Frustrated with Magellan

[canadianguy]

Purchased a Magellan triton 400 a few weeks back since then I have spent close to 9 hours on the phone as I’ve been unable to download topo Canada Ontario, finally after many different tries with their resolution team such giving them my credit card info to try their end also them taking an order to send a cd which turns out they cannot as they don’t own software its a from a 3rd party. Magellan did end me a bunch of freebies such as cradles for the car and ac/dc power supplies but like I’ve kept telling them the gps unit is next to useless without the topo map, anyway back main story turns out there is a credit card scam/fraud going on in Canada so the software company has blocked anyone ordering with credit card in Canada cut but they don’t give you options to purchase any other way so buyers in Canada beware like me you will end up with a nice looking unit that you cannot get software to till the software company gets their software team to sort out the problem. The person I’ve been talking from Magellan (John) I can’t praise enough he’s been trying different things to help me out, but that being said I’m at point where I might me taking the gps unit back to the store and getting a refund and looking at another manufacturer so if you know of anyone going to purchase a Magellan in Canada pass on this story save hem the frustration unless they have a American credit card they wont be able to order any map software.

[+trainlove]

I'm surprised that the Triton is still supported, LOL. I thought that Magellan does not care about ANY of their customers.

 

http://ray.jerome.jobs.googlepages.com/majormagellanproblem

[+storm180]

Trainlove has a vendetta against magellan. Magellan better watch your backs

[kelseylynn]

I have a Magellan crossover and when it comes to the outdoor setting on it I am not pleased. I use it for driving and geocaching and when I go geocaching with it it gets me within 200ft of the coordinates and then says "You are here" and stops counting down the feet to the coordinates. For someone who is a pro at geocaching it would still be no problem for them to find the cache but I am still relatively new at it so it makes it very difficult for me especially if it is a micro. I am extremely unhappy with the outdoor sesttings of the crossover but there isnt too much wrong with the driving setting. When I called Magellan's services to ask if there was a way to shut of the setting that tells me i have arrived at my destination when I haven't and they simply told me there was no way to shut it off and asked if they could help me with anything else. I am now looking into getting the Garmin nuvi 500 that is designed for geocaching and can do driving directions as well with an optional boating feature, not to mention I have heard many good things about the company and their service.

[+RRLover]

Trainlove has a vendetta against magellan. Magellan better watch your backs

Trainlove has good reason, . . . as does any Meridian and eXplorist, as well as Triton owners!

Magellan are the anti-christ of GPS, . . . WORD!!!

 

Norm

[MoTo & The GeoMites]

Trainlove has a vendetta against magellan. Magellan better watch your backs

Trainlove has good reason, . . . as does any Meridian and eXplorist, as well as Triton owners!

Magellan are the anti-christ of GPS, . . . WORD!!!

 

Norm

 

Your right on spot. My meridian platinum is terribly put together...the battery contacts keep losing contact on the circuit board, the wires for the power supply and data connection have broken loose from the circuit board. Fortunatley for me I am knowlegable in electronics. For a novice this thing would have been a huge and expensive nightmare. I'm looking for a Garmin Vista HCx now. I had the basic yellow Etrex when I first started and it was a sturdy tuff little machine .. I want color, active compass, and maps now though but in the etrex tuff package.

[+D0T-C0M]

Trainlove has a vendetta against magellan. Magellan better watch your backs

 

Magellan is crap, Their customer support sucks big time. Their product engineers suck. They do not care whatsoever for the customers. They make good hardware but it takes forever and ever for them to release any firmware updates to fix major bugs that should have been fixed prior to releasing their products to the public. The major problems they have everywhere else in their company makes for a very unpleasant experience. I used to be a big magellan fan since owning a sportrak map , 3 explorists and a triton500. All of which I have sold except for one explorist600 which I have kept because the euro firmware works well but when it fails I will just chuck it in the garbage whether then wait 3 friggin months for service. I've switched to Garmin and they are the complete opposite of Magellan. Trainlove is right in every way. Heed his advise.

Edited July 26, 2008 by D0T-C0M

[Brandon Blackbeard]

I had an explorist 500 that stopped receiving satellites. Magellan asked me to send it back under warranty which I did. I heard nothing from them for six weeks, so I called them back and asked whats going on. Then they told me that they were not repairing the explorist, but were willing to replace it with a Triton 400. I insisted on the 500 and got that model which got buggered up in the process of downloading the firmware. Got my secong Triton 500 and it seems all flash and is, perhaps out of a desire to be simple seems limited. Does anyone know how to change the times on one of those things?

