...in which I use lots of expletives in my imagination:
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.
ACT I
11:08 a.m. EDT/9:08 Central Time
I pick up the phone to call Garmin to ask about my issue with my 405 malfunctioning when it gets sweaty, a watch I have owned for about 30 days.
Automated service:
Thank you for calling Garmin International. The current wait time to speak with a product support specialist is thirty minutes. We suggest you call back at another time. The best time to call is in the morning. [Like 9:08?]
Speaker phone plays "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for 30 minutes. [Rainbow, my ass.]
Act II
11:38 a.m. EDT/9:38 Central Time
Him: Thank you for calling Garmin. How can I help you?
Me: I'm having some trouble with my 405 malfunctioning when I sweat. The bezel won't respond to my touch when the watch gets sweaty.
Him: Now, see, what the problem is, is the water from your sweat is affecting the watch.
Me: Uh, yeah. This is a problem. It's a sports watch that doesn't work when it gets sweaty.
Him: Now, if you dry it off, does it start working again?
Me: Uh, I can't dry it off in the middle of a run because I'm sweaty.
Him: Now, see, I'm asking you, if you give it some time to dry, does it work again?
Me: Um, well, yes, several hours later, but it's a problem if it stops responding in the middle of a race.
Him [getting exasperated with me]: I understand that. Now, see the problem is that your watch has a touch-sensitive bezel, so the sweat is touching it and making it change screens.
Me [trying to stay calm]: That's not really the problem. The sweat is getting in the watch and causing it to freeze on certain screens and it won't respond when I touch it.
Him: Hold please.
..."Some Enchanted Evening" [my ass]...
Him: Now what I can tell you to do is to wear a sweat band, a white one so the heat won't be as bad, under the watch so it won't get wet.
Me: But how do I know the sweat hasn't affected the mechanisms in the watch?
Him: Well, it hasn't.
Me [trying to maintain a sense of humor]: Is this a problem that other people have called about?
Him: Now, I can't say if other people have called about this. It may be something that was not foreseen in development and that they will address in the next model of the watch.
Me: Is it an issue that Garmin is addressing?
Him: Now I didn't say that. You're trying to get me to say something I'm not saying.
Me: I'm just trying to know if this is a problem with my watch or the 405 in general.
Him: I just told you that it's something that's being addressed. People have called to address this issue.
Me: [Oh. My. God.]
Now if I find the watch still has trouble when I use the sweat band, is there a way to send it back?
Him: It's something that would be corrected for the next model of the watch. It's not something that we can do anything for at this time.
Me: [You f---ing mother f---er,] can I please speak with someone else?
Him: Please hold.
...30 minutes later...
ACT II
12:15 p.m. EDT
Him #2: This is Garmin International.
Me: I just spoke with the most ineffective customer service rep about my Forerunner 405, so I have to apologize if I sound angry. I'm having some trouble with my 405 malfunctioning when I sweat. The bezel won't respond to my touch when the watch gets sweaty.
Him: I'm sorry you had trouble before. He was in the Outdoor division, and I'm in Automotive, so I don't really know why he was like that. But since I'm in automotive, I can't really help you with your watch, so I'd have to transfer you back to Outdoor.
Me: [long pause] He put me on hold to talk to someone in Automotive? Can you direct me to talk with someone directly instead of waiting for half an hour? I've been on hold for over an hour now and spoken with someone who won't help me and someone who can't help me.
Him: There's really no way I can move you up in line. I can just transfer the call back to Outdoor.
Me: [Oh. My. F---ing. God.] Okay. [Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe, out.]
ACT III
Automated service:
Thank you for calling Garmin International. The current wait time to speak with a product support specialist is 30 to 35 minutes.
...30 minutes later...
Him #3: Thank you for calling Garmin. How may I help you?
Me: [trembling with more hostility than I may have ever felt before, I review the previous 90 minutes of high blood pressure and the farce that is known as product support. Note: this would be a good time to go for a run to PR out of pissedoffedness*, but I can't because my watch malfunctions and I'm on the f---ing phone about it.]
