Magellan GPS – Poor Customer Service
Posted by Ben on October 10th, 2005
I’ve been having a rather frustrating experience with Magellan GPS (Thales Navigation) as of late. Last Christmas, Marcie got me one of their SporTrak Color hand-held GPS units. I played around with it a little bit over the winter, took it on a couple of flights with me, etc, but I never really dug into the advanced features the unit is supposed to have in addition to GPS functionality (electronic 3-axis compass, temperature/barometric pressure logging, etc).
(more after jump)
Lately, I decided to play around with it a little more. First, I tried to ensure the compass was calibrated (according to the manual, it should be done with every battery change). No dice – calibration sequence froze on the first step. Reset calibration? No dice. Advanced manual calibration? Still no luck. Ok, strike 1. Next up, I take a look at the weather stuff – the geek in me figures it’d be interesting to see what the air pressure does on a flight somewhere. Turns out, the unit isn’t logging temperature or pressure data either.
So, I e-mail Thales tech support via the web, figuring this would be a straightforward warranty service, as the unit’s got either a 1 or 2 year warranty. Takes ~2 working days to get a response. In one of the e-mails, their customer service rep indicates that I’ll need a receipt in order to get the unit repaired. Naturally, I push back – who gets a full-fledged purchase receipt with their Christmas gifts? Gift receipts often don’t even have a description of the item – just a barcode for store lookup.
CSR tells me to go ahead and send the unit in along with a written statement indicating that the unit was given as a gift new in 12/04. So, I sent it off, and got an e-mail 5 days later telling me that the unit will need to be replaced at a cost of $130 + S/H. Ths unit has not been subjected to abuse of any kind – it’s spent most of its life in a padded case on my desk at home, actually!), so this is unquestionably a manufacturing defect.
The unit costs ~$200 new. I know CostCo as a policy caps their markup at 15%, so they bought it from Thales for no less than $170. The manufacturer markup on consumer electronics is more than 25%, so they’re trying to make a profit on defective merchandise.
But, I figured there was one thing I could try. I went over to CostCo, and they were able to print out the transaction record from their systems that shows when the unit was bought, purchase price, method of payment, etc. They can even see that Marcie bought a box of Honey Nut Cheerios at the same time. So, thumbs up to CostCo for helping me out on this one. I called Magellan to get a fax number to send the receipt to – spent 30 minutes on hold.
Fortunately, the transaction record was sufficient, and I got a new unit shipped back a week later. Still the whole experience just rubbed me the wrong way. Requiring a receipt is a dumb policy, especially in the day and age of Photoshop. I could have taken an existing receipt from CostCo, scanned it in, and edited in the right information. What’s even more irritating is that this makes me feel like Thales / Magellan doesn’t stand behind their products. It’s pretty clear that this was a manufacturing defect in the unit, as the compass/weather system most likely never worked in the unit, based on how I can see the heading update in the new unit while standing still now. Not only am I pissed off and not going to be a repeat customer, but I’m not going to recommend Magellan GPS units to anyone.
Note to Magellan, if you ever see this – here’s how this transaction should have gone:
1) Customer Service should have responded within 1 business day of my original contact. First contact was a waste anyhow, as all they did was request information I’d already provided in the web form (and was even in the body of the e-mail they sent me!), so in reality, it took ~5 business days to get an RMA issued.
2) If I say it’s a gift, take my word for it. I shouldn’t need to bend over backwards to produce proof of warranty. I was lucky that this came from CostCo, and that they could look up the purchase information in-store
3) Phone service – 30 minute hold times are unacceptable, especially without providing feedback as to how long I’d be waiting.
To their credit, once Magellan accepted my receipt as proof of purchase, the replacement unit was on the way within 2 days.
In short, customers should not have to jump through hoops, before or after the sale.
Instead of getting repeat business (because face it, I’m a gadget guy – someday I’ll probably want to upgrade to a better GPS) from me, I’ll buy a unit from Garmin, TomTom, etc, and recommend others do the same.
February 16th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Well, need we say more. I agree that we need improvement, but it won’t happen. In fact, everyone is being outsourced to india, which is a fact. Go with a garmin. They are hardeer units to use and you may get beter service, but don’t know for sure.
January 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I had a similar experience with my eXplorist 200. It was a gift Christmas 2005, used six times, the worst treatment it received was being suspended from my neck as I walked. 1/2007 I try to turn it on and get the following message: Unit Currently Contains No Map Initiating Map Upload
So I wait. I went to bed and the next morning the batteries are dead. I replace the batteries and turn it on. I get the same message.
An email to Thales gets the same response: Receipt, call for sending permit number, it is a factory fix problem. I nor the gifter has the receipt, it is out of warranty, and she spent over $100 for a unit that worked six times and quit.
That is the LAST Magellan I will ever buy.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
I am currently having a problem with Magellan, I purchased an Explorist XL in Feb. 2007, The unit was supposed to have a cigarette lighter power adapter but there was not one in the box. I called Magellan on 2/9/07 and they told me to fax a copy of my receipt and they would send one out right away. After not getting the adapter I called again on 2/14/07 and the over apologetic customer service representative assured me they would send it out right away and I would see it in 3-5 business days. Still not getting the adapter I called again on 2/28/2007 and again the apologetic customer service representative promised it would ship on 3/1/2007 and I would receive it in 3-5 days. I called again last night (3/8/2007) and spoke to a Rep and demanded a Supervisor. The supervisor said they have them in stock and she would personally see to it that the adapter would be shipped out to me on 3/9/2007. She also promised to call me with an update once she talked to the shipping department. The supervisor did not call so I called again tonight, and spoke to yet another Rep. (I think I have talked to most of them by now) who told me to be patient, that they were out of stock and I would get the first one when the shipment comes in. I asked when the shipment was due, he could tell me. I asked if he could find out, he said he couldn’t, I asked if he could supply me with the phone number of purchasing, he said he did not have it. I must say, I have never before in my many years in business seen such poor customer service. I will also say in my research for a GPS I had talked to customer service of both Garmin and Magellan, Garmin technical support was very helpful in answering my questions about GPS’s, Magellan seemed more interested in selling me their product. Being that the features of both companies premier hand held’s were similar I choose the Magellan Explorist XL because if it’s screen size. I had previously read about their poor customer service and thought, hey, I am computer literate and I can figure it out. Well if I could turn back the hands of time I would choose a Garmin product. I don’t think Magellan understands that a customer lost is much more than a sale lost. Word of poor customer service will spread like wild fire, and after the scorching, it takes years to rebuild a reputation.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I have been trying to get an owners manual for my Sport Trak Map Magellan for 3 weeks. I’ve tried calling and was passed off to 3 different numbers.
all told me to getit on line. Well both my wife and I tried again and again to no avail. My wife completed the customer service report card asking for some assistance. None were even responded to. Customer service seems to run real shallow at Magellan.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Our company have 3 Magellan GPS Pro Mark XEuro, Serial No 3E304839CE pin 800381-03.Two GPS have data communication problems. Both can be collected data but can not download to computer. i think the main problem is divice communication which is not commucate with computer. Pls suggest me how to handle this problem.
August 4th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
How do we change the clock on the Magellan Maestro 4040?
August 17th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I recently returned my 760 to tech support for servicing a problem and when it was returned two of the three parts were missing. I am attempting to contact tech services and the only phone number that I have is the one listed in the original owner’s manual. So far the only response I have received is that the tracking system is down. The address that I returned the unit to is the one in Fort Worth, about 35 minutes from my house. Does anyone have a support person’s name and number that they might share with with me.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
To Jim,
I sent my Explorist XL back to Thales Repair in Fort Worth. I got it back one month later. I turned it on, and got only a blue screen. The unit was in the same shape as when I sent it to them. Nothing was done. Of course I originally sent it to them at my expense. After I got the unit back un-fixed I called Magellan. I was of course routed to India for the fourth time where the customer service representatives are maddeningly polite but absolutely worthless. They wanted to go through their check off list of turning the unit on, plugging it into the computer etc. etc. which I have done ad nauseum. I refused to start that whole process again. I was told that I would need a new RMA #, but that they could not give me one because their server was down. I asked to speak to a manager, but none was available.
I tried emailing Magellan Technical Support at two different addresses: magellansupport@thalesnavigation.com, and magellansupportfr@thalesnavigation.com both were bounced back undeliverable. I tried calling 411 to obtain a number for Magellan/Thales Repair in Fort Worth, TX. No number was listed.
Since you live within 35 minutes of their “Repair Facility”, I would love to have you go by, and see for yourself if it actually exists, or if our units eventually end up in a PO Box somewhere. I have absolutely no faith in Magellan whatsoever, and given the lengths to which they’ve gone to insulate themselves from their consumers, it would not surprise me if their “Repair Facility” did in fact NOT exist.
I am sorry, but I have no contact information to give you. If I did, perhaps I would not be as disparaged as I am.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Have a similar/worse experience with Magellan customer service. My wife bought me a Magellan RoadMate 2000. It came with a small, almost unnoticeable, crack in the cover to the LCD. The LCD itself was fine. I called tech support, who offered to replace it since it’s well within the one-year warranty period. However, they said they will not issue an RMA no. unless I gave my credit card number to them. They ended up charging $151 for it. I keep calling customer service and they keep admitting their mistake. “Someone from our corporate office will call you within 48 hours,” they say during each call. 12 or more calls and still nothing. I should have filed a complaint with my CC company but trusted the Magellan CSRs and didn’t. Now I may be past the time limit for CC complaints.
Magellan Customer Service (which is the same as their tech support, btw) is indeed poor. The Indian CSRs are polite but they have no auhtority to do anything.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I have an Explorist XL with “Lakes USA” software for fishing. It worked o.k. for about 14 months but now I cannot get my PC to recognize the USB connection.
I have tried it on two different desktop PC’s.
The Magellan customer service I found to be the worst I have ever experienced.
They are courteous and apologetic, but useless. First, they assured me I needed
a new USB cable which I bought for almost $40. Needless to say, it did not solve the problem.
I live in Dallas and would like to take the unit to the Ft. Worth service facility. Does anyone know how to contact them direcly by phone or e-mail.
(I have their address)
Has anyone had problems with the USB connection?
Thanks
Bill
September 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
My unit broke within a week. Had to ship it at my expense to them and after dealing with their outsourced to INDIA techsupport for over a month I still don’t have it back. All I get back from the barnyard in India they host their call center from is “We’re using updated software …. it’s not possible to check that” This company should be shut down.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:21 pm
In short, Magellan technical support is the worst support organization I have ever come in contact with. The agonizing story:
- The unit was non-functioning within a 2 months of the purchase date.
- Shipped it to the Fort Worth facility as directed by Magellan support.
- After waiting the 10 days they said it would take to get it back to me, I called them on August 20 to find out the status of the repair and subsequent shipment. They told me they hadn’t received it yet. I told them I have a confirmed delivery notification from USPS and it had been received by the 10 days earlier.
- I faxed proof of shipment and receipt by Magellan.
- After a series of 7 calls to them I have been told the same thing every time, you should be receiving it next week. I called again today (Oct 2) and you guessed it, I should be receiving it next week.
My advice if you are in the market for a GPS…. try another vendor, Garmin or otherwise. I bought Magellan simply due to convenience and picked one up while in Costco. I shall not be a repeat customer with Magellan.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I absolutely agree with everything said here. There is no excuse for poor customer support even if it is through India. I personally know companies that outsource to India but pay the extra bucks to have the call centers trained to speak clearly to the customers. I’ve been trying to get a tracking number for my Roadmate 760 for a week and a half. I’m “guaranteed” it will show up in 2-3 business days, but they can’t give me a tracking number unless I call back in 2-3 days to get it. Why the heck can’t you contact someone in the US where they’re actually doing the service! Everywhere, I read that people are happy with the Magellan products “while they’re working” but will never buy again if there’s a problem that requires them to contact customer support. Magellan needs to get the hint – they’re going to loose more and more market share because of their customer service and the problems people are posting all over the internet.
October 6th, 2007 at 2:26 am
All of the above comments I am currently experiencing with the “WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE”
The company where I work for has outsourced to India, but the tech support of Magellan is in the top ten List of the worst companies to deal with. My unit was sent back close to a month now, with numerous promises and NO Tracking number. I have spoken to several “supposedly floor supervisors but still to no avail. Since the headquarters of Magellan in in the Northern California, I will be notifying them, that they not only lost my trust in them for my personal unit, but I also CANCELLED our fleet order of 3750 units and gave the order to Garmin. We should report them to the BBB, so other consumers do not have the same HORRIBLE experience we have experienced!
October 10th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I don’t have the time to explain how bad the customer service is at Magellan. I filed a complaint with the BBB. I suggest everyone else does also.
The company is corrupt and should be shut down.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
We too have had lots of frustration dealing with Magellan Customer Service and Tech Support. I won’t go into the details, as everyone who has dealt with them has the same story…the problem is in dealing with India. Anyways, I have been given an address of 13550 Independence Pkwy, Ste 124, Fort Worth, Texas 76177 to mail my unit for repairs. After some internet searching, it appears that Magellan farms out their repairs to a company called ATCLE http://www.atcle.com/ When the tech support gave me the address which stated Magellan Repair Center, ATCLE, at the above address, I couldn’t figure out what the ATCLE refers to, but know I know.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
I wish I had seen this website / blog before I purchased my Magellan.
After a frustrating call to India — where the person on the other end got quite angry and terse becuase I could not understand “ATCLE” — I was told I would receive information via email on where to send my unit for repair.
NOT!
Finally I called back and after a labour-filled chunk of time I got it figured out.
I hope that this is not just the start of a nightmare with Magellan. (Although I already regret this purchase and will never get a Magellan again).
I’ll let you know…
October 15th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Uh oh! I bought an Explorist XL last December and yesterday it decided not to power up. Called tech support and by the complete inability to even begin to understand what “Susan” the rep was saying I must have gotten India. Took awhile to convince her it was broken and get an RA#. It’s gone to Ft. Worth via UPS so I guess my nightmare with them has begun. Wish I could return the unit and buy anything else. Bought it for screen size and memory card capacity. Did read blogs on poor customer service when trying to learn to use it but thought I could figure it out. Do have to say I was very pleased with it, until it broke!!! I’ll reply here as the adventure continues.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I sent in my Magellan 6000T for repair in late august. I called the repair center after two weeks and told me that they have received my unit. Which was obvious because I know that have received the unit since I have sent the unit by FedEx. I asked them if it was repaired, they told me that it is in the process and to call back in three day to get the tracking number. I called back in four days they said they are still working on it and to call back a week later and they will provide me the tracking number. They said the same after two weeks later. It has been more than a month and I still have not received the unit. I am searching for there CEO’s number maybe he can give me some result. Their service department in India could not give me the repair center number in forth worth Taxes. The worst service I have ever received.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I found the following info on Magellan’s 3rd party repair center:
ATC Logistics & Electronics
13500 Independence Parkway
Fort Worth, TX 76177
Phone: (817) 491-7727
Toll Free: (800) 466-4202
Fax: (972) 466-6345
Info@atcle.com
The ATC in their name stands for Aftermarket Technology Corp. I haven’t tried calling them yet since my GPS is still in route to them. When calling “Susan” in India I was told turn around time on repairs is 3 weeks. We’ll see…..
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I wish I had found this blog before I bought my Magellan Roadmate 6000T. If you want to hear a real horror story here it goes. The unit functions fine except you can’t hear it in a car for some crazy reason. It’s OK in the house. I sent it back to Ft. Worth at my expense, they kept it for a month. I kept calling India & got the same junk as everyone else. It’s coming next week. Next week never came. When it finally did show up it wasn’t fixed. I called got another RA, back it went to Ft. Worth. They now have it for two months which now between the two returns is more than I have had it. I have spoken to the biggest idiots India has to offer. Everyone I speak to tells me something else. I asked to talk to a supervisor & was told I couldn’t. I asked to be transferred to speak with someone in the US & was told that wasn’t possible. I looked up their headquarters in CA. Guess what? You can’t speak to anyone because you can’t get through their voicemail, 0 won’t work.
