Garmin GPS' !!! P1ssing me off now!

medicnick83

medicnick83

Paramedic
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Hi all,

Okay, so I'm posting this because I want people to see this as I'm going to take it to Garmin SA now and Garmin HQ If I have too.

I have always been told that Garmin GPS are top notch units, but I'm seeing that THAT is not actually true; here is my story.

A long time ago, I bought a Garmin Nuvi 2360, I spent a fortune on the unit and was happy with it (as a normal driver) but then I started using it while on shift (You all know what my job is!) and I started to find problems with it.
I couldn't find certain locations on the GPS - suffice to say, I bought a map book and used it in conjunction with my GPS - win win situation.
But then I started to get a bit irritated - why pay a fortune for a unit when I can't actually use it the way it is supposed to be used.
The problem I had with the (now) older GPS is that if I searched for a road in a X area, it wouldn't find it, but if I searched in that X area for Y road, I'd find it (via map book)
Suffice to say, I eventually just accepted it because it didn't happy all the time, just now and again.

Time goes by, my GPS gets old, I think, let's get a new one - I'm sure the issues I had with the old unit will be fixed in the new unit.

I go and purchase the Garmin Nuvi 42 (not bottom of the range hey!) and yeah, I get it, with free updates etc - happy! Hell, even decide to buy my girlfriend the same unit.

I've updated this unit 20 times or whatever and still, while on duty, I go on calls and find places that my GPS can't locate - my girlfriend has the same problems!

This last weekend, I had a few occasions, Lavender Hill, near Hek road, Military road, roads in that area are not found (I find them in the map book, but not in the GPS) because when I'm in those areas, the roads are called "road" so basically when I'm in my ambulance on the road in question, it says "Driving on road"

So anyways, I took both my GPS' on duty this weekend and while in Lavender Hill, I tested my theory - as true as God, both of the GPS' (by Bloade street or whatever) it says "driving on road"

So this brings up some issues;

Garmin want to CHARGE customers to update their maps yet the maps do not have the updates (for the older units)
Garmin gives FREE updates to customers on the new GPS' but the updates do not have the updates (roads)

SO WHAT IS THE POINT?

So!

My friend is on duty today, she has a really basic horrible Tom Tom - I ask her if she doesn't mind using the GPS in the Lavender Hill area and bam... EVERY STREET HAS ITS NAMES!

I want Garmin to respond and fix the problems, if not, I'm going to sell these units and buy a Tom Tom and then Garmin will have lost me as a supporter!

Obviously, I'm going on about Lavender Hill roads not on Garmin GPS' but I've found more places, I just can't recall them now but my point is made.

I've got no faith in my Garmin GPS' on duty - I basically take out my GPS, put it up but then take out the map book - when I get calls, I look at the map book first before using the GPS (or I get my partner to setup the GPS while enroute to a call) so as to save time and this is not how it should be! Honestly!

:mad:
 
I would suggest that you try and get hold of the last version of the GARMAP map, which was Garmap Sub-Saharan Africa Streetmaps 2013.2. Here is a screenshot of the roads in the Lavender Hill area in the GARMAP mapset.
Garmap.jpg

Here is the same area, but on the latest GARMIN City Navigator Southern Africa NT 15.1. As you can see the GARMAP map has a lot more streetnames compared to the GARMIN map.
Garmin.jpg
 
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Okay, but hear me... On the older unit, I have to PAY to get the updates.
On my NEWER unit (with FREE updates) which I updated not 2 days ago, the roads are NOT there.

I should NOT be having to go to any sort of extreme to update X Y or Z, I should update it and those roads should be there.
Thus why I have the updates and thus why I purchased the NEW Garmin unit.

I've had these issues forever and now I'm just GATVOL.
 
Just change to google maps or is there a specific reason for garmin?

I was sticky at first but it is far better than my garmin or tomtom imo. I even found addresses in google maps that garmin couldnt find.
 
acidrain said:
Just change to google maps or is there a specific reason for garmin?

I was sticky at first but it is far better than my garmin or tomtom imo. I even found addresses in google maps that garmin couldnt find.
Click to expand...

