Garmin servicing/ repair center in India?

[abhi]

Has anyone here had to service /repair their Garmin? My Forerunner 305 has stopped working after two years of usage.
This is what I heard from Murali in our office who had some trouble with his:
- that Garmins need to be sent to taiwan for repair.
- cost = 150$ + shipping for repair

Has anyone heard differently? Because at 150+ shipping it does not make sense to repair. I may as well buy a new device.

[raknair]

exactly what is the issue ?

the commonest problem is the screen going blank and no amount of pressing on any of the buttons will bring it back alive.

Try pressing Mode+Lap(reset)+start-stop buttong together for about 3 seconds.

[prabuddhadg]

What Rakesh mentions has happened with my 305 twice. And both times, the lap+ start stop buttons held down together for about 5 seconds did the trick. Kaushik had gone to the Bombay dealer of Garmin, and they had told him something similar to what Abhi was told. Kaushik got an 800.

[abhi]

That's some hope. Will try it out once I get home.
---
But what is happening is, while its in the charger cradle, if I try turning it on, it does. The moment I take it off, it goes off. This is like a laptop with a laput battery I guess. Works as long as its on External power. I think this requires a battery replacement. But, I'll try what you guys have posted and see if it works.

[arunsekhar1]

There is one Garmin service centre in Chennai.. I will check it out over the weekend and tell you. I have some problems with my gps(handheld) as well.

[kk27]

Abhi - I had got my garmin Edge 305 from Aerial Services Pvt. Ltd here, they are Official Garmin distributors in India; they also have a branch in Blr I guess. When my first unit had completely conked, they replaced it immediately. In june/July last year my second Edge 305 got some issues with Elevation, for which they told something in the line of 4000k odd for repairs. Infact since they even were ready to give me a discount of the refurbished price on a new 500unit, though I got myself an 800 for a little more in France. They are really nice guys (bombay ones), try & connect with them First - seek for guy called "Gerard" give my reference "Kaushik from Tata Power".

[abhi]

Wrote to Garmin India, but they refuse to repair it because it was not bought through them (Got it as a gift from the wife a couple of years ago, on her way back from USA). Cannot understand the logic of such decisions, but thats a whole topic in itself.
They asked me to contact Garmin Asia.

Now Garmin Asia has sent me a quote and Return Material Authorisation form of USD 79 for repair and USD 40 for courier through DHL.
And obviously I need to pay to ship it to them too. (Similar figures that I posted in the first post above)

The questions:
- Has anyone done this before?
- If yes, then what was the quality of the service and how long did it last after that?

[shankarbn]

Like you said in the first post, 79+40USD+shipping will still come up to the price of a new forerunner man. Not worth it!

[htedum]

Wrote to Garmin India, but they refuse to repair it because it was not bought through them (Got it as a gift from the wife a couple of years ago, on her way back from USA). Cannot understand the logic of such decisions, but thats a whole topic in itself?

Write to Garmin Global and ask them why, as a paying customer, you cannot have a battery replaced locally just because you were invoiced in a different country. I'm assuming the model, and spares, are available locally, of course.

[abhi]

I'm assuming the model, and spares, are available locally, of course.

I assume that spares should be available because the reason given was as below. Nothing about unavailability of spares etc.

Code: Select all

Dear Sir,
 
This sr. no. was not imported by us. Hence we request you to contact Garmin at marketing.asia@garmin.com
 
Regards,
 
Gerard

[kk27]

Hi I've written an email to the guys I know at ASPL, atleast the Mumbai guys are really good, let me see what is their response.

[knmurthy]

Abhi: Do you know for sure that the battery needs replacement?
You can ask friends/relatives coming from US/else to get the same if that works
Murthy

[shankarbn]

And Abhi, if all else fails, you should try this DIY. Finding a Li ion battery will be easy enough.

[abhi]

Cool. Thanks kk. Will wait for what they say.

Shakar - Spent 30mins reading up on the DIY link and other things that people have been doing. I may go this route instead of throwing it as last resort. At least just for kicks. Looks like the 1400Mah iPod Mini battery is a good fit and is double the ~700Mah that comes in the forerunner 305.

[htedum]

Abhi, what response from Garmin? I'm thinking of getting one shipped to a friend coming down from the US. If they're being assbowls about service/warranty, I'd rather look at other options/buy locally if nothing is available.