What a bloody nightmare. I will never buy a Magellan again.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:21 pm
My nightmare with Magellan began when the Meridian Gold GPS unit I purchased at Walmart on clearance in late June 2007 stopped working before the first set of Duracell Batteries that I put in the unit were even halfway discharged. I had only used the unit for less than 4 hours total since I purchased it new before it stopped working in late August 2007. Same story as I’ve read above. Sent the unit back to Fort Worth at my expense. I was told the Meridian Gold was no longer serviced and they had no parts to repair it. They first offered me a newer model if I’d send them $160 and I said no so they offered me an Explorist 500LE at no cost to me. I agreed and was told I would receive the unit within 2 weeks. Two weeks go by and I call customer service and they tell me the Explorist 500LE is out of stock. I got the same story for the first month “out of stock”. Then they promised I’d have it in 7 days starting in October ’07 and that went on for three phone calls and three weeks. In between those calls I was told the unit shipped twice but no tracking number was available due to a computer problem and again because of a new computer system problem. On 10/17/07 they told me I would receive the new unit within a week. I called today, 10/23/07 to get a tracking number and I’m told the unit hasn’t shipped yet. At the end of September I sent a letter to their corporate offices in Calif. but haven’t received a reply from them and I don’t expect to. As was said by others, the customer service agents in India are very polite but can’t get anything done. All I get is broken promises, lies, and excuses. If I ever do receive the new unit, I’m not even going to open the package. I’m putting it up for sale to the first fool that wants to buy it. Magellan customer service is nothing but a big circlejerk.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:10 am
go with garmin..the customer service is located in good old USA..
October 24th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Having a worse problem here. Bought the RoadMate 300 last Black Friday (Nov. 24, 2006). Pretty good unit for the price, had intermittent problems connecting to the satellite. Finally went. Called Magellan in August, received a Return Authorization. They supposedly have a 14 day return policy. Well it is now almost November again and after numerous calls to Magellan still no GPS. They use outsourced phone representatives, so you can not be assured that they actually understand what you are saying and I have had a very hard time understanding them most times. After numerous promises that the replacement GPS is on the way and refusal to provide a tracking number as of today I got off the phone with them and started filing complaints with the BBB and the attorney general. Pay more and stay away from Magellan. They don’t care about you once they have your $$$.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:21 am
My Magellan 4040 was having Malfunction Problem’s and will Reboot while on the Road. Sent the Unit to Repair Center in Fort Worth,TX. It is almost 6 weeks, The Call Center is completely out of Touch with the Situation.
Looks like the Repair Center should also be outsourced if not. They Received the Unit and Call Center says it has been repaired, but keep on guessing the Shipping Dates.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I have a magellan 360 Roadmap, less than a year. can not power up, sent to Repair Center in Fort Worth, TX.. good thing that it get there in fort worth, because the customer support was located in India.. they gave me the address as 13550 Independence PKWY STE 124 instead of 3550…
anyway.. sent out on October 1st.. and 3 weeks later I call.. and they told me that I will receive the unit some times this week..so a week went by. did not seen anything so I call back.. again they told me the same.. you’ll receive this week.. well guess what.. another week gone.. today I call back.. the guy said you will receive in 2 days…
I than ask for tracking number… he says he has no ideal…
wow..
October 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
After reading the above messages about Magellan’s service, I came to the conclusion I could have written any one of them. Those SOB’s have “stolen” my RoadMate 2000 and now I figure I will never get it back. I’ve contacted my state’s Attorney General and filed a complaint. I also filed a complaint with the BBB.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I am having a NIGHTMARE with Magellan’s Service dept. or lack there of. I sent my GPS in for repair in September and havent gotten it back yet! They tell me it will be back in 3-5 days that was 2 weeks ago… called yesterday and guess what, cant
find it!!!! Asked to speak to a supervisor, and couldn’t!!
I think I was calling India and they don’t know what the hells going on.
THE WORST SERVICE I have EVER experienced with any product
I want to start a class action suit. Anyone interested? please contact me at hak620@aol.com
November 1st, 2007 at 4:49 am
We too have had lots of frustration dealing with Magellan Customer Service and Tech Support. I won’t go into the details, as everyone who has dealt with them has the same story…the problem is in dealing with India. Anyways, I have been given an address of 13550 Independence Pkwy, Ste 124, Fort Worth, Texas 76177 to mail my unit for repairs. After some internet searching, it appears that Magellan farms out their repairs to a company called ATCLE http://www.atcle.com/ When the tech support gave me the address which stated Magellan Repair Center, ATCLE, at the above address, I couldn’t figure out what the ATCLE refers to, but now I know. I have been ripped off my case # 545164, send my unit now or send me a refund, I’m going to contact lawyer this is a class action law suite
November 1st, 2007 at 8:04 am
Hi, this is my third website visit, previously Oct. 15th and 17th. I’m still within the 3 week turn around time given by Magellan’s glorious repair center so I can’t take action yet. But come Nov. 8th my fun will begin. If things turn out as they have with everyone else here then I can only come to one conclusion. I’ve been had! With the cost of the gps, software, and accessories the total is approx. $600. I’m by no means rich so that hurts a lot. You think they could at least include a jar of vaseline with each sale, huh. Maybe ease the pain just a little.
As hard a lesson as this is turning out to be it’s not the end of the world. By no means is this the first encounter I’ve had with a less than honest company nor will it be the last. I’ve heard a person shouldn’t be judged by the adversities faced in life but rather how that person handles those adversities. I try to learn from each so as not to make the same mistake twice, first time shame on them, second time shame on me. My mistake was to not investigate Magellan fully before the sale. Being a large corporation I “assumed” they were reputable and only did research on them at one website, http://www.cnet.com. There were no complaints listed there so I checked no further. I plan on buying another gps when this adventure comes to a close and I will definitely apply the lessons learned from this experience.
As for Magellan, I can only say that they not only have my money, and gps, but also my full attention. I plan on following Hope’s lead and filing complaints with the BBB and the Attorney General’s office, although I’ve learned that Magellan is not a member of the BBB in Ca.- imagine that! But I will also file complaints with the Dept. of Consumer Affairs in my home state, Tn., as well as in Ca. I have contacts with the Tn. Bureau of Investigation and plan on meeting with one of their attorneys to get advice on this matter: might it be a crime to take a unit in for repair and never return it? I’ll also contact the local media as each TV affiliate has a reporter that investigates the Magellans of our community. Also, I plan on researching the internet as well to find every single company that sells Magellan products and filling out a customer review on each website to warn potential customers. They seem only to care about initial sales, must have been used car salesmen in a previous life, so I will try and get their attention on the front end. I will also call in on the local talk shows as well as Dave Ramsey’s syndicated nationwide radio talk show and bring attention to Magellan there.
Who knows where this will all go. It might be interesting to watch their stocks in the future. I hope to inform as many people as possible of the business practices of Magellan and I hope each one of you will do the same. With the approaching holidays there’s no time like the present. We can sit around and complain about being taken or we can actually do something about it. Maybe it’s time to accept that Magellan has taken us for what they can and so we should now return the favor. If you have any more ideas please share them here.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:24 am
I share all of your frustration with Magellan’s customer service. Here is a letter to the President of Magellan, that finally produced results:
October 22, 2007
VIA FACSIMILY – 4 PAGES TO 909-394-7050
Nelson C. Chan, CEO
Magellan Navigation Inc.
960 Overland Court
San Dimas, CA 91773-1742
Dear Mr. Chan,
I am in need of your help to resolve the most horrible consumer nightmare I have endured dealing with your GPS repair center:
About three years ago I purchased a Magellan RoadMate 700 unit, serial number 0102310610280. About a year later I also purchased the unlock code for the European maps (code 1H0CE03SE19L). The unit operated to my satisfaction both in the USA as well as in Europe, until it stopped working around the end of July 2007.
On August 6, 2007, I called your repair center, who quoted a charge of $ 144.00 for the repair and provided me with RAS number 1307494 and Case number 688360. I shipped the unit to ATCLE Magellan Repair Enter, 13550 Independence Parkway, Suit 124, Fort Worth, TX, 76177. The unit was delivered August 7, 2007.
On August 23, 2007 my credit card account was charged $ 170.95. Around the same time a RoadMate 760 replacement unit, Serial No. 0102301095614, was deliverd to me. Upon checking the unit, I found out that the European maps were locked. This is when all the trouble began.
I called the the customer support number (800-707-9971) and was told that al the systems were down and they cound not provide me with an unlock code. They advised that it would take two to three weeks, before they would have access to the unlock code, and that I should call back then. A new case number was assigned: 731631.
After two weeks had passed, I began calling the Repair Center and each time was given different explanations as to why they were unable to provide me with the unlock code. Around September 17 I again called the Repair Center since I had a European trip scheduled for September 25 and wanted to use the unit. I was advised that they were not able to provide me with an unlock code for the 760 unit, but that they would rush me a model 800, with the European maps unlocked, to arrive in time for my departure on September 25. A replacement authorization number was issued (25002339) and a new case number was assigned (740078). When not unit arrived by September 24, I again called, only to learn, that nothing was shipped, and that the Model 800’s were on backorder.
On October 5 I again called and insisted to speak to a supervisor. After an endless period on hold, I eventually was connected to a gentlemen by the name of Park Davies. He assured me that he personally would expedite the Model 800 and that he would call me back. He never kept his commitment, and never called back.
On October 12 I again called and asked to speak to Mr. Park Davies. After much difficulties, I eventually was connected to a supervisor by the name of Sally. Sally also assured me that she would take a personal interest in this matter and see to it that the 800 unit would be overnighted to me. She also promised to call me back by the end of the day to confirm. Sally did call back on October 16 to advise me that all Model 800’s were on backorder, and that I could either wait indefinitely, or she could provide me with the unlock code for the Model 760 that was, and still is, in my possession. I opted for the unlock code, and Sally said she would call me back that day. That was the last time heard of Sally.
It’s now October 15. Again I call and asked for a supervisor. After the usual long on hold time, a supervisor by the name of Wilson answered. He committed to come up with the unlock code, and that he would call me back within three hours. I reluctantly agreed. Wilson did call back after about two hours, only to tell me, that he needed more time, but that he would call back within two hours. After he did not call back, I called him. He told me (and this is a true story) that he was eating his dinner and asked that I allow him to do so, and that he would call me back with the code within thirty minutes. You guessed right, I never heard of Wilson again.
This past Friday, October 19, I again called, asked for a supervisor, and eventually was connected to a supervisor by the name of Jerry. Jerry advised me that the European Maps of the Model 760 no longer can be unlocked manually by a keyed-in unlock code, and that he would e-mail me an unlock file that I had to transfer to the unit using a PC. I did receive the e-mail with the “idex.mct” file (see attached). After following the instructions step-by-step, the Europen maps remain locked, and the unit still asks for a manually keyed in unlock code. This brings me to this morning and this letter.
In summary, I sent in a RoadMate 700 with functional European maps. I received back a different unit (Model 760) with the European maps locked, despite many, many frustrating hours on the telephone with you support staff and numerous supervisors. I have been lied to over and over again, and not a single promise or commitment has been kept. This situation has been going on now for nearly three months. My credit card has been charged not for the $ 144.00 quoted, but for $ 170.95. And today I am left with a unit that has less functionality than the one I had sent in for repair.
At this time I am prepared to accept either a refund of my original investment of approx. $ 900.00 for the RoadMate 700 with unlocked European maps, or a replacement unit with unlocked European maps of the type model 800 or higher.
I look forward to your assistance in this matter and to hearing from you. You can best reach me on my cell phone, 973-222-4559.
No consumer and user of your product deserves this kind of treatment. It is my hope that you, as the CEO of Magellan Navigation, will finally bring closure to this nightmare.
Respectfully,
Willi Huber
November 5th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I am in the same nightmare, just stumbled on this blog, and am realizing that I might as well give up.
I am definitely interested in filing class action lawsuit. This service is unacceptable.
Here’s the email that I wrote to Magellan:
To Whom it May Concern:
I am an extremely unhappy Magellan customer. I have been without my GPS system for over two months now, and I have been waiting for about one month for Magellan to send me my replacement unit.
My case number #731882 should reflect all the calls that I have made to your customer service department from August 20th through today. In case those records are not complete, here is the detail, to the best of my recollection:
August 20-September 11th: Multiple calls were made before it was authorized that I could do a trade-in and receive the Magellan Roadmate 2200T in exchange for my Magellan Roadmate 760. Finally, I received an RA number, so I could send back my unit.
September 17: My unit was received by Magellan’s support center in Fort Worth, Texas
Monday, September 24th: I called about my new unit, and was assured that I would receive the unit on Friday of that week.
Monday, October 1st: I called again, and was again assured that I would receive the unit on Friday of that week. I warned that if I did not receive the GPS that week, I would expect financial compensation for all the trouble and hassle I have undergone in order to work with your company.
Today: October 15th: I still have not received my new GPS unit. I called to speak with a manager and was assured that I would receive a call back in 24 hours. I still have not heard from anyone.
At this point, I am extremely frustrated. It should not be the customer’s responsibility to harass your customer service representatives, in order to purchase one of your items. I would like financial compensation so that I can buy a device from one of your competitors.
Magellan clearly does not value my time or my business.
Please contact me regarding how I will be compensated.
Thank you,
Steph Cheung
November 5th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
One more thing. I called the ATCLE center today and found out that Magellan has set up an “escalation” email box. About a month ago, in my 18th call to India, I was told that my case # was receiving priority and would be “escalated” and expedited for shipment.
The woman as ATCLE told me that the escalation email box has been filled with hundreds of cases, but she does not know what is being done about it.
She also transferred me to the Magellan extension at ATCLE. Of course, no one picks up the phone there. If you try to leave a message, the mailbox is full and does not accept new messages. Also found out that the manager for Magellan at that service center is named Manuel. His extension is x6412. His mailbox was not full at the time, so I left a message. But, I was warned that he does not return calls.
Just thought I would pass this along, in case other people have similar experiences.
November 5th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
It has been more than 2 monts and I am going to the BBB.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:43 am
My Magellan 760 stopped working in late August and I got a R/A number and returned it to Fort Worth and was told it would cost $144 to fix it. I have been promised six different times my unit would be shipped within two day. Of course it never was shipped and now I am told that they will send me a replacement -Maestro 3100. Twice in the last two weeks they said they have shipped it but were unable to give me a tracking number. Everytime I call they act like this is the first time they have heard of the problme. Don”t they update customer’s files?
They have my unit and my money. Sounds like fraud to me.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
My 2200T took a dump last month. I got an RMA, sent it in and haven’t received it back yet. They have had it for 30 days now. I called back to check on status and they told me that they would transfer me to the “red team”. When the member of the red team came on he asked me if I would take a 3140 as replacement. I told him no since I bought the Crossover upgrade, I would need a crossover as a replacement. He said that he would send out a new crossover and gave me a new case #. I will post the results here when I get them. If I continue to get the run around, I will be happy to take part in any organized (or solo if need be) legal action.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I sent a GPS in to be fixed to the company.I was told the first time I called it was in shipping to be sent back to me fixed.Then when I called back to check on it.They admit to losing it. I provided the tracking number. They said I had a warranty when I first sent the GPS in, but now after them losing the gps they say I dont. But either way admit to losing it and now tell me I have to pay to replace it plus shipping and handling. Getting anything done through the company seems to be getting no where. But still I am without my GPS because they lost it but they want me to replace it makes no sense to me. I am very upset. The people I have talked to dont even seem to care.I use this GPS on a daily basis. I do have a warranty though I am being told I do not. If you can help me please email me.
foreveritslost2007@yahoo.com
Kevin
November 9th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
To add: There seems to be a problem with the Fort Worth Office by reading all these. I sent mine to the Fort Worth, Texas office.
November 9th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Anyone needing the BBB office for complaints about the Fort Worth Magellan office:
BBB
Cindy Sulsar | Operations Manager
Tel: (817) 882-0557
Fax: (817) 882-0566
E-mail: operationsdir@fwbbb.org
http://www.fwbbb.org
I am filing tired of dealing with a company that does not care about the customer.
November 11th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
[...] Ben’s Blog [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am
More phone numbers to call:
Nelson Chan, CEO: 408-615-5140
Sherry Hartwig, Exec Assistant to Chan: 408-615-5141 or 408-615-5144
Robert Gallegos/Hanam Vuong, Quality Assurance: 909-394-5000, type their names in the company directory.
Calling these top three are probably a waste of time. Gallegos gets so many voicemails that it’s always full and they will probably not return your calls. But call them if you want to waste their time like how they waste yours.
Tulsa repair center: 918-437-6180, press “0″ for your extention you want connected
Tulsa can help you ONLY IF YOU HAVE YOUR RA NUMBER. They cannot help you if you only have your case number given by Technical support.
I finally got a replacement unit (Maestro 3140 upgrade) after calling the technical support line for 6 weeks, finally talked to the RA department and they said that they are trying to resolve cases that are over a month old by sending new replacement units.
