12/1/19. Update. After sending this first unit back, I ordered another one. It worked flawlessly. So make sure you jump to the end of the thread before you make a decision on buying one. The second one hasn’t skipped a beat. Seems that first one must’ve been defective.
Original post:
I was totally pumped to finally make the leap from one-way/SOS messaging on my Spot, to two-way messaging.
Five years ago, my father-in-law died when I was in the back country, nobody could get a hold of me. I felt pretty bad when I got out and found out everybody was trying to reach me. However cash was still tight so I didn’t make the jump to two-way. I just tried make sure to call my wife as often as I could in the event I had cell service Instead of just sending her a spot one-way every day,and it worked pretty well for the last few years.
I finally got to the point financially I could justify the two-way, Plus where I’m hunting this year doesn’t even have cell service on the 10,000 foot peaks. So me and my wife were really excited. I hunted with Jordan Budd last week, and she had the Explorer, and man was it nice to be able to check in and make sure everything was OK at home.
I had six days between hunts, (I read several of the reviews on Rokslide, and nobody indicated that that wasn’t enough time to make the leap) so when I got home I got on the email with Rob at S&S archery to get one coming. We decided the mini inReach was for me. I’m leaving Friday, ordered it Monday (paid full price) with next day shipping and got it Tuesday. The mini is sweet, fits in your palm.
I read the instruction booklet cover to cover, charged the mini overnight. And then this morning jumped on their website to buy three months worth of the plan. I was excited because you could just go month-to-month, so I was going to pre-pay for three months.
I entered everything that it asked for, including my credit card. I approved it for $195 charge, more than enough for three months. Then it would not let me proceed. “All fields must be completed” is all it would give me. I went over every page with a fine tooth comb, every field was complete.
Logged out, logged in and tried it again. same thing. Emailed Rob, who answered me within three minutes. He said someone else was having that problem a few days ago, and to just log back in in a bit and try it. So I did that, and didn’t even get as far as I did the first time before it locked up. I searched all over their site and finally found two phone numbers. I tried them both, one of them gave me a message that they are no longer offering instant phone support, but to leave a message and they would call me back. I’m not gonna play phone tag with someone I just gave 500 bucks to, so I didn’t leave a voicemail. The other number said that they could take an email at some address he rattled off, of which I didn’t even bother to write down.
So it’s bye-bye Garmin. I don’t have time to fiddle fart around waiting on their stupid website... And if paying over $500 for an item/plan is not enough for them to put someone on the phone with me, they can kiss my ass.
I’ve got it boxed up and headed back. I’m even paying shipping although Rob offered, but it’s not S&S Archery’s fault. It’s Garmins, pure and simple.
I’m so pissed off I could scream. A multi-million dollar company dominating the two-way communications world, and they can’t even build a freaking website that can take my money. That’s the easy part!!!!!!!
Now I know some of you are gonna log on here and say “I didn’t have any problem“. I get that, but if these companies wanna dominate, like Apple has, they got to make streamlined experiences that anyone can run, or have the support to back it without sucking up their customers’ time.
So there’s my review on Garmin’s website= IT SUCKS! Would love to have reviewed the mini, but that’s not gonna happen this year.
(Oh, and @Ryan Avery, the force is with me)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Original post:
I was totally pumped to finally make the leap from one-way/SOS messaging on my Spot, to two-way messaging.
Five years ago, my father-in-law died when I was in the back country, nobody could get a hold of me. I felt pretty bad when I got out and found out everybody was trying to reach me. However cash was still tight so I didn’t make the jump to two-way. I just tried make sure to call my wife as often as I could in the event I had cell service Instead of just sending her a spot one-way every day,and it worked pretty well for the last few years.
I finally got to the point financially I could justify the two-way, Plus where I’m hunting this year doesn’t even have cell service on the 10,000 foot peaks. So me and my wife were really excited. I hunted with Jordan Budd last week, and she had the Explorer, and man was it nice to be able to check in and make sure everything was OK at home.
I had six days between hunts, (I read several of the reviews on Rokslide, and nobody indicated that that wasn’t enough time to make the leap) so when I got home I got on the email with Rob at S&S archery to get one coming. We decided the mini inReach was for me. I’m leaving Friday, ordered it Monday (paid full price) with next day shipping and got it Tuesday. The mini is sweet, fits in your palm.
I read the instruction booklet cover to cover, charged the mini overnight. And then this morning jumped on their website to buy three months worth of the plan. I was excited because you could just go month-to-month, so I was going to pre-pay for three months.
I entered everything that it asked for, including my credit card. I approved it for $195 charge, more than enough for three months. Then it would not let me proceed. “All fields must be completed” is all it would give me. I went over every page with a fine tooth comb, every field was complete.
Logged out, logged in and tried it again. same thing. Emailed Rob, who answered me within three minutes. He said someone else was having that problem a few days ago, and to just log back in in a bit and try it. So I did that, and didn’t even get as far as I did the first time before it locked up. I searched all over their site and finally found two phone numbers. I tried them both, one of them gave me a message that they are no longer offering instant phone support, but to leave a message and they would call me back. I’m not gonna play phone tag with someone I just gave 500 bucks to, so I didn’t leave a voicemail. The other number said that they could take an email at some address he rattled off, of which I didn’t even bother to write down.
So it’s bye-bye Garmin. I don’t have time to fiddle fart around waiting on their stupid website... And if paying over $500 for an item/plan is not enough for them to put someone on the phone with me, they can kiss my ass.
I’ve got it boxed up and headed back. I’m even paying shipping although Rob offered, but it’s not S&S Archery’s fault. It’s Garmins, pure and simple.
I’m so pissed off I could scream. A multi-million dollar company dominating the two-way communications world, and they can’t even build a freaking website that can take my money. That’s the easy part!!!!!!!
Now I know some of you are gonna log on here and say “I didn’t have any problem“. I get that, but if these companies wanna dominate, like Apple has, they got to make streamlined experiences that anyone can run, or have the support to back it without sucking up their customers’ time.
So there’s my review on Garmin’s website= IT SUCKS! Would love to have reviewed the mini, but that’s not gonna happen this year.
(Oh, and @Ryan Avery, the force is with me)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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