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The straw that broke the camels back


vagabond

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Well the last update did it for me no more Magellans.

I was a hard core magellan user for the last 7 or 8 years ever since the Meridians came out. I loved my gold but upgraded to an explorist 500 because I wanted a color screen and it was very accurate but after about 8 months the membrane on the toggle tore, magellen repaired no problems.

About 8 months later it tore again sorry out of warranty it lasted until spring of last year and died I picked up a used explorist 500 and it worked great until the last firmware upgrade, gee now I have 2 explorists 500 bricks. I called magellan and they offered to let me upgrade to a triton 400 for only $175.00 I told them thank you but no thanks.

Now about the triton 400 I bought one in Jan. of 2008 to use on a trip brought it home tried loading maps and geocaches now such luck, luckly I still had a explorist that worked. Returned from the trip and returned the triton.

While on vacation last year the explorist gave up the ghost so back to a triton 400 Whoo Hoo it worked satisfactory. It even worked after a few firmware upgrades and worked for over a year until this last firmware upgrade now I have 3 magellan bricks.

I bought a Garmin Oregon 300 a couple of months ago, and its a dream to use.

So with this rant I say goodby Magellan.

Good luck to all of you magellan users and I hope magellan gets their act together, at one time they had a great receiver.

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magellan user for the last 7 or 8 years but after about 8 months

About 8 months later worked great until the last firmware upgrade, gee now I have 2 explorists 500 bricks

Jan. of 2008 to use

a triton 400 Whoo Hoo it worked satisfactory. It even worked after a few firmware upgrades and worked for over a year until this last firmware upgrade now I have 3 magellan bricks.

I bought a Garmin Oregon 300 a couple of months ago, and its a dream to use.

So with this rant I say goodby Magellan.

Good luck to all of you magellan users and I hope magellan gets their act together, at one time they had a great receiver.

I have had "good luck" so far. I noticed you had quite an ownership timespan difference from the magellan compared to the garmin. I hope you have "good luck" with the garmin.

I'll quote my other response: "Well then I should be considered new to this. I got my first Triton 400 in early 2008 with a couple of complaints and problems at the time. Have since added another 400 and a 2000. I guess I need to add a different "brand" for comparison. I have researched some and found the biggest problem is "deceitful claims in advertising". The other problem is "electronic devices" fail sometimes. You will find this on all reviews and forums of "electronics". Sorry to here of your "bad luck" Alan. I hope I don't run into any."

 

This is quoted from the delorme site:

360° raster rotation sets the PN-40 apart from other common GPS handhelds. With 360° rotation road, building, and other images really are on your left or right as you look at the map and walk, bike or drive

 

Do other gps units not do this? The Triton always has. Does this set it apart. I want a PN for comparison, but these kinds of statements do not sway me.

 

From what I've read...garmin is solid, trusty, backed. But come on, get with the mapping. And this is a big item for me in a gps.

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magellan user for the last 7 or 8 years but after about 8 months

About 8 months later worked great until the last firmware upgrade, gee now I have 2 explorists 500 bricks

Jan. of 2008 to use

a triton 400 Whoo Hoo it worked satisfactory. It even worked after a few firmware upgrades and worked for over a year until this last firmware upgrade now I have 3 magellan bricks.

I bought a Garmin Oregon 300 a couple of months ago, and its a dream to use.

So with this rant I say goodby Magellan.

Good luck to all of you magellan users and I hope magellan gets their act together, at one time they had a great receiver.

I have had "good luck" so far. I noticed you had quite an ownership timespan difference from the magellan compared to the garmin. I hope you have "good luck" with the garmin.

I'll quote my other response: "Well then I should be considered new to this. I got my first Triton 400 in early 2008 with a couple of complaints and problems at the time. Have since added another 400 and a 2000. I guess I need to add a different "brand" for comparison. I have researched some and found the biggest problem is "deceitful claims in advertising". The other problem is "electronic devices" fail sometimes. You will find this on all reviews and forums of "electronics". Sorry to here of your "bad luck" Alan. I hope I don't run into any."

 

This is quoted from the delorme site:

360° raster rotation sets the PN-40 apart from other common GPS handhelds. With 360° rotation road, building, and other images really are on your left or right as you look at the map and walk, bike or drive

 

Do other gps units not do this? The Triton always has. Does this set it apart. I want a PN for comparison, but these kinds of statements do not sway me.

 

From what I've read...garmin is solid, trusty, backed. But come on, get with the mapping. And this is a big item for me in a gps.

DeLorme PNs support 1f and 1m aerials, 3m satellite, USGS 1:24K topo and NOAA as well as Navionics water charts. I'm not sure the Tritons with electronic compasses are as versatile with the imagery even if they do rotate the image. Garmins with electronic compasses are capable of rotation but lack the aerial capability out of the box.

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I have had "good luck" so far. I noticed you had quite an ownership timespan difference from the magellan compared to the garmin. I hope you have "good luck" with the garmin.

It looks like you only have a few finds. I hope you like that unit just as much when you hit 1,000 finds. Search the boards, you'll have a hard time hearing anything good about Magellan. I've had my fair share of Magellan troubles. I also went to Garmin although I still really like the Meridian line. I wouldn't even consider calling Maggies tech support. It's a joke.

