Birdseye - How to change registered GPSr

[+Torgut]

Right... my Garmin Dakota is now officially dead. It happens the corpse was the one registered for downloading imagery from Birdseye. I just got my new Oregon 550. Anyone knows how to proceed to change the registration to the new unit?

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

The only way would be if Garmin would do it for you. You could always call and ask, but I doubt that they would unless the circumstances were unusual.

[yogazoo]

Redwoods is right, only Garmin can do it.

 

In my experience Garmin only allows you to transfer Birdseye to another unit if you send one in for an exchange. Is your Dakota sill under warranty? If not and you want to transfer the Birdseye you might try calling Garmin and see if you could send the Dakota in simply to have the Birdseye transferred.

 

The issue here is that you loaded your Dakota up with imagery. If you have the birdseye subscription transferred, in Garmin's eyes, you could just be scamming them to load the imagery on two units for the price of one (Once the tiles are on a unit, they're registered forever despite the subscription expiring or being transferred). That's why, if your unit is dead, and if it's warranty is expired, the only avenue to accomplish what your after may be to send the dead unit in to Garmin and at least recoup the remainder of the birdseye subscription.

 

At any rate, it's worth at least calling Garmin to see what they're willing to do. If you would, please report what transpires with Garmin here on this thread. I'd be curious to know what they say. Thanks!

Edited December 6, 2011 by yogazoo

[+Torgut]

I am European. I sent a mail through the main Garmin website and they sent me an automated message telling me to contact my local Garmin. I will call them in a couple of days.

[+Walts Hunting]

All the suggestions are worth a try but the Birdseye is connected to a device and not transferable so you are most likely (unless you get a garmin rep in a holiday generous mood) going to have to pay for it.

[+Torgut]

All the suggestions are worth a try but the Birdseye is connected to a device and not transferable so you are most likely (unless you get a garmin rep in a holiday generous mood) going to have to pay for it.

 

Yeah... quite unfair though. I mean, I just paid my subscription two months ago. Last month my Dakota died of something it shouldn't happen (its internal memory just died), one month after the end of warranty period. So I buy another Garmin device and this is what I got for being a loyal customer.

[+Torgut]

Hummm I don't get it... if I had the ability to change the authorized device from one to the other, how could that harm Garmin's business?

[+dakboy]

Cos if you could change it easily you could change it to any device, it's a very simple matter to register someone else's device to your name

But it's still locked to only one device - no money is being "lost" there.

 

But the real answer doesn't lie exclusively with Garmin - the contract they have for the Birdseye imagery (they license it for use, they don't own it) may disallow transfers.

[+Torgut]

Cos if you could change it easily you could change it to any device, it's a very simple matter to register someone else's device to your name

 

As suggested, call garmin ... it's them you need to convince

 

Hummm if I would do that I would lose the ability of using my own device and it wouldn't make sense from my point of view. It's understandable that they attach the ability of using the service to a device, just as a way to block people to pass the login info to friends who would enjoy the service for free. Not understandable that a paying customer is deprived from using the service if he see his device damaged / lost.

 

Consider Amazon Kindle as an example. If I damage my Kindle and I buy a new one, I can download the books I bought before and I am able to use them in the new device. Of course, they won't work anymore in the device I declared as damaged. Sounds the fair thing. It's a transfer of ability, not a multiplication.

 

Yeah, I will call Garmin, although being in Europe won't help much. But just to make clear there is no good reason for them to not allow users to change the device.

[yogazoo]

I think your main gripe is at Garmin's model of distributing BirdsEye. When you buy a BirdsEye subscription it's for a single unit, period. Trying to get it on multiple units violates the terms of use. If you have warranty issues they will transfer your subscription to the replacement unit but it's still just for a single unit. It's like this for City Navigator and other mapping products as well, one unit only.

 

I still think you have some options.

 

#1 Send your unit in and pay for Garmin to repair it. The cost is usually around $99 us dollars.

 

#2 Offer to send your dead unit in for them to keep as long as they transfer the birdseye subscription to your alternate unit.

 

Either way, good luck and let us know what finally transpires. Thanks.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Yeah... quite unfair though. I mean, I just paid my subscription two months ago. Last month my Dakota died of something it shouldn't happen (its internal memory just died), one month after the end of warranty period. So I buy another Garmin device and this is what I got for being a loyal customer.

