[Az-Geocaching] Garmin Customer Service

[Andrew Ayre]

Some ideas:

Maybe Motorola was overpricing in the first place?
Maybe Motorola has cheaper manufacturing facilities or in-house
manufacturing facilities overseas?
Maybe more people buy GMRS devices than GPS units = economy of scale?
GPS units have more complicated hardware and firmware than GMRS radios.

Andy



-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com]On Behalf Of
William Noll
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 8:48 AM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Garmin Customer Service


    Are you sure it is really a resurrection of your old unit (did it still
have personal data / waypoints)? You may have a brand new unit.
Refurbishment costs big money (especially for American electronics
technicians with small hands to repair Taiwan-made units) and it is
significantly less expensive to replace a unit with a new or a factory
refurbished one. Faster, too.

    Which brings me to a curious thought for the group:

    FRS / GMRS radios have gone from $150 each for a Motorola Talkabout 5
years ago, to Motorola GMRS Two-Packs under $50 today. So then, why has the
basic GPS unit not been able to fall to the under $20 range? The technology
is not exactly 'new' anymore (it was first initiated in 1973, operable in
1993) and the US government provides all necessary operating specs free of
charge. So is this price-fixing?

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: <kenh199@cox.net>
To: <listserv@azgeocaching.com>
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 12:55 AM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Garmin Customer Service


> A couple of weeks ago a posted a request on how to fix My Garmin Vista
which was having a problem with the rubber trim coming off. The GPS is about
2 years old and was well over it's 1 year warranty period. I e-mailed Garmin
and explained the problem to them. To my surprise they gave me an RMA # and
told me to send it in and they would fix it without charge. I sent the unit
in and got it back exactly two weeks later.
>
> Upon receiving my GPS I noted that it looked BRAND NEW :) Upon reading the
service report I discovered that they noted that my trusty Vista was looking
a little well used. I have had the unit for about 2 years and with all the
rock hopping and rattling around on my ATV have dropped it several times
scratching the screen and case. Garmin replaced the Screen, Case, click
stick and entirely refurbished it before sending it back to me. Total cost
for out of warranty repair and unexpected total refurbishment $0.00!!!
>
> Garmin has just made me a life long customer.
>
> Ken
> WhereRwee?


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