Bad Garmin - Gets a F: Customer Ser. Wrong and Hangs Up

Garmin, maker of all kinds of devices to help you find out where you are and navigate somewhere else, gets a F from me for Customer Experience.  My new car Navigation device didn't hook up to the car radio via its FM transmitter so, already exasperated, I tried an email after being told phone wait would be 30-35 minutes:

From Me:   

I have a Nuvi 760 and it wont connect to the FM in my BMW 2001 740il.

If it wont work, I’m returning it.

A 35 minute wait on the phone to find out how to fix it is NOT the answer

And farting around with passwords and codes and such online for 10 minutes just to find out why your product doesn’t work is also NOT the answer.  

I am becoming very frustrated with Garmin.  I also bought a second 760 for a friend and am about to return both.

I await your timely solution.

Sean M replies:

 

  Without the ability to get into multiple troubleshooting steps, my main concern is the location of the FM antenna for the car. I'm not familiar the body style of your car, but usually when this comes up, it's because the FM antenna on the car is towards the back. The GPS unit obviously needs to sit on or near the front windshield, which causes a weak signal issue trying to connect from the front of the car to the rear antenna. Unfortunately, the signal transmitted in often not strong enough to reach that far. Feel free to e-mail back if you feel the problem may be coming from something else.

With Best Regards,

Sean M

Product Support Specialist

I responded:

 

I’m not sure what I am supposed to do now.  You mention you don’t have the ability to troubleshoot (why not?); you say you don’t know the car (there are a million of them, so you should have a list of cars that don’t work for this reason); you say it might not work in my car and suggest I call back ‘if its something else’, as if this information solves the problem.  It doesn’t. Vague suggestions on what might be wrong don’t solve my problem.

My problem remains: it doesn’t work, and may never work in my car.  Is that what you think I should act on (i.e. return it) or do you have something a bit more concrete? If this is as good as you can respond, please pass my request on to a responsible adult and encourage him/her to get back to me asap.

Sean M retorts:

 

  The ability to troubleshoot involves a question and answer session. Since I am at Garmin and not BMW, I am not familiar with your model of car and how the FM antenna is installed. If you would like to get to the bottom of your issue, I think it would be best if you could give us a call. If you don't want to do that, we can do our best to resolve your issue via e-mail. My first question is, where is the FM antenna on your car?

So I called, and waited on hold for 25 minutes, then someone came on the phone and asked what I wanted.  I told her, she put me on hold and came back - asked another question which sounded like see was not familiar with the device, put me on hold and came back on, sounding exasperated, and told me my unit did not connect with the FM radio in any car. Hmmmm.  I said that would be strange since it's all over the ad, the box, the instructions and I told her how the unit says 'its set for FM 88.5, does it work?' and so on. 'No' she says, it doesn't have that capability and she won't discuss it with me.  Well, since I know it has that capability could you transfer me to someone who is familiar with it.  She then hung up on me. 

This is not a good thing.  I'm fuming, totally irate and what do I do about it?  Call, wait another 35 minutes, get another clerk who will say she is sorry for that and what do I want?  So I go searching the web site for somewhere to report this atrocity to, About Garmin, Management?, Contact us? on and on.  Finally, I find and send a report to the manager of corporate communications explaining the problem and asking if this is a usual thing to do or not before I report it.  I decide not to wait.  Here it is.  We'll see if anyone refutes my experience.

In the meantime: product would not work and I did read the manuals, tried several times, still didn't work.  Escalated by me. Emailed twice, no help, and phoned once, no help, woman tells me the unit doesn't do that and hangs up.   The classic pattern of the initial problem being made substantially worse by help that doesn't help, solutions that don't work and the really bad part - insulting the customer. B for product and an F for service, Garmin. 

BTW, the Manager of Corporate Communication at Garmin is Ted Gartner, 913-397-8200.  For all I know, he's a good guy.  I'll know in a day or two if he's customer conscious, or a corporate flak.

Comments

[Mike Kelly]

Garmin responded well. The next day and for several more days, I received calls from good folks who assured me my experience was not usual and offered additional help on my questions. I reminded them that 30 minute phone waits are not good. BTW, my Nuvi doesnt connect to the car's FM radio even when the unit is held right against the rear window where the antennae is. I'll need to spend $200 to hook it directly into the radio. Hmmmm. I am getting fond of it though. And took it to Denver to use in my Avis rental instead of the usual $13 a day nav rental and it worked well. But my cost to use it is now much higher than I expected. Arghhh!

[Mike Kelly]

Garmin responded well. The next day and for several more days, I received calls from good folks who assured me my experience was not usual and offered additional help on my questions. I reminded them that 30 minute phone waits are not good. BTW, my Nuvi doesnt connect to the car's FM radio even when the unit is held right against the rear window where the antennae is. I'll need to spend $200 to hook it directly into the radio. Hmmmm. I am getting fond of it though. And took it to Denver to use in my Avis rental instead of the usual $13 a day nav rental and it worked well. But my cost to use it is now much higher than I expected. Arghhh!