However, don’t expect them to update their customer databases. After getting hung up by technical support, I called back, got a condesending apology, and I replied with “don’t say that because I know you really don’t care.” He ended up being the most helpful person I talked to the entire experience.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I too have had nothing but frustration. Not only do I have an account ID number, UPS tracking number, R/A number, transaction ID number, email case number, but to no avail. On top of numerous phone calls speaking to people of India decent who are sometimes very hard to understand (English not good)I was told my unit would cost $127.00 for repair and gave my charge card number to only go home to my bank contacting me to confirm that I have a $12,700.00 charge. I called the next day back to magellan tech. support and demanded that someone call my bank to take this off my credit card and was told it was a “blunder.” After a three-way conference call this was taken care of. Only to be told they would send me a Maestro in place of my unit, but I would be charged $180. I went with it as I would be given a 1 year warranty on a better unit than I had and was told I would receive in 3-4 days which I have not. I called and left a voice mail on Sherry Harwig’s phone who according to your blog is Executive Assistant to Nelson Chan. Surprisingly, I received a phone call this morning by a guy named Frank who did not have a direct phone number I could call (oh surprise, surprise), but email him and he would take care of my issue. I will let all of you know what takes place. I have also contacted the Better Business Bureau in State of Texas and they are aware of the problem. They told me to fill out the complaint form at:
http://www.fwbbb.org and all complains are shipped to California as that is where magellan headquarters is located. I did also contact ATC Logistics & Electronics at: 800.466.4202 or 817.491.7727 according to your blog. I spoke with a woman there and she knows of the problem, but has been told to give out NO information regarding magellan units. In fact she told me there was a representative from Magellan in her building, but was instructed not to give phone numbers out, but she could transfer me only which she did and I left a voice mail, but I don’t expect to receive a call back. This person’s name is Manuel (spelling?). Will let you know what happens. Nightmare. Nightmare. If I have to I will take to a problem-solver with our local television stations in the State of Michigan.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
As if you need further evidence of why to avoid Magellan, it took multiple phone calls, e-mails and hours on hold, plus “GOING BALLISTIC” when the tech support tried to delay the process for the third time before we finally received a return authorization. They have had the $600 unit for 3 weeks now and have continued the “silent” treatment. I loved the device while it worked. It crapped out after about 6 months use – this is warranty work.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
PS. My stable of GPS’s includes one Garmin, one Furuno and two Magellans. The bad Magellan, Model 3050T, is the newest of the bunch and the only one with a problem. The diagnosis I received from the Indian call center never made any sense. After reading the above, it now seems they provide a standard diagnosis, regardless of the symptoms.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I am having the exact same problems with my Roadmate 2000 that broke after having only a few months, (still on warranty). After numerous calls to India and holding for hours, I finally received a “RA” number to return the unit. It’s been over the 14 day promised turnaround time and no GPS sent back. Called today and they said they didn’t receive my unit…..so I provided my tracking number that indicated they received the unit on Oct. 29th. Then they put me on hold for over an hour and told me that it would be another week. This is horrible customer service and I don’t believe they have any idea where my returned GPS is! Going to submit this to the BBB if I haven’t received the unit back by next week. I live in California….so if you have any other places to submit complaints I am willing to do so.
November 16th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Stay the course and bother these people everyday, until you talk to someone who knows what they are talking about. After a month and half I finally got my replacement the Maestro 3140 in the mail yesterday. My GPS that broke was the Magellan Roadmate 3050T, apparently these units had an internal flaw and there are 1000′s that have been returned. Nice of the company to let the people know, right? Anyhow, as long as you have all the required information, there is hope. Take care all.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
HELP BRIAN!!!
I have a very sad tale to tell. My roadmate 700 had an issue and I sent it in for repair. Same story as many others……….. told 2 week wait. No show and then 2 more weeks. No show. Each time I called. I finally got to talk to a lady and she said that “There are problems with a new program they have and there are THOUSANDS of units in Texas and they don’t know who belongs to what.” But they still tell people to send in their units to the texas repair facility to be fixed. Then this woman had the gall to tell me about this “great” offer for a 4050 all for only 265. (If I took an offer I got via email that they sent to anyone who had a unit registered with them I could buy the 4050 get 15% off with my AAA and then another 175 off for upgrading which would put me at 249 dollars LEss than their offer) ANyways here is where I need help…………..
I would never ever buy another Magellan. I just want my unit back. I don’t even want to fix it I just want it back. (thinking about smashing it to help get over my anger with them) But they said that It could be weeks or months before I get my unit back. Is there any recourse?? OR should I just kiss my unit goodbye and hope that magellan burns in the firey pits of bankrupsey. Really how can they get away with holding someone elses property and not do what they promised??
November 19th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
uh oh! my magellan 800 which we learned is a discontinued model.
It is almost a year old and has been in my car or in the house for charging. Now all of a sudden it won’t hold a charge. checked it out and found the connection for the chargers is gone and shaking within the system.
Called customer service and was given a RA# along with the address of repair center. Thank goodness I read these blogs and learned the real address…the one given to me was incorrect.
guess I will never see this again.
Since we’ve just moved to S.carolina was depending on this system to help us learn our way around.
think I may purchase another one for my wife and use hers.
I am hoping I don’t have the same problem all of you had but if I do will certainly be sending letters to the CEO and BBB.
Hate being jerked around…
November 19th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Thanks to all of you, we called Mr. Chan, we called his assistant, we called Ft. Worth and, armed with our collective tales of woe, we accepted no excuses, we TOOK NO PRISONERS and earlier today, “what to my wondering eyes did appear?” but a UPS truck delivering a box with my repaired Magellen 3050T. It started up and seemed to have all my data in it! Give credit where due, KEEP the FAITH and turn up the HEAT! – DBB
November 21st, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Magellan=NEVER AGAIN!
My GPS works but the cheepo little plastic cradle that holds it in my truck window broke off and I have been talking (over and over) to our Indian breathren for three months before finally (Click) deciding I was just getting the runaround.
Wrote a letter to the Magellan COO that I will never hear from but have placed my opinion on all three of my employees bulletin boards in case they are considering a GPS for someone this Christmas. Should help Garman or Tom Tom.
I won’t stop there, however. After the callous disregard I received from their company I feel a duty to spread the unflattering truth about Magellan.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:03 pm
There is some light at the end of the tunnel, and perhaps it will not be an oncoming train. If you think you’ve had trouble getting a unit repaired, which I have had, guess what happens when you buy new updated maps for your unit. I’m not sure which part of “simple” process Magellan does not understand, but I have been told there is hope. Magellan is in the process of moving their call answering/support location from India to the Philippines. We can only hope! Sherry Hartwig, assistant to Nelson Chan, is certainly helpful, and it is a pleasure to talk with someone who promises to help. We’ll see.
When they work, the Magellan GPS is wonderful, a dream to own and use.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Hello from Virginia-
Reading through the various complaints of Magellan repair nightmares, let me put mine in the hopper. My Roadmate 700 started acting up while still under warranty, and I called Tech Support in India. A number of times, I went through the same checks and procedures to no avail. Then strangely the unit started functioning again until it quit after the warranty expired.
I has updated my maps since I needed the unit for a European Business trip. I had to update all versions (NA and European maps) at a cost of over $300. I found out later that I did not need to pay about $100 for an unlock code for the European Map Version, since it was included in my $200 plus price. Refunds? Nope, they could not do that, but sent me discs. Great! I also paid almost $1000 for the unit through an authorized dealer.
After numerous calls that my unit was locking up, I was told to send it to the infamous repair center, but they needed a credit card before they provided an RA number. It would cost about $144. I did that and got a number. That was January 2007. I was told it would take about 8 weeks. I sent the unit via FEDEX to the provided address. In May, aafter trips to Germany, Austria and Latvia (No map but gives compass direction) without my unit, I finally called to ask about my unit. After long wait and numerous transfers, I was told the unit was ready to be shipped. Then I was asked to hold. I was then told that I had not provided them payment. I said I did. It seems that they never charged my credit card. I asked them to check and let me know. Right!
I started e-mailing and calling again. Each time they said I would hear back from them. Nothing. They now have provided a new number. They also offered to provide me with a Maestro at a special rate of $129. I said that was not acceptable, since it does no good in Europe for my business trips. Further, I can buy the unit locally for that price, so it is not a deal. A $129 unit with half the capability of the $1400 total I have paid. I was ready to once again give a credit card number. They said we will call ytou back after doing some more checking. First it was 3 days. There was no reply after 6 so called again. I was told I would get an answer in 4-6 hours. It is now 48 hours hence. When I called I said all I want is my unit back-repaired, or a unit that allows NA and Eurpean maps!
I am still waiting as of November 22, 2007.
If there is class action suit, please let me know.
Fred
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Well, I guess I should have known. After reading this blog I see that I have plenty of company. Two calls to India and no one has any idea as to what happened to my Magellan returned for repair a month ago. I had two months of use out of it before it quit calculating any route. The woman on the second call admitted to me that they have thousands of these problems right now and they have no way of locating my GPS from the repair order number. She said that there was no way to check if Magellan had even received it. She tried to blame the problem on the US postal service.
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS
I sent my GPS in for repair 2½ months ago and I am getting the same song and dance that everybody else is writing about so I won’t go into details.
So I will wage my own personal little war on Magellan and I hope everybody else does the same.
Go to Epinions.com and become a member so you can write reviews about your experiences of just how bad Magellan’s customer service is and why everybody should avoid this product. List your story on every Magellan product that you can find.
Maybe with enough bad reviews about their customer service the right people at Magellan will take notice and change the way they care for their customers after they have your money.
They won’t get another dime out of me !!!
November 25th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Mary:
I got the same response from tech support about blaming USPS. Your local post office will have tracking information about your package but it is still Magellan’s fault. My suggestion is to call Sherry Hartwig as a lot of people have had success talking to her.
Also, to everybody out there… I’m probably still filing a complaint to the BBB about my past incident and I will most likely be including this blog as my reference.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
In 2006, Thales Navigation was acquired by a group of investors led by Shah Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Santa Clara, California. The company was renamed Magellan and offers its leading consumer GPS solutions under the Magellan brand, and its innovative professional GPS solutions now under the Magellan Professional name.
In the U.S.
Raphel Finelli
Senior Public Relations Manager
Magellan GPS
408-250-1778 – Mobile
rfinelli@magellangps.com
magellan@fleishman.com
Santa Clara, California – Corporate Headquarters
471 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95050-4300
USA
Tel: +1 408 615 5100
Fax: +1 408 615 5200
November 25th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
since they are owned by an equity fund, expect no help or assistance. These funds cut expenses and care less about customers
November 30th, 2007 at 4:31 am
My two pennies…
Hush mentioned – “But call them if you want to waste their time like how they waste yours.”
This a double edged sword, because if you call just to waste their time, you are then actually wasting everyone elses time who also needs help getting there issue resolved. Don’t start flaming me yet… everyone here has every right to be upset, but you attract more bees with honey than vinegar. Imagine this… you speak with someone and need something from them, but you do nothing but chew them out… are they likely going to want to help you? Probably not.
Okay… if you want to flame now, feel free to do so. I personally like to take the nicer approach when it comes to getting resolution to a problem because nobody likes a a-hole. Plus, I always acheive more success that way. Hopefully I do not have similar experiences as you all have, but at the end of the day… my new Magellan was only $250.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:40 am
WOW. I guess I must add my two cents worh. Another nightmare in progress. I sent my Magellan 2200T in for repair as per the phone call with the support(haha)center. I sent the item in and got my return receipt. Since then, I have been in touch with the support center every few days. I get the same runaround everybody else does. I did call the center once I found the phone number on this blog, thank god, but they will not talk to me. They say it is the policy of Magellan that they cannot give out any information and they are told to tell anyone calling that they MUST call the support(cough, cough) center. I will gladly join in on the class action suit. They wanted to replace my item with a crossover one, whatever that is. All I want is my item replaced or my money back. I am indeed going to write a letter to the company president, again the info was supupled by another in this blog. I am thankful for this site that has given me the courage to continue to fight a company and their terrible, unjust efforts to make money by putting all of their customers at the very bottom of the pyramid and then stomping on us. Thanks again
December 7th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
My issue isn’t with the unit. It works fine. My issue is with the Software upgrade I purchased for my 3000T. The DVD they sent me doesn’t read the serial number of my 300T correctly. It begins with a “0″ but the software doesn’t read it, consequently the authorization code doesn’t work. I finished my 5th call to the very polite but ignorant tech support people who asure me every time that they will get back with me in 2 business days. I’ve yet to hear from anyone. I’ve sent email after email to their tech support with the case number, etc. And yet to get an satisfaction. I’m thinking about ditching it and going with Tom Tom for Palm. Or Gramin. What a crock
December 8th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Magellan recently sent me an offer to upgrade my maps at a $20 discount. When I attempted to log on I had a problem so I emailed them asking to reset my password. Their message stated you will receive a new password in your email shortly. Well, it has been close to a week and no reset password. I also made two useless calls to customer service. The first rep said he would pass along my email address to tech support and my password would be sent to me. Well, nothing has happened yet. My second call was a joke as the customer Rep told me they were having software problems and I asked how long has it been going on. He says it just started and I state well I have been requesting a new password to over two days so can you explain that. Has anyone ever talked to a brick. I have emailed Mr. Finelli who is their Public Relations guru and have not received a response as of yet. I will try to obtain the new map DVD for free based on all the run arounds and wait times I have had to experience. If not I will use the unit as is and eventually purchase a Tom Tom or Garmin. I’ll do some research first. The bottom line is that Magellan doesn’t care about the customer and think about it, if one has to escalate there definitely is something wrong. I am a persistent individual and will continue to call, send emails and letters to hopefully get what I deserve. If not I’ll feel good knowing that I have wasted someone’s time at Magellan as they have wasted mine. As of now they are a useless and pathetic company. The way I see it they will be sitting in last place regarding GPS units very soon. Go to epinions.com and join and voice your opinion about Magellan. Let’s hit em where it hurts. If enough people become aware of their poor service perhaps someone at their company headquarters will do their job. Most times the corporate elite never go into the trenches and get dirty. It’s about time they sat at the customer service desk and fielded some calls and monitored their customer service staff.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
On 11/21, I wrote of problems with attempting to install newly purchased maps for a Magellan 6000
T. I talked with Sherry Hartwig, administrative asistant to the CEO Nelson Chan, at 408-615-5141. She promised someone would contact me to correct the problem the week after Thanksgiving. Although I did not get a call until 12/3, I did get a call with a corrected authorization code, and IT WORKED. Give her a call. She is a woman of action, and perhaps you will get some needed action.
December 11th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Well, my experience with magellan, they don’t deserve a capital M in their name, has finally come to a close. It got rough for awhile. At first my gps was lost, then it wasn’t, then it was, then it was actually at the repair depot in Ft. Worth with software issues, then it was lost again! Every time I called I got a different story. I kept complete records of each call and each time was told that that person would investigate and call me the next day. No one would call back so I would call them the following day. Always got a different person who would not let me speak to the person who promised to call back. Then on one call was told that they had decided to replace my gps with one which costs less than half of what I paid for mine and were in the process of getting ready to send it. I told them in no uncertain terms I wanted an identical replacement or a complete refund! Meanwhile I called the numbers listed above for the ceo and his secretary, they don’t deserve capital letters either, and never got a response from them. Filed a formal complaint with the BBB in California but with magellan not being a participating member was told they couldn’t do much. Bought the gps originally from Bass Pro Shop so I called their corp. hq. and filed a complaint with them. They put me in touch with the magellan rep from whom they buy and he promised to help. Got nothing from him at all. Then, while calling back after another rep somehow failed to check things out and call me, the rep I spoke with told me they now agreed that the gps was indeed lost and would send an exact replacement. A week later I got an email from them saying they were processing the order and were going to send a replacement. A week later the gps showed up. The serial number sticker on the back side in the battery compartment had obviously been peeled from another gps and hastily stuck on this one. There was an error when trying to access the memory card slot but I solved that. They then had the nerve to send an email with a link to a customer satisfaction survey that I needed to fill out on their performance! I clicked on the link but should have known better. The link doesn’t work! Felt like Charlie Brown must have felt each time Lucy held the football for him to kick.
The plan now is to sell everything I own with the magellan name on it asap. Definitely do not plan on going through this again. Not sure what to buy but will definitely check a company’s customer service department before buying anything. Also found out some companies won’t post a negative review on products they sell. One example is http://www.tigergps.com. Guess it hurts their sales to do so. So I will definitely stay away from them too. What an experience this has been! Pretty frustrating and very stressful. But for what’s worth if you’re persistent enough you can get results and the nightmare will end. Even Dorothy got to wake up after awhile! Take care and I wish you all the best. Hang in there and don’t give up.
