SilverSpoonGirl

FYI I'm in Ontario, Canada and it was to Bill's Electronics that I was referred. He was very nice but it would appear (from his rant) that Magellan has really made a mess of things and they have not made good on many an issue. The man at B.E. was quite (!!) disgruntled with Magellan and it was shortly after I spoke to him that he amended his website to read what you have posted. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was able to get a new unit and return it to the original vendor. Too bad I lost $200 on the darned software. What a ripoff. Did I tell you I love my new GARMIN ? I love it almost as much as the BF who gave it to me, lol. So I guess you guys now get the same mostly crappy service as the rest of us. It really speaks volumes when a repair center like this and other dealers are becoming so frustrated with Magellan. Not only is Magellan burning bridges with their retail customers, they're burning bridges with the retailers. I can't imagine REI was happy about having to pull the Tritons due to Magellan's screw-ups.

Oh, I know how you feel. Magellan has the worst TS and Customer Service of any company I've EVER had to deal with. After endless calls with no resolution to the problems I was having with my Explorist 500, they finally referred me to an auth. dealer. I shipped the unit there and called the guy 3 wks later to follow up. He was incredibly angry with Magellan and had too many negative things to repeat here. Anyway he finally ended up replacing my unit, which I took immediately to the store from which I bought it. They allowed me to return it when they heard how disappointing Magellan is as a company. My amazing BF bought me a Garmin Vista HCX for my birthday this past weekend and woohoo !! what an amazing little GPS. I love it ! I would suggest you document every moment you spend on the phone and make sure you get the names of the "Customer Service" people; otherwise, you'll end up repeating your story to the 2nd Customer Service rep, because the 1st one neglected to document your 1.5 hour conversation and problems. And on and on,........... Good Luck !

Sure if someone can put this v3 coffee coaster to good use then I'd be willing to sell it. Make me an offer

I bought an Explorist 500XL from a vendor, and I purchased DirectRoute v.3 from Magellan. I have now returned the GPS, due to many reasons. Is there any use for this software? It had been installed in the GPS, and the software docs state there is a single use license. I do not plan on buying another Magellan and hate to think I am stuck with a $200 coffee coaster now. Thanks, SilverSpoonGirl

Thanks for the info guys We are using Ni-mh batteries in the 500 LE & they seem to last about as long as storebought alkalines. Having said that, only 4-5 hours of continuous use before the low battery warning wails seems too brief. My friend has a Garmin Vista Cx and, that unit will go all day on one set of batteries What battery pack option are you all speaking of? I searched around, it doesn't seem the 500 LE is able to use a battery pack?? Thanks again for the info!

I guess no one else has problems with this model? Well I spoke to Magellan tech support about my issues... very frustrating conversations! I did finally manage to convince them my GPS unit is having some sort of problem so I will send it in for investigation/repair.. hope it comes back soon Even the battery life of +-4 hours is a disappointment.. do all Explorists behave the same way?

Hi all, new member to Groundspeak I purchased a Magellan Explorist 500 LE and have been having success finding elusive caches with it but not without some frustrating issues.. can you help?? I put in FRESH alkaline batteries (not rechargeable ones) and, within 4 hours the "low battery" warning will start to wail The "track up" & "course up" will not hold the setting I put it on, very frustrating!! Also the "detail level" will keep reducing it's setting automatically, grr(!!) While road navigating the unit will often lock up(!!) it will show where I was a few minutes ago and, I need to press the NAV button to wake it up to move again.. Please tell me I have a dud GPS unit and I am NOT going insane (lol)