Garmin customer service

Well, I'm relatively impressed. A few years ago when I had issues with my Garmin Forerunner 305 I tried calling up the (somewhat expensive) call line, was kept waiting for ages, and then got through to a tech who had no idea what she was on about, took a while to get things sorted ... you get the idea. Eventually the issue was sorted, but the word to be used was "Eventually".

As you may have read in another post- my Forerunner had developed a fault, and I was dreading calling Garmin to get it sorted out.
However, I finally bit the bullet and did so about a week ago, and to my surprise and pleasure, its a normal phone number, not one of these 0845 jobbies. Bonus- something has changed.
Got through to a recorded voice menu... oh no.
Pressed the right button (only one needing to be pushed) and hey presto, I got through to a human being! Not only that, but someone who knew what they were talking about. I explained the problem and he admitted that he had never heard of the issue before- to be fair- it is a totally random one, so if he did say he knew what it was I would have been a bit skepical unless he explained it to in technicolour detail.

Admittidly the unit is a bit old- I've certainly had it for 3 years or so, so it is slightly out of warranty. It was agreed that I would send it back for it to be assessed, fixed if possible, or if it couldn't be fixed, another one would be sent in replacement. If it was to be replaced, I would be charged about £50, and it would be couriered straight back to me.
So if its crocked, I get a new unit, for £50. ok.
I handed over a credit card number (never use debit over the phone- if you get defrauded on a credit card its not actually YOUR money you are missing, with a debit card, it IS your money that is missing... but thats another story), and sent my Garmin off in a jiffy bag.

That was on Friday. Its now Tuesday the week after and I recieved a new (well, refurbished) Forerunner 305, delivered by UPS. Thats pretty much one working day turnaround.

I am impressed.
Thanks Garmin.

If you have had issues with Garmins Customer service before, especially in the UK, it seems that they have take the criticism to heart, and there is a new order in there. I would now be happy to recommend them to anyone.

(As an end note, it should be said that Garmin didn't say what the issue was- I suspect they still don't know.. would be nice to find out their findings though...)