P.S. To Jesse on November 30th at 4:31am:
I agree with tactfulness being the key to success but after they outright lie to you a few times and treat you like the dirt on the bottom of your shoes you might feel that it’s time for a change in strategy too. And I don’t care if someone takes me for $2.50 or $250 it still irks me to no end. Since money is no big deal to you and if you’ve got more to throw away I’ve got an earth worm farm in the back yard that I’d love to sell ya. Good Luck!
December 12th, 2007 at 7:51 am
JoeV Says: Magellan recently sent me an offer to upgrade my maps at a $20 discount. When I attempted to log on I had a problem so I emailed them asking to reset my password.
I got this software update offer too. When I attempted to purchase the unit, I got an error message saying my zip code was invalid! Believe me, I know my own zip code! I emailed customer service but got no response so decided to try again using my work address. When I returned to the website, it said the update DVD was sold out. How could that possibly be?? Sold out? Burn a few more CD’s for goodness sake!! Great suggestion to post comments to epinions…will do.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I am having a problem with Magellan. I sent my unit off to get repaired August 28, 2007. They took my credit card information to charge me for repairing the unit and said it would be a couple of weeks. A month went by and I had not received my unit back. I called Magellan and to get someone who did not speak English on the phone. They promised me it would be a week, a week later I had not received my GPS. I called back to speak to someone else that did not speak English, I ended up just upgrading the unit for almost $300 and they took my credit card information again.
I have talked to the customer service department in India over a dozen times and every time they give me a new date in which I will receive my new unit. Here it is December 12 and still to unit. I can not get anyone on the phone to HELP ME.
I have called corporate to get the same message as the over seas number. I have tried to get a real person at corporate on the phone by trying different departments, only to get voicemails that are full. I finally got a voicemail that was not full and left a message for the Quality Department and never received a call back.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I purchased a 6000T from Walmart about a year ago. On October 29th, I purchased a map upgrade which required a firmware upgrade from version 1.15 to 1.16.
I followed the upgrade instructions when I selected the SD card to receive the update on rather than the USB which should have been selected. The unit was waiting for an SD card. At this point I thought rather than have a problem with my unit, I would telephone your support. This I did and I had the misfortune to speak to someone called “Peter Wilson” who rather then trying to understand what my screen was displaying, just instructed me to press the reset button. I expressed my concern and he assured me that it was the correct thing to do. I did as instructed and the unit just came back with a blank screen no matter how many times I powered it up and down. I mentioned to “Peter” that all I got was a blank screen and he casually said “your unit is broken. It must be a power problem. See if it works in the car”. I mentioned that I was using the AC adaptor that was supplied with the upgrade and also that the batteries were charged and in addition the green power light was illuminated and so this can’t be the problem. “Peter” insisted that it was and that I should try it in the car. He just wanted to get rid of me.
I called back and spoke to numerous people trying to get them to understand that my device was broken because of negligence within Magellan’s support. These people were devoid of any emotion whatsoever and just came to the conclusion that the unit was broken and that I should send it back to be repaired. I eventually spoke to a supervisor who said that they would raise an RA and gave me a number. I mentioned that this was not my fault and I should not have to pay for shipping as I would already lose the unit for 2 weeks plus. The supervisor said that I would receive a label within 24 hours. This was in excess of a month ago now. I call back support, speak to what seems to be a robot, spell my name letter by letter, explain the same thing again, getting the usual “sorry” and that I should wait another 24 hours. I then tell them that I go through this every day and that I know I’m not going to get the label. They say “yes you will”, I wait again and the cycle begins the next day again. I have noted a few of the people involved in my daily ritual:-
Peter Wilson
Nichole
Julie
Max Davids
Sam Richard
Jenny
Walter Shy X 2
Nester
Justin Richardson
Jack Taylor
Jerry Craig
Ashley
Kevin
The last 2 people on this list hung up on me.
During my conversations, I gave a Hotmail account as they thought that maybe a spam filter could be the problem. I know that it would not be a problem as I have never had an issue before. I did get excited when I opened an email from Vishaal Isaac from Magellan in my hotmail account on December 6th. Unfortunately this was a survey to see how well support was performing. I went to complete the survey as I wanted to let them know how bad the “service” was but I just got “Page not Found” when I clicked on the link. You really couldn’t make this up if you tried!
I really can’t believe that a company could outsource to a company such as Slash Support to save a few dollars. I would sooner pay an extra $10 and not have this terrible experience. This seems to me to be corporate suicide. What is Magellan thinking? In my 25+ years in IT, I have never seen anything like this and it is shameful. Any number you try at Magellan will result in a voicemail being taken or me being transferred to a robot in India. Nobody at Magellan seems to care.
After reading everyone elses experiences, I am scared to send it back although the unit’s dead anyway. Maybe I’ll go to Walmart although the unit’s out of warranty and shout load about them dealing with this dreadful company.
Needless to say, I will tell everyone I know about this and put my story on as many forums I can. In addition, I’m tempted to buy a http://www.magellan-sucks.com website and put everyones stories on it so that when people search for Magellan, they will see the real face of this shameful company.
How can Best Buy, Walmart and Target etc. deal with this company???? It is totally beyond me…Maybe we all need to let them know how much this company stinks.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Mindy — try this person at Magellan:
Sherry Hartwig, administrative asistant to the CEO Nelson Chan, at 408-615-5141.
Remember, it’s Pacific Standard Time.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Here’s my story:
Thank you for contacting Magellan. This email is in response to your query
about the Roadmate 760.
Our Sincere apologies for the delay in responding your email.
We understand from your mail that you would like to send the unit for repair
as it doesn’t power on.
We are sorry to inform that the unit is no longer serviceable and updatable.
However, The Magellan Trade-in Program allows you to trade your older GPS in
for a different model, at a discounted price:
We have a trade-in program where you can trade your older GPS in for a
different model at a discounted price. The trade-in units are re
manufactured and come with a 90-day warranty.
There would be a $6 S&H charge ($35 for Canada) plus tax if it applies plus
the cost of the trade-in GPS.
For more information about Trade in, we request that you please contact our
Technical Support at 800-707-9971.
They say that the model is not updatable nor replacable….all they wud d is trade it in for some recertified cheap shiit!!! cheap bastards.
GUYS…..DONT BUY ANY MAGELLAN GPS SHIT…..OR U NEED TO REPENT LATER…..strange that a map update screwed it up!!!
December 16th, 2007 at 8:22 am
srinivas,
If their map update damaged your unit which is what happened to me although a negligent “technician” was really responsible, I would not let them get away with not fixing it. I’m sure you won’t….trouble is that you need to go through the pain barrier with the “technical” company in India first…this does not feature in the top 10 of my pleasant experiences of 2007.
December 16th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I dont have the patience and time to deal with the ” excellent” customer service of magellan…..I already ordered a garmin nuvi 650 from costco( getting it for 337.10 with taxes). I’ll deal with these crooks when i get time……i already mailed them and u can see their response above…..i replied back to that mail and waitig for a reply…..
Yea….that idea of magellan-sucks.com is not a bad idea…..at least people wud come to know what sort of fcuked up comapany it is……
December 17th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I called the number posted for Magellan’s third party repair listed in an above post: ATC Logistics & Electronics
13500 Independence Parkway
Fort Worth, TX 76177
Phone: (817) 491-7727
Toll Free: (800) 466-4202
Fax: (972) 466-6345
Info@atcle.com
They are good little solders and would not tell me anything other then “call the 800″ number” and speak to someone in India. I thought I would try turning on some of the old “Charm” since I was speaking to a lady. In no time at all had her laughing and, well I thought, eating out of the palm if my hand. But when I went for the info I was looking for she immediatly reverted to solder mode and told me to call India… O’Well. I can tell you one thing, I will NEVER buy a Magellan product again. My unit is less then a year old, It locked up on a fogy morning while I was navigating around some islands on Smith Mtn. Lake in VA. I could not see a thing but I had the Islands marked on my GPS so I knew where they were. Half way a cross the lake the unit powered off and would not re-start. I had a Megellan 400 explorest.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Want to re-remind everybody of my earlier post.
Nelson Chan, CEO: 408-615-5140
Sherry Hartwig, Exec Assistant to Chan: 408-615-5141 or 408-615-5144
Robert Gallegos/Hanam Vuong, Quality Assurance: 909-394-5000, type their names in the company directory.
Tulsa repair center: 918-437-6180, press “0″ for your extention you want connected
Tulsa can help you ONLY IF YOU HAVE YOUR RA NUMBER. They cannot help you if you only have your case number given by Technical support.
Some people above have had success with Sherry.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Can someone give me mail id of top manager of customer service in Magellan GPS.
I too have worst story with the customer service of magellan.
7 calls, 3 emails, 2 promises to call me back, 2 case ids (one is 789562), still issue is not resolved.
Maestro 3100 Unit is not catching signal for more than 1 hour during start up. I want to do trade with higher version of gps.
Emailing just generates case IDs, nothing else
Calling customer service, directs to technical dept, technical directs to customer service. Explain them complete story every time.
Now they have stopped even replying to my mails.
Someone should sue this company.
Kalpesh Gala
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
FINALLY RECEIVED MY UNIT………PLEASE READ!!!
I will not bore you with the details of my dealings with Magellan. Lets just say that my story is pretty much identical to all of yours. On GOOD faith I returned my unit (Roadmate 2000) for repairs in September. They couldn’t fix it, lost it, the excuses. Countless calls later the problem was still unresolved. Numerous promises by their reps are never fulfilled. I had pretty much given up all hope until I came across this blog! This past Monday I contact Sherry Hartwig, Mr Chans executive secretary. I left her a lengthy message about my problems with their customer service department. I also advised her that I had already registered a complaint with the BBB of California and the Consumer Fraud Protection Agency. I warned that I would not stop there and would be contacting any and all agencys that I could letting them know that Magellan was defrauding the public and should NOT be allowed to sell their products in the United States and that there license to conduct business in the State of California or anywhere else should be revolked. Two days later I received not 1, not 2, but 4 telephone calls from someone named Tyler who was going to resolve my issue. The very next day a BRAND NEW Maestro 3140 showed up on my door step and it WORKS beautifully.
To everyone who has been having difficulties with this company PLEASE PLEASE call Sherry Hartwig at the number listed above. You will get her voice mail but this is your only hope for getting your problems resolved. I would also encourage you all to register complaints with the California BBB and the Consumer Fraud Protection Agency.
Also if anyone else has had success please post your update.
December 24th, 2007 at 2:06 am
I have just received my “repaired” 4040 unit back with “many” of the same stories that I have read in the above statements. The unit is still not functioning correctly. So, do I go through all of this again? I think we need to get a federal or state by state class action suit against Magellan or some type of unified movement that will get this whole mess straightened out or have them banned from doing business in this country. This is a total disgrace! I sure wish I had read all of these cases before making my purchase. I want to go to the local circuit city and best buy stores and many others and tell the managers to stop selling their equipment immediately, because of the terrible way they are giving the customers the big run-a-round. I just retired and planned to travel using the gps and I now have time to drive to Fort Worth or Tulsa and look these people up face-to-face and I damn well plan to do it if I don’t get satisfaction. For the person who lived only a few miles from the Fort Worth location, I hope you dropped in and found them. I would like to know what is really there, if anything.
December 24th, 2007 at 9:10 am
If Jim from Fort Worth is still reading this blog, please respond. I would like to know if you have tried to find the Fort Worth “repair” shop. I have spotted the address they gave on my mapping system as well as taken a look at the building on google earth. It is a very large structure in an industrial area just off of the old Denton highway (377) and the Alliance Gateway Freeway (170), just west of the Fort Worth/Alliance Airport about 3.5-4 miles (as the crow flies) and it appears to be in the southern part of the Fort Worth suburb of Roanoke, according to my mapping skills. I had already told the deaf ears of people in India several times that I wanted to contact somebody in that Fort Worth facility to get some answers and they gave me all of the same results that I have seen in many of the above blogs. They don’t want me as an enemy, because I will take action and expect results. If any of you want to join this crusade, please let me know. I am not above the seven hour drive to go after them and get results. Of course, I will first take the softer route and call the numbers that some of you have provided to see if I can actually talk to an “American” who will have some straight answers and give some satisfaction.
December 24th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Opps. Sorry, the facility is just “East” of the Fort Worth/Alliance airport and not West as I said in my last note.
December 25th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Well at last I was contacted by Magellan once I fired emails to various addresses I found on the Internet. I’m pleased to say that it was not a representative of the Indian call center that called but an American….at last….I’m not being racist in any way but English speaking support should be provided for an English speaking market and competence would also be nice.
I was sent a brand new 4250 and a label to send my old one back. They took my credit card information just in case they did not receive my unit within 30 days. Let’s hope that when I send my unit back, they don’t lose it and don’t then take the payment on my credit card. I can see that one coming….
This is what they should have done at the start once I spoke to India and I would have been satisfied with that and even been a future customer of Magellan again.
I hope that others on this thread get a resolution to their problems. It took me over 5 weeks but I got there at the end.
December 26th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I have just printed this entire blog all 32 pages of it. I am going to be forwarding it, along with an equally legnthy letter, to the corportate offices of all the major retailer that carry the Magellan GPS devices, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City etc. I am also going to request that they no longer carry this product line. Maybe if they don’t have a market for their substandard product they will have to cease doing business in the U.S. (I wonder what kind of market there is for GPS devices in India?) My problem was finally resolved after 4 months but this is an absolute DISGRACE.
December 27th, 2007 at 1:57 am
After reading the postthis is going to seem like piling on, but two months ago I paid for the update for the 6000, received a DVD and an autorization code that doesnt work. After trying everything I could think of to get it to work, I sent an e-mail and received a quick response to type the number 0 and use the letter o and it will work. Why didnt I think of that. Anyways multiple phone calls to the company promising call backs that they know were not going to happen, multiple e-mails saying they are sorry and now a new e-mail, stating they need to test thier update program and too wait a couple of more weeks. For $80.00 I have received 6 e-mails and 3 promises to have someone call me back. Thats the best Christmas deal of the season for me.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:09 am
This just in, the e-mail address they gave me to follow up regarding the update, is invalid, e-mail was returned to me.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Wow, I couldn’t believe I found this with all the similar complaints and reason that Magellan provided me. My dilemma started November 27, 2007 when I sent my Maestro 3100 for repair. I bought the unit in August 2007 from Best Buy. I was given an RA number and was told that it would be 2-3 weeks for repair. When I called for the first time to see what the status was on my unit, Magellan (India & Philippines all the time) told me they were waiting for a tracking number presumably from UPS and they indicated that it had been sent out but to the wrong address. Magellan said they were able to track it down before it reached the wrong address and get it back. That’s where the tracking number saga started. What baffles me is that I called 4-5 times after that and the same story about this ‘phantom’ tracking number was being waited on and wait 2-3 day, 3-5 days, 7-10 days and even a month before they would even consider replacing the unit. They even asked me for my tracking number when I originally sent it in and thankfully I have that but that tells me they don’t trust customers that they actually mailed them in. How appalling!!!! I confirmed that the customer service representatives supposedly can’t communicate with anyone in the US whether at corporate or the service center in Dallas. My feeling is that they lost my unit and I will never see it again. In the latest phone call, I was actually able to talk to a supervisor or supposedly service center representative and he told me that my 3100 would be replaced with the Maestro 3250 and I should receive it in 10 business days. We’ll see about that. One of the representatives told me my unit has been waiting to ship since December 2nd and that the 3100s were out of stock. The story just kept getting more confusing. This company with 68,000 employees having this kind of customer service is absolutely insulting and the worst disgrace of customer treatment I have ever seen. I would never expect this from a company this size. Eventually, this will catch up with them if they don’t step up & provide the customer service that is expected. It doesn’t bother me that they outsource their customer service but representatives need to have good English speaking & understand skills. The representatives I talked to were understanding how I felt but I think they feel helpless because Magellan doesn’t exemplify how to properly address customer’s needs. I’m not recommending their products unless I see a turnaround in my situation. I will keep bugging them until either I get the replacement (3250), my repaired or replaced unit (3100) or my money back. I will also take some of the advice people have left on this blog as well. I’ll keep posting what’s going on. Good luck to everyone.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I can’t believe what I have just read for the past 1/2 hr. I was looking for a phone number to contact someone regarding my unit that I sent back to the Fort Worth Tx Repair Center on Nov. 19th. And came across this blog. I am appalled as is everyone else and very upset knowing that I will probably never see my gps again. I have since bought a Garmin and love it. But I still want my Magellan back! Do I dare hope that I might see it again. I will be contacting Sherry Hartwig tomorrow morning and keep my fingers crossed that I might actually get to talk to someone.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:47 am
I was having the same issue with Magellan customer service as all you folks. So I went to the Magellan page looking for an email address or phone number for some one to yell at. What I did find was an e-mail for the media relations guy. So using the same e-mail naming, I emailed the CEO.