[+user13371]

I guess for every disgruntled, loudly complaining customer, there are some satisfied ones you hardly ever hear from. I've never had any problem with any Magellan GPS I've owned. I buy and swap a lot of gadgets and keep coming back to Magellan products because they work for me.

 

I use my iPhone for most mapping and searching now, but my Explorist 210 still has its place on my bike handlebars.

[+D0T-C0M]

I guess for every disgruntled, loudly complaining customer, there are some satisfied ones you hardly ever hear from. I've never had any problem with any Magellan GPS I've owned.

 

Magellan makes decent hardware I don't think many people would disagree. I still own my explorist600 and love it but its the rest of the company that sucks. I'm from Canada so I never had to talk to Magellan directly because Bill's Electronics was doing their warranty/repair work. They were top notch. I can 't say enough for them. I had a problem once with my explorist 600's joystick , I called Bill's and within 10 days I had a brand new unit in my hands and spent only 5 minutes on the phone. Then Bill's suddenly dropped Magellan stating irreconcilable differences on his website. I guess even Bill's got fed up. Then later after that, my explorist600 suddenly died and this is where my nightmare begins. I won't go through it again but I would dare say that if you put a poll up the majority would be dissatisfied with Magellan's customer support, not to mention Magellan's reputation of only releasing firmwares at the rate of almost once a year. The poll would be much higher if everybody hadn't all switched over to Gamin or to some other manufacturer.

Edited July 28, 2008 by D0T-C0M

[+SenorMoofer]

I am pretty new to this hobby as of now i only have 52 finds but on the advice of a regular user i purchased a Garmin Etrex Venture HC from Amazon.com for 126 bucks shipped to my door and i have to say so far it has put me within 2 to 3 foot everytime even under a pretty heavy canopy a couple times. so if it was me i would return it and get a garmin i am very much sold on them.

 

SenorMoofer

[+amerkfan]

Love my Magellan 500, use it for geocaching, driving, and some InterCoastal Water way marine. Topo software works works good, only gripe is that streets are vintage 2005 and no updates appear to be forthcoming. LiIon Battery gives me good 10-15 hours use, and recharges in the unit with a USP Port, or with 12vdc Car or home charger. I find it easy to navigate through the menus, and like the ability to customize the screen displays. Don't have marine software but was able to easily add marine waypoints and buoys using ChartNavigator software. Usually gets the advertised 10 ft WAAS accuracy unless I am under heavy tree cover. Palm trees seem the worst, but northern fir trees also damps the signal. Only once have I ever got in tree cover so dense I had no signal (but it was a cloudy rainy day too).

 

Had two experiences with the support people, both were times were very helpful. First time a simple setup problem (users inability to read manual), second time they helped me with a corrupted internal memory. They had me use windows scandisk to repair it and it works fine now

 

Gripes: LiIon battery has been O/S since forever, but is available elsewhere on-line.

No update for Street maps, and it appears they no longer support Topo3D US. Every once in a while I find myself on a street that isn't in the map.

[+HarmFamily]

Hey all,

 

First time poster here. Yeah, I'm a n00b to geocaching, but not to electronic devices or GPS functionality.

 

That said, I have to agree with most here, which is the Magellan eXplorist X00 models are pure, unadulterated garbage.

 

As a n00b, I went to purchase a GPS for geocaching, and found a Magellan eXplorist 500 LE on clearance for what amounted to $140. Got home, unpacked it and immediately realized that I've seen better built mud huts. It isn't even "toy" status. I've received better constructed "give away" products at those boring-a** tech seminars. The "battery tray" is some VERY flimsy PoS which "snaps" into the compartment, the metal pieces sliding out of their poorly constructed slots the entire time. It felt like it was going to break just putting a battery in. Once all is in place, putting the cover on you immediately realize that IT DOESN'T FIT TIGHT when teh batteries are in.

