Stupid Garmin

Here's a really stupid thing that happened to me a short while ago.

Having bought a new Zumo 660 at the start of the summer, I wanted to add a new set of maps for my trip to New Orleans for the Microsoft WPC. No problem said the Garmin website, you have 3 choices, Download, Micro SD Card or DVD, all showing at $99.99 (how much???) yes $99.99 0r £47.77 here is the UK.

Oh well, lets go ahead and download a copy as its quick and easy and I've got a nice big fat broadband download speed - its about a 1.1gb files size.

Having installed the maps onto the Zumo, I suddenly find that I cannot use the PC based Mapsource files. Call Garmin support only to find that

"Oh, the Mapsource files only come with the DVD, didn't you look on the website, sir"

Well yes I did of course, that's where I downloaded them from,

"well if you looked properly, in the Features tab it says clearly its only the DVD version that includes the PC files"

but I did look on the website, and chose the download option which is the same price as each of the other 2 options!

"Well basically its your fault not for looking all the way through each section, if I was buying something from the web I would check it out thoroughly"

Why did you not make it clear on the Options drop down list?

"Well look sir, we think its perfectly clear on the website and there is nothing we can do"

Well what are my options then?

"You need to buy the DVD if you want to communicate with the PC"

Oh great and that's another $99.99 I suppose?

"Yes sir that's what it says on the site"

Well this is a truncated version of the call which I escalated all the way as far as I could go. Those of you who use Garmin products will get the real gist of what I am saying as the maps of the unit are only half the product as you need the maps in Mapsource so you can plan routes and upload tracks etc.

What is really stupid is the way they mislead customers by not making the website clear enough and then adding insult to injury they tell you its your fault. Of course Garmin must also be aware that in today's web-savvy world, there are forums and blogs and great ways for us all to share our experiences with the big corporations such as Garmin. Here is the Zumo forum where I posted my comments. In the end I emailed their Head of Operations in the UK, but that was over a week ago now and surprise surprise no hint of a word back, now that's also stupid

Sometimes you come across a deliberate action by a company that is stupid as far as the customer is concerned, but maybe here this is deliberate by Garmin and they are happily doubling up on sales of maps because the customer is the stupid one for trusting them in the first place.

We will look for more examples of this kind of stupidity, send me your real time examples and we will have a laugh exposing them