Well in a day or two I got a call and now have a new Triton at home. I hope it never needs a repair. I guess I will just toss it in the trash if it does.
For what its worth the email addresses I used are..
rfinelli@magellangps.com
nchan@magellangps.com
The person how contacted me did say he was contacted by both of these guys, he even mentioned the sent by name on the email account I used.
Hope this helps.
I still need to get a unit for my car and the trucks at work need GPS units as well.
Garmin here I come.
January 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Well, I have just two things to comment about today. Firstly. my adventure with magellan began Oct. 15th and ends today. Everything I owned with the magellan name on it has been sold and is no longer on my property. What a relief to be rid of it all! Secondly, I’d like to thank Ben for this website. Without it I would have had to face magellan alone with no knowledge of just how pitiful they truly are and probably would have never seen my gps again. As they say here in good ol’ Tennessee, “You’re the man!”. Hopefully all of you will resolve your beef with them to your satisfaction as well. Now I’ve got to decide between a Garmin and the new Bushnell that has live weather radar via XM satellite. By the way both of these companys’ customer service departments are here in the US. So magellan did actually teach me something. Best of luck to everybody!
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:39 am
Ok, here is another episode of the Magellan soap opera to update you from my original note on December 28, 2007. I decided to write Magellan through their e-mail on their website and here is the response they provided and look where they told me to go to. Unbelievable!!!! They apologized about not responding to my e-mail but I wasn’t worried about that. I am waiting until January 10th to see if they will be sending the new unit they promised in 10 business days.
Dear Gary,
Your Email case XXXXXX has been Updated.
CaseID: XXXXXX (a real CaseID number was provided)
Thank you for contacting Magellan. This email is in response to your query
about the GPS.
Our Sincere apologies for the delay in responding your email.
We understand from your mail that you would like to know about the RA status
for your unit.
We request that you please contact our Technical Support at 1-800-707-9971
and your call will be transferred to the department concerned and your issue
will be processed.
If you have further queries, please get back to us. Kindly use this link:
http://www.magellangps.com/support/ to reply to the email.
You can also contact our Technical Support at 1-800-707-9971 for further
assistance.
————————————
Regards,
.
Magellan Email Support.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Do I see an ad at the top of this page for tigergps.com bragging that they’re a magellan authorized dealer? What a place for a magellan gps ad! And they’re the website that wouldn’t post a negative ad I submitted for the magellan gps I bought. If I were you I’d put about as much faith in tigergps.com as I would in magellan.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Well, the tigergps.com ad by Google has disappeared from above. Not going to make any money advertising magellan products here I guess.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
WOW!!!! I have been going through the exact same thing since Nov.16. Sent in my Explorist XL(insured of course). Well as everyone else already knows, a months went by and I started getting curious as to what is going on. So I call the ‘lovely’ India phone center and proceed to get “We never recieved your unit, can you send a fax to us “attention Bob” with a copy of your USPS receipt?” I did so. Called back and they transfered me to the RA. I got a guy named “Jim”(Employee #5510168) who said they had lost the unit and they would give us a replacement for free and he would call me back with a replacement and tracking number. Well Guess What? You Know what happened next! NOTHING! Now it has been more than a month and a half. Called several days ago and they stated they were going to once again send a free replacement unit. Well once again they never called back with the “New” replacement and tracking #’s! I even tried calling the ATCLE contact number and I get this polite lady saying she cannot give me any infor except for the 800 number which, you guessed it, is INDIA. I call back and ask if there is anyone there I could talk to and she told me there are no direct lines with the repair facility and that she just works next door at their phone answer service center.
I have sent letters to both the addresses provide by Thom. I will post again once I recieve any information.
Good luck to all!
January 4th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Has anyone contacted the Better Business Bureau in California yet? I am wondering if anyone else has had success with them. Please do so ASAP then contact Sheri Hartwig, executive secretary for Magellan (number above) This worked for me. I received not one but two new units from Magellan (I’m sure it was a mistake). I will be keeping both units to compensate me for all the aggravation they put me thru. One week after receiving the new units my original unit, the one they claimed was lost, was returned to me.
Don’t give up!!! Keep after these guys. Contact the BBB and the consumer fraud protection agency. They can really help.
January 4th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Randy,
The ads I run on my website are automatically selected by Google.
–Ben
January 4th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Ben,
After tigergps.com refused to post my negative review of a magellan gps I thought they didn’t believe that I was being truthful so I emailed them and listed this site as proof that people are indeed dissatisfied with magellan. I thought maybe they somehow saw a sales opportunity and decided to advertise here. Sorry for the mixup.
Randy
January 6th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
having the same problem but i insured my 3050t with the post office and also asked for a return signature of which in the last 3 weeks have not recieved this unit was sent to fort worth, I will be calling them mon. morning for sure because if they refused to sign for the unit I want it back or a letter from them so that I may file the insurence with the post office either way if not satisified will be contacting the attorney general on both magellian and the repair center.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Well I sent e-mails to both the CEO and Director of Sales last friday, no reply yet. Today I called Sherry Hartwig, got her answering machine, and followed the directions for customer assistance. Supposidly she will call me back today. But I won’t hold my breath. We will see. If nothing happens, I will contact the BBB and Attorney Generals Office in california and tennessee and file a complaint against Magellian.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
If I had read these blogs before hand, I never would have purchased this Roadmate 22oot. The lens is cracked after one use and the batterry does not hold a charge. Called customer service, had nothing but trouble. Sounds like this hole experence is going to be nothing but trouble
January 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Hi Ben,
Google Adsense allows you to block a specific URL if desired.
Ben Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Randy,
The ads I run on my website are automatically selected by Google.
–Ben
January 9th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I’ve had the most frustrating time dealing Magellan. I bought an eXplorist 600 to take on fishing trips. After realizing no one the face of the earth had Mapsend Lakes North in stock I decided to purchase it off Magellan’s website. It was going to cost more but I figured I’d have the maps for the weekend. WRONG. After realizing that a supposed 10 minute encryption of the map was taking over three hours to complete I decided to call customer service. What fun, wait on hold for 40 plus minutes to be told there is something wrong with the website which will be resolved in 48 hours. Didn’t happen. I called again, waited for 40 minutes, was transferred to tech support, waited for another 50 minutes and then was told I’d receive a phone call within 48 hours with details on how to get my maps. Didn’t happen. I emailed the company hoping someone would at least respond and assure me they are dealing with the problem. Not after 4 emails to have I heard anything. Now after about 10 calls, countless lies, and hours of frustration I’ve had it. I may sue. I’ve recorded the last 6 phone calls and have the emails to prove how they lied to me. This is my money they’re playing with; this is my time they’re wasting. I don’t like to be up in the air about anything but this company is keeping in the dark. This company doesn’t care. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
OMG, what a tragedy (monetary) … I am retired, on a limited income so friends and family bought a 3000T two years ago and fortunately(?), they purchased an extended service policy.
Well, 3-1/2 months ago it stopped working, I took it back to Fry’s and they sent it in for repair. It was to take 6 to 8 weeks.
So far, so bad … no unit, no feedback, no nothing.
And from reading all of the above hope is definitely fading of ever getting it back.
They do not respond to ANYTHING, from either me or Fry’s.
I will not let it rest until I get some kind of satisfaction but hope I am young enough (72) to see this to the end.
I think we should all hold the dealers’ feet to the fire as well and get this product off the market entirely. Why subject anyone else to this torture?
I truly find that manufacturers seriously do not care about their reputation anymore. They build things to last for maybe 5 years max and then everyone can just go to hell.
I would also like to think a lesson has been learned but now what … spend another $600+?
January 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Even though my issue has been successfully resolved I keep following this blog hoping that everyone else gets as lucky as I did.
Today I receved an email from the US Governments Department of Consumer Affairs (I registered a complaint with them against Magellan) They advised that my complaint falls outside the DCA’s regulatoty authority. They suggest that I contact the Better Business Bureau, which I did and the California Consumer Protection Agency (did not contact them). The Department of Consumer Affairs also recommends filing complaints against Magellan in Small Claims Court. Which I am not sure is feasable for most of us.
If anyone else has had ANY success with Magellan please post it. Also I did receive a message from Magellan that they want the second unit they sent me in error back…….FAT CHANCE!
Good Luck & Don’t Give Up
January 16th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I want to thank all of you who posted your story on the blog.With information you provided I decided that instead of sending my Mestro 3250 through the repair process, I would take it back to the store that it was purchased at “Best Buy” and requested that they refund my purchase. I explained the issues I had with the unit and since it was still within the Xmas return policy time frame the refunded me the total purchase price.( i will assume that this is the main reason I got the refund)
Thank you all for your input which saved me from the possible same fate you have been describing. I will be looking at the Garmin products for the future and advising all that I know not to consider the Magellan products.
The problem I had with the Mestro 3250- Purchased as a Xmas gift on 12/6/07- opened on 12/25/07, activiated on 12/28/07- worked fine until 1/11/08 when the software locked up and did not allow me to proceed to the welcome page. Followed the same process as you all did by calling the service support group in India, told them my problem
received the apporpriate song and dance of you will need to send it to Texas, for repair etc, etc.
Since I had planned to send the unit via UPS I was trying to locate the telephone number for shipping purposes and came across Ben’s blog the rest is now stated above. Thanks again to all for the input. The magellan system may not be working, but thanks to you all the Right system does work.
Good Luck & Keep the complaints coming.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Jim,
I’m really pleased that someone has been saved from all of the above experiences and that you didn’t end up in the pit of dispair with the majority of the contributors…
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
Thank you to the person who posted Sherry Hartwig’s phone number. My story is similar to others. Purchased a Roadmate 800 at BJs Club about 18 months ago. I was excited before Christmas to see that there was a map update available. Ordered the map update, got the DVD and the authorization code didn’t work. Tried calling the 800 number twice and e-mailed them always getting the same response. A new code will be sent in 24-48 hours. Nothing ever showed up. In January I while searching for the name and phone number of the president I came accross this blog. Called Ms. Hartwig, left a voice mail, someone from the US called me the next day with a new unlock code. It worked fine and my unit is running well with new maps installed.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Well let me throw this in with all the other complaints. It was the same problem with the lakes usa north software. i purchased them on jan 10 and was leaving to go out of town to go fishing in illinois on the 12. Needless to say I didnt get the maps in time. Ive called at least 10 times in a week and a half with no results, just bold faced lies like “there is a problem with our server, we will email you an alternate link to map in 24 to 48 hours”,i was given this lie four times until finally i found this blog and got the number to the ceo in california. I talked to Sherry, a very nice American Woman who was very apologetic. She gave the direct number to the Vice President of customer service and assured me that he was the direct source to solve my common problem they have been having. His name is Frank Adler and his direct number is 909-394-7041 and his cell phone is 909-319-1184. I left messages on both phones about 15 minutes ago and i am awaiting a response from him. i will update my statements when i here from Frank Adler.
January 24th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Hi,
I must agree with everyone who states poor customer service. I am totally disappointed with my purchase of a roadmate 6000t in March 07.
I have eagerly been awaiting the map update and hopefully software updates as my 6000t isn’t always accurate with routes or text to speech directions. After routinely visiting the website and waiting for what I was told would be a free update, I now find that the map update is going to cost 80.00 usd. Interestingly enough, there is also a software update included which albeit corrects some of the issues I have encountered with my unit. The software update of course is not available for free.
If I am not mistaken, the product literature when I purchase the unit provided for free regular updates.
Customer service is useless and of course they have difficulties understanding me and I have difficulties understand them. I work in software and am acustom to various regional Indian accents, but Magellan apparently hires whoever can speak some form of broken english. I asked my latest customer service rep if she knew what class action meant.. She replied.. ‘Is that a website’!
I will check product literature again to clear any misunderstandings I have of free updates. I would be interested in participating in any form of formal complaints.
Thanks to others for providing phone numbers.
Magellan sucks! Never again will I buy any of their products.
John
January 24th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Frist to say I love the meter (310 & 400)but NOT the service? Ny first meter needed an unlock code that the people in customer service couldn’t provied and after hours I was transfered to a capable lady in the states that spoke english. Oh boy now the topo maps work!!! There were several questions as how to get the gps functions mastered and found a rep that knew all answers and asked for him by name every time. He is no longer there. UBS conection broke inside meter and tried all sugestions but ended up gettin RA and sending unit back. No longer have parts, unit discontinued, etc.The solution was to pay more and trade for explorist 400. Worked fine and was happy to have the larger memory. Tradgedy… the lens was cracked and got RA number. Sent unit back Dec 17 Fed-x. Got it back yesterday Jan 23 and the “new” lense had protective tape on it. Pulled off the tape and there are two groves on the face just off the side of the screen that look like they were made by a razor knife.
It will be easier to learn one of the Indian dialects than to deal with those very polit and empty service reps again. I’m calling all the state side numbers I can. Never will I give my credit card number to some one who scratched up the face before I recieved the instrument. The repair ticket just gives the part number not the procedure.
While waiting for return I called and was passed off to three reps, spent 55 min. to find out we have not been able to locate your meter. What a company.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:24 am
DITTO!!!
WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER MAGELLIAN PRODUCT!!!
January 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Well its been since 11/07 19 e-mails and 3 phone calls. Today I have contacted the BBB, sent e-mails to every e-mail that has been noted in this blog, and called every number listed in this blog, will keep you informed on what if anything worked. To see my original complaint I have the 81 post on this blog.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Its been six days since i spoke with the vice president of customer service and still no results, these people are freaking rediculous! still no usa lakes north maps.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
still no results from these clowns, i will join in on the class action suit if it legitimate. please comment.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
My Magellan 3100 broke within the 1st two weeks I had it. While it was suctioned to the windshield, it fell and cracked the LCD screen. When I called to try to get it fixed, they said that only defects were covered under the warranty. Well after being on the phone for about an hour and talking to about 4 people, I convinced them that there was a defect in the suction which made it break. Well after about 3 phone calls (each lasting 30-45 minutes), I finally got my GPS back fixed. It took exactly a month from the day I sent it in (sent:12/18 returned 1/29).
January 31st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I received a Magellan Maestro 3250 for Christmas. The power/charger cords plug into the USB port. When I charge the unit, whether in the car or in the house, a screen comes up saying:
“USB Connected
The USB has been connected to the unit. Please follow instructions from PC application for updating maps or software. Please make sure your battery is fully charged or power connected to prevent any power failure during file transfer.”
