garmin complaints?

[+cb12374]

are the gps units by Garmin truly that bad or are the complaints coming from people that just are not happy innless they are complaining? are they asking to much? I like to have all possible info on something before I buy it and as of right now I'm thing of getting the 60csx or the Colorado 400t so any info on them that is not on the Garmin site "pro or con" will be greatly apresheaded.

Edited September 2, 2008 by cb12374

[longstevo]

Well, yesterday my father and I hiked up a mountain here in Washington State, I with my Garmin eTrex Legend and him with his five or six year old Magellan 315.

 

My Garmin continually lost satellite reception and took a very long time to reaquire, while his Magellan held satellite reception almost the entire time, even in dense wood cover. We were side by side the entire trail and there was no real reason mine should have had such a hard time.

 

I am very quickly losing trust in my Garmin unit.

[+hogrod]

Well, yesterday my father and I hiked up a mountain here in Washington State, I with my Garmin eTrex Legend and him with his five or six year old Magellan 315.

 

An etrex legend is also a very old model, I believe it came out around 2001. At that time Magellan had a very big edge in holding signal in the woods, but if you get any current garmin model you wouldn't have had an issue. I actually can't believe garmin still sells those old unreliable models(I'm sure I'll take some flak for that remark).

[longstevo]

An etrex legend is also a very old model, I believe it came out around 2001. At that time Magellan had a very big edge in holding signal in the woods, but if you get any current garmin model you wouldn't have had an issue. I actually can't believe garmin still sells those old unreliable models(I'm sure I'll take some flak for that remark).

 

Is it really that old? Hmm...that's disappointing. Thanks for the info.

[s20055]

are the gps units by Garmin truly that bad or are the complaints coming from people that just are not happy innless they are complaining? are they asking to much? I like to have all possible info on something before I buy it and as of right now I'm thing of getting the 60csx or the Colorado 400t so any info on them that is not on the Garmin site "pro or con" will be greatly apresheaded.

 

I don't think you could go wrong with eiher one. However, that being said the bugs are still being worked out of the Colorado series while the 60Csx is very well established.

[-Oz-]

I just had my 60csx deep in the Alaska woods today; no issues with signal locking.

[+RRLover]

@ OP

 

Regarding complainants justification account features that don't function, or perform as implied

or advertised. Are those features important to you, that question only you can answer. Then and

only then if those complaints seem credible. It would seem to me that there's neither a lot of

fabrication, nor reason for such. I would make a judgement on how I perceive value of issue,

and credibility of complaint. Which it might seem is the very stance that Garmin is taking in

recognizing these faults, balanced against difficulty of implementing attendant fixes.

This last sentence assumes that those charged w/fixing are aware that these issues exist in the

first place.

 

Norm

Edited September 2, 2008 by RRLover

[+Team Chinook]

My take is that those who are on web sites tend to be more vocal than those that aren't...fanatical...fans so to speak. You also would tend to seek the boards when your a newb or looking to solve an issue vs. happy as a clam in sand. You're off hiking, biking, caching, versus tied to a computer commenting, investigating, complaining and/or helping others answering questions.

 

The 60csx has been out for awhile. Prior to the csx there was the now discountinued 60c and the 60cs. I contemplated the 60csx for quite awhile but really enjoy geocaching and paperless at that. Ergo I am happy I purchased a Colorado 400T. My 2nd unit is working fine and taking me right to the caches. It has more features than the 60csx, but is lacking a few power features that the 60csx has. The 60csx is a work horse, but is not capable of paperless caching.

 

The compaints are legit no doubt. I had my own and wrote Garmin and have assurances from Garmin that they will keep making improvements...if you have patience then wait out the next 400T sw rev, if you don't mind a second unit or paper to go along w/ the 60csx, then go w/ the 60csx.

 

are the gps units by Garmin truly that bad or are the complaints coming from people that just are not happy innless they are complaining? are they asking to much? I like to have all possible info on something before I buy it and as of right now I'm thing of getting the 60csx or the Colorado 400t so any info on them that is not on the Garmin site "pro or con" will be greatly apresheaded.

[+cb12374]

[ I purchased a Colorado 400T. My 2nd unit is working fine and taking me right to the caches. It has more features than the 60csx, but is lacking a few power features that the 60csx has. The 60csx is a work horse, but is not capable of paperless caching.

 

from all the research that I have been doing it looks to me that the Colorado 400t is more of a workhorse than the 60csx. but if I'm reading your post properly you are saying the 60csx has more teachers? if so what are they?

[+hogrod]

From all the research that I have been doing it looks to me that the Colorado 400t is more of a workhorse than the 60csx. If I'm reading your post properly you are saying the 60csx has more features? If so what are they?

 

I have never used a colorado gps but have a 60cx and can tell you there is a great comparison here:

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Colorado+vs+60csx

 

The reason I never upgraded was all the post I seen about battery life, screen readability, poor accuracy claims, not as waterproof, & no custom waypoint symbols to name a few. I'm sure others who have used both could come up with even more as I'm sure there are people who like some of the new features enough to deal with all the features it is lacking.

