A Tale of Two Zumos

[Zwartie]

Here's my story:

Last weekend my wife and I and a few of our friends went on a 4-day motorcycle trip up to Midland, ON and toured to Haliburton, Huntsville and surrounding area. On Saturday my 'ol faithful Garmin Zumo 550 GPS started acting up. The screen was showing intermittent buttons being pressed which made it nearly impossible to start up as I had it password protected upon start-up. By the end of the day I just gave up and fortunately my buddy Jack had our route loaded on his Zumo 660 so he led us back to the hotel. Note to self: It never hurts to have a good old-fashioned map on hand as a backup. That evening just before we went out for supper I looked online for ways to reset or re-calibrate the screen. Turns out it's a pretty simple process, just hold the power button for 30 seconds and the screen comes up with various "press here" prompts to re-calibrate the screen. Once that was done the screen seemed to function normally. We left for supper and when we got back to the hotel room I went over to the GPS which was sitting on the bed and noticed immediately that the power button was missing! If you are familiar with the Zumo 550 you will know that besides the touch screen there are 4 buttons along the left side and 1 button (power) on the right. They are part of a rubber membrane as the Zumo series of GPS units are waterproof...or at least this one used to be waterproof. Fortunately I found the button on the floor and using my MacGyver skills used some electrical tape to hold it in place and then used the GPS the next day as we rode home. Later that evening I checked online for repair and exchange options and found a few tips including one on the ADV Rider forum suggesting that Garmin will do an exchange on a refurbished unit for about 75 bucks.
On Monday I decided to call Garmin and spoke to Mary, one of their customer service reps. I told her what happened to the Zumo 550 and asked if I could send it in for repair or exchange. She told me that the unit is obsolete (no surprise) and that they are no longer able to repair them. I asked what they could do and she said that they would offer a 20% discount on a new GPS. I paused for a moment and then told her that I paid close to $800 for the unit when I originally bought it, plus had to pay another $120 for lifetime map updates and this really left a bad taste in my mouth. She asked me to hold and said she would see what she could do. When she got back on the line she asked if I would be interested in exchanging it for a Zumo 660 (refurbished, I assumed). I said sure, providing it came with the motorcycle and car mounting hardware. She assured me that it would and then said that she would send my info to their Canadian Service Depot, a company called Ray Tech. I believe they are located in Quebec. She said that someone from Ray Tech would call me in a day or two to arrange an exchange.
The next day (Tuesday), I got a call from Yolanda with Ray Tech and she said that Garmin had directed them to send me a Zumo 660. Unfortunately they did not have any 660's in stock so she asked if I would be OK with a Zumo 390. I asked if I could check it out and call her back. I went online to check out the 390 as I assumed that the lower number meant it may be a stripped-down version and may be missing some features of the 550 or 660. Boy, was I wrong! Other than the 390 not being able to play MP3's, it has all kinds of cool features that the other two don't (TPMS, Garmin VIRB interface, lane-assist, curvy road option and more...). I called her right away and said yes, let's make this happen! So yesterday my new (to me) Zumo 390 was delivered along with a return packing slip for the Zumo 550. It came with all the motorcycle and car mounting hardware as promised and although it may be a refurbished unit, it looks brand new to me.
So get this - a phone call to Garmin to tell them about a problem with my 6 1/2 year old GPS resulted in them upgrading me to a practically brand new and definitely improved unit at no cost to me. Talk about customer service and standing behind their product!!!

Here are the Zumo's side-by-side - note the power button on the 550 is not where it should be:


Zwartie

[ribbert]

I had a similar experience. Sent 550 in for a new screen after about 150,000 kms. Went to pick it up and they said parts were no longer available and just gave me a whole new unit (550) with all the accessories for the price they had quoted for just the screen replacement.

Noel

[FJ_Hooligan]

Did the lifetime maps transfer to the new unit?

[Zwartie]

Did the lifetime maps transfer to the new unit?

Yup, lifetime maps included and way easier to transfer on the 390.

Zwartie