FactoryOutletStore.com - any experiences?

[jeffstevens763@g]

Originally Posted by treerat

User replaceable yes - but the cheapest ones I can find are £169!!

There used to be a company that would re pack a battery with new cells for you, they did it for my VHF a few years back which was ideal, and a massive saving.

If only i could find the email address

wow didnt look into the batteries to be honest thats a rip off price IMO i dont mind paying especially for safety kit but £169 mind the fastfind 220 i have is £129 which i thought might as well have a new one at £209

[Fenlander]

The Garmin Montana from FactoryOutletStore.com arrived today. Totally happy with the deal overall at £242.95 inc delivery for a Garmin refurb compared with cheapest new £420 and recent Ebay sold prices of used ones with no warranty for £350 or so.

Shipping with UPS bit sluggish at 6 days. Super flimsy outer box with poor packing allowing the boxed unit to rattle about. Enclosed receipt printed crudely on "toilet paper".

Obviously a genuinely refurbed unit by Garmin as claimed with all leads, manual etc new. Website claims their refurbs are "like new". Not so... screen looks new and it works fine but some scuffs on back of unit which are not like new but in truth you could do in the first week of use with a new one. Website also claimed the Garmin warranty was 2yrs... not so the warranty slip is for 1yr. Battery is dated 2017 and so flat it wouldn't power the unit for a moment... so testing on AAs for now and will try to charge the battery later.

So yep I'm happy at the price but if you are super critical these are not the folks to buy from.

I'll put a bit more about the unit itself on the appropriate thread.

[Oldman2]

Shocking bit of packing there eh! How much would it have cost for a few more plastic bubbles. I hope the battery recovers. looking forward to a review thread.

[Fenlander]

The battery behaviour was odd in that it took a whole hour to rise from 0% to 2% but eventually rose to 100% OK and once fully charged after a fair bit of time with it on lost almost nothing so seems to have OK capacity.

I'm winding them up by email this morning regarding sending me confirmation of the 2yr warranty with Garmin which I think they'll be forced to admit is a false claim and it will be interesting to see what they offer to do about that. I don't care as I want to keep the unit and a year is enough for me but prodding them will be fun.

[Fenlander]

Oh well I was wrong to doubt the seller on the warranty issue. I messaged Garmin with the serial number and they confirmed that yes there was a 2yr warranty on this refurb unit.

[Oldman2]

Well all you need now is a replacement battery foc and your well in.

[Fenlander]

Sadly I’d struggle to claim the battery replacement as I’ve had it running for several hours now with very little dent in the battery percentage.

[Fenlander]

As reported in the other thread the Garmin is not compatible with current Bluecharts so I've asked for and been offered a full refund which I'll take up if one last map possibility doesn't work. I've also said they should change their webpage which claims you can use charts but that's not been done so far.

[Fenlander]

Final opinion having managed to get the unit to work on a used chart card... yes bargain prices and the claimed Garmin refurb is true... but too many niggles with seller and their admin really.

6/10 could do better.