Garmin 498c problem

[delawaredogfish]

Long story short...... I bought a gps 498c for about $850 in may of 2006. worked fine for about 11 months. It started losing the bottom in water less than 50 feet deep. After several calls to garmin, experimenting with different settings and updating software 3 more months passed. Garmin suggested i go to my dealer and ask for a "loaner transducer" (like a dealer would give you a sensor to experiment with for free). A friend happend to have the same unit so i gave him the 498 off my boat to plug into his transducer. The same issue was happening with his transducer. Called garmin and they said my only option was to send the unit back for repair/replacement.
My cost was $30 to ship and $175 for repair/refirbed unit.
They did not want to extent the 1 year warranty in any way.
So after 3 mo of irratic operation and dealing with garmin, plus $205 i had a new refirbed 498c.
Took it out on dec 9th for some cold weather striper action and it works fine.
Caught 3 striper and 1 winter flounder.
Not happy with Garmin's reliability. Hope this unit lasts longer than 11 mo.
my season is only 5 mo long anyway. not like i live in fl and used it non stop for 11 mo.
The only issue was with the sounder. The gps, chart plotter worked fine.
hope this helps someone.
would i buy another garmin? not sure!

[Mike in Maine]

How did you get Garmin to answer the phone?

M I M

[delawaredogfish]

Garmin did answer the phone and had good tech support but , i still had to pay $205 out of my pocket to get my 1 year old unit to work as designed !
Not to mention the many trips i spent trying to get the unit to work instead of fishing.
I feel they should have picked up the tab.

[fridaysoff]

I've had 2 garmin combo units. The 178C and the new 545S. I have not had one negative issue with the units or Garmin the few times I talked with them. I've been able to run WOT on both units without any static on the sounder screen. I found the 178C to be very clear even in bright sunlight on my 170CC.The new 545S is an awesome machine. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but I don't see how you could "expect" Garmin to pick up the tab on the fix if the warranty was out. I'll admit it would have been nice of them to pick up the tab; but If the warranty was out of date expecting them to give a freebie is like (asking a dealer to give you a loaner transducer for free).
Just my 2 cents. Good luck on the repair. I hope it holds up for a long time.
John D.

[delawaredogfish]

I think the point i was trying to convey is that when you pay $850 for a product it should last at least 1 stinking year!
Also i was well within the warranty period when i started having issues. Since i live 3 hours away from my boat i could only get it out on the water every other weekend and would try the several fixes garmin suggested. They had me adjusting the settings, sensor position, mounting, gain, switching from auto to manual modes and updating software. The software update took 2 weeks to complete.
I had no problem experimenting with the "supposed fixes" and learned alot from the entire evolution.
Coustomer service sould be #1 !
A 2-3 mo grace period on now a $1055 product isn't so much to ask.
What ****** me off the most is lost time while in the boat playing with a broken unit
Did not check to see if they saved all my way points and marked fishing spots. I think its all lost.

I at least feel better venting.

PS: you don' work for Garmin do ya? lol

[fridaysoff]

delawaredogfish,
I would contact Garmin again and explain to them that you made the contact with them before the warranty period ran out. I would ask for a supervisor in the customer service dept. I just can't imagine a claim being denied by Garmin if you were working with them during the warranty period. Good luck and NO I do not work for Garmin; just a satified customer.
John D.

[MolarBoater]

I have never had a problem with my Garmins. I have a 2002 168 sounder, a 2006 Garmin network, a 2004 handheld and 4 transducers (two on boat, one on kayak and a spare!)

I always purchase new with my Citibank credit card as they add an additional year to the warranty of most things. Have gotten my money's worth out of that feature as my daughter destroys portable DVD players at will!

Don't know if you use a cc or your cc has that feature, but maybe something to think about in the future.

Hope things hold up better this time, Molar