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Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I love my Triton 500 so much I went out and picked up a 1500. Its even better and I can see it in the Sun.

 

I’m sure you Garmin will be a great unit. For me this forum is the biggest reason to stay with Magellan. So many threads about problems with the Garmins. Good luck.

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I have had "good luck" so far. I noticed you had quite an ownership timespan difference from the magellan compared to the garmin. I hope you have "good luck" with the garmin.

It looks like you only have a few finds. I hope you like that unit just as much when you hit 1,000 finds. Search the boards, you'll have a hard time hearing anything good about Magellan. I've had my fair share of Magellan troubles. I also went to Garmin although I still really like the Meridian line. I wouldn't even consider calling Maggies tech support. It's a joke.

 

I think if anyone searches the boards, they will find that even Garmins Oregons and Colorados, as well as DeLormes PNs have all had there fair share of troubles. Multiple software and firmware updates later and all the major brands have improved. The new owners of Magellan have made a lot of changes since Janurary of this year, including their customer support. I have only had to call twice and both times would rate it 9 out of 10 ( I never give a 10, nothing is perfect). They even went back and fixed WAAS on the Explorist line, which made a lot of us owners very happy.

 

I love my Explorist and Triton 400s, but that is because they work great for ME. I have seen alot of other GPSrs in action while caching with friends and have to admit, each has their own little "thing" that makes them great. Now if we could only get all of them to make one SUPER GPS, we could all spend more time caching and less on here complaining about what we don't like about our current toy*.

 

*Since the perfect GPS does not exist YET, I guess we will be seeing this discussion come up every Tues , or is it supposed to be Wed? :blink:

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I think if anyone searches the boards, they will find that even Garmins Oregons and Colorados, as well as DeLormes PNs have all had there fair share of troubles.

Garmin stands behind their product. Magellan does not. Spend time on the forums, you'll see. ;)

 

Don't get me wrong. I strongly lean toward Magellans. I have three times as many Maggies as I have Garmins.

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Garmin stands behind their product. Magellan does not. Spend time on the forums, you'll see. ;)

That is a point of view statement. I'm sure you can find "the other side of the story". My point of view shows the largest percentage being fairly happy with whatever brand. Most posts in forums are problems, complaints, and confusion. This number is very small compared to the number of actual owners.

 

It looks like you only have a few finds. I hope you like that unit just as much when you hit 1,000 finds.
Have been using it almost daily for over a year and a half. Number of finds is not relevant in this case. Edited by Deadelm
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Garmin stands behind their product. Magellan does not. Spend time on the forums, you'll see. ;)

 

Don't get me wrong. I strongly lean toward Magellans. I have three times as many Maggies as I have Garmins.

 

Early of 08 I upgraded from an auto GPS to an Explorist 400. When I found it did not get WAAS I called and complained to Magellan and was sent a Triton 400 as a replacement. It arrived in 4 days, pretty good time for any shipping. The paperwork to return the Explorist was nowhere to be found. I again called Magellan customer support and was told they had nothing in there records and to not worry about it. Maybe I was REALLY lucky, but I would say that is standing behind their product. I would be the first to say that when I first got the Triton, it was a joke. Mitac has done a good job at making it a great unit, for me.

 

Also, I have spent some time on the forums. I'm on here every day. There is a lot of good information and you gotta love all the funny stuff too. If you're going to geocache, this is the place to be.

 

Knight, I see we are both from the Buckeye state. Maybe someday we will meet on the trail or at an event.

 

edit to add that I have no idea how I messed up the quote thingy or how to fix it.

Edited by wyld_bill2003
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I had a Magellan that needed replaced/repaired about 3 months after I bought it. Magellan told me I should have checked with them before I purchased the unit because they no longer made/serviced that unit and they would not honor their warranty. I bought it new at Walmart.

 

Are either of you aware that multiple Magellan GPSr families lost WAAS and Magellan refused to offer updated firmware to fix it claiming it was a hardware issue? (The reason why you didn't get WAAS on your eXplorist.) At the beginning of this year 2 cachers released the firmware fix which Magellan claimed was not possible.

 

Obviously this thread was started by a die-hard Magellanite who just had too much.

 

You'll notice me. I'll be the one doing the drunken bee dance. ;)

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The paperwork to return the Explorist was nowhere to be found. I again called Magellan customer support and was told they had nothing in there records and to not worry about it. Maybe I was REALLY lucky, but I would say that is standing behind their product.
I wouldn't say that. I'd say it's a sign of sloppy procedures/recordkeeping at their customer service office and they were too lazy to attempt to fix it. It could just as easily have gone the other way - send in a unit for repair, they lose track of the paperwork, and claim they never received the unit.
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I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones. If I had the same trouble as the OP, I would drop Magellan like a "brick". I never thought about the paperwork messup that way. You are right, I would have been real upset had it been the other way around.

 

Right now my Triton 400 works well and the "official" WAAS fix from Mitac makes the Explorist a great backup. I will say this, if/when the Triton bricks, Magellan will lose another customer.

 

I've always thought how funny it would be to see a big group of cachers doing the drunken bee dance. B)

Edited by wyld_bill2003
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