 

Do they even LOOK at this crap before they approve it, mass produce it, and sell it? Honestly, it was like a bad joke. The accuracy was pathetic...the BEST it could do was 43ft, WAAS enabled, outside, in a clear sky. The hardware was garbage, the "joystick" was not only flimsy, but it felt like it was imparied when pushing "up" and would fail any second. the software was a true joke and looked like it was written by someone who had in integral role in developing the interface for Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

 

Even the USB cable...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!@? Some screw-on thing with 6 contact points on it, etc. It was just the most horribly overrated device I'd ever SEEN!! And this thing used to command a $500 price tag?!?! AHAHAH! I feel very sorry for those who got duped by this device. Unbeleivable. I could go on and on about the Magellan product but I'm just one voice in a million. Someone must have thought it was a good unit....somewhere....maybe....

 

Now for the GOOD news. GARMIN. KICKS. a**!!! I returned the Magellan eXplorer 500 LE the following day for a full refund, and went to amazon and looked at Garmin products. Can't tell a lot from pictures, so really didn't know if ALL GPS units were such garbage or not, but I noted that the prices on a few of these Garmin units were REALLY SLASHED to a very reasonable price. I did some research and took the plunge on a Garmin 76CSx for $250. GOOD LORD!!! This thing is AMAZING!!!! Seriously, it makes the Magellan products look like they were deilvered from one of those machines that dispenses cheap plastic bubbles full of garbage at the front of many retail stores. You know, put in a quarter, twist the nob, out pops a plastic bubble, snap off the top and inside is a cheap plastic skull ring, a plastic army guy with a cheap plastic "parachute", or a Magellan GPS product.

 

The 76CSx is incredible for the money!! Accuracy? To 17ft....IN MY HOUSE!!! WAAS just ROCKS on the Garmin!! The menus are smooth and full featured, the screens are well defined, the functionality was amazing, and best of all I was able to load up .gpx files into GSAK and, WITHOUT A SINGLE PROBLEM, load them to not only my Garmin unit if it is plugged into the system, but to my MicroSD card too..without the Garmin unit installed!!

 

Maps?? EFFORTLESS!! It just sees them. Done deal! No screwing about wondering what the hell happened or why they' don't show up, etc. CityNavigator and Topo 2008..no problems! It just WORKS! It also displays all the info correctly, and menus correspond automatically. When using a CityNav map, I get all the POI, Cities, Food, etc displayed in the menus. When using Topo 2008 maps, the menus display only what's correspnding to those maps (i.e. no food, no POI's unless I add them, etc).

 

And for construction? Can't be beat!!! This thing FLOATS!!! It's built like a tank, yet a perfect size and weight for carting about with you on a hike, plenty of THICK rubberizing on it and buttons that don't feel like they're going to break.

 

Bottom line, the Magellan product IMHO was pure garbage, and I'm SO grateful I made the mistake early and got my money back, because this Garmin 76CSx has all the sweet features of the "big boys" (well, except for the very latest stuff, touchscreens etc) for the trail and the price right now is absolutely unbeatable!! The 76CSx model also comes with a barometric altimeter and a compass that works WHILE STANDING STILL!! Try THAT with a Magellan eXplorist...you have to be MOVING for the compass to work...

 

As a geocaching n00b, I can't recommend this Garmin 76CSx enough, and I suspect that those who are geocaching veterans would agree with my assesment of the 76CSx, it's an amazing, rock solid, very accurate and dependable unit that for the money really can't be beat. I can find literally 100's of pages and threads on the woes of the Magellan products, especially the eXplorist models...I can't find anything but good about the 76CSx. That alone is very telling.

 

Best of luck to you all! Looking forward to learning lots out here and sharing what I learn with others!

 

Peace,

Kevin

[+trainlove]

Even the USB cable...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!@? Some screw-on thing with 6 contact points on it, etc. It was just the most horribly overrated device I'd ever SEEN!! And this thing used to command a $500 price tag?!?! AHAHAH! I feel very sorry for those who got duped by this device. Unbeleivable. I could go on and on about the Magellan product but I'm just one voice in a million. Someone must have thought it was a good unit....somewhere....maybe....

 

I do have one thing to say about this. I think it's just about the best possible way for consumer grade electronics to have weatherproof external electrical contact to delicate innards of expensive electronics.

Unless they go to expensive, and delicate, military grade glass feedthrus, then Magellan (and Delorme) is much better than Garmin in this respect. Don't ever try to float your Garmin in water for any length of time. Don't ever lose that rubber cap. Don't ever plug and unplug ... your rubber cap often enough to make it loose.

