Garmin Reviews 53

My watch face cracked after six weeks - it wasn't dropped, it didn't have anything dropped on it, I didn't bang my arm against anything, I just wore it on my wrist like a normal person and swam in an indoor pool a couple times a week.
But the screen cracked, the support rep said it must be my fault and directed me to a site outlining Garmin's policy that any damage to any item at any time is never their problem. Then she told me I could send it in and exchange it for a new one if I paid an amount that was half the watch's original cost.

Vivomove SPORT. Highly recommend NOT buying.

Bought a vivomove sport in April and it's completely dysfunctional 6 months later. Went for a run, bumped into someone gently and the watch face completely shattered making the product unusable. Got in touch with the Garmin team to rectify this and was deeply dissatisfied with the results, essentially saying I could replace the watch for near what I paid for it! When I queried this I was met with silence, customer service is terrible.

Not only that, but in the brief months I had the watch, I found that it ran out of battery quickly, and the GPS function was completely inadequate! It couldn't remotely track where I was despite numerous attempts and therefore served no purpose beyond being an overpriced step-counter.

If you're going for a Garmin, invest in something of better quality. Despite the name this is NOT fit for sport.

Garmin doesn't understand their own warranty, they deny every warranty claim and just blame the user.
If you explain to them whats written in the warranty document they just stop communication

I am writing to express my strong dissatisfaction with Garmin’s product quality and after-sales service.

I purchased a Garmin watch in Thailand about a year ago. After only two months of normal use, the watch completely stopped working. Since I live in China, I contacted Garmin there to claim the warranty. To my surprise, I was told the warranty would not be honored in China, even though Garmin is a global brand. I was informed that I had to fly back to Thailand to use my warranty. This was both unreasonable and highly inconvenient.

When I finally returned to Thailand, after endless fights on the phone with costumer service, Garmin replaced my device with what seemed an old watch from one of their shops and even attached the old straps from the brokem watch to the "new" one. A few months later, I accidentally dropped the replacement watch and tried to get it repaired. In China, Garmin told me it would be extremely expensive since the product was not purchased locally. In Thailand, I was told the repair would take several days — something I could not accommodate during my short stay.

At every step, Garmin’s customer service has been rigid, unhelpful, and lacking basic empathy for the customer experience. Instead of being a reliable and trusted brand, Garmin has shown inflexibility, poor communication, and no willingness to support loyal customers living abroad.

This experience has been frustrating from start to finish, and I regret ever choosing Garmin. I strongly advise others to think twice before buying Garmin, especially if they expect fair warranty policies and reliable after-sales service.

Failure to update course details.
Once again other companies like shot scope etc updated the new course layout within days however Garmin have still not 5 months later.
Garmin refuse to comment as to why there is a delay or even advise when the update will be available meaning you have to check every day for updates that aren't there.
Appalling customer service, arrogant and dismissive.
Ditch Garmin and buy shot scope

My wife and I have owned numerous Garmin watches over the years and have generally been fairly satisfied with their performance. I currently have a Venu 3, and one of the major selling features (which they still advertise btw) is that it can be used to make and receive phone calls and also connect to your phones voice assistant so you could ask questions and get verbal responses directly on the watch instead of having to pull out your phone. These functions have not been working properly (or at all) on Android devices for the better part of a year and Garmin is very well aware of the problems. They have failed to remedy the flaws and are now even avoiding responding to the complaints on the Garmin forums and not providing any updates on when, or if ever, the known defects will be fixed. Feels like complete incompetence by the Garmin engineers and/or complete indifference to give their customers what they paid for. Certainly feels to me like Garmin couldn't care less about customer service/satisfaction once they have your money.

Garmin had my bank details and taken an unauthorised payment out even though I suspended my account. I contacted several times first to find out why but they didn't have the relevant information to give me an answer and would not refund so I got my bank to return my money in which garmin then cheekily locked my device because of this and would only unlock when paid the payment they should not have taken.All this was not notified to me and the last call had taken me over an hour on the phone to get to the bottom of the issue. I expected better from Garmin with better customer care.

I want a full refund bc this watch isn’t worth half the price tag. Let’s start with the main screen that locks after 2/3 seconds and you have to punch a pin every single time. Secondly the “music” part of this watch is all fabricated YouTube music won’t work at all and Spotify buffers the entire time so unless im in my garage running a on a treadmill so I can stay connected to my WiFi it’s all redundant. This watch is far from advertised and COMPLETELY OVER PRICED. Waiting for shipping label Order Number: 104676125960

I've been using Edge bike computers for years. Unfortunately, they consistently fail to maintain a stable connection with accessories, including critical ones like radar and lights.

