First off I must say that I am very pleased with Garmin’s response to my broken 76Cx. One of the battery connector had broken. I sent e-mail to their Support address, but it got miss-directed, and sent to Europe and then back to Kansas. But I called their busy, but helpful support number. I received a RMA number and mailed my unit to them. I insured the unit, but I did not get a tracking number. The lady at the “Contract” post office told me that with insurance I did not need to pay for a tracking number.
She told me the number on my insurance receipt was my tracking number. The information was incorrect. After trying the number without results I checked the US Postal Service website. I found that I had been given bad information. After ten days I called Garmin and the customer service lady told me they had received the unit, but she could not give me a current status on the unit. She also fed back all my information off her computer screen. That was rather re-assuring.
Three days later UPS delivered a new 76Cx package to me. According to the paper work it is a new unit. Garmin had transferred all the waypoints from my old unit to the new unit. Since yesterday afternoon I have been playing with the new unit. It works great.
Garmin also provided me with a new Unlock Code for City Navigator v8. This was very important to me because it is good, but expensive software. When I returned the old unit I left the 128MB micro SD card on board. That card is standard with the 76Cx and came with it at time of purchase. I had purchased a 1GB micro SD card. Last night I tried the 1GB card, but the new 76Cx would not recognize it because the earlier unlock code did not match the new unit. I followed the directions and used the new unlock code with MapSource and it unlocked the mapping software. I spent a long time selecting every Topo map from the Pacific Ocean to the Eastern boundary of the Rocky Mt. States and from Canada to Mexico. I also loaded the City Navigator maps for Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. I also selected maps for Boise, ID, and Denver, CO., along with City Navigator maps along I-80 going East. I also loaded maps for Michigan. This amounted to 1731 maps and 904.5 MB of space on the 1GB micro SD chip. Selecting so many Topo maps was rather time consuming. I had to take a break for cookies and milk.
A standard 128 MB Micro SD Chip came with the unit. I am sure that I will find a use for it.
So things went right. I resolved the warranty problem during the period the unit is covered by the one-year warranty. I followed 99 percent of the instructions provided on the Garmin website. (I failed to get a tracking number.)
I have read and heard a number of horror stories regarding warranty problems from other manufactures. Garmin treated me right. Yes, there was a long wait to get phone support, approximately 20 minutes. But there was no rush once I got somebody on the line. Support was polite and helpful. When I asked a question that the first support person could not answer I was passed to another Support person who had the answer.