 

Yes, the battery thing is kindergarten. But I've never had problems with my Meridian Gold 3 years plus and still going strong, but of course without WAAS. Just did 56 caches in 19 hours, a personal record that i'll pass this weekend in or on my way to or from the Quebec Mega-Event.

http://ray.jerome.jobs.googlepages.com/majormagellanproblem

[+D0T-C0M]

The 76CSx model also comes with a barometric altimeter and a compass that works WHILE STANDING STILL!! Try THAT with a Magellan eXplorist...you have to be MOVING for the compass to work...

Well I find the explorist line to be the best line up hardware wise IMO. You complain about having to move for the compass to work but what do you expect, you bought a 500LE. The explorist600 has a 3 axis compass that works like you describe in the Garmin. I give credit where credit is due but let's not bitch about stuff the you didn't buy.

 

@trainlove, hey bud nice to see you posting here again. I trust you sorted things out with the forum management here. I've always respected your comments.

[NightTracker]

I might be one of the lucky ones, but i've owned two Magellans so far and haven't had a problem with either. My first unit was the Explorist 300 which I used more for hunting and fishing than anything else. I enjoyed having a gps so much when in the woods rather than a compass that I sold it and bought the Explorist 500NA. I got into geocaching with this unit, downloaded topo canada and topo usa maps and uploaded the my most frequently visited provinces/states into it. This unit goes everywhere with me and beleive me it takes a beating and lots of use. I do notice lately that the joystick is a bit slower when moving to the right, but it's not often I need to use the joystick anyway.

Reading these forum posts about the new magellan line is scaring me. If the Tritons are as bad as people claim they are then I will switch to Garmin. But my switch over to Garmin will not be because of bad experiences with Magellan.

Happy Caching everybody.

[+D0T-C0M]

@nightTracker well like I said Magellan's hardware is very good IMO. You will probably be satisfied until you need customer support then you'll be dragged through hell.

 

The triton line is very good but they released it much too fast. They are much better with the latest firmware release but MAgellan is VERY VERY slow releasing firmware fixes.

[+storm180]

@nightTracker well like I said Magellan's hardware is very good IMO. You will probably be satisfied until you need customer support then you'll be dragged through hell.

 

The triton line is very good but they released it much too fast. They are much better with the latest firmware release but MAgellan is VERY VERY slow releasing firmware fixes.

 

Heh still waiting on the fixes for the explorist 600 before it was retired. Looks like I will be waiting an eternity.

[landcruising]

Former 600 user. I purchased one of the early 600 after starting geochaching with the 300 but never bothered to buy maps. I used it successfully for a few years. One thing I did notice was that I was consistently off on caches by 8-10 feet to the north were my friends with Garmins were within 1-2 feet. I got used to it and was successfully making finds. No real problems with the 600 until recently.

 

Just purchased a Garmin vista HCX after a friend bought the 60csx and I saw how useful street and top could be while hiking caching and fishing. So far so good. The 600 will be for sale soon or kept as a backup since finding new maps seems very hard.

[+northernpenguin]

I'm another former 600 user. My wife still has her XL, but tends to leave it powered off lately.

My 600 will be a backup to my Colorado 400t, which works very well for me. The tipping point came when the eXplorist never actually got a proper Topo product for Canada. They re-issued Topo 1.0 as Topo 3D 1.5, but used the exact same map data (what the ____?)

 

I'm running 1:20000 topo on my Garmin, and strangely enough, the map can keep up with me when I'm doing 80km/h (the 600 tended to lag a couple km behind me when running Topo 1.0 at that speed).

 

The 600 unit itself still works, and I found almost 2,000 caches with it. Hardware wise this thing gave many a 60csx owner a run for their money when caching in a canyon lined with wet trees. When I go visit Wherigo caches, the 600 will be in my pocket to catch those caches I happen to be walking by during the cartridge playback.

[+dakboy]

But I've never had problems with my Meridian Gold 3 years plus and still going strong, but of course without WAAS.

Did they remove WAAS from later iterations of the Meridian Gold or its firmware? I bought mine in '01 and it has WAAS support. I've considered upgrading to the latest firmware for it but if they removed features, I'll stick with what I have.

[+TotemLake]

Even the USB cable...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!@? Some screw-on thing with 6 contact points on it, etc. It was just the most horribly overrated device I'd ever SEEN!! And this thing used to command a $500 price tag?!?! AHAHAH! I feel very sorry for those who got duped by this device. Unbeleivable. I could go on and on about the Magellan product but I'm just one voice in a million. Someone must have thought it was a good unit....somewhere....maybe....

