Garmin GPS - City Navigator NT on DVD?

Author

City Navigator NT on DVD?

2006-03-10, 11:48 pm

I saw the note about asking Garmin foir the city navigator DVD, and here is the response I got:

>Third, the Nuvi came with a sheet containing an unlock code, apparently so
>
> It's free. Go here:
>
> http://www.garmin.com/contactUs/techSupport.jsp

> Tell them you have a Nuvi and fill in the required information. Tell
> them you want the City Navigator North America v7 DVD and someone will
> reply that they've initiated a work order to send you out a copy.
>

I made this request, and here is the response I got:

Thank you for contacting Garmin International,[color
=darkred]
>
> Mr. Winberg,[/color]
I would be happy to assist you with this. I have been authorized to
offer you a reduced rate on the City Navigator disc of $15.00. If you would
like to take advantage of this offer please respond with your preferred
method of payment: check, money order, or faxed credit card information.
If you select faxed cc info please make sure to fax it to my attention, and
include our entire email conversation. Have a great day.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Brandon Lamb
> Product Support Specialist
> GARMIN International

So they have apparently changed their policy!

Jack Winberg

kevin weaver

2006-03-10, 11:48 pm

<someone@somedomain.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:KhpQf.722$o41.470@trnddc06...
>I saw the note about asking Garmin foir the city navigator DVD, and here is
>the response I got:
>
>
>
> I made this request, and here is the response I got:
>
> Thank you for contacting Garmin International,
> I would be happy to assist you with this. I have been authorized
> to
> offer you a reduced rate on the City Navigator disc of $15.00. If you
> would
> like to take advantage of this offer please respond with your preferred
> method of payment: check, money order, or faxed credit card information.
> If you select faxed cc info please make sure to fax it to my attention,
> and
> include our entire email conversation. Have a great day.
>
> So they have apparently changed their policy!
>
> Jack Winberg
>
>

Sir, You say it's free, So why the 15.00 fee ? How do you load the DVD into
the nuvi ? I know it hooks up via USB but which files do you install ? I
just was asking this today to the garmin tech support guy. I asked him as
what happen if someone were to delete some files by mistake on there nuvi.
Or if the files got messed up somehow.

He was unsure if the end user could do it. He said it would have to come
back for repair or exchange.

TIA

Phil Wheeler

2006-03-11, 2:48 am

kevin weaver wrote:
> <someone@somedomain.com.invalid> wrote in message
> news:KhpQf.722$o41.470@trnddc06...
>
>
>
> Sir, You say it's free, So why the 15.00 fee ? How do you load the DVD into
> the nuvi ? I know it hooks up via USB but which files do you install ? I
> just was asking this today to the garmin tech support guy. I asked him as
> what happen if someone were to delete some files by mistake on there nuvi.
> Or if the files got messed up somehow.
>
> He was unsure if the end user could do it. He said it would have to come
> back for repair or exchange.
>

Likely "free" still adds shipping and handling .. and $15 is not unusual
for those items.

The plus of having the DVD is that you can install Mapsource on your
(Windows) computer and then update it to the latest version at Garmin
website.

With Mapsource you can manage waypoints, routes and tracks ... sending
them to the GPSR or reading them from the GPSR for archiving purposes.

If all maps are preloaded in the Nuvi, transferring maps would not be
the primary application.

Phil

nuvi user

2006-03-13, 5:48 pm

>Likely "free" still adds shipping and handling .. and $15 is not unusual
>for those items.

When I made my request for the DVD in January it was completely free.
No shipping/handling or other hidden costs - I never had to provide
a method of payment.

If you look in Google Groups for messages around December, 2005 there
were others getting it for free too. Looks like lots of folks got the
word and it became a big cost to them. :-/

Phil Wheeler

2006-03-13, 5:48 pm

nuvi user wrote:
>
>
> When I made my request for the DVD in January it was completely free.
> No shipping/handling or other hidden costs - I never had to provide
> a method of payment.
>

But if they ar "hidden" how would you know? :)

kevin weaver

2006-03-13, 5:48 pm

"nuvi user" <nospam@please.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:hmgb12p25j4ors1
gaj6qpve0tt7mf5tfu6@
4ax.com...
>
>
> When I made my request for the DVD in January it was completely free.
> No shipping/handling or other hidden costs - I never had to provide
> a method of payment.
>
> If you look in Google Groups for messages around December, 2005 there
> were others getting it for free too. Looks like lots of folks got the
> word and it became a big cost to them. :-/
>

Why did they not just insert the DVD into the box ? Cheaper I would think.

