"When you go to hide a cache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot.
If the only reason is for the cache, then find a better spot."
.... Briansnat

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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Garmin Oregon Dies Again....

One week before GeoWoodstock, the Garmin Oregon has tanked again. The unit managed about 500 finds before it died this time. The first time it died during a firmware update. This time it won't start with the Garmin start screen blinking on and off. This $400+ piece of junk has broken twice in about 1,000 finds and is a sad showing for the company that was for so long the premier handheld gps for geocachers. Maybe if Garmin stopped spending resources on an outdated, retro geocaching platform to compete with Geocaching.com, they could spend resources fixing the nagging problems with their latest handheld platform. I will be purchasing a different brand this weekend. Garmin should hang its head for chasing a nine-year customer to a different brand.

3 comments:

Erika Jean said...

That sucks! I had to send one of my Garmins back once and then the second time it broke they guy I got on the phone was able to help me, I had to get it restarted in a second or two before the screen turned off. Something to do with corrupt files. which make sense becuase I was downloading fro a different computer. I honeslty think that was the problem the first time too...

But hey, maybe you can review a new GPS for us ;-P

Anonymous said...

I would definitely give Garmin a call. They are the best when it comes to customer service and you never know if it is something simple or not unless you try. They have helped me out a lot in the past.

miatabug said...

The Oregon is on its way back to Garmin. The person on the help line walked through all the possible fixes/restarts that are available on the internet and had already been tried.

Worse was, Garmin will not guarantee they won't change the firmware (and wipe out all traces of Geocaching.com). I will probably dump the unit if it comes back ready for caching at their lousy site.

Stay tuned for caching adventures with Magellan. Yes, we are no longer just Garmin owners.