Him: I'm so sorry about your earlier experience. I don't know why he would send you to Automotive. Did you get his name?
Me: [meekly] No, I don't know if he said it.
Him: A lot of people have called about the sweating issue, and 9 times out of 10, the problem is fixed by locking the bezel when you're running so the moisture doesn't affect the watch. So try that.
Me: [weary from battle] Okay. Thanks. You've redeemed the other guy. I appreciate it. I have a blog about running with a lot of readers [so what if I "enhanced" this claim?]. I was so appalled at the customer service and would write about it, but you've been helpful [so what if I'm blogging about it anyway? I was on the phone for 103 minutes]
Him: I just want to apologize again. I've talked to several other reps and they all say that locking the bezel will take care of the problem. I'm really sorry about the other guy you talked to. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me: Short of some beta-blockers, I think that's it.
End Scene.
Moral:
Lock your bezel.
Pop a Xanax before phoning Garmin.
Commence completely dysfunctional marriage to my watch.
*Yes, I know, but it has a better ring than sticktoitiveness, n'est pas?
Posts
34 comments:
Yes, but did locking the bezel actually work?
I'll have to get back to you on that one...I'm doubtful (but I'm a cynic)
So, you waited half an hour to get the automotive guy, and you didn't even ask him how to keep the suction thingee stuck to the windshield for longer than 10 minutes at a stretch?
Seriously, I wish the Garmin's GPS dashboard mount sucked half as much as their customer service.
File under: "damn, I wish I said that on the phone."
Yes but it's only a problem when it's wet. Why don't you just let it dry and then continue your run?
/not helping AT ALL!
:D
Dear God, another thing to worry about with the Garmin! I've just now managed to learn to use it successfully, now I have to worry about sweat? And I didn't even know you could lock the bezel (although that would certainly help with the random brush problem).
I think the picture conveyed all you needed to say.
OMG seriously???!! You just saved me an hour on the phone! There are some things about the 405 that are amazing... others... I am not so fond of! I have had problems with the bezel not working- but the main issue I have had is "auto pausing" Mostly only on trail runs-but I also wonder if it is linked to the sweating? On my 25k Saturday it kept doing it... I wanted to scream.
i admire you.
i would have taken the watch, opened the window, thrown it outside, sung the two swear songs i know (i will teach them to you), sworn off technology forever and gone back to running old-school in a cotton t-shirt with a walkman.
and i am driving to your house to get one of these watches? haha.
see you thursday! :)
Sprry you are having trouble with it, but this post was hilarious!!! LOL :)
So, would you recommend a Forerunner 305 in place of the 405?
Right now, I am considering upgrading from a 201.
Thanks
I've had the same issue- very frustrating. Happened in a race after I spilled water on my watch and I spent the next mile trying to figure out what the hell happened. Took me a few water stops to make the connection. Good luck with it!
So far, the only benefit of the 405 vs. the 305 that I see is the much shorter time it takes to grab a satellite. If that isn't super important to you, I'd go with the 305. Too many kinks in the new model to make it worth the money, in my opinion, but I'm just one person. The wireless sync for data may end up making it worth the upgrade, but so far they haven't released software for Macs to do it (another bone of contention for me).
I have had some interesting problems due to water on my 405 too. Basically it thinks the sweat is a finger touch. I even showered with it once and the backlight kept coming on (which takes two fingers to activate). You can set it to automatically scroll through the screens and then lock the bezel to stop it, but I miss the control. What I have been doing is wiping my finger on my shirt (I run in the South, so a dry spot is a not available) then touching the bezel. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes….
