What is Garmin thinking?

I purchased a Garmin GPS for my car in April 2006. I have been generally satisfied with the performance until my recent experience to update the North American mapping. Something they encouraged me to do.

My saga started with a visit to their website which was fairly easy to navigate. After about 10 minutes, I had identified the correct program for my model and started through the check-out process to download my new mapping software.

After 20 plus minutes where it refused to accept my credit card, with no explanation, I finally gave up in disgust and called their customer support line.

After waiting 40 minutes to speak to a CSR I was informed that it was impossible to download or even sell a DVD to people from Canada online. No explanation why, and more importantly, no response when I asked why this wasn't immediately communicated on the website -- before I spent time trying to make an online purchase. Something they encouraged me to sign up for when I purchased the unit.

I was told me to go back to the location where I had purchased the unit (Best Buy in my case) because they sold the upgrades for the same prices as online -- $69.

Not great, but rules are rules.

So off to Best Buy. However, at Best Buy the upgrade costs $99 -- a 50% increase. Meanwhile, they are selling brand new units as low as $149 which already have the current maps installed.

My decision -- don't buy the upgrade and wait to buy a new unit when they are on sale. But not a Garmin.

If they were trying to drive away a customer, Garmin couldn't have done a better job. Wasted my time online with incomplete information and then to compound the issue give me bad information when I get to a CSR.

Simple fix. Communicate early, often and accurately with your customers.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is great customer service. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: www.billhogg.ca