Customer Service that is really Service

Let me pause among all my criticisms for a moment of praise. I am quick to complain about poor customer service whenever it happens, like last week. . . oh wait, this is a praise blog. I want to tell you a good story about customer service.

I purchased a Magellan RoadMate 700 GPS back in 2006 when we were going to Baltimore to see our kids and our new grandson. I bought it used in an EBay auction. It worked flawlessly, but for a few Interstate exits that had been moved. One night in Nebraska we were looking for what the GPS said was a Golden Corral Steak House and turned out to be some kind of sleazy nightclub. So some of the data was a little out of date.

For 75 dollars I bought a software update and all new maps and points of interest. We were going to take another long drive, this time to Austin, Texas and decided it was time to get updated maps. Well, they came and after hooking the GPS to my computer I entered the cd rom and followed instructions. First, it erased all my old maps, then started loading the new ones. In the middle of the upload there was a file it could not copy. I called Tech Support and they suggested trying it on a computer with Windows XP Service Pack 2. My computers all have Service Pack 3. So I tried it on a Service Pack 2 computer and it failed in the same place. Now I have a GPS unit with no maps.

I called tech support back and gave them the news. They said it was probably a defect in the software on my gps unit put there when I tried installing with Service Pack 3. (Nowhere in the documentation was that fact mentioned.) It just said the installation was for Windows XP. But before I even had time to get my dander up and ready for an argument the agent said, “we don’t support the 700 anymore so if you will send us the 700 we will send you a new 800 to replace it.”

So there you go. For the price of a FedEx to Tennessee I will have a new Roadmate 800 GPS. Of course I don’t have it yet. Mine will not be delivered to them until this Wednesday. And the date for us to leave for Austin has come and gone leaving us GPS less. But we didn’t go anyway so no harm done.

I suspect that the next time I am thinking GPS, I will be thinking Magellan. That is pretty good customer service and they have one happy customer. If you are looking for a GPS unit for your car, may I suggest Magellan.