some units do appear to have issues.

Cycling buddies are reporting good things about the [url= http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Lezyne-Micro-Colour-Navigate-GPS-Computer_99082.htm ]Lezyne range[/url] of GPS units

I mostly use an Oregon these days. I don't think the "recreational " models suffer anything like the number of failures/problems the newer cycling units do.

As for the software, I've read that development of Basecamp has ceased and there's no replacement products. That's a real shame as it's really powerful, even if it has a steep learning curve.

Yeah, I'm on my second Garmin Edge Touring (again, out of warranty by a couple of months) due to persistent issues with crashing, navigation failures and screen freezes.

The new one is better but nowhere ner perfect. Not sure if it's ridewithgps / Strava file errors or just the Garmin software being generally shite but I can't trust it to accuratly navigate a long ride without crashing or just giving up on turn-by-turn navigation.

garmin 800, 1000 and Oregon 650. All worked flawlessly for years of abuse. They have even been submerged

I do use them - (nearly) daily and charge them up daily (nearly) maybe if there not charged up regularly they go flat?

800 must be 5 or 6 years old now, shows the scars of much abuse.

I have the rubber covers as well for them that has protected them from some damage 😉

Edge 810 was brilliant, Edge 1000 even betterer..

Ya' just bought a dodgy one out of a batch, but £76 to fix it doesn't sound unreasonable considering it costs £50 or so to get a watch battery replaced.

My 500 is/was rubbish, for the amount of money it cost...

Every time a software update was done, it borked something else.
The breadcrumb trail thing works intermittently & is very fussy about how you set the route up. What normally happens is just as I get to the first unfamiliar bit of the ride, the breadcrumb disappears just long enough for me to wonder where the hell I should be going & then come back to tell me I've gone the wrong way before disappearing again.

The battery indicator when charging never shows less than 100%, whether I have used it for an hour or 5.

One of the intenal buttons went a bit intermittent - the main page/menu button and due to the requirement to press it many many times to get it to work, a hole as been worn in the rubber housing where that button sits.
In the end I got a replacement button from a Russian guy on eBay and a colleague who works for an electronics manufacturing company got it soldered on for me.

I don't really use it enough to justify splashing out on a new device, but I am hoping when the time comes to finally retire the 500 & get something new, there will be enough other options out there that Garmin can be given a wide berth.

Navigating to the bike selection screen takes a ridiculous number of clicks & the Garmin Connect software is absolute toilet.

I have an edge touring.
It's fine for tracking rides, but not that easy to put a GPS track on to or to use it for navigation by itself. Guess it's an old model though.

It did just turn itself into a brick one day and I had to send back to Garmin who fixed it for free under warranty. I imagine this new one will do so too and then I'd buy something else.

Garmin Edge 25 is fairly solid and has all of what you need unless you really need mapping or power meter comparability. The lack of some of the fancy features is not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it cheaper, lighter and more robust.

I had a 305 for years and years, then an 800 which was fine (once the first update doubled the battery life). I out it "somewhere safe" after Paris-Roubaix this year and needed nav for a couple of events so got an Edge 820 - which seems very good - long battery life, turn-by-turn routes, but an appalling interface which I want to smash nearly every time I use it. But once its finally deigned to bring up the screen I want rather than asking me to connect to facebook or something equally stupid, its great.