If I could change, I would, but I've purchased the units, I've paid for them... they need to work, if not, Garmin must find a way to fix it, if they don't bother, I'm going to just sell the units and purchase a Tom Tom and every person whom I meet and queries GPS units, Garmin can not expect me to say anything nice about them.
 
gdiza said:
If I could change, I would, but I've purchased the units, I've paid for them... they need to work, if not, Garmin must find a way to fix it, if they don't bother, I'm going to just sell the units and purchase a Tom Tom and every person whom I meet and queries GPS units, Garmin can not expect me to say anything nice about them.
Click to expand...

Why sell the units? Return them for a refund. They obviously cannot do what they are required to do?
 
Your issues are why I ditched Garmin in the first place. The day it told me to turn left where there was no left (if I had listened I would have driven off a bridge) was the day I stopped using Garmin

No issues with Tom Tom
 
As an alternative you can load the OpenStreetMap map data as a garmin IMG file onto most of the devices using mapsource/basecamp. On some devices you can run this next to the original garmin maps image just dont overwrite the original when you copy it to the device.

*please don't abuse this service as they sometimes run out of bandwidth and is hosted by donations*

Read more here:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Garmin.openstreetmap.nl#About

Download or create your map image here only select the areas you need(You should not need the custom one so just select south africa from the africa dropdown and download):
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
 
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You should be able to return the units if they are not older than six month.
The product does not perform as advertised meaning you cannot go to locations because the locations does not exist on the unit.

I have had this problem plenty of times with my garmin and Google maps and Here map maps (Nokia Lumia) is in my opinion better and easier to use than garmin.
 
hashbrown99 said:
Your issues are why I ditched Garmin in the first place. The day it told me to turn left where there was no left (if I had listened I would have driven off a bridge) was the day I stopped using Garmin

No issues with Tom Tom
Click to expand...

I'm starting to see this... if Garmin don't come to the party, then I'm saying GOOD BYE!

Fudzy said:
Are Garmin better than Tomtom?
Click to expand...

Not in my opinion, not anymore!

Insint said:
You should be able to return the units if they are not older than six month.
The product does not perform as advertised meaning you cannot go to locations because the locations does not exist on the unit.

I have had this problem plenty of times with my garmin and Google maps and Here map maps (Nokia Lumia) is in my opinion better and easier to use than garmin.
Click to expand...

Sadley, they are older than 6 months.
 
Insint said:
You should be able to return the units if they are not older than six month.
The product does not perform as advertised meaning you cannot go to locations because the locations does not exist on the unit.

I have had this problem plenty of times with my garmin and Google maps and Here map maps (Nokia Lumia) is in my opinion better and easier to use than garmin.
Click to expand...

As far as I'm concerned, the Nokia OVI Maps (back in the day a few years ago) on my E71 were the best! I never struggled looking for anything and I never ever had a situation where I couldn't find anything, it was always spelling related problems.

Now on my Garmin, doesn't matter what I do, I can't find roads because they are simply NOT there and damn the man I have proof of that too! I'll drag a Garmin CEO to Lavender Hill while they shooting and show him! :mad:
 
I used to use Garmin GPS until recently when I found myself having to make too many U-turns. I recently started using google maps on my phone, so accurate. Pity I can't change that woman's voice and pity it chows on my data.
 
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My Samsung comes with a garmin app including free maps for SA and several other African countries.

I keep going back to google maps as I find the thing to be utterly useless.
 
I have to also agree with the fact that Garmin units send you on the worst possible routes... Doesn't matter what setting you use, faster, shorter etc, you end up going OUT of the way and the routes are most definitely not faster or shorter etc.

But having said that, I'm not concerned with that because generally, I know where to go (in what direction) - I just need more help when it gets closer to the destination.

You guys must remember that all the calls EMS do are TIME DEPENDANT! You can, we need to get there ASAP - I can't sit with the GPS struggling for 5 - 10 minutes trying to find my destination on the GPS because that takes time away from getting to the patient - and that is what is pissing me off... I can spend up to 3 minutes struggling to find the destination, then I get upset and have to go to the map book index, find the street name, goto the page in the map book, find the location and then plot how to get there... what... that's another 3 - 4 minutes... so ultimately, almost 10 minutes wasted.

It's BS! GPS' are supposed to make things EASIER, not HARDER! and as far as I'm concerned, GARMIN is NOT helping...

It's 9:30am and they have not made contact with me even though I was told they would *SOONEST* :mad:
 
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