I've also been frustrated by the non-responsiveness of the bezel while sweating... if only my body cooled down without sweating! has anyone tried spraying the watch with a water resistant spray? the locking idea will probably work, but you'd want to customize the data on your screen so you get the pertinent info you need depending on your running circumstance (training, race, etc.)... I got my 405 from a friend of a friend who works at Garmin - both were shocked to hear about the poor handling of the issue... but I'm not surprised... it's not like customer reps are the smartest or highest paying guys at any company and at least they're not in bangladesh. i'm also curious to see if they fix the problem in the next version
So, you got as much change as I did from Customer "support". It is not worth the time on the phone! Can anyone tell me how to get my training runs off the bl**dy watch after the woefully unreliable wireless transfer fails on the first attempt? I am ready to crush this damn thing after 30 days of sporadic performance ..... and yes, in Scotland don't even try to use the bezel any day of the week. It rains here all the time!!!
be thankful that garmin didn't ask you to send it back for warranty service. i called bc i got the wrong disk sent to update to 2009 maps. the service rep told me he could help me do it over the phone and ended up erasing my entire gps. then he told me to send it back for a replacement - that was almost 2 months ago and i still haven't received a replacement. i have no idea who to contact so i just keep sending emails hoping someone will help me. nearly $800 for a gps that they've had longer than i did...
Locking the bezel is common sense no. you shouldn't need to call customer support for that. thats what the cycle screen setting is for as well.
There are always tools working in customer support, almost 90 percent of people in that job have NO idea!I have never called customer support and have had the luxury of knowing less about how to fix the issue than the rep. It sucks but its how it works.
your best to search the internet or learn about how the devices work and go from there.
Whilst I initially had problems with an unresponsive bezel, this has now moved on to random bezel presses throughout the run and finally the watch resetting itself on the run. I'm going back to my 305, and wish I'd never seen the 405
According to your side of the story the tech you were speaking with was asking very relevant questions to your problems. Every response from you was very rude and side stepped what he was asking. Sounds like you took the problem a little too personal. Some people become uneasy and their thought process gets a little cloudy when dealing with rude and annoying people. I say you deserved to have to wait over 1 hour on hold. I feel if you would have talked to the first tech without your rude responses he would have been able to lead you to some sort of fix or understanding. This post will probably get deleted. Oh well at least I can say I posted my opinion.
Thank you for commenting, nooneyouknow (but who sounds a lot like a Garmin customer service rep)! Since you appear to assert a working knowledge of Garmin service, can you tell me when the Mac software for the ANT agent will be released? The web site says Fall 2008, but here we are on Dec 2. No one at Garmin knew the release date when I checked a week or so ago. Perhaps you know?
FYI, anything I wrote in brackets was purely in my mind; I was a gleaming ray of sunshine on the phone, which you'd know if you spent 103 minutes on the phone with me.
Best,
Kristina
I have worked tech support for other companies. I have no connection with garmin, besides being a forerunner 405 owner. Just a word of advise, if you treat the person on the other side of the phone with respect you probably would have received it back. Most people know not to piss a waiter off because they fear that their food will be tainted. It appears that's what happened to you in this case. I'm not justifying the tech's unprofessional behavior, just pointing out common sense. I get worked up about this subject due to it being a pet pieve of mine. If you want someone to pay for the gizmo not working the way you think it should, sell the stupid thing on ebay and be done with that company. That easy. Also most companies inform their tech about product updates shortly before or at the same time customers are notified. That's their way of squashing information leaks since tech support directly deals with the customers.
For what it's worth (and which I do hope will be the last word on the subject), you know about as much about Kristina and her conversation with Garmin customer service as the rep knew about her device (which is to say, not a lot). Though she takes a lot of creative liberties with the accounts on her blog (nobody would have found a simple transcript of her side of the conversation very interesting to read), she did indeed treat the rep with much more respect than was earned (I was here and witnessed the event).
Also, her frustration in this post is as much about the device as it is with the service. "Sell the stupid thing on eBay" may well seem a witty retort, but seriously, why should an unsatisfied customer give up her right to complain about a faulty product? On her own blog?
In the end, I'll just have to turn your own words from your first post back at you and suggest, "you took [this post] a little too personal [sic]."
I have been having MAJOR problems with mine due to sweating as well! The problem I find is even if I lock the watch during the run, when I compete my run the watch goes nuts! I live in Florida so I try to dry my finger, but if I push the menu button the watch responds with about 10 beeps, goes to the GPS screen even though I pushed the training button. It may be a malfunction, but I've only had the watch for 67 days! I think I might go back to the running shop I purchased it at and beg them to take it back. I plan on buying the 305! Has anyone else been having this problem even if the watch is locked? Oh and if I run at night I can’t use the watch light BC the watch is locked…so the watch is useless until I finish my run!
imagine I was stupid to get this watch --- and I live in Singapore, where running cannot be separated from sweat...
