Garmin customer service

[Let'sgoflying!]

The folks manning the phones & chat are very nice - but man, are they understaffed.
Call in the first 30 minutes of the day, and you are in a queue >1hr long.
Later in the day, almost impossible and they do not meet the calculated wait time at all.
At what point does management start building staff numbers? Or can no one be found to fill positions?
Just seems like an ongoing problem that surely must hurt their brand, and could do with addressing.
But we've gotten used to this with many large companies over the years I guess - the consumer must simply accept it.

 

[Gary Ward]

Garmin relies on it’s dealers for aviation support. The better the dealer the better the support is.
My dealer called his contract at Garmin when I was sitting in his office and they are on a first name basis.
He got me a replacement transponder in 12 hours that way. He also got me free replacement servos for my AP the same way. Called while I was sitting there and let me know when they would arrive as soon as he hung up.
I call my dealer when I have problems I am on a first name basis with my dealer, he knows me and my panel.
He is local to me and I go there pretty often sometimes taking other pilots back and forth to drop off and pickup planes.
One time he updated my G5 when I was dropping off my friend to pick up his plane while I watched.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Does he do your database purchases and updates? Maybe that is the way to go. Seems like it should be a user-serviceable activity however.

 

[Gary Ward]

Does he do your database purchases and updates? Maybe that is the way to go. Seems like it should be a user-serviceable activity however.

Yes has helped with that problem by updating the firmware on the G5 to help data base updates go faster especially with 750s that have charts.
He has updated my panel 4-5; times since 2018 when it was installed.
Scott at Cincinnati Avionics is a expert Garmin guy and probably other brands as well. Can’t say enough good things about him.

I swear one time I was there and he looked up my garmin account with my password and explained my account was expired. I handed him my credit card and he used it to renew my data base updates.
I did get a new CC earlier in the year and forgot about garmin data base account. So they had a exspired card on file. I felt dumb but Scott got me on my way fast.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

We just can't get the airplane to any avionics person every 45 days for database updates.
Today was unusual, we can usually handle the db ourselves.
It was just that they seemed to be expired - but that was not clear on the website.
Then, renewing was much more obfuscating than a normal online purchase should be.
Then, the purchase was accepted - but did not work so tech help had to 'fix that internally'.
Then, the downloads seized-up midstream, and they had to fix that.
All surrounded by the app auto-updating - but not telling the computer user what was going on.
I'm sure all will be fine now. Each setback required a 1+ hour call or a chat to resolve.

 

[Gary Ward]

I understand and do my own data base updates. Mine needed to be done 3-4 days ago. The first day it didn’t update because my iPad was not updated . Took my ipad home and that night it updated. The next day I had to cycle on and off my avionics switch once to get it to update through the FS510.
I find putting my iPhone in airplane mode keeps it from interfering with the Wi-Fi between my FS510 and my ipad.
Sometimes it works first try other times it takes a couple try’s. My problem is I really don’t know garmin pilot very well as I use FF to fly with.

 

[FPK1]

We just can't get the airplane to any avionics person every 45 days for database updates.
Today was unusual, we can usually handle the db ourselves.
It was just that they seemed to be expired - but that was not clear on the website.
Then, renewing was much more obfuscating than a normal online purchase should be.
Then, the purchase was accepted - but did not work so tech help had to 'fix that internally'.
Then, the downloads seized-up midstream, and they had to fix that.
All surrounded by the app auto-updating - but not telling the computer user what was going on.
I'm sure all will be fine now. Each setback required a 1+ hour call or a chat to resolve.

I have the same trouble after each renewal. I buy the renewal and try to update. No joy. I then CHAT with Garmin they remind me to activate or something like that in the Garmin app then it updates properly...

So CHAT don't call.

 

[FPK1]

This might be helpful now. FlyGarmin auto-renew option...