Comments on: Magellan GPS - Poor Customer Service http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/ I hate Illinois Nazis... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:56:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Jim http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-42518 Jim Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:03:58 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-42518 Well after reading all the commits on this site i decided to toss mine in the trash and buy a nother brand. Well after reading all the commits on this site i decided to toss mine in the trash and buy a nother brand.

]]> By: jbl http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-41744 jbl Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:48:46 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-41744 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 --------------------------------------------------- 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 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
—————————————————
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

]]> By: Darryl http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-41220 Darryl Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:19:26 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-41220 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. 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.

]]> By: Gerald Peterson http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-41203 Gerald Peterson Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:20:26 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-41203 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 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

]]> By: Ben http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-40969 Ben Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:32:49 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-40969 <em>A followup to the comment above:</em> 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 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

]]> By: helper http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-40746 helper Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:45:38 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-40746 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.. <em>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.) </em> 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.)

]]> By: Greg Robbins http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-40192 Greg Robbins Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:11:20 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-40192 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. 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.

]]> By: Keith Lutz http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-39932 Keith Lutz Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:58:42 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-39932 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! 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!

]]> By: Claude http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-39692 Claude Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:00:26 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-39692 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! 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!

]]> By: Brian http://ben-johnson.org/blog/archives/2005/10/158/#comment-39370 Brian Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:02:30 +0000 http://ben-johnson.org/blog/?p=158#comment-39370 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 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

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