And I was wondering why it starts malfunctioning in 10 minutes down the road...
Wow!! Okay, so I've been looking at this watch for some time now. My sister-in-law has it and LOVES it but I always want the "best" model that has good reviews by its users. I've read posts from REI, AMAZON, and other online sites and I have to say - I am not getting this watch. Designed to work for active individuals.. and it freaks out when there is sweat on it?!? ... so maybe I'll go back and look at the Suunto x10mi.. at least it's waterproof... or I'll wait until this fix this problem!
I might be too late for this suggestion, but if you cover the metal prongs on the back of the watch ( where the charger goes) with black electrical tape, the watch wont malfunction when you sweat!!!!
I had a similar problem. So I figured we all should get viral. I started a group to get Garmin's attention...
http://www.facebook.com/lapapworth?ref=name#/group.php?gid=103112229235&ref=mf
I'm having the exact same problem with my forerunner. Instead of calling, I've been emailing, which really has just spread the anger out over a much longer period. After some googling, it appears this is a very common problem with this watch. At this point i feel the need to reiterate a point you made in your post (which also immediately came to my mind). You designed a freaking running watch that malfunctions WHEN YOU SWEAT????!!! It really boggles the mind.
The tech support guy I've been emailing also suggested locking the bezel. Unfortunately, that's not a fix. It's a work around, and a bad one at that. The unit is clearly malfunctioning, and poorly designed. We'll see what his next response is, but I'm a half a second from launching an negative Internet campaign warning potential garmin customers to run from this product. pun intended :-) I'm planning of flooding sites like amazon, epinions, buy.com, and any other site that google finds with my story.
I finally bought a 310XT. I have an iPhone, and the GPS chip didn't - work - that probably isn't accurate to say, but neither were the locations that it thought I was in. Could sit outside the house for half an hour, and the thing still thought it was six blocks away. That made the running programs practically useless. 310XT has only had issues with the heart rate monitor, and I think that is due to not having a good connection to my chest.
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I just found your BLOG.. I was running with my 405 tonight and it is very humid here in SC.. a drop of sweat hit my watch and it was back on the time screen... could I go back to the exercise screen.. oh hell no.. I got to my car and dried it off then I was able to make it work again.. by then my final pace time was screwed.. don't get me wrong.. I love my 405.. in 2 years this is my first issue.. I will lock the bezel from now on!! Thanks for the info!!
John
This was funny conversations! I really need to call then record..thanks for sharing this with me!
Sample Customer Service Questionnaire
Found this page while looking for information on the 405 - probably won't buy it, not because of the sweat but because of many reports the strap is too big for women...
... but, I would also like to agree with an earlier commenter. I feel sorry for the support guy. It's not his fault there are so few people on the support desk and so many people with watches that have design flaws that it takes thirty minutes for him to get to your call. He is asking if it works again when its dry to determine the nature of the problem - that you can't dry it in a particular situation is irrelevant. He's trying to help you and you're barking "but it doesn't do exactly what I want" back at him. When he does tell you the problem you then give him extra information you could've mentioned at the start about the display freezing.
As for your boyfriend dipping into the comments to speak up in your defence, it's laughable - "know as much about the conversation as blah blah - ie not alot"... readers posting comments are only going on what you wrote about it yourself. Didn't you document the conversation accurately? You can hardly blame people for judging the event based on your own account.
To top it all off, you still haven't even answered the first question anyone wrote in the comments - did locking the bezel work?
If the product doesn't function as it should, you should just tell them that due to the design flaw you want a full refund - it's been sold as a sports watch but you can't use it for sports. If they don't agree tell them you're going to contact the consumer protection agency in your country, and do so. Consequences are the way to make companies realise they can't charge $300 for something that doesn't work.
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