Garmin Eu Reviews 165

I would like to express my complete disappointment with Garmin!

I spent many months saving up money from my job and finally managed to buy my first Garmin device in December 2023.

I was really enjoying using it for my daily physical activities.

Today, March 20, 2026, I woke up and the screen of my Instinct 2 Solar device simply went black. I thought it was a dead battery, I connected the cable and nothing happened. Absolutely nothing!

I contacted Garmin Brazil's chat and the employee Thalita assisted me attentively, I followed all the procedures she instructed to restore the device and nothing.

I never thought that a device from the renowned international brand GARMIN would have a problem like this.

The device turned off on its own and now I will have to bear the costs of repairing something that should never have happened.

I have had Polar and Suunto devices that never gave me any problems.

What a regret to have switched from those brands to a Garmin device.

After less than three years of using my Garmin Fénix 7X Sapphire Solar, the Back/Lap button stopped working. The issue is caused by a tiny component – a simple micro‑switch worth only a few cents. On a premium device costing over €800 / $800, I expected this to be repairable.
Instead, Garmin informed me that they do not perform any repairs at all, do not sell spare parts, and that the only option is to replace the entire watch with a Fenix 8 for an additional 20,625 CZK (~€830). In other words: a minor fault on a cheap component = buy a whole new watch.
Garmin claims the reason repairs are impossible is to “maintain water resistance.” That explanation does not hold up. Local watchmakers routinely perform pressure tests, and many independent technicians have successfully replaced the faulty microswitch on these watches. So the repair is technically possible — Garmin simply chooses not to offer it.
What makes this worse is that many other Fénix and Epix users have reported similar button failures. This appears to be a recurring weakness, yet Garmin’s response is always the same: no repair, no parts, buy a new watch.
For a company that advertises “premium durability” and “built to last,” this policy is extremely disappointing. A high‑end sports watch should not become disposable after a few years because the manufacturer refuses to support basic repairs.
After this experience, I will not purchase another Garmin product again. A brand that sells expensive devices but treats them as throwaway items once the warranty expires is not a brand I can trust anymore.
Miroslav V.

This is a review of the Garmin billing team and a person called Lindsey B.
Snr. Team Lead Finance Billing
Garmin International

This lady is clearly a liar, I don’t find it difficult to say this. I’m 67 and I’m not stupid. This person has offered no evidence or proof that my card is not working. They have said it’s my banks fault and my cards fault. I have 5 cards, 4 with one bank and one with a different bank. The card I used worked for two years, then I cancelled, I then came back with the same card after a long illness, but my card was refused. However Garmin forced me to change the card three times, also saying it was my banks fault, my bank sent an email saying nothing was wrong and that they accepted rolling payments. It went to this lady, and she has clearly done nothing. Because If all five cards worked before. The conversations between Garmin and myself have gone past the super critical point now. There is clearly an issue with the Garmin payment system and they have not looked into this, as I said no evidence or proof and I can and very sadly call this person not trustworthy and she is a liar 🤥
I want to spend £850 on the new handheld, but why would I now? Would you in my situation? Garmin head office check out your billing team or you’re going to go broke. Good luck. And don’t ask for an apology because none will be given!

Terrible service and zero accountability
I ordered a watch costing £999, due to arrive on Thursday. Instead, on Wednesday night I received an empty box with only the receipt inside.
I immediately reported this to Garmin and was met with minimal support. Rather than investigating the issue properly on their end, they placed the burden entirely on me to prove the box was empty. That is not how customer service should work, especially for a high-value item.
This situation could likely have been avoided entirely if the delivery had required a signature. For an item of this value, leaving a package unattended with no verification is negligent.
Thankfully, I had CCTV footage clearly showing the box was empty on delivery. After a 10-day “investigation,” the watch was suddenly returned to Garmin and I was offered either a refund or a replacement.
No apology. No acknowledgement of fault. Nothing.
I took the refund and will not be dealing with Garmin again. For a company selling premium products, their handling of this situation was amateur at best and dismissive at worst.

Watch suddenly stopped working, exhausted all self-diagnosing and hard restarts etc., so went to contact Garmin UK - closed on Monday and Tuesday 29th and 30th December for the 'festive season' - that's truly pathetic for a company of this size. How many people received their product as a Christmas present and needed assistance to be face with the prospect of waiting until when - the 5th of January???

Horrendous customer service, small company mentality charging corporate giant prices for their products.

I am furious with Garmin. I bought a Garmin inReach MINI 2 a couple of years ago just because it came with a Search and Rescue 100 option (for a price) offering S&R coordination and up to $100K insurance towards any recovery costs. Just what I wanted as a sailor. How they have decided not to offer this option outside the USA! Well thanks so much Garmin. I can’t now use it for the one thing I bought it for. What a useless company. I will never buy Garmin again.

I am utterly disappointed with my Epix Pro Gen 2. Despite the premium price, the software—which comprises 90% of the user experience—is anything but premium.
My device is experiencing critical bugs, including random restarts during workouts, and has been deliberately abandoned from significant software feature updates because Garmin has effectively ended the Epix 2 line's software development cycle. This is a blatant betrayal of your promise to support your flagship products.
This is not what I paid for. Since you cannot fix these issues due to the lack of ongoing development, you have failed as a premium brand. I will never spend money on any other Garmin product.

