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I would not recommend a Magellan product to any one

I bought an explorist 500 5 months ago and now it will no longer load anything via the usb cable.

I spoke to Magellan they sent me new driver software and a new usb cable, that did not fix the problem and when I called them back I was told the unit is no longer in production so I was out of luck.

when I pointed out to them that there website said it had a one year warrenty they told me that was only on purchases made through the website not from retail stores.

I am rather upset as the only reason I upgraded to this unit was because my older GPS did not have USB capabilities. :)

Baywinger

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Your experiences echo others on this site. I have had many Magellan units in past years and found them all to wonderful. However that changed when the eXplorist line came out. While I actually found the 500LE to work very well for the most part, customer service and support have been absolutely deplorable in the last few years. The release of the Triton line was (is) a complete disaster. Many things did not work and even some buttons on the actual device did not do what they were labeled to do. It was as if they launched the product before software was even beta tested.

 

I have switched over to Garmin. So far.....MUCH MUCH better (but like anything else not perfect).

 

Edited by ryleyinstl
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I would not recommend a Magellan product to any one

I bought an explorist 500 5 months ago and now it will no longer load anything via the usb cable.

I spoke to Magellan they sent me new driver software and a new usb cable, that did not fix the problem and when I called them back I was told the unit is no longer in production so I was out of luck.

when I pointed out to them that there website said it had a one year warrenty they told me that was only on purchases made through the website not from retail stores.

I am rather upset as the only reason I upgraded to this unit was because my older GPS did not have USB capabilities. :D

Baywinger

 

Thats BS about the warranty only being good if you bought it through them. I would call back and keep calling. What they will do is trade in your old unit for a triton under warranty. Just be persistent.

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I would not recommend a Magellan product to any one

I bought an explorist 500 5 months ago and now it will no longer load anything via the usb cable.

I spoke to Magellan they sent me new driver software and a new usb cable, that did not fix the problem and when I called them back I was told the unit is no longer in production so I was out of luck.

when I pointed out to them that there website said it had a one year warrenty they told me that was only on purchases made through the website not from retail stores.

I am rather upset as the only reason I upgraded to this unit was because my older GPS did not have USB capabilities. :D

Baywinger

 

While Garmin is clearly above Magellan in support, Garmin needs to be careful what they are treading into with the Colorado and Oregon. So far these two products have received less than stellar reviews so far and are plagued with bugs.

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As the author of http://ray.jerome.jobs.googlepages.com/majormagellanproblem I have no love of Magellan.

 

But I do love my Magellan Meridian Gold. Even without WAAS ability and it's small timing error that would require a reset, I found more of the 56 caches that WeatherednBoston and I found during 19 hours on our way to a caching event in Maine. And she has one of those great Garmin GPS60CSx's. But now she has won a free Delorme PN-20 so who knows what our cache-run trips will be like in the future.

 

But to help you out, more so than Magellan customer-non-support. Go to the various user groups mentioned on my web page. Many people with lots of experience can immediately help you out.

Edited by trainlove
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I had an eXplorist XL that was still working and about 2 weeks out from being out of warranty. The problem I was having was not gettting any Alaska topo maps for it. I called and complained about it and they offered me a Triton 1500 for exhange of the XL and after explaining how I have bought both the Meridian Platinum (which failed in light rain) Then the eXplorist XL (which has no Alaska topo maps and is now out dated before the warranty expired) so why would I not want the top of the line model again? They then offered me a Triton 2000. Which I accepted. All in all it was a painless phone call. It only took one call from me too! I even got the triton 2000 before I sent off the explorist.

 

Keep in mind though the Triton has some bugs and they are working on them. A new firmware update is expected very soon.

 

My thoughts of the Triton and Magellan are mixed. They took care of me but at the same time I don't know if I like the Triton. (Still waiting for firmware updates to decide)

 

Now with the Triton I can get an Alaska topo map from NG Topo. Its okay I suppose But only viewable from 1/4 mile down to 300 ft zom levels. All other levels you can not see the topo map. Now they just released Accuterra Maps which are viewable from all zoom levels, But Alaska has not been released yet. So I E mailed both Magellan and AccuTerra and I only got a response from AccuTerra and they told me Alaska is in the works but not expected till summer 09. Up here in AK I really need topo maps viewable from all zoom levels. So that really hurts Magellan in my opnion.

 

tritonforum.com has some good info BTW

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I would not recommend a Magellan product to any one

I bought an explorist 500 5 months ago and now it will no longer load anything via the usb cable.

