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Magellan eXplorist 600 ADVICE


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Fellow Groundpounders,

 

This is just a piece of friendly advice...

 

As an avid geocacher, ATV'er, and snowmobiler, I purchased a Magellan eXplorist 600 in November 2005. Just a few days ago, the unit stopped powering on. Period. It didn't matter whether it was plugged in or not, old battery/new battery, SD card in or not...the unit would not power on. After 30 minutes on hold with tech support, I finally reached someone with a very thick Indian accent named 'Jill.' After describing my problem, I was informed that since I did not purchase the extended warranty (for an extra $60), I would need to send the unit back to Magellan for repair at the small fee of $179.79! Keeping my cool, I asked to speak with a person in a managerial position for more information. After another 15 minutes on hold, I was finally connected to yet another person of Indian descent with slightly less of an accent named 'Bill.' Bill informed me that there were no alternatives to my situation other than upgrading to the eXplorist XL for only $269.00 more.

 

For the record, I spent $364.99 on the GPS, and am now expected to spend another $179.99 to repair a product that is only a year and a half old. Oh, and this unit has never been dropped, banged around, wet, scratched, or attacked by a wildebeast. Maybe its just my own ignorance, but one would think that a GPS unit, with its inherent importance as a geolocation device, would be RELIABLE.

 

I now have a very expensive paperweight.

 

Does anyone have any home-remedies for this one?

 

Thanks,

Joe

 

P.S. I just bought a Garmin GPSMAP 60CX about 5 minutes ago online. NO MORE MAGELLAN ANYTHING FOR ME!!!!!

Edited by SYRINX2112
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That is the same choice of GPSr a friend of mine made after TWO Magellans he owned quit working . . . On one, it was still covered by the original warranty, but he also had the extended warranty. Nevertheless, getting Magellan Customer Service to authorize a repair was a nightmare. :D

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I find this interesting because I got a Magellan Color for Christmas, I had that unit in my carryon luggage at the airport and the airlines forced me to check that bag planeside because the overheads bins were full. When I got my bag back the screen on my gps was busted. I emailed magellan and asked for a price to get the screen replaced. I got an email back stating my unit was now a legacy product and they could not fix it. They offered to upgrade me for a fee of like 150.00. I called them to make sure the info was correct and the man (yes thick accent) verified that indeed my unit was not longer in production and could not be serviced. I stated to him that I had just got it for christmas and he said, that changes things... they sent me a brand new 500 for free even though I made it clear the airlines broke the screen. I was and still am very pleased with the customer service....

 

As for the new 500 series though... well it's USB and the NMEA driver fails to load on vista so I can't use th stupid thing. I called tech support and they were unable to help.

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I recommend that you try some of the reset procedures. Some searching on this site and on the Yahoo eXplorist Group can give you ideas.

Something to try: Take your SD card out and try the hard reset:

GOTO + OUT + POWER, all pushed at the same time is will clear internal memory and reset to defaults.

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I can sympathize here - it's a real pain to have any expensive gadget break down - but may I play the contrarian for a moment?

 

Buy ANYTHING that comes with a one year warranty. Let's say it breaks down, oh, 18 or 19 months into its service life - that is, several months after the original, stated warranty expired. While it depends on the product and the manufacturer, your chances of getting it fixed for free (or even economically) are usually pretty slim.

 

Many (maybe most?) manufacturers of small solid-state electronics will not provide service or parts for out of warranty units. Bad PR or not, it just isn't cost effective for them.

 

HP inkjet printers come to mind here. Break one while it's in warranty, and your have to call them for an RMA, ship it to them, and wait for them to send a new printer. Not repaired or refurb: new. Break one OUT of warranty? Good luck finding someone who can service it, because HP won't.

 

If I were to take the OP's advice and mood to heart, I could never buy an HP printer (or many other company's products) ever again.

 

---

 

PS: I know some Garmin users will chime in here now with how Garmin replaced their ten year old GPS after it was accidentally run over by a train and flushed down the toilet, because Garmin service is just so effin' outstanding - but really, those are the exceptions - even for Garmin.

Edited by lee_rimar
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I own a few magellan products and never had a serious problem. However when I bought my 600 I also bought a 5 year extended warranty through a third party company where if it breaks I will get a new one. If they cannot get me a new one, they will give me the money I paid for the unit back. Good deal in my opinion.

 

Storm180

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I own a few magellan products and never had a serious problem. However when I bought my 600 I also bought a 5 year extended warranty through a third party company where if it breaks I will get a new one. If they cannot get me a new one, they will give me the money I paid for the unit back. Good deal in my opinion.

 

I stay away from extended warranties in most situations, but if I was buying another Magellan I think it's a good precaution. The warranty fees have not seemed exorbitantly high, while the flat fee service charge has.

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being the summer months, did u have it hooked up to surge protector? could of been fried by a small power surge or a freak thunderstorm in the area

 

any extreme events in the near by area such as flooding tornadoes,etc which could cause a power surge when their demand got knocked offline.

 

good luck.

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