This screen cannot be bypassed and renders the device unusable while plugged in. On long car trips, there is no way to charge while simultaneously using the device. It cannot be plugged in and operate at the same time. How do I get the device to differentiate between power flowing through the USB port and a PC connection in the USB port? Or is this even the problem? Many thanks.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I have had the same poor customer service as everyone else. Long wait times, please call back in 48 hours, we sent you a unit, blah blah blah. I was told my unit was lost and they would send a new one. Never happened. On Dec 21 I filed a complaint with the BBBB in Illinois. Which just so happened to be the exact same day they shipped out a new unit to me! By the way this started in the middle of October. Of course Magellan’s reply to the complaint was that they had sent a new unit. They took 2 weeks to reply. In my complaint I stated I wanted a refund of the purchase price, the accesories I bought for the unit and the shipping costs to send in the unit for repair. They refused stating they had sent a replacement already and no refund would be issued. They also promised an unlock code for Mapsend. I never received this either. So back to the BBB I went. Magellan’s reply was that they would supply the code, but left no directions as to how to go about getting it! Here’s the kicker…just last Tuesday (1/22)I received my ORIGINAL GPS in working order, you know, the one they “lost.” I still have both units and am trying decide if I will keep them or not.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Vice President of customer service, Frank Adler, is definitely the person to contact. I was able to contact him at the numbers listed below and he followed up by having a customer service rep. to call me. Perhaps this posting is premature because my issue has not been resolved yet, BUT I have been told that it will be within the next few days. FRANK ADLER IS THE MAN!!! His direct number is 909-394-7041 and his cell phone is 909-319-1184.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
UPDATE to Jan. 14rh complaint. I emailed Mr. Chan (President) directly and within the week he had Mr. R. Davis call (Service Manager)… after a tough conversation he told me to go back to Fry’s … it was their responsibility, even though they had really tried. I planned on doing some “insisting” with Fry’s on getting a refund of my entire purchase price ($660) because I did not want another Magellan. The next day I received a call from Mr. R. Davis. He told me I would be getting a replacement unit and received it the next day. Although the difference in price (from a 3000T ($660) to 3250 ($399),I did receive an upgraded unit. However, in looking at the complaints above about 3250′s I am very concerned I may end up with yet another service disaster. I don’t want to appear negative and perhaps Mr. Chan will be able to turn this company around so that we can all get units that function properly to begin with and have them repaired in a reasonable length of time if they don’t. Good luck to all of you.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
13 February 2008…similar story. Sent in RoadMate 360 on 9 Nov 2007. No response. Called and was sent over to India..Laura at sales dept. She said my unit was non-repairable and no longer manufacutured so I’d have to upgrade if I wanted a new one. Unfortunately, I already have two others that I purchased waiting for this one to come back. I got the discounted rate story and was told to go to their website and choose from six of the Maestro series units. Was told I would have to choose and call back to see how much it would be and then they would charge my credit card used for the $82 dollar repair that never happened….and then they would send me my new unit. Do I look stupid? Not going to happen. Sorry that I got the two others, however they both work just fine. However, if and when these do go down, I’m off to Garmin or TomTom………I really dislike having to deal with the overseas constituents, the communication difficulties and the constant, “wait a minute”, “wait two minutes”, “I’ll have to send you to the tech rep”, then, it turns out to be sales, etc…you know what I mean if you are one of those who has made 8+ calls of 15-30 minutes just find out that their systems are down, “we’ll call you back”…oh sure. I asked why they didn’t call me with an update on my repair. “We tell our customers to call back in 3 weeks for their status”.. That didn’t happen. It was never told to me. So, another Magellan customer pulling out and passing this on to my 7 children. And they will pass on to 49 more, etc. COSTCO needs to get out of the Magellan business. Word to the wise.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Alright everyone. I was hoping if I waited long enough, I would be able to post something good on this website, saying my problem was resolved. But I can’t. My neighbour bought a Magellan 500 bundle, which included a coupon for DirectRoute. Back in November, we tried to activate the coupon, but got the error “There was an error validating the coupon that you
entered. Please try again”. We called the tech support line, and they told us the website was broken, and to try again in a few days (this was a Friday). We tried it a few more times throughout that week, with no success. Then he went away for a few months
He’s back now. We went to the website to activate the code on Feb 2nd, but we got the EXACT SAME ERROR. I called Magellan on Feb 4th (after trying again), and opened Case# 100098103. They once again explained that the website was down, and to try in a couple of days. I’ve tried several times since Feb 4th, and I have continued to call the tech support team back every few days, and they continue to say that the website is still not working.
I called again this evening, and once again, they said try it in a couple of days. My neighbour has a legal copy of DirectRoute which he paid for in this bundle, that he hasn’t been able to use for months, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s incredibly frustrating.
Furthermore, when I called on Feb 4th, I couldn’t make it through their phone system for Recreational GPS support. Once you pick “Explorist 500″, it says “This cannot be completed at this time”, and hangs up. The only way to get through to support has been to press option #5 for “Other”, and ask them to transfer me.
It’s unbelievable that this can happen. Where’s the accountability?
Tim
February 14th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Those of you that are members of AAA make sure you let them know about your issues as they are in a marketing agreement with Magellan
February 17th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I love my MAGELLAN!!! ü
February 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Question: have any of you had experience with your 3000T locking up and asking for a password – out of the blue??
February 20th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I received a Magellan 600 as part of my 30 year gifts from the company where I work. I was excited to receive the product and eagerly purchased software to load into the unit. This was in September of 2007.
I soon found that my computer wouldn’t recognize the GPS unit through the Magellan USB cord! I tried to get two other computers to recognize the GPS using the USB cord. No luck. I called the Magellan “help” line and received nothing but hours of frustration. The people on this line told me that it had to be my computer! When I told them that I had tried the set up on numerous computers, the person on the line told me that they would send me a new USB cord. To make a long story short of course the cord didn’t come when promised. It did come after another two months and after numerous, numerous phone calls to the Indian help line. This is the usual Magellan lousy service that you are all used to hearing about.
In December of 07 I got two different shipments of USB cords from Magellan, neither of which worked or maybe the unit just didn’t work, I don’t know and right now I don’t care. The reason I don’t care is because I called the gift house that sent me the unit originally and told them I was unhappy with the Magellan piece of garbage that I received.The gift house said they would replace the Magellan unit with a Garmin!!!
They no longer carry Magellan products!! Just think no more lousy customer service in India, service in the USA and a QUALITY product with which to work!!!
So this is my happy ending to my Magellan success story!
Tim Mulligan
Proud ex-Magellan customer
February 20th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
WOW! I wished I ahd known this BEFORE I bought a freakin Magellan eXplorist 600. So far I have paid for Lakes USA South that I CANNOT download. 2 emails and 2 phone calls to Magellan’s Customer NO Service Dept and no help. Next call is to the CC company to dispute the charge. Following call to AAA to “thank” them for fixing me up with their partner.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Yet another horror story here.
I actually got 11 months out of my Roadmate 3000T. But, evidently, the power connector (female part on the circuit board)wore, and now I cannot power the unit.
I started calling the support line 3 months ago. I started e-mailing them around 2 months ago.
Thankfully, I’ve been so busy, that I had delayed sending the unit in to have it serviced. After reading these reports of botched customer service and narrow chances of getting Magellan to fix it…I think I’ll find a local electronics shop to fix the thing, and if it doesn’t work after that, I’ll just go down to their offices and throw it at them.
I’ll be buying a Garmin.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Me Too !
After a year or more of faithfull service from my explorist 100, I managed to crack the LCD screen. Being a bit techie I enquired from NextGeneration as to the cost of a replacement LCD that I can fit myself… I was blown away at the $150 quoted. A whole new unit from the shop was ony $50 more !!!…
The answer that suited me was EBAY! for $200 I bought a brand new ’300… No problems !
Don’t care about warranty … don’t want EVER to deal with Magellan again….
If I buy ‘new’, I’ll buy Garmin !!
February 29th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I have a magellan maestro 4050. Brought it about 6 months back. Started having problem with its powering port, it does not charge without the cradle and the battery does not hold the charge for more than 10-15 mints. It also started rebooting frequenty after updating the frimware 2.36. I called the service center and they told me to send the unit to Fortworth, Texas. I am glad I looked up this blog before sending in my unit. Now I am better prepared to face the ordeal. I will probably ship the unit today and see what happens.
Thanks you guys for your posts
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Like Pauline, I have followed this blog, although I received my repaired 3050T in mid November (my posts #43, 44 & 49). The company simply does not care about its customers. My new GPS is a Garmin (now have 2 Garmins, 2 Magellans and a Furuno).
March 6th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Reference my previous postings # 89 & 94
I did get a replacement unit for my Explorer, they sent me a Trident 2000 ( a $500.00 unit) but guess what, it worked for only one month, then the .exe program crashed and the unit would not reset. So I followed again the instructions on their web site and called “India”, got a case number and a reference number the next week, their service department said they would send me a NEW Replacement Unit. but right now they are “Out Of Stock” and it may be one month before they get any in. Just the same old BS Story as when I had the bad Explorer, don’t they ever learn?
Today I will call Sherry Hartwig at 408-615-5141 or 5144 and see what happens. Wish me luck
March 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I just got off of the phone with Sherry Hartwig, she is real friendly, and assured me that she will contact her people to resolve this problem within 48 hours, and that I should be hearing from her people in california by noon monday. If not to call her back. She is aware of the problem that they have with India, and are setting up a customer service center here in the states, India will be shut down.
Again, if anyone else has a problem, Please call Sherry, as she is very frendly and wants to help their customers.
I will keep you posted on what is going on monday.
Wish me luck
March 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
I found your blog purely by accident. I have a Magellan RoadMate 760 that magically stopped picking up the satellite signal on February 13, 2008. I can pinpoint the day because I was driving to Miami, FL and somewhere near Palm Beach it dropped. Prior to that, it has worked perfectly for the previous 2 years. The run-around that you ALL describe is exactly what my husband and I have been dealing with. Today is March 21st and after umteenth calls to the folks in India, we finally got some guy willing to give us an RA number so we could return it for “service.” (This is how I found you.) My instincts warned me something still didn’t seem quite right; so I googled the address the guy in India gave us for the return. Low and behold your blog shows up. (As well as the ATCLE place) I actually have the unit packed in a box and ready to ship but just wanted to be sure before I mailed it out to who knows where. Good insight ehh?
NOW I am holding onto it and have numerous calls into the people in CA. I will see what they intend on doing. I felt that if they are treating me this badly, how many others are being screwed too? WOW, Now I kinda have an idea…is all I can say. And this is only ONE BLOG. Can you imagine the sheer numbers of people that hate Magellan because of their pitiful customer support? The kicker for me is that I bought the unit over 2 years ago and like I said, it worked great. Then the signal shut-off. I believe, Magellan has somehow disabled the units from receiving the signals, so we all have to purchase a new one. One person in India told me the unit was a legacy unit and they would do nothing for me. One person said, no that isn’t true. The Magellan website shows it discontinued as of Jan 2008. I fired off an e-mail to all the people listed on the blog this morning. I put in the mail yesterday a letter to the President of the co; by snail mail and prior to finding this blog.
If you care to read my letter (Copied Below) you should find great entertainment value!! Thanks for sharing this blog Ben, Good job! I will also follow up with my results or lack of them.
Brenda
March 19, 2008
Mr. Chan, President & CEO
MagellanNavigation, Inc.
960 Overland Court
San Dimas, CA 91773
We Put People 1st
Being a People 1st company is about creating a shared set of values that govern the way we treat our customers, manage each other, encourage, guide, innovate, and work together. These are the keys to our success.
Dear Mr. Chan,
I clipped this quote directly from your website today; prior to writing to your company.
Looking at the Magellan website, I found the list of management profiles. Not one person is listed as being in charge of service and support. With that being said, this is the exact purpose of my letter. I decided to address my letter to you, hoping you want to know about a major problem within your organization.
I purchased a RoadMate 760 two years ago. When I purchased my 760 GPS, I was so impressed with the performance, one week later, I convinced my parents to purchase the exact same model, which they did.
The unit has functioned superbly during this time, yet on February 13, 2008, while enroute to the Miami Boat Show, it lost the satellite signal, (and has not worked properly since.) This was a huge disadvantage for us. Driving from Largo, we were relying on the GPS to get us to our destination in South Miami; just as we have been for the previous two years. When it stopped receiving the signal, we were forced to purchase a map and give up waiting for the signal to come back up.
When this first happened, I called into technical support and spoke with someone in India. I was on the phone for 45 minutes. They had me perform all kinds of configuration resetting etc. The call was a waste of time in the end, as my unit still did not pick up any signals.
Because the friendly folks in India are not able to actually help with my issue, I started to searched the Magellan website and found an update for the RoadMate 760 was available. On February 23, 2008, I purchased it, for $79.99. $91.59 after taxes and shipping.
($6.00 to ship me a large box with one CD inside)
I followed the instruction and downloaded the new version of the software into the unit. Unfortunately, it did not correct the satellite signal problem either. I then researched more from your “helpful” base of frequently asked questions and found nothing to be of assistance for the topic of lost signals.
Next, my husband phoned into technical support. Again, the person in India kept him on the phone for 35 minutes. Asked him to reset the unit, turn it off, turn it on, etc, etc. Nothing but a waste of more of our time.
I am a Real Estate Appraiser. I do not know if you realize it or not, but I rely on my GPS for much much more than a helpful gadget. I use it daily to find residential addresses, and perform my job more efficiently. Now that my GPS is not working, it is a major hassle; I have to go to map-quest, or break out a map and go back to where I was several years ago, before I had a GPS in my car.
During the search, I found several blogs where numerous people had written in to say they experienced the same problem with signal loss on their 760’s. An external antenna was their lifesaver and recommendation. In fact, one man commented that he was about to throw his 760 away and never purchase another Magellan again, but after having installed the external antenna, it was receiving signals again within minutes of turning it on. I decided that must be the problem with mine as well. I ordered an external antenna. Another $80.00 + investment. Plugged it in and voila, it worked. I received a satellite signal. It lasted less than a day then lost it.
I’m sure you can imagine how aggravated I was by this point. I phoned into technical support yet again. Some friendly soul in India answered. I asked if I could please talk to anyone in AMERICA. She said no, and either hung up on me, or we were disconnected. My husband decided he would attempt to speak to a supervisor. The person on the end of the phone said there was not a way to talk to anyone other than his or her support people. He gave my husband this phone number to reach someone in California, and told him not to press any selection. If he waited, an operator would pick up. 909-394-5000. The number goes to voice-mail jail and you cannot get out if you choose not to press an option. It loops over and over with a voicemail attendant asking you to make a selection. Pressing 2 for support takes one off to India. Waiting for an operator is not an option with your company. Frankly, I feel completely justified in claiming you do not want to talk to your customers and you make it impossible to reach anyone in the United States of America. This would not be my choice, but it is your company to run after all isn’t it.
My husband gave up trying to get someone from the states and went back through the process of the press this game. Another person in India, and another 40-minute phone call ensued. This person said the 760 is a legacy product and it has been discontinued, we could buy another unit, as this one was not going to be used anymore. When my husband repeated the words, I could hardly believe what I was hearing. You are going to charge me nearly one hundred dollars a couple of weeks ago for an update, and now tell me you are no longer servicing the Road Mate 760 and we’ll have to go buy another newer version? Are you kidding me? That works out to approximately $515.50 per year I paid to use your product for the two years it worked properly. I understand new technology is pressing, but come on, two years? The landfills are already overfilled as it is, with electronic (hazardous) waste..
After the rep told him this, my husband asked if there was a supervisor he could speak to. Magically, the phone line disconnected again.
Congratulations, my husband is now more irritated than I am; with having to call back for the umpteenth time. Press this, press this, press this, press this, press this, press this…
This time, the rep told my husband that because we just purchased the update, on February 23rd, Magellan would “permit” us to return the unit for repair. This rep also denied the unit was a legacy unit, as we were told previously. (A little more searching on the Magellan web-site proved this be a lie, it is listed as discontinued effective Jan, 2008)
After being placed on hold a half a dozen times, the rep gave my husband instructions to mail the unit to be serviced and said it would take somewhere around 2 to 3 weeks to get it back. My husband questioned if there was a loaner that he could authorize for me to use while mine is out, and if there was a shipping number he could give us. The rep said he could not give us a postage paid shipping number, nor a loaner. I suppose Magellan wants me to feel privileged they are going to service my old unit. ??
When I pay $800 plus for a product, I expect it to last more than two years. Do you think that is too much for me, or any of your customers to expect from a Magellan product?
Now the choice is to spend more money on a GPS discarded by Magellan. Or drop several hundred dollars to buy a new one.
Where in this process have I received outstanding customer support or service?
Much less treated number one! Mind you, I fully understand this practice is not reserved for myself only. This is how ALL Magellan customers are experiencing customer service and receiving technical support when they need it. If you have not been informed, or noticed lately, your customers are not just calling in to see how everyone’s day is going. When we call technical support, we actually need help and support. This is perhaps your only opportunity to show that you really do care about your customers. Thanking them for buying isn’t as important as showing them you know how to provide follow up service after the sale. I recommend that you make it difficult to buy your products and utilize local people for technical support. At least then you would have customers that had to go out of their way to purchase and happy with support.
The military should consider using torture tactics that include calling (and speaking) to your technical support/service department with a hypothetical problem he or she is experiencing with a GPS, to gain highly classified information from enemies.
Below, is a paragraph I copied directly from your website; where your company lists how to contact you. Look at it closely. “The Magellan Customer Care Team is ready to listen and answer your concerns.”
Customer Care
Tell us how we can improve. Your feedback gives us the opportunity to better serve you. The Magellan Customer Care Team is ready to listen and answer your concerns. Use this form or send us a fax at 800-805-6003.
Oh really, so how does the Magellan care team “listen” to my concerns? My voice is not being heard from an e-mail form that I have submitted or by faxing in a letter.
This statement about listening and answering is absurd! You don’t really want to know how to improve, do you? This is why my letter is addressed directly to you. I remind you of my opening, I did attempt to find the person that is in charge of customer support and service. Not one of the department heads is listed as the person that represents technical service and support. Why not? Obviously, the department is either not important or non-existent within Magellan. But don’t take my word for it; look for yourself.
Actually, Mr. Chan, your message to (us) customers is pretty loud and clear…
“Mr. Customer, at Magellan, we’ll listen, just as long as we can’t actually hear you speaking, and it’s on our terms; not yours.
