Garmin n vi 760 Portable GPS Automobile Navigator

1. ( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Sep 2 2008

   My step-son ordered the nuvi 760 as a gift for my wife's birthday at the beginning of September. We were about to meet him in Alaska for Summer tours of Denali, Prince William Sound, Anchorage, and other places. We reasonably expected to use the Garmin during the trip. Nope.... It arrived with the tip of the combination car power cord/traffic receiver broken off. The shell of this critical part is made of flimsy, inferior plastic, is less than 1/16" thick, and broke off at some point while lying in the package from the pressure exerted by the fuse spring. If that isn't despicable enough for an indispensable part of a nearly $400 appliance, Garmin has since told us that a replacement for the power cord/receiver costs about $240!!!! I have been buying things from Amazon for years, and I have occasionally had problems with a vendor. I have always been able to depend on Amazon's customer service to promptly handle these problems, and replace defective merchandise quickly. WHEN DID AMAZON TURN TO EVIL?! Since we are in Texas, where the unit was shipped for my wife's birthday, and the step-son is in Alaska, I went to the Amazon return page, and completed the process to return the defective unit through the "received as a gift" option. I got a return authorization and shipping label. While I was preparing to return the defective package, I got an email from an Amazon representative, saying that he had cancelled my return, because the original purchase did not appear under my email address! I couldn't return the gift, he basically said, because I hadn't ordered it myself---"received as a gift" apparently wasn't on his instruction card...As if this wasn't infuriating enough, he communicated this to me via a no-response email address, so I couldn't directly respond to explain this. The step-son in Alaska next arranged, using his email address, to obtain a replacement unit and have the defective one shipped back via UPS later, since we were scheduled to leave for Alaska in a couple of days. He received a return authorization and a printable shipping label. We expected to return from our trip in about 10 days and find the house-sitters had found the replacement from UPS and taken it inside. WRONG! It was obviously never shipped....I guess we should have asked for a tracking number, but we were busy, and didn't expect this from Amazon. He called and finally got through to somebody at Amazon by phone (for those of you scoring along at home, this will be the THIRD time they will agree to ship the replacement and provide shipping for the return). Amazon told him they would ship the replacement to us and get UPS to pick up the package, which, again, they obviously never did. This was last week, before the holiday weekend, and I believe the last few days of our 30 day return period to send the unit directly back to Amazon, which I'm guessing was their intention all along. There is no tracking number, no explanation, and no evidence that Amazon actually shipped the replacement unit, or ever intends to. After two angry emails using their well-concealed contact page, I finally got a response from another representative, which I will quote so that no one thinks I'm making this up: "Thank you for contacting Amazon.com regarding this matter. I've researched your account; it appears that one of my colleagues has already resolved this issue creating replacement order for the defective item which you received as gift. I do apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail inquiry." Whether it will ever be possible to obtain a replacement or refund from Garmin for the busted part is to-be-determined. But Amazon won't be getting another chance to let us down. As for the Garmin, I did manage to test the GPS itself, after charging from a USB port, and found that it performed basic functions and linked to a satellite with several bars from my living room. Note that Garmin is so cheap that they won't include a $3 wall cube charger with this nearly $400 piece of equipment. I've already expressed my opinion of the $240 power cord/receiver. While on our trip, we used my brother-in-law's Garmin---I think it was the somewhat bulkier 660---mostly around Anchorage, since Alaska has about six contiguous roads outside of cities that go anywhere. It worked okay, except that it fell off the windshield at least twice. The giant suction cup isn't especially reliable. I'm not completely sure that I wouldn't have been far happier printing off maps from Google and MapQuest. Since I currently can't use the GPS in the car except while the >non-replaceable

2. Posted: Sep 1 2008

   I have only had a couple problems with this product. It wants to send me through town when there is a bypass available, and I have been unable to get it registered. Otherwise I've been very happy with this garmin.

3. Posted: Sep 1 2008

   My cousin from Seattle introduced me to the Garvin nuvi760 on his recent stay with us. He had purchased it within the past year for $700 and felt, at the time it was a good price. I liked the features but wasn't willing to pay that much. You can imagine my delight to find the Amazon price to be so attractive! Now I've just returned from a week on the road using it and it is marvelous. Always feel in touch with where you are and the sights close by. It is extremely user friendly with easy access to accommodation info and easy phone calling access with the bluetooth feature which we totally found to be useful and so very convenient. Highly recommend this item!

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