Garmin 500 mounting tab broken off.

nwns88

My Garmin 500 mounting tab broke today- one of the two bits of plastic on the rear of the unit which clip into the mount. The unit is 18 months old and when I called Garmin UK they told me I would need a replacement unit at a cost to me of £68.

I told them that in my opinion this was unfair. It seems like a design fault and something that would break in time through normal use. They told me that no other customer had called them to report a similar problem, so it couldn't be a design fault. I find this difficult to believe.

If you have had a similar breakage please post below and I will feed the responses back to Garmin.


Thanks.

Anonymous

Can you superglue/epoxy the unit to the mount and remove that each time?

Or superglue/epoxy another mount onto the back?

I can understand getting a new one on warranty for software issues, but for physical parts, I would bodge it.

nwns88

My point is that garmin are well aware of the design flaw but have failed to do anything about it. Their only response is to offer to sell you another one. I use a garmin out front mount - glueing it in would prevent access to the charging port.

Below is a response from Garmin UK who clearly could not give a monkeys about their customers.
Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.

I am happy to help.

Please bare in mind that we have sold millions of theses units and have very few reported issues of mounting tabs breaking. In nearly all of these cases it is due to improper care or use of a 3rd party mount. As the device is now outside of the manufacturer warranty we cannot replace it under warranty however as stated before we can replace it for a fixed price of £68.08.

We are sorry for any inconvenience.

And here is a link to plenty of unhappy customers who have experienced similar issues on garmin's own forum
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?11539-Edge-500-Mount-Failure

Anonymous

I have read on here that the tabs can break. I use mine twice a day every day and never had an issue with the Garmin stem mounted one.

meanredspider

You can't persuade a Garmin to send you a mounting piece off an otherwise gubbed 500? I'm not actually much of a fan of Garmin but their replacement scheme is not bad. My Forerunner 305 fell off the mount into the snow (I didn't notice it go) one morning commute. By the time I found it (incredibly -since it was a 15-mile commute), it had been run over. Garmin would still have replaced it for £50. I've not heard of tabs breaking off. Alternatively advertise on here for a mounting piece from a busted 500.

ilm_zero7

I used to have a 705 -is it the same clip ? if so - how about permanently gluing a mount adapter

this:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram ... lsrc=aw.ds

to it and then using the rotation (800) type mount on a barfly/out-front ?

londoncommuter

There are loads of reports of this with people using the original K-Edge mount which supposedly cut into the tabs (metal on plastic....) but if you're using an official Garmin mount then you've a right to be annoyed.

Have a look on here:

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/compon ... 22372.html

string78

I had the same happen on my 800 a couple of weeks ago whilst using a barfly mount. Half of one tab has sheared off and the other is cracked. At the moment I have bodged it until I decided whether to send it off to Garmin for £68 or buy a replacement back cover of ebay and repair myself. I've sellotaped the whole unit to the barfly and the put the silicone cover over the unit, covering up most of the dodgy looking repair, so far so good.

It's annoying that they haven't designed it so you can just spin out the mount from the case and replace with a new part rather than having to replace the whole back cover.

clogg

One of the tabs broke of my 500 about two and a half years ago (Aug 2012). I had exactly the same argument with Garmin but to no avail.

I ended up using an epoxy product called Bondloc plastic weld (about £3 from Maplin) to fashion a rudimentary tab to replace the broken one and with about 15 minutes work roughly filing down the hardened epoxy I had something that worked.

It is still working now after prob about 12k miles.

patrickf

This might be of use? http://fastfreddyfour.blogspot.com.au/2 ... e-500.html

cougie

nwns88 wrote:

My Garmin 500 mounting tab broke today- one of the two bits of plastic on the rear of the unit which clip into the mount. The unit is 18 months old and when I called Garmin UK they told me I would need a replacement unit at a cost to me of £68.

I told them that in my opinion this was unfair. It seems like a design fault and something that would break in time through normal use. They told me that no other customer had called them to report a similar problem, so it couldn't be a design fault. I find this difficult to believe.

If you have had a similar breakage please post below and I will feed the responses back to Garmin.


Thanks.

Lots of reports on the interwebs about them breaking - I can't believe they've not heard of them before.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid ... ken%20tabs

slowbike

Lots of reports doesn't make it a design failure.

Like MRS I use mine twice a day most days and not had a problem - I use both the K-edge mount and garmin own mounts.
£68 for a replacement - I'd buy a replacement back off ebay and swap out myself - if that goes wrong then do the Garmin out of warranty replacement.

I've had dealings with Garmin warranty and out of warranty - they argue their point but are generally fair.

chrisw12

Mine broke over two years ago. It's annoying but I don't know if I'd classify it as a design fault, perhaps I should have been a little gentler unscrewing it on and off. Anyway I bought one of these http://www.wiggle.co.uk/garmin-forerunn ... lease-kit/

See the third bit of plastic in the photo, trim the end bits off then glue it to the bottom of the garmin.

You even get a 'free' watch strap that you can use if you want to use your 500 to go for a quick jog.

coulddobetter

Of course very few people write on forums that something works perfectly.

apreading

I found that the Superstar out front mount was wearing away the tabs on my 800. Noticed quickly that not only was it stiffer to lock into that mount but also that when I put it back into the normal Garmin mount, it was not as tight as it used to be. Only a tiny amount but I noticed. Found that in a brand new Garmin mount it is still OK so have stopped using the Superstar one and stuck with that. It seems the plastic in the Garmin mounts is softer and wears before the unit but some of these other mounts use harder plastic. I would rather the mount wear out and need replacing than the unit...!

maddog 2

my tabs broke on my 500. Sent it back to Garmin and they replaced it.

smbm

According to some posts on their Twitter timeline, these people should be able to help:

http://www.racewaredirect.co/

May be worth a try.

redvee

smbm wrote:

According to some posts on their Twitter timeline, these people should be able to help:

http://www.racewaredirect.co/

May be worth a try.

http://www.racewaredirect.co/shop/garmin-tab-repair/

string78

redvee wrote:

smbm wrote:

According to some posts on their Twitter timeline, these people should be able to help:

http://www.racewaredirect.co/

May be worth a try.

http://www.racewaredirect.co/shop/garmin-tab-repair/

For those still looking for a solution to the broken garmin tabs - I ordered the garmin tab repair from racewaredirect on Monday, part arrived yesterday and repaired last night in less than a couple of minutes. For £15 (part, postage and some super glue) it's a no brainer rather than sending back to Garmin for £68.