I think your IT manager should take that bogus statement off the company website and replace it with truthful random statements like “Don’t bother trying to reach us… you can’t, and if you write to us, we’ll answer when we feel like it…If you need technical support or service.. hope you like pressing numbers and have at least an hour to spend talking with the nice folks in India. (Ha ha ha, good luck!!) Since they won’t be able to really help you solve a problem, make sure to ask how the weather in India is. The outsourced crowd likes to know we think they are number one … Please buy another one of our products. We need a few more million profit dollars to hit our bottom line this quarter…
Sadly, I doubt Mr. Chan ever reads customer letters. At the rate you are operating, there would be bundles of mail bags daily to try and read through. Unfortunately, the administrative assistant “team” that reads customer letters and replies can do nothing to remedy problems. Another form letter response with an apologetic sentiment. No offense to Administrative Assistants honest! Save your stamp and don’t bother, I get it!
One thing is certain though. When I need to purchase another GPS for any of my cars or boat or need a GPS for any purpose. When a salesman shows me a Magellan, I will be sure to tell him or her exactly how I feel about Magellan products. I would not hesitate to share my experience with every person I know and associate with…personally and professionally. The customer service and care Magellan has shown my family has been nothing short of despicable. I will also be following up with the BBB.
Regards,
Brenda Cochran
March 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Brenda I applaud you for your sarcasm and tolerance. I too, just like everyone else above this letter, am going through Magellan HELL!!! I have taken everyone’s advice and have called and left messages for everyone listed, including ATC Logistics & Electronics in Texas. I left a message for Manuel Cangas (Department Mgr of Magellan Repair, Nelson Chan, CEO: 408-615-5140 and Sherry Hartwig, Exec Assistant to Chan: 408-615-5141 or 408-615-5144. I have yet to hear a response from anyone.
My Maestro 4040 was sent in to the Texas facility via UPS nearly 5 weeks ago. I wish I would have seen all these messages prior to sending in my unit but I guess live and learn. Anyway, I sent in my unit 5 weeks ago and have since received 2 baffling emails. The first came from a person named, shesharam.sb@ind.slashsupport.com. The part I don’t get shows on the invoice that my unit wasn’t in fact sent to Texas, but to: Contact To:
Modes Link
CTPARK BRNO
Turanka 96
62700, BRNO,
Czech Republic
Order no./ date
I then received another email a week later from: dominick.sanpedro@ambergrissolutions.com showing my unit was sent to Texas.
I see in the first email it came from India if you put the second company in the web page URL, ambergrissolutions.com, it transfers to http://www.telusinternational.com.ph/ which is in the Philippines.
At this point I am thoroughly confused as to where my unit is and each time (count them 5 phone calls to the “SUPPOSED” customer service number), they still tell me they have no idea where my unit is at this time. Additionally, each time I ask them where they are located, I get we are in the Dominican Republic as a response.
So, if I am reading all this information correctly, my unit, which was addressed to Texas, is somewhere between the eastern and western hemispheres of the world.
No one can give me an answer as to where my unit is, and when I call customer service and provide them with my RA#, the tracking number and all my information, they either tell me they can’t find the unit, or it is still in repair. WHICH IS IT ?!?!?!?!?
I am about to start with the BBB and other more official State and Government agencies since I can not seem to get anyone to return my phone calls, emails or faxes. Nor can anyone explain to me where my unit is.
I made the mistake of buying 4 of these units for family and friends. I hope they never have an issue with their units I would be embarrassed for them to have to go through what I am going through.
Additionally, as someone else had written above, my wife and 2 of the people we gave the same unit to are Real-Estate agents and depend on these units to route their days showing customer’s properties. If it wasn’t for the fact that the power would intermittently decide not to come on, I would never have sent it into repair in the first place. Additionally, after reading all the HELL everyone else has gone through, If I knew now what I knew then, I would have just bought a different brand.
On a side note. This is our 2nd GPS. We had a Cobra unit prior to purchasing the Magellan Maestro 4040. That unit wouldn’t update and since my wife deals with new construction and there hadn’t been a software release for that particular unit in over a year, Cobra went ahead and refunded all our money (IN FULL) even after a year of having the unit, because a third-party vendor who makes their updates was no longer providing them for that model.
Now, talk about customer service. The only thing they don’t have is a toll free number, but when you call their PUBLICLY listed number, it goes straight to their Corporate location, located in New Jersey, you speak with normal people where there is no language barrier, and they treat you like a valued customer.
Magellan might want to consider calling them to see how “REAL” Customer Service is taken care of handled. Our only reason for not getting a different Cobra unit was it didn’t allow for enough location to location routing.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am
My horrible experience is never ending!
It just never ends…
5/16/07 Purchased Magellan RoadMate 6000T, for $514.95
8/23/07 Purchased North America 12-Month TrafficKit Subscription,$65.34
10/30/07 Purchased Magellan® RoadMate™ 6000T NA Map and Software
Update Version 2 (including unlock code) for $71.86
11/8/07, received Software Update, attempted to apply, unlock code did
not work. Called customer service, and was told a new code would be
received at my email address within three hours. Three hours came and
went, no code. Called again, was told I would get a new unlock code in
12 hours.
11/9/07, no unlock code received, called customer support, asked for a
supervisor, but was told none available. Was informed an unlock code
would come on the following Monday (11/12).
11/12/07, no unlock code received, called customer support, asked for
a supervisor, but was told none available. Was given a new unlock
code, which worked. Unfortunately, upgrade failed, and locked GPS.
Called customer service, asked to speak with a supervisor, and spoke
with Gervin Jorben, who said that I could return the unit, that they
would send a shipping label and that it would be back in two weeks
time (from receipt of unit).
11/12/07, called back for RA number, spoke with “Kevin” extremely
rude, took an hour to get an RA number, and was told I was not going
to get a return shipping label, and was told that Gervin Jorben was
not available.
11/14/07, shipped GPS to ATCLE in Texas, via UPS, received on 11/20
2007, signed by Reiff, and cost me $13.70 including insurance.
11/20/07, called customer service and verified that my unit was
received, and it would take approximately 2-3 weeks to get back to me.
12/10/07, called customer service, and was told my unit would be fixed
within 5 business days.
12/17/07, called customer service, spoke with Jack, after about an
hour of being on hold, I was told that my unit was not repairable, and
that it would be replaced with a Maestro 4250, which a unit that has
fewer features and costs less than my 6000T. I was given a sales
order, and was told to call back in 48 hours for a tracking number,
and I would receive the unit in seven days.
At that time, I was told I could get a free 12-month traffic
subscription using the case number. When I inquired about a refund of
my shipping, I was told I was not eligible. When I inquired about
stopping my order of the upgrade, I was told, quite rudely, that I was
told that I was not entitled to that either.
12/17 Called Raphel Finelli
Senior Public Relations Manager
Magellan GPS
Who asked me to email him the story, and he would take care of it.
12/19, no response from Mr. Finelli, called, left message
Called 12/19, cs was not able to supply me with a tracking number for
my replacement unit.
12/21/2007 Received email from Rajeeth R, including RA
Acknowledgement, with no detail on it.
Called 12/21 To ask for tracking number, transferred to Gerald. Given
tracking number
12/28/2007 – Received replacement unit
1/17/2008 Billed for Magellan® RoadMate™ 6000T NA Map and Software
Update Version 2 (including unlock code) for a total of $71.86 from
website.
1/21/2008 Received “Order Confirmation” email, which included an RA
Acknowledgement, but no other real info, other than 20 980874-01
“SKU,MRM6000T ENG
1 EA
Delivery date unconfirmed
1/21/08 Called Amex to dispute charge
2/26/08 Called Magellan got Bryce asked for 12-month sub
Xferred twice got Alisha who gave me a coupon code and told me to WAIT
until the three-month subscription was up to redeem the new one.
3/27/2008
Tried coupon code – invalid
Called CS, got Mark, was transferred to Sarah no record of my case ID.
Makes me give her my userid and password to login… ludicrous lack of
security.
She could not understand after 30 mins on the phone what I needed…
she could NOT understand why I just didn’t use the Roadmate
subscription, and I had to explain over and over again that the
Roadmate is DEAD!!!! and I don’t have it or the unlock code…
Told that I would get a response in three days… not holding my breath!
Only good thing is that AMEX canceled the charge for the software
upgrade since Magellan did not respond to the inquiry.
Will this hell ever end?
April 8th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
what more can you expect from ‘shah’ outfit! they will cut corners and be cheap all the way. customer dis-service does rank high on their list.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I am looking for a snake to take on a class action law suit
April 18th, 2008 at 3:21 am
I have owned three Magellan GPS units in my life. I now own two. And in a day or so, it may be back to one. I own a GPS 315, which is a simple unit that I have had for nearly a decade that still works flawlessly and has never needed customer service.
I purchased a Magellan Crossover a couple months ago when Office Depot put them on sale for $229, thinking it would be a good updated replacement for the 315…that’s where the nightmare began.
First off, the map software was horribly outdated and in some cases, just outright incorrect. I should have returned the unit when I was out in the parking lot right after the purchase and realized Main Street in the town I live in (and the street the Office Depot I bought the thing at is located on) was incorrectly identified as Hwy 550…which is 10 miles away.
It was all downhill from there.
On the box, there was a sticker proclaiming “Free Software Upgrade”. I thought, “Oh, there might be a free software upgrade that corrects the incorrect maps.” Silly me. I guess in India, “Free software upgrade” actually means “free firmware upgrade”, because when I called about the free software upgrade, I was told there is no free software upgrade, only a firmware upgrade…which would not fix the maps. If I wanted to fix the maps, there was an updated map software edition coming out that would cost $80…..but there was no guarantee that the maps would be corrected!
After several phone calls to their still India based customer service number, where I was told on every occasion that my situation was being “escalated” to somewhere that didn’t matter, because nothing was ever done, I gave up on the phone calls and started sending emails..which, I was told, were also being dutifully “escalated” to somewhere I’ve never learned of to this very day.
Then, I find that the firmware upgrade was over 700 megabytes, and would take over two days to download at dialup speed…
Secondly, the idea of the Crossover is a good one..one unit that serves both vehicle navigation, and backcountry needs as well. Well, the backcountry features were woefully inadequete..substandard to even my nearly decade old GPS 315. I also then found that while Magellan had been promising updated and more detailed topographic maps for the Crossover, none have ever been made available after years of Crossover production.
Within two weeks, the Crossover started locking up and resetting itself every few miles..which solved my problem for me…I took it back to Office Depot, got a refund, and went across the parking lot to Best Buy, where they were clearancing some Garmin Nuvi 260′s for $149.
Then, I liked the Nuvi so much (The maps were even correct! Imagine that!), I started seriously checking into other Garmin products. To upgrade my backcountry GPS, I bought a Garmin Etrex Venture, and the Garmin Topo map software..which I found could be loaded onto the Nuvi as well with limited waypoint functionality, but with full map availability. The user can toggle back and forth from the road maps to the topo maps on the Nuvi at will.
And there you have the story of how Magellan made me into a Garmin customer.
Yesterday I broke down and bought a Magellan 3100 for my wife’s car, simply because I got a tip over the internet that Target had them on clearance for $75.
Already, I find the auto shutoff feature does not work and the unit only powers down automatically when the internal batteries are nearly discharged…
According to Magellan’s website, an 800 megabyte software update is available which may fix the problem…around 3 days to download at dial up speed…
In short, the Garmin units I bought last month have already performed excellently on a two week Death Valley excursion, both on road, and off road.
The Magellan units I have ended up with in the last couple months have been total crap, and their customer service has been equally crap.
Oh, the Garmin’s have a better interface for software updates too…just plug them in to the USB port, and they automatically check for and install updates. It took about a half hour for each unit. Seems Garmin products are made to pretty much work right out of the box, while Magellan nowadays sells stuff that needs to be “fixed” right out of the box…thus perhaps the $75 price I suppose.
The cure for a bad Magellan product, in my opinion, is to simply buy a Garmin.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Add me to the list. I got a Magellan 3250 for Christmas. It is a piece of garbage. Always failing and now completly locked up on start up screen. AND I’m tired of talking to Hadji ( whom says his name is Mark) in India. I have nothing bad to say about the country of India but PLEASE stay out of the U.S. Customer Service industry. It is impossible to understand them. Now for Magellan, it amazes me that this company can still be in business with the products they sell. As for my GPS…it sits hear as a paperweight on my desk inching closer to the garbage can.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Moe, I have a Roadmate 2000 and it was also locked up on the start up screen and I hit the reset on the side and now it is fine. I don’t know if you have a reset on your machine
You can try doing that if you do have it though. Good luck
April 29th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I too got duped… sent my 3100 in for repair and never got it back. Made numerous calls and got lied to. First they told me it was shipped but couldnt provide a tracking #. 2nd call – unit still being repaired?! 3rd call- still awaiting tracking # from 3 weeks before? Im driving to the repair center in Fort Worth tommorow, to tell them what I think about their services…and demanding my unit broken or repaired…and refusing to leave until i get it…Also taking along a cop buddy…since they are trying to commit theft..
May 1st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
So it worked…not only did i get my unit back (repaired)…magellan also contacted me and told me how sorry they were…and insisted that I accept their apology with a free maestro 3200…its cheap, but hey free gps.. While I was at their FW location..i noticed lots of ups boxes stacked up, which im suspecting are units that peole had sent in, and their just their gathering dust. If you really want your unit back…go to the repair location…and DEMAND IT. Dont leave till you get it either. phone calls rarely get anything accomplished.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Don’t send your unit. I have been calling support for months. I was dumb enough to return my product. I have made numerous calls (communication is terrible-English is not a first language) always being told my product was received and my refund is in processing. By the way the shortest call was just under 30 minutes and I was placed on hold multiple times every call. The last call, again going through the whole explanation and confirmation questions, my receipt was requested to prove I returned it , I had already been told the item had been received. They confirmed the item was received with every call I made. Why do you need proof you sent the item if they have already received it???? I faxed the receipt and guess what???…..they haven’t called back and no refund.
I’m mailing a letter to the address I sent my return and if I ever find a another physical address, I plan to send copies to see if that works. I’m giving them two weeks to respond before contacting the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General’s Office!!
The product may be good but BEWARE as they do NOT handle customer service well (If at all). Now I have neither my product or the money deducted from my checking account or the money spent to return it. If you have doubts that the service is that bad just search Magellan complaints on the internet.
May 26th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Everyones complaint along with my inability to contact magellan makes me wonder if something could be done to stop companies like this from treating customers like we are being treated.i have always been told that a product is no better than the service that goes with it.
thanks and good luck
June 17th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Has anyone ordered and received the new map update for the Roadmate 2000, and if so did it work okay without any of the problems mentioned in all the other messages. Let me know before I order it… Thanks
July 16th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
OK, guys, here’s my story: Bought a 3100 last fall when Radio Shack had them for $129. I have a Blazer12 that still works so I figured another Magellan can’t go too wrong…I didn’t know about Thales, or Shah. Looking for new or corrected maps got me to Magellan’s site and the 2.18 firmware. Bought the DVD, as a 900 meg download would put me on Hughes s***list for at least 24 hrs.
Did the upgrade and pffft…no more workee. Called Magellan and one of the first things “Ray” (Raj?) said was ‘there is no upgrade for the 3100′. Finally led him to the right page, he put me on hold, comes back with an RA number and the ATCLE address, said ‘they’ll fix it and put the new firmware and maps on it, and send it right back’.
So, I ship it USPS Priority on June 23rd WITHOUT proof of purchase…THEN I find this blog, and realize I’ve sent my newest toy to the black hole of Calcutta. Made a note in the planner to call Magellan in a month, and bought a Garmin 200. I like the Garmin but the receiver isn’t as sensitive as the 3100, and I liked the Magellan’s informative display of the sat status.
So, here’s where believing something I read on the internet bites me in the a**: On July 14th UPS delivers my 3100 – 3 weeks to the day after I sent it to them – and it works like a new one, with the updates in it. And I’ve already done the ’6 million POI hack’ successfully.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I bought a magellin triton 2000 about 5 month ago, Guess what ? Magellin claims that they have trouble with fraud on canadian creditcards. Therefore, on the 2000, maps downloads can only be done with a credit card. The triton 2000 runs on sd cards only, maps need to be cofigured to the particular machine. I wonder if my warranty is going down hill like my paitence.
norm burton alberta canada
July 29th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Should I contact ATCLE to get the status of my repair? Because Magellan sucks. I called customer service and tried to explain that I wanted to get it overnighted back to me when it was done being “repaired” whenever that will be and one girl said that it wasnt possible. Then I hung up and luckily got in touch with someone else who said that it was possible. I guess I am going to have to call back everyday to find out some information on where my GPS is.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:03 am
I bought my Magellan Maestro 4250 beginning of June, 2008. Best Buy said I was entitled to a free lesson so I’d learn to use it. The lesson was a waste and all I did was watch the kid set it himself and I knew nothing. I went home and the next day started going through the box looking for the owner manuel. It wasn’t there, but I don’t know if it had ever been there or if it fell out (or was being read by a household member).No one knew where it was. I called Magellan and then told me that there is no manuel for my model but that I could download the 82 pages from the website. Meanwhile, my story is about the same as some of yours, though I still hope things will come together. It.s August and I still haven’t been able to use it. I can’t figure out how to find the item to download. They claim there never was a manual with it, but that seems impossible.