 

If it was only a month out of warranty, I'd try to get them to replace the unit. Always worth a try.

[team tisri]

Hummm if I would do that I would lose the ability of using my own device and it wouldn't make sense from my point of view. It's understandable that they attach the ability of using the service to a device, just as a way to block people to pass the login info to friends who would enjoy the service for free. Not understandable that a paying customer is deprived from using the service if he see his device damaged / lost.

 

It's easy to claim a device was lost and get a code for a new device. At a stroke the maps are effectively buy-one-get-one-free. In the absence of a means for Garmin to deactivate a map on a specified device they lose revenue, and it seems their hands are at least partly tied by their suppliers.

 

If a device is damaged and returned to Garmin they can remove the maps from it, or keep the unit, or change the ID so the maps don't work, or whatever else they may want to do to ensure you don't get two unit unlocks for the price of one.

 

Consider Amazon Kindle as an example. If I damage my Kindle and I buy a new one, I can download the books I bought before and I am able to use them in the new device. Of course, they won't work anymore in the device I declared as damaged. Sounds the fair thing. It's a transfer of ability, not a multiplication.

 

In many ways you're preaching to the converted here. Although I can see Garmin's perspective it does grate to have bought maps only to be expected to buy them again when I buy a new Garmin unit. It's easy to see why people faced with having to buy all their maps again start to reconsider other manufacturers' products.

 

Yeah, I will call Garmin, although being in Europe won't help much. But just to make clear there is no good reason for them to not allow users to change the device.

 

For what it's worth I'd initiate a discussion by asking how they can verify that your existing unit can no longer use the maps and get them transferred. If you start a discussion by telling them their business model stinks I'd expect them to be less likely to bend the rules to help you out.

[ao318]

I've had a similar thing happen with my Garmin 60csx and City Navigator. My CSX broke just out of warranty, I called Garmin to find out about repairing it and they said they would just exchange it for me at no cost. When the new unit showed up, I had to call Garmin to get a new activation code to pair up my new GPS with my old version of CN that was registered to my old unit. They worked me through the process and I actually ended up getting the most current version of CN at that time.

 

As others have said, you really need to call Garmin and talk to them. Good luck.

[+Walts Hunting]

I've had a similar thing happen with my Garmin 60csx and City Navigator. My CSX broke just out of warranty, I called Garmin to find out about repairing it and they said they would just exchange it for me at no cost. When the new unit showed up, I had to call Garmin to get a new activation code to pair up my new GPS with my old version of CN that was registered to my old unit. They worked me through the process and I actually ended up getting the most current version of CN at that time.

 

As others have said, you really need to call Garmin and talk to them. Good luck.

 

I have done what you did but this situation is big time different from yours. His device failed and he bought a new one so I don't think they will do it for him. If he had sent the dakota in for warranty repair (or manybe even post warranty excahnge) they might.

[ao318]

I've had a similar thing happen with my Garmin 60csx and City Navigator. My CSX broke just out of warranty, I called Garmin to find out about repairing it and they said they would just exchange it for me at no cost. When the new unit showed up, I had to call Garmin to get a new activation code to pair up my new GPS with my old version of CN that was registered to my old unit. They worked me through the process and I actually ended up getting the most current version of CN at that time.

 

As others have said, you really need to call Garmin and talk to them. Good luck.

 

I have done what you did but this situation is big time different from yours. His device failed and he bought a new one so I don't think they will do it for him. If he had sent the dakota in for warranty repair (or manybe even post warranty excahnge) they might.

Yet if he still owns the faulty unit he could still send it in and get it replaced/repaired and, depending where he bought the other unit, return the new unit. Or he could sell the old one after getting it repaired/replaced and buy a new version of Birdseye for his 550.

He has options and choices. Just depends on how much or little he wants to do. Me personally, I would call Garmin and get my old unit repaired/replaced so I could have a backup unit. After some time if I realized I no longer need it, I would sell it to recoup costs of the new unit and or repair.

At the least, if he didn't really want to do anything at all, he could sell it on eBay as a broken unit and see what he gets or it. I did that with a point and shoot camera and got $45.00 for it. More than I ever expected.