 

I do have one thing to say about this. I think it's just about the best possible way for consumer grade electronics to have weatherproof external electrical contact to delicate innards of expensive electronics.

Unless they go to expensive, and delicate, military grade glass feedthrus, then Magellan (and Delorme) is much better than Garmin in this respect. Don't ever try to float your Garmin in water for any length of time. Don't ever lose that rubber cap. Don't ever plug and unplug ... your rubber cap often enough to make it loose.

 

Yes, the battery thing is kindergarten. But I've never had problems with my Meridian Gold 3 years plus and still going strong, but of course without WAAS. Just did 56 caches in 19 hours, a personal record that i'll pass this weekend in or on my way to or from the Quebec Mega-Event.

http://ray.jerome.jobs.googlepages.com/majormagellanproblem

I'll add to this. The Meridian series was bullet proof. I still have my Platinum after 5.5 years of abusive usage. The only repair that had to be made was to solder the external contacts back to the circuitboard after my own clumsy efforts broke them off when attempting to put the lid back on. It's gone through 30 MPH buonces on pavement from the top of the Jeep, fell face down on sharp boulders with my hand helping it down as I stumbled face first, dropped out of my hands countless times, taken dunkings and even swam with me in an ice cold river. It has scuff marks on the rubber armour, and one itty bitty little scratch on the screen that you have to work hard to see and with no screen protector to date. It's gone through very extreme weather from sheets of rain to below freezing. It's been stolen and recovered and still in good use.

 

When the battery compartment problem came to light, I noticed how most people were putting their batteries in; which was not spring side first. I had that problem once. A quick fix on the spring retention and nary a problem since then.

 

This thing has been used so much the rubber coating is actually worn through to the plastic button out on the power switch. The only thing wrong with this unit today? The buttons backlight doesn't work.

 

To the complaints of customer service... it really has to be put in perspective.

Yes their customer service sucks...now... not when the Meridian first came out. Generally speaking, most divisions would after being sold a handful of times. I think they went through 2 or 3 takeovers. The investors didn't buy it to provide service but to suck the fortune out of a then reliable company and blew the reputation to heck by not putting anything back into it. I've been through that with similar take overs in the computer industry. Would I go to them now? Nope, and the same is true today with Magellan. Which is too bad because I really do like the concept of the Triton 2000.

 

As an aside, the Garmin product is too high priced, their map licensing is too limited, and from the issues I've read in this forum, they are acting like the biggest gorilla with the only banana in the room. The result is they won't see my business either.

Edited September 26, 2008 by TotemLake

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

When my wife and I started geocaching a little over 2 years ago, we had two eXplorist 600 units. Within the first 60 days, one of the buttons (map zoom out) quit working on one of them. It was sent in and eventually replaced (it took over 6 weeks with lots of incorrect status updates from them when I would call to find the status). After that, the second one "burned out" the USB interface (always showed external power connected and wouldn't communicate with the PC). We got that one replaced, but had to spend $150 and also took about 8 weeks. About 2-3 months after getting that one replaced, the replacement unit had exactly the same problem. We weren't going to pay them another $150. In the 2 years we've had them, 2 of the 3 also had the screw threads for the USB cable strip out so the cable can't be connected to the unit. Right now we have eXplorists, and the one which you can still connect the cable to won't be recognized by the PC, and the one which will be recognized by the PC you can't connect the cable to it.

 

When the first eXplorist failed in late 2006, we ordered a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx at the same time we shipped the bad Magellan back. It arrived 2-3 days later and I used it for over a month before the Magellan returned. When the second Magellan quit working with the USB, I ordered a Garmin 60Cx for my wife. There are still features we prefer from the Magellan but with all the problems, it's not worth the hassle, especially considering the extra headaches and problems in dealing with Magellan tech support.

 

Not everyone needs to talk to Magellan tech support, and for those people, the units are pretty good. Additionally not everyone has a bad experience with Magellan tech support, but those seem to be the exception more than the rule.

[+MtnRubi]

We love our Magellan units, a Meridian Gold, and an eXplorist XL. (The XL ROCKS!)

 

However, we're thinking of replacing the Gold, and Magellan's current lineup just doesn't seem worth the effort, no GPSBabel support is a big one.

 

Looking at a 60CSx, I can't believe we're considering the "Dark Side"