Does anyone know if this model comes with a manual? And if so, could someone tell me where to go to download it – copy it – whatever?
I’m getting close to throwing it away and going straight to the Garmin.But is is aggravating to keep spending more and more money on all of this and still not really know if a manual exists anywhere which I could buy and hve sent to me.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Its getting worse, if possible. The website does not accept accurate input, they are not answering their phones, and e-mail suppost requests are returned by postmaster. Looks like they are going out of biz! And all I want to do is purchase a data upgrade for my 2-year old Roadmate 700.
Lesson. Check the blogs before you buy.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
This is for Muriel that wrote on Aug. 1st
Muriel the User Manual does not come with your unit. You can download it by doing this:
Go to http://www.magellangps.com/support/ Then a window comes up click on Magellan Maestro Series then click on the arrow and go to Maestro 4250, then click on Submit. A new window comes up then click on Manual English and the Manual comes up. You can save it into your computer by clicking on the little floppy icon in the upper left. After its saved in your computer you can always go right to it for information. Good luck
September 15th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Oh, let me add to the fun!!
To make a long story short: RoadMate 760, gift Thanksgiving 2006, worked great. Attempted to purchase map upgrade December 2007 – “coupon is invalid”. Call after coupon expired said they would not honor it. Finally bit the bullet and paid full price in February 2008. Before long trip in May 2008, attempted to upgrade maps – found out DVD is corrupt. Call to customer “service” tells me to completely WIPE OFF my hard drive. Knowing this was completely wrong, we did it anyway. Received a shipping label promptly, mailed it the next day, told to wait 6-8 weeks. Spent most of this summer traveling, forgot about the unit until cleaning out email inbox, attempted call today. After 45 minutes, told it was never received at the Ft. Worth center (UPS tracking said it was received AND SIGNED FOR), and they’ll send me a RM 1430 (newest model) for free. When attempting to get a transaction #, “server was down”, will call me back. Phone call received 6 hours later says they’re sending me a RM 800, and I need to call back to talk to their supervisor because “he’s in a meeting”.
Ok, so that wasn’t very short. However, I would like to THANK everyone who found and posted the numbers of the CEO (who is no longer Chan, btw), his assistant, and the VP of Service. I have phone calls in to each of them, and am awaiting a response. Hopefully they’ll respond as quickly and positively as you all say they do.
We did purchase another unit – TomTom OneXL – before our trip in May, and so far we haven’t had any problems. I love that I can connect it to my computer and automatically update it without having to go through tech support. My husband does miss the information screen, though, that showed elevation, speed, etc. I’ll keep everyone updated on how this fiasco turns out (9 months after original problem).
September 16th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I received a Magellan Maestro 3250 as a gift. I noted that at the time of reciept the map data was almost 18 months old. Magellan stated that new map info was coming out shortly. Tried using the unit but my destination had some one year old streets so the GPS was useless. Magellan finally came out with new map info after nearly two years and had the audacity to try and charge me $79.99 for it. If I had received an up to date unit originally I could understand the update charge but to sell a unit with outdated info and then charge to bring it up to date is ridiculous. Ethics would at least require labeling on the box noting the date of the data installed on the GPS unit. But then ethics has no place in Magellan’s modus operandi. DON’T BUY MAGELLAN!!!!!!!!
September 18th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Mageallan GPS Unlisted Corporate #
(408) 615-5100
Is they’re unlisted corporate # in Sunnyvale, Ca.
You will be ablt to speak directly with their VP’s.
Your Welcome,
Anynonmous
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Own a 760 Magellan that won’t boot up when I turn it on. Was looking for a service center to send it to for repair when I stumbled into this blog site, and I am very glad I did. My 760 is out of warranty and I had planned to pay to have it repaired. Now after reading nearly all the horror stories I think I’ll just put it in the trash and buy a Garmin!
September 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I just sent an e-mail to Magellan about how ticked I was about having to pay $80 for a map upgrade. I have a Maestro 4040, and it has worked great, but it has a voice command input that you have to pay extra for. I have a Samsung I-760 with voice commands that worked right out of the box. I’m surprised now that they actually send a power supply!
October 4th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Say what you like about Magellan products and their features. The products are very good when they work, but dealing with Magellan customer support is like pulling teeth with tweezers. For a month now I’ve trying to get my 4210 fixed, it’s like beating my head against the wall. Magellan Canada is almost nonresistant. I think they have only one guy to handle all of the country. It seems like Magellan US don’t want to deal with Canadians. On top of that the units come with outdated maps and you have to pay extra ($80US) for current Maps. My friends who got the Garmin’s had no problems and their maps were updated free. I was better off with a Chinese knock-off.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Folks… Playing Devil’s advocate here.
1) If we look on the box that our devices came in, we’d notice the statement “Quick reference guide, reference manual on CD-Rom” — this is where the manual is. I guess if you don’t have a PC, well then, you are one of the few.
2) Maps are provided to Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan by either NAVTEQ or TeleAtlas. Any compnay who acquires these maps will then have to compile the data so that it can be read by their proprietary unit. This is not a short undertaking. So when the maps are provided, there is some work involved that may take months and in worse case scenarios… could be up to a year (especially for smaller companies like Navigon, Mio, etc…). Then take into account store inventory. It may sit on shelves for months before they sell out of the units.
3) Repairing old units – For most Consumer Electronics company, the cost to repair an old unit with older technology makes not sense. For instance, try getting a part for an IBM 486 computer. It will cost you an arm and a leg, and the supply is limited. So question then is, why not sink your money into a new device. GPS units are nothing more than portable computers… yet why don’t we all complain when the top of the line computer I bought 6 months ago is no longer the latest and greatest? Do we go back to Dell or HP and say… give me a newer computer? I didn’t think so.
4) Paying for map update. Are you guys serious? Try buying a new car with built in GPS in the dash. You get what you get, and in 4-5 years when map updates are available… guess what? Lexus, BMW, MErcedes, Acura… they all charge you. Sure, I’d like to get it for free for the lifetime of my product, but that’s just not realistic. Also, for less than $100 for an upgrade, that’s peanust compared to what the car dealers are charging. Something in the likes of $400 – $800 depending.
So yes… I am in agreement with everyone that there are challenges that Magellan faces. In the same light, there are challenges that Tom Tom and Garmin face as well, or any company as a matter of fact. But reading through this blog, I see that it started due to the fact that “Ben” had some issue with getting a repair. But looking through your complaint, Ben, you got upset because someone asked you for a receipt? Come on guy, what business doesn’t ask for a receipt nowadays? End result is that you got your unit back safe and sound. So why the moaning and groaning?
my two pennies..
A note from the admin – the post above came from someone at Thales (the parent company of Magellan) – the post came from IP: 12.9.11.194 , irouter.thalesnavigation.com. So, take everything the author says with a grain of salt.
To address the specific issue I had, the GPS unit I got was given to me as a gift. More importantly, it was purchased at CostCo, which doesn’t do gift receipts. So, I didn’t have that to fall back on. If you’d read my complaint, you’d see that quite clearly. Fortunately, Costco was able to look up the purchase on my wife’s account in order to provide a proof of purchase. If she’d bought the unit elsewhere and we couldn’t look up the receipt, I’d have been out of luck.
Here’s an example of how you should do it: I just bought a $500 set of cordless Ridgid tools at Home Depot last month. They provide a *lifetime* warranty, even on consumables like the LiIon battery packs. All I had to do was register on their website and provide the unit serial numbers. Now, 5 years down the road when I burn out the motor on the impact wrench, I don’t need to search for a piece of thermal receipt paper that would have long since faded. I’ve had thermal-printed register receipts last <1 year anyhow, so making them an absolute requirement isn’t entirely realistic.
Oh, and by the way, the last GPS unit I bought was a TomTom. They gave me my first map update for free, since it came out within 30 days of my purchase. I’ve actively discouraged folks from buying Magellan units.
There are a lot of commenters here who have legitimate complaints – your call center that people rely on is absolute shit. There’s no polite way to say it. When people feel like their GPS unit disappears into a black hole when they send it in for service, you’re doing something wrong.
Here’s another point to keep in mind – customer service is a countermeasure. If I need to call you, it means you’ve already screwed something up. Bear that in mind when you’re trying to rationalize away our complaints.
(and by the way, I hope you’re authorized by Thales to speak on behalf of the company, because I will be forwarding this comment back to your executive team along with timestamp and whatnot. Have a nice day.)
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
A followup to the comment above:
I got an e-mail from Magellan’s Manager for Customer Advocacy apologizing for the astroturfing post above and ensuring me that such activity will not be happening again in the future. He also solicited my feedback on what they could improve upon – I basically gave him three focus areas:
1) Get rid of the receipt requirement and provide a more consumer-friendly alternative (like the Ridgid tools I described in the last comment)
2) Provide more transparency into the RMA process – let us track our warranty service like we can track a UPS package.
3) Give customers up-front info on how long their warranty service will take, and stick to (or beat) those numbers. I told him I felt 3-5 day turnaround (not counting return shipping) would be a reasonable expectation.
So, the good news is that we’ve got their ear, and they’re trying to make things better.
–Ben Johnson
October 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Just bought a Magellan Maestro 5310. The DVD in the box would not run on my computer, Msft XP, Called customer service said it was a microsoft problem and i needed a dll that was eliminated when I updated to srvice pack 3. Any ideas
October 29th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Nice to find a place to post about bad customer service. I had ordered update software CD and a new window mount for my RoadMate 800. The window mount was for a different model of GPS, but they had my Roadmate 800 on the packing list. The CD would not work with my PC or my mac. My PC runs on Vista and I found out that the CD only runs on XP. Whatever, I thought I would call their customer support and process a return. Well, Magellan’s customer service phone number that was published on their site was disconnected. My email to customer support bounced back to me. I think maybe they could be going out of business. I’m looking at $120 for this stuff. The CD was $80. So, I am here blogging about my customer experience with Magellan. I’m now shopping for an up to date GPS with better software and support. I will try to avoid Magellan.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
For ten years I was product manager in a company dealing with electronics.
after reading the most of this site I am speechless.
is it possible to be so rude I am referring to the ansver by:
helper Says:
October 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
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Well I think Ill join the club of: No Magellan Owner after purchasing one of their products and side products at a off season sale.
the unit ill use as an accurate speedometer and odometer and the cd’s Ill use as shooting practice fudder.anyone asking me for a gps (its afew) will get the answer
anything but Magellan.
THank you
December 11th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Well after reading all the commits on this site i decided to toss mine in the trash and buy a nother brand.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I’ve been trying for almost five months to get my 4210 repaired. So far I’ve only got three weeks use out of it. It’s twice been replaced with refurbished units which have been defective. Trying to get the map update is the same.
Magellan units are great WHEN THEY WORK, but dealing with Magellan is like pulling your own teeth with tweezers.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
ben, do you have the name/contact info for the current pres of magellan?
thanks,
marcia
mbarasia@hotmail.com
January 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Wish I would have read these posts before purchasing a Magellan. I just spent 30 days, 10 phone calls, 2 faxes, and 16 emails trying to get my 30-day map guarantee (software update). Today I called again and they finally processed my order, but they have none in-stock! Can’t a software update be a download?! For a service dept. of a technical company, they sure don’t know what they’re doing. Now waiting for my free ($10) DVD. Never buy a Magellan.
February 14th, 2009 at 2:11 am
Karen: I hope your map upgrade works better than mine. After purchasing a miestro 3100 last Christmas I found that the map was so old it didn’t show a major bypass through My city which altered many roads and traffic flows. I contacted Customer Service and they told me I would be notified (yeah right) when the upgrade was available but it would cost me $40. I decided to keep the unit(wish I would have returned it) and wait for the upgrade. Last month I finally ordered it and it cost $80. But that is not the worst of it, the software has bugs in it and it won’t display POIs in some of the catagories like “shopping” and “public buildings”. My city is over 60,000 people with hundreds of stores and it doesnt detect any within 50 miles of here. After 2 1/2 hours of talking with customer service and tech support people I am no closer to getting satisfaction. Their response is basically “too bad, so sad”. A manager is supposed to call me back on monday to tell me if they will refund my $80 but up until now they have adamantly refused. I would bet my life savings the phone won’t be ringing on monday. I am also trying to put together info on who to call at thier corporate headquarters since they have been bought by MiTAC. If anyone has already done so, please post it and if I am eventually successful (eternal optomist) I will post back. Get a Garmin!!!!!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
959 of 5000 characters
No better CS with Garmin! 700 series has a known problem with loss of audio. I believe it should be a recall at this point. Beware! The last one I purchased had intermittent sound/audio speaker output loss right out of the box! I didn’t even have a chance to register it. I spoke with Garmin on the phone, they registered it and instructed me to ship it to them (at my expense) for an “immediate replacement upon receipt”. They lied. After a couple of days of my receipt of delivery which I tracked I told them the exact time they received it then received back an E-Mail stating it was not in their system and when received it would be a general turnaround up to 14 days for “repair”. OK so one hand does not know of the others promises but at the very least reimburse or supply free shipping of a defective POS! This is just a note to beware of what the manufacturer says as opposed to what the really do. I use to love Garmin products but the company seems to be going to the dogs.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Magellan’s satisfaction surveys must be for their enjoyment at coffee break! I can see nothing but failure for this company if they don’t get their act together.
GPS received as a gift after researching Magellan website. My location was given as Canada so I thought the specs listed would be for the Cdn unit. It stated U.S. maps were pre-loaded which is what I wanted for my long road trip there. Unit received with Cdn maps which I have little use for. Company would have sent me a CD with the maps for a hefty fee, but after all said and done, the cost would be close the the unit itself. Now I find out that the SD card will not accept any other version on the Cdn unit. Glad I didn’t waste more of my money. Store will not accept return as the box seal is broken. No other resolutions from this POS company. Buy anything else but Magellan!!
March 31st, 2009 at 8:19 pm
ok, more of the same but with a slightly different twist.
I own a Magellan 3000T which worked fine for about 18 months.
Now the unit will not charge because the female receptacle has become loose and fallen into the unit (probably a cold solder joint).
I called today to get an RA so i could return the unit for repairs. I was willing to pay for the repairs since it was 6 month out of warranty. They proceeded to collect all my personal information and then announced they do not do repairs but would be glad to accept the unit as a trade in on a new unit at an attractive price. I was played for the fool. I told them that they were dishonest and should have said that right up front when i called and asked for a Return Authorization for a repair of their unit. She responded that they were trained to read off a prepared script and had similar complaints in the past. I asked her if she had a “notes’ section on the computer, She said yes. I told her that not only i am not interested in trading in my defective Magellan product but that i would simply discard it, purchase a new one from one of their competitors and ensured them that I would pass their unethical and possibly illegal behavior (collecting personal identification information under false pretense and placing it in their internal database) to all my associates. She apologized and said she was just doing her job. These are predatory sales practices. Different states have different laws and regulations however, in this case they are using the telephone and that means federal jurisdiction. I really think they can be brought to heel and there are damages.
June 4th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT TRUST MAGELLAN CUSTOMER SERVICE !!!!
October 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Has anybody figured out how to get this bloddy XL to get past the blue screen with just the XL Explorist logo displayed?????
October 10th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Add me to the list. Maestro 4350 first died at 14 months. Figured a fluke. Bought another and it died at 4 months. Dealing with customer service now, that really can’t speak or understand the Kings English.
Unit just locks at Ble Magellan screen. Frustrating!
October 17th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
DO not buy MAgellan poor service and they broke after a month.
bought two and both unit are krap. all calls to customer was a wast of time.
April 1st, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Magellan just sucks! I have one that has NEVER worked right! I called CS and they told me i needed the home charger. I baught that and it did not help. 399.00 for the GPS and 35.00 for the charger. TOTAL junk! Do not waist your money!
August 15th, 2010 at 3:08 am
Slim and sleek look of Nokia E75: Nokia E75 is completely a business class mobile and there are some doubts whether it suits trendy music loving college students. However, I prefer to use the sleek, slim and stylish Nokia E75 along with its side sliding QWERTY keypad and fully loaded business features.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:20 am
DO not buy MAgellan poor service and they broke after a month.
bought two and both unit are krap. all calls to customer was a wast of time.
August 16th, 2010 at 7:37 am
Awesome article! thanks for the good read!