The user interface is a mess: half of it is in dark mode and unreadable during the day, the other half is light mode and blinding at night.

No responses to bug reports; It feels like they fired the developers and hired salespeople instead.

The ecosystem is closed, with no real integration with Apple (and likely not with Google either). There's some undocumented by both sides collaboration with Strava, but it’s broken most of the time.

If I were choosing today, I wouldn't go with their products. The quality has dropped to the level of ultra-cheap DTC brands you find on Chinese shopping sites — at 1/20th of the price.

Using Garmin Fenix 8 47mm, issue with my Airpods 4 and static noise when running, watch keeps rebooting. contacted customer service and had to answer loads of questions, garmin loaded some software to monitor my watch, now gone silent for 2 weeks. absolutely useless, watch no good for running if i want to listen to anything. not sure what to do as they just will not respond!!!!!!!

Epix Pro was fine until last software update. Now GPS on a 10 miles hike reads 1 mile LESS than other watches like wife's Venu 3. Support are a waste of time. No interest in customer.
Wouldn't touch them again

Awful product, awful customer support, buggy apps and websites. Terrible experience. I WILL NEVER BUY GARMIN AGAIN. OVER MY DEAD BODY.

Forerunner 55 - Watch strap problems - for the 3rd time in 3 years, 2 garmin purchases the straps keep breaking, 1st one was the strap broke, the 2nd the strap was fine but broke at the connection to the watch and unrepairable. Bought a new garmin 49 days ago and unluckily, whatever happened to the strap it fell in to the toilet as it was flushing, a wrong place wrong time scenario. i unserstand cant be replaced as equipment cant be found and my extra insurance i had taken also requires the equipment, which is now probably in the Irish sea. Just to warn purchasers that although the equipment is ok be wary of the straps as they do have a problem.

I have bought Garmin products over the year they all have delivered and lasted over time. Support is good when providing a well defined problem. On one occasion, an exchange was needed when I had issues with their S2 Scale. I have small issues with some updates but no different from other competitors devices. Their eco system work well together and their premium devices last a long time. First device was a Edge 520, followed by a Fenix 3 HR. Now I have a Edge 1040 and a Fenix 5X along with other peripherals such as the HRM Pro Plus and radar. I have used support less than a handful of times and satisfied over the years.

Awful customer service. Wasn't able to repair my old Fenix so opted for an exchange to a newer model. All sounded lovely until, after a few weeks, nothing arrived. I contacted Garmin and was told it would be another seven weeks. This hadn't been mentioned at the time of purchase, I'd have bought another watch if it had. With a deal of tooing and frooing they eventually offered another watch. I paid for this one, being told that I'd be refunded the original amount for the first exchange. I've now contacted them several times after waiting 7-10 days for my refund, but still nothing. Can't even tell me when my £200 was returned to Paypal (I suspect it hasn't been). Unless they improve their support, I'll be going elsewhere next time. Shoddy service for a supposedly premium brand. Stop taking our custom for granted.

Got a Garmin VivioActive 3 smart watch £79 as new, but it's not the current model. Superb. Long battery life and much cheaper than the Apple equivalent. 4/5 as the watch strap does need replacing after not so long
(had one when it first came out) so this was a replacement. But nothings perfect. Never actually spoken to Garmin - the watch is so reliable (and cheap).

Non-existent customer service / technical support. After only 3 months my Garmin decent stopped working and I am unable to contact Garmin. Noone answers their customer service number - you just stay on hold for hours. The watch wont work and I now have a $900 hole in my pocket - absolute crooks

Bought an gpsmaps 79s, its not connecting to my mac at all. Contacted customer service explained that all my other systems work with no issue yet the gps 79s cant even be found by mac and the customer support was shocking. I explained that i have had 0 issues with Navionics and the ability to upload information to that system and customer care response was why you trying to connect garmin to navionics. I explained im not im just giving an example of how easy it was to do on Navioics what im trying to do on Garmin and customer care response was why you complaining im ending conversation and terminated the communication. SHOCKING. I will never buy Garmin again and considering i work building boats and installing systems i will be using alternative manufacturers. What was once a great company is now appalling

Repeatedly fails to deliver. No customer service. Refuse to refund. Just appalling service. Do not buy this product online!!

The following is a copy and paste from a review, which exactly reflects my own experience -

"Delivery was very delayed and customer services did not respond to my request to cancel the order after finding out (after 2 weeks of waiting) that it was going to be late"

The emails from their sales department are not to be trusted, they just add to your frustration.

I regret placing my order with Garmin and in future I will stick with Amazon

EDIT - 21/12/2024

I have now received the item and will amend my review to 3 stars.
The item was late and I suspect that I was told porkies by the sales department hence just 3 stars.