[+cb12374]

thank you for the link it was very helpful

[+Hrethgir]

I have a eTrex Legend HCx, and I've been very happy with it. I use it for geocaching, on my bicycle, on my motorcycle, and when walking around. It seems to work great for me, and the tracks seem to line up fine with Google Earth, and I haven't noticed any real issues with drift or anything others talk about,and I would recommend it to anyone. In fact, I did a touch of geocaching on a vacation with my parents recently, and they enjoyed it so much (they went out the day after I left and found another one with the help of my brother and his portable car GPS unit), I'm thinking of getting them a Legend HCx so they can do it on their own without me and my handheld or my brother and his car unit.

[+Ratsneve]

Are the gps units by Garmin truly that bad or are the complaints coming from people that just are not happy unless they are complaining? Are they asking to much? I like to have all possible info on something before I buy it and as of right now I'm thinking of getting the 60csx or the Colorado 400t so any info on them that is not on the Garmin site "pro or con" will be greatly appreciated.

Yes, the complaints are and were all real and justifiable. And the eamil campaign to Garmin execs is and was justifiable too. Some Colorado owners may never be aware of accuracy issues they may be experiencing and who don't visit this particular GPS and Technology forum part of geocaching.com. I wasn't aware the Colorado could reccord barometric pressure when the unit was turned off until I read that this feature didn't work at all one day and proved that on my Colorado. I decided that I paid for that feature and I wanted to see it work. I was willing to continue to sit out the wait and promise that it would be fixed in the next update until my unit got the "system software missing" error as mysteriously as others have. If you find it to difficult to believe then you should buy a Colorado now and see how it goes for you. With any luck you will get one that seems to work just fine except for features like barometric pressure recording when the unit is set up properly for it and turned off and the useless air and water temperature displays.

 

The many times I have talked to Garmin technical support to mention a Colorado problem I was having and mention confirmation from others experiencing the same issue on geocaching.com's forum I have been scolded sometimes not to take what has been said seriously from any forum. It is this kind of BS reaction from Garmin's own technical support that keeps me coming back here over and over again. I know we are right and they are wrong and that no one is getting anywhere.

 

Hopefully Garmin really is getting their act straightened out but none of us that have registered Colorado units have a clue for certain. If you believe Garmin the Colorado's serious issues will be fixed in the next software update and it will be as good as the Oregon is now. That will still leave many minor software feature tweaks to continue to work on for even later updates along with the Oregon.

 

So someone new to the scene comes along puzzled whether some of us know what we are doing or just complaining? Well that is just so typical it is cliché. Are we asking for too much for $480--heck no! One thing you can bank on for sure is that we are paying Garmin to beta test the Colorado for them in the field. Physical design from the Rock-n-Roller to water leaks and incorrectly sized O-ring seals to inadequate backlight supply voltage; and software problems to numerous to mention here--start reading all the posts and create your own list and ask yourself if you were beta testing the Colorado would you want to see something you found fixed or would you rather kick it out the door and let end-users deal with it later--a really bum attitude for Garmin as far as I'm concerned?

 

As far as we know Garmin has zero presence on this board and hasn't read one of these posts first-hand. It is really all here to help you decide.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Ratsneve

[+Crid]

I'm one of the people who has been complaining about drift issues on my Colorado 300. My previous GPS was a Garmin GPSmap 76CSx which is fantastic in "difficult" conditions such as woodland (so I'm not simply Garmin-bashing). Yes, accuracy is not as good as out in the open, but it handles the conditions very well. I bought the Colorado to replace the 76CSx (so I could go caching with a friend and they could use the 76CSx).

 

This means I had a few preconceptions of how well I expected the Colorado to perform in woodland, which unfortunately it hasn't lived up to. It's still a very nice unit and there are lots of things I like about it (although the lack of waypoint averaging is baffling). Having the geocache details, hint and last five logs at my fingertips is great. Features like that seem to aim the unit squarely at geocachers. But the drift/accuracy issue sours the thing for me. I've done quite a few parallel tests with my 76CSx and Colorado both tracking at the same time, and the 76CSx outperforms the Colorado in woodland on many occasions. So I end up taking both units with me and trust the 76CSx over the Colorado. Which almost demotes the Colorado to PDA.

 

And let's be clear about this - I'm not talking about being a few feet out. I'm talking about being 300ft+ out at times! You're unlikely to find a geocache if you're that far off course. It doesn't do it all the time, but if I am in woodland for more than about half an hour it's pretty much a given that it will start drifting.

 

If the Colorado had been my first GPS, or if I'd upgraded from an earlier Garmin unit (my dad's old Legend gives up completely even under fairly light tree coverage), I'd probably be totally happy with the Colorado because I wouldn't have a decent basis comparison. But the 76CSx gave me a certain level of expectation. And unfortunately the Colorado so far has failed to meet it.

 

I'm still hoping that Garmin will be able to sort out the problem with a firmware updated. But I keep reading posts from various people who say that Garmin keep claiming to know anything about the problem (despite it being reported numerous times). This doesn't fill me with confidence that Garmin are even working on a fix.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Crid

[+Ratsneve]

Dough!

[+RRLover]

Dough!

Sourdough! Mmmmmmm! pancakes

Norm

[+cb12374]

Requesting that moderator close the topic.