I spoke to Magellan they sent me new driver software and a new usb cable, that did not fix the problem and when I called them back I was told the unit is no longer in production so I was out of luck.

when I pointed out to them that there website said it had a one year warrenty they told me that was only on purchases made through the website not from retail stores.

I am rather upset as the only reason I upgraded to this unit was because my older GPS did not have USB capabilities. :D

Baywinger

 

I don't own an eXplorist, but I have heard that if the cable is attached to the GPS one way, it will charge but not upload but flipped around 180 degrees, it will upload but not charge. Have you tried the cable attached both ways?

 

JetSkier

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I just want to be able to register my Explorist 600 on Magellan's site, but I can't even do that because of my serial number doesn't follow the 0118 format. I'm trying to give Magellan money for their AccuTerra maps, but I can't even do that!

 

Give them the serial number under your battery on the microsd card holder. The one that shows on your reciever is missing a digit.

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I would not recommend a Magellan product to any one

I bought an explorist 500 5 months ago and now it will no longer load anything via the usb cable.

I spoke to Magellan they sent me new driver software and a new usb cable, that did not fix the problem and when I called them back I was told the unit is no longer in production so I was out of luck.

when I pointed out to them that there website said it had a one year warrenty they told me that was only on purchases made through the website not from retail stores.

I am rather upset as the only reason I upgraded to this unit was because my older GPS did not have USB capabilities. :D

Baywinger

 

I don't own an eXplorist, but I have heard that if the cable is attached to the GPS one way, it will charge but not upload but flipped around 180 degrees, it will upload but not charge. Have you tried the cable attached both ways?

 

JetSkier

Yes I have

this problem is new it was working fine for 5 months.

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I just want to be able to register my Explorist 600 on Magellan's site, but I can't even do that because of my serial number doesn't follow the 0118 format. I'm trying to give Magellan money for their AccuTerra maps, but I can't even do that!

 

Give them the serial number under your battery on the microsd card holder. The one that shows on your reciever is missing a digit.

 

Thanks storm, but someone suggested to use the number on the SD card holder, as opposed to the about screen. It starts with 0 and begins with 119. I've tried it with the zero, without the zero, played with the numbers at the end of the serial number, and still couldn't get anything to work. Magellan is still silent on a response. I was hoping to get some current software to replace the DirectRoute 1.0 maps I got in there now to give the Explorist a little more life.

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When it comes to serial numbers for software registration, I'm sure it has to be the serial number that can be seen by the software. As such any label in the battery compartment can say whatever it wants to say, the only real serial number is the on you see displayed when you turn on the unit, or when you do [menu], [about], or when you do secret menu [00].

 

The serial number on the label in my battery compartment says 'Mickey Mouse', and I've always taken that as the name of the Magellan designers/programmers/customer support.

Edited by trainlove
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for all you magellan haters....here's a quality story for you....ugh garmin lovers....so i had a garmin for awhile and it broke after 3 months....tgarmin told me to piss off (basically) and buy another unit. They would not help me.....so i bought a new unit...a magellan.it lasted me for a couple years....and i decided to upgrade....i got an explorist 400. Loved it....it had all the features i wanted....and none of the extra crap i didn't. So the 400 lasted me 7 months and broke....i figured magellan would just give me the same BS about warrenty that garmin did before....completely different. Magellan not only replaced my broken GPS'r....they gave me a free upgrade to the Triton 400....no questions asked. so while people say magellan customer service is bad....in my experiences....Garmin is even worse....so in short....i'll keep on buying magellan...since they actually fixed their stuff....unlike Garmin.

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It's a shame because Magellan's hardware is pretty dadgum good. Everything the Explorist is telling me is fairly accurate- positioning, compass, barometer, and even the air temperature. Too bad the support and software are not up to the standards of competitors.

Edited by ryguyMN
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I have a 210 & XL that is close by, if you want to buy something to hold you over.

Howdy neighbor thanks for the offer, I do have and old sport trac I can use if I want to do the manual entry thing but I'll probably just hold off for a few weeks, I like the look of the new colorado and oregon units but

they seem buggy so I am just watching and trying to decide if I am better off with a 60csx.

Baywinger

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While Garmin is clearly above Magellan in support, Garmin needs to be careful what they are treading into with the Colorado and Oregon. So far these two products have received less than stellar reviews so far and are plagued with bugs.

 

Geez. Isn't it a bit too early to start bashing the Oregon? :rolleyes:

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