Quick question. Looking at a friends nuvi I see that the maps are on the
Internal memory. If this gets hosed, How would he install the DVD back onto
the nuvi ?

TIA...

nuvi user

2006-03-14, 5:48 pm

>Why did they not just insert the DVD into the box ? Cheaper I would think.

It doesn't appear they ever intended people to use Mapsource with
the nuvi. All of North America is already loaded into it and it's not
as well integrated as other Garmin models (GARMIN IF YOU'RE
LISTENING: HINT HINT) for Mapsource or Webupdater. Only 1 waypoint?
Geesh.

My own opinion was that nuvi was supposed to be aimed at the
buy-and-forget type of person who never upgrades anything and was not
intended primarily for vehicle navigation but then it became popular
and feature requests started coming in so there's a lot of duct-tape
afterthought add-ins we're seeing now.

>Quick question. Looking at a friends nuvi I see that the maps are on the
>Internal memory. If this gets hosed, How would he install the DVD back onto
>the nuvi ?

I don't think the DVD is supposed to reload the factory maps. Poking
around the support pages of the other models, there is mention of
downloading the factory binary files off their website to restore the
factory maps but I can't find a similar version on nuvi's support
page.

My backup strategy involves plugging the unit into my PC regularly and
copying everything onto an external hard drive while I go off and
sleep. I also burned a copy of the Garmin directory onto a CD. If
anything gets hosed I just copy the directory back.

Phil Wheeler

2006-03-14, 5:48 pm

nuvi user wrote:
>
>
> It doesn't appear they ever intended people to use Mapsource with
> the nuvi. All of North America is already loaded into it and it's not
> as well integrated as other Garmin models (GARMIN IF YOU'RE
> LISTENING: HINT HINT) for Mapsource or Webupdater. Only 1 waypoint?
> Geesh.
>
> My own opinion was that nuvi was supposed to be aimed at the
> buy-and-forget type of person who never upgrades anything and was not
> intended primarily for vehicle navigation but then it became popular
> and feature requests started coming in so there's a lot of duct-tape
> afterthought add-ins we're seeing now.
>

I think you are right. Garmin and others are now targetting the
"computer unaware" who will use the unit out of the box and never think
about changing anything. That widens their addressable market.

Of course, we won't see too many of those folks here ;)

Phil

Jack Erbes

2006-03-14, 5:48 pm

Phil Wheeler wrote:

<snip>
> I think you are right. Garmin and others are now targetting the
> "computer unaware" who will use the unit out of the box and never think
> about changing anything. That widens their addressable market.
>
> Of course, we won't see too many of those folks here ;)

And they must also be targeting the crowd that will generate a route
(maybe with a maximum of one extra waypoint), turn off their brains, and
obediently follow it. Without any regard for other ways, better ways,
traffic conditions, or anything else that they may happen to know that
would make altering the route result in a better way to go.

Now they have it narrowed down to a *real* small segment of the
population.

The next thing you know they will be selling "waypoint opportunities" to
businesses and inserting those into the routes. And then a voice prompt
comes up and says, "exit here", leads you to a store, and encourages you
to go spend some money.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Mike Henry

2006-03-15, 2:48 am

"Phil Wheeler" <w6tuh-ng7@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:WXBRf.68$w86.28@tornado.socal.rr.com...
> nuvi user wrote:
>
> I think you are right. Garmin and others are now targetting the "computer
> unaware" who will use the unit out of the box and never think about
> changing anything. That widens their addressable market.
>
> Of course, we won't see too many of those folks here ;)

Well, there's at least one here (me). At least sorta. I've been using PCs
since the the late 70's when I built a North Star CP/M computer from a kit
but am not a hard-core GPS user. My mapping/GPS needs are probably pretty
modest compared to most here, but I'm finding the Nuvi a vast improvement
over the Delorme Streets on a PC and Pocket PC that I used previously. The
software was a PITA to use on the desktop and an even bigger PITA to
transfer to the PDA. Then too, I could hardly ever get the two Earthmate
GPSs I've had to get or keep a fix. The Nuvi is far easier and quicker to
use for the sorts of things I need.

The single "via" that the Nuvi allows is a bit disappointing but it's easy
enough to work around that with mutiple waypoints. It does pick some
strange routes at times. For my 30-mile work commute it wants to take me
two exits past the correct one on the expressway. The bottom line, though,
is that it will get me to my destination without a lot of glances at paper
maps or trying to hold a PDA while driving.

Mike

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