Cache Mania

A few months ago Garmin surprised many when it discontinued the relatively new Colorado line of handheld GPS units.  I was certainly surprised have only recently upgrading.  I discovered a couple of days ago that Garmin will be releasing the GPSMAP 62 series by the end of July.  From where I sit this is the unit Garmin should have released instead of the Colorado.  The GPSMAP 60 series had the right form factor all it needed was upgraded software.   In the GPSMAP 62 series the form factor is back with upgraded software and some upgraded internals. I can’t wait to see if this is a better unit than my Colorado 300.

Tags: Colorado, GPSMAP 60CSx, GPSMAP 62, GPSr
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A couple of months ago I was out caching and my GPS started acting up.  I was getting lines across the screen.  There was conversation amongst myself and the cachers I was with that perhaps the Colorado 300 needed a firmware upgrade.  Luckily Northern Penguin had his laptop with him and by chance he had the latest GPSr firmware on the laptop.  While standing in a parking lot at 2200 we flashed my Colorado.  No joy.   It was not a software problem as I had hoped.

I knew I was going to have to send the unit in for warranty repair but I was hesitant.  It would take too long, it would be too much of a hassle, it would be an all around pain in the ass.   I was wrong on all counts.

I contacted Garmin support to start the return process.  I was informed that as a Canadian I had to send the unit to the Canadian repair depot.  This would save me having to ship cross-border, twice.  The Canadian repair company is Raytech Electronics.  The Raytech site was very easy to use and within minutes I had received authorization to ship the unit back for repair.  Their system even prepared the shipping label for me.   It cost me about $9 to ship the unit to Quebec.

About a week after sending the unit in I received an email stating the unit was being returned to me.  I was it afraid it was going to take upwards of 6 weeks and here I was getting my GPSr back within two weeks.  My unit was toast so I was sent a replacement Colorado.  The noted didn’t say for sure but I think it was a refurbished unit.  I didn’t mind as it was better than having no GPSr at all.  The total cost to me for the replacement was $9, the cost of postage, one-way.

The support people at Garmin provided even more help to me today.  The one downside to getting a replacement unit is that I would have to reload the unit with my information, including my maps.  Installing the maps was going to be a problem.  I’d somehow managed to render my original disk unreadable.  I could not install the maps without the disk.  I called Garmin software support to see what they could do.

I’d already been in touch with Garmin on this issue once before.  At that time I was told too bad, so sad but you’ll have to buy a new installation.  That communication was done over email and I had the feeling that email support was outsourced.   Today I actually spoke to Michael in Kansas.  It took us a while but he figured out that I could buy replacement media to solve my problem.  I immediately placed the order with Michael, it wasn’t Garmin’s fault I buggered up the disk.  For $15 plus shipping I was going to get a replacement disk.  I had to send proof that I actually owned the original disk.  The was a bit of a nuisance but manageable.

I recommend you reach out to Garmin support as soon as you have a problem.   I’m very happy to have my GPSr fixed and a replacement disk ordered all for less than $35.   That sure beats shelling out another $500 just to replace what I already owned.  Thank you Garmin Support!

Tags: Colorado, Garmin, support, Warranty
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