# Warning to potential customers Magellan wont honour warranty



## deano (Nov 26, 2006)

Just a quick word of warning to anyone considering buying a Magellan GPS product - they will not honour any warranty if the unit was not bought domestically from one of their selected distributors. Obviously this is designed to maintain the outrageously inflated Australian price by attempting to dissuade you from purchasing a unit at the normal price from offshore. Some of the other rip-offs that Magellan are running at the moment are charging you $299 (plus freight) to flash the firmware on units from overseas, as well as threatening to confiscate any overseas unit that dares to include an Australian base map. I suspect this would amount to anti-competitive trading by Magellan and a strong case could certainly be put to the small claims division of the local court, which would probably force Magellan to abide by their contractual (warranty) obligations. But I figure, why go through all that hassle - just don't buy Magellan products.

I am currently looking to buy a handheld GPS unit and I was leaning heavily towards the Magellan explorist 500, but noting their attitude I think I will go with Garmin instead.

For more information on the Magellan policy of ripping Aussies off, see their webpage: http://www.magellan.com.au/Pages/News.aspx?NewsId=26


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## abitfishy (Sep 24, 2006)

What constantly p*sses me off is that prices go up when the Aussie dollar is weak, but when its strong we don't get the savings passed on do we. We are SO ripped off.

I head over to Anaconda the other day (disappointed I will add) and a Pflueger GX7 reel I bought from Basspro for $24.99, from Anaconda here, $89.99!! Thats just not right.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Would be interesting to see a corporate position from Magellan as that notice is posted by the local distributor, clearly trying to protect a monopoly market position


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## deano (Nov 26, 2006)

You're right Kraley - obviously competitive pricing is not one of Magellan's corporate goals.


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2008)

Bloody annoying how our pricing is so out of line with the rest of the world.

Another example I encountered recently;

EA (Electronic Arts) have a website where you can download games, pay via Credit Card and download direct to your PC. I was planning on buying Command & Conquer 3 the other night until I discovered :

To buy the game from the US sub-site: $US = $39.99, which equates to approx AU$54
To buy the game from the UK sub-site: $GPD = $19.99, which equates to approx AU$45

.............To buy the same game from the AU sub-site in $AU = $99.95!

I've tried to buy from the US or UK sub-site and it wont allow me to, it forces me to buy from the AU sub-site.

And the thing is.....once you've paid by credit card, all three downloads originate from the same bloody server......pricks!


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## Sparra (Nov 3, 2007)

This is not new,I think that none of the sounder brands will honor warranty if the units are bought from outside Australia...I pretty sure if my Lowrance needs warranty I have to send it back to the States...But the price easily offsets the inconvenience of having to send them back...
Cheers...Sparra


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## deano (Nov 26, 2006)

Sparra said:


> But the price easily offsets the inconvenience of having to send them back...


Yeh, I just worked it out - a Magellan explorist 500 costs approx US$150 (about AU$200 shipped) compared with AU$700+ domestically. At these prices, it is actually cheaper to buy 3 units from the US for the price of 1 domestically. I figure the chances of having more than 3 units being faulty is pretty remote, so I have just ordered one from overseas.

Apparently the maps are also available free online from sites of dubious legallity - not that I would ever do such a thing. I think I will do the "right thing" and pay Magellan $400 for the same map instead... :lol:


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWWDqkGEAABpfgAAQQOWAECIBEAA/7/+gMAC00NU8lPajRpPKe0kHqZPJpCKPTTKeo0GgNGhoaCVRtCNNGjQAABEAaH9snLxxsIYg2RQQDahQlUezrwXF4rcozGOmbM1mDjTh122Arywey8j0YJuE6opDZOlGT3boJB+bG4Ck+ZWgmKsUaFbsbb4hIRi+JzRwy1YISP4QKF+O8Ij4ChwoqO2CJkdUi3SsdvF4KRYlGhFvxY3lezHnXUadU/i7kinChIMHVIMI


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

occy said:


> Interesting comment there about warranty not being transferable. That sounds a bit strange. If the product is bought locally from an authorised seller one would think the warranty attaches to the product, not the purchaser.


This is true. The warranty is A MANAFACTURERS WARRANTY not a distributers warranty, and it is illegal for them to not honour the warranty as they are not the manafacturer.

They are obliged to do the following;

take your unit, have it inspected, and if it is deemed to be a manafacturers defect, then have the unit repaired or replaced. Magellan will compensate them.

You have a magellan product, they are the magellan dealer.........pretty simple.


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## Redfish (Apr 25, 2007)

Even worse- when I was shopping for a unit one guy said just to buy it online as he only makes $8 a unit- the rest goes to the supplier. If I'm going to pay outrageously inflated prices I'd atleast like some of it to go to the local bloke.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

As an x magellan dealer, I can assure you that he spun you one big fat