I bought a Vivoactive 4S watch in Amazon that, after one and half years stopped working unexpectently (screen turned black and would not charge) I contacted Garmin Customer Service which sent useless instructions not valid for my location at the time (Canary Islands)
When I returned to mainland Spain I followed up and they said that it was out of guarantee (really???? I initially contacted you when the watch was a year and a half!!!) and they could only send a replacement if I pay 136.85 euros, that was the only option. So I paid… they sent me a faulty replacement watch (same model) that a few weeks after stopped working the day before my FIRST MARATHON! I will never forget that Garmin ruined it!
I contacted them again, they sent another refurbished replacement watch. And two years down the line it is no longer working.
This bad experience showed me the bad quality of their watches (short live for a watch that cost 300 euros… plus the 136.85 euros to get a bad refurbished watch…) and the bad service ofntheir policies and customer service team (specifically Post-Venta Iberia)
I will not buy again any Garmin watches.

I bought a Fenix pro saphire watch from garmin Netherland in september 2025, worth almost €1000 Euro. In my account it was written deliverd, but I never received the watch. I filled couple contactforms on their website, but they never responded, I tried to call them but nobody answered (3th party customerservice). They have livechat on their website, but everytime it's someone else and they all literally don't give a F.ck!
I had to repeat my story everytime. As soon as the chat is ended you wil never speak to them again, so they really don't care. The last guy (jeffery) literally said, " it's your problem". So €1000 euro is gone.
They respond within hours when you want to buy a garmin product, but soon as your money is in their account, they don't care anymore!

Don't buy from garmin (Netherland), because you will lose your hard earnd money

Awful customer service, misleading sales tactics.
I placed an order on 5/10/25, advertised as due to ship within 1-3 working days. When having had no contact at a week overdue I contacted Garmin via chat, they stated a delay and the watch was due to ship later in the month, bearing in mind that full payment was taken at time of order I would have expected contact from Garmin and an update.

Having noticed on their website that the same item now states shipping in 1-3 days I contacted them again to be told there was another delay and it could be 5 weeks, again no offer of a substitute item or resolution and no updates forthcoming,

I consider this to be mis-selling and appalling customer service from a supposedly reputable brand.

Very disappointing.

Customer service are not helpful. Also the shipping times are ridiculous. No doubt the watch will arrive faulty.

Stop using UPS—none of my deliveries this year have arrived on time or at the correct address!

I placed an order with Garmin on 9th August and was told delivery would take 5–8 working days. Payment was taken straight away, yet I received no updates at all. When I chased it up, I was first told delivery would be in early September, and now I’ve been told it won’t arrive until late October.

This is nothing short of false advertising on delivery times. Customer service is almost non-existent — the only response I get is a plain “sorry,” with no real effort to resolve the issue or keep me updated.

I’ve now decided to spend my money with another company instead. Extremely disappointing experience, especially from a brand as well-known as Garmin.

Really awful. My watch is not responding: the assistance is not existent!! There is nothing to do... you purchase expensive thinking is high quality but it is worst than the toy watches you could find selling on the street!! What a disgrace!

I’ve had an issue with the golf app crashing every time I play which is really annoying. Garmin sent me a new device but it’s made no difference. They have now told me that it’s a known issue and software uodate is being worked on. No ETA unfortunately. Affects the Fenix 8 51mm.

I will not buy another Garmin product.
I’ve had my Venu 2 watch for only 3 years. From about 2.5 years old, charging it started to be a bit hit or miss – I’d often have to keep repositioning the cable and propping it at an angle to get it to charge and sometimes it just wouldn’t charge at all. I even purchased a ‘puck’ charging cable which stabilises the watch so ensures a secure charger connection but that hasn’t helped. Recently it’s become worse to the point where it won’t charge for several attempts and then occasionally it will do!
I’m not sure if this is just a design flaw of this watch in general, or intentional built in obsolescence to keep new sales coming in.
Garmin customer support have been pathetic – their solution (as my watch is out of warranty) is that it can’t be fixed so I need to replace it – they’ve offered me “a discounted price” of £169 but I need to return my dodgy watch first and then wait however long before they’ll dispatch the replacement. That discounted price is a whole £3 cheaper than the price of a brand new one on Amazon!

My watch stopped connecting to WiFi. Support didn't even try to help, just said I can pay £140 and exchange the watch. I honestly think they're purposely stopping some watches from working so that they can get more money out of people. Read the reviews and threads online, as it seems so many people are facing these issues. I will not be buying anything from this brand again, and I advise against it.

My Vivo active smart watch went wrong after 3 months which made me sad. I emailed Garmin support and within a week my faulty watch was recalled and replaced. Very impressed.

My Tacx Neo stopped working, so I contacted Garmin. They offered a refurb replacement for £319, which I accepted.
However, they won’t despatch until the old one is received. I have explained that I have a Half Ironman in 20 days and the machine is integral to my training. I have proof the faulty unit has been returned, but they won’t budge on their rules. I am a loyal Garmin customer with multiple devices.

Ridiculously convoluted process to exchange a damaged watch. Confusing and contradictory information given, and the communication I eventually received when further enquiring about missing parts was contemptuous and unhelpful. The replacement refurb watch remains unused. Thankfully there are far better sports watch manufacturers than Garmin.