A response from Garmin customer service to a question about a malfunctioning receiver:
>Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to assist you. I'm sorry to hear that your device is giving you issues. Unfortunately we are unable to get in to the engineering side of things as a method of troubleshooting the device. I do apologize for the inconvenience. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Um, thanks, I guess.
Its best to understand these things in their proper perspective, Jim.
Where you, perhaps wrongly, believe you have a malfunctioning receiver, you, in proper terms and context, are merely experiencing an issue or inconvenience as opposed to any material inoperability. o.O
Dear Mr. JIM FRAME,
We apologize for the non-responsive response to your inquiry originally generated by our customer support automated response system. When you asked "why does my Garmin receiver think that it is in Sicily?", naturally this was interpreted to mean that you yourself thought that you were in Sicily and the customer support network you had logged onto does not extend beyond the borders of the Continental US and certain inhabited parts of Canada, of which there are few.
We have found that one good way to correct the events you are experiencing is to physically take the receiver to the opposite side of the Earth from the last position displayed. Then, remove the batteries and kindly telephone us for the reinitialization instructions.
Sincerely,
Javad Energee, Engineering Side Customer Support and Assistance Abteilung
> Sincerely,
>
> Javad Energee, Engineering Side Customer Support and Assistance Abteilung
LOL:good:
The other obvious possibility that Mr. Frame's inquiry brings to mind is that he has failed to install a seventy-cent filter on the antenna of his Garmin unit. If he will fill out the questionnaire provided at our website, we can give him an estimate of the cost of the necessary modifications, which we estimate should be less than $1000. However, we cannot be sure until he sends his unit in with the repair order.
Javad Energee, Engineering Side GPS Antenna Filter Coordinator
Maybe they think you're a spy working for Magellan
In fairness to Garmin, the device I was asking about is a long-discontinued 12CX, and my specific question pertained to the method they'd used to mount the internal antenna. I acknowledged opening the receiver and trying to fix the problem (no fix when using the internal antenna, but good performance when an external antenna is connected) by soldering the underside of the antenna to the ground plane, without actually knowing if there was supposed to be electrical contact between the two. I asked if they could forward my message to their engineering folks to see if there were an old hands around who might be able to help me resuscitate this dinosaur, realizing that it was a long shot in any case.
It's still a science project at this point. It continues to work fine with an external antenna, and sees SVs fine with the internal, it just won't fix a position using the internal. It's a throwaway in any case, and I'm just goofing around because I'm curious.
I got one of those 'non-responsive' responses once. (I don't remember who it was with). I replied back "Did anyone actually read my email?". I then got a real response addressing my actual question. It might be the protocol for some companies to send out a generic response first, and if the person answers back they actually look at it. Maybe it saves a lot of manpower.
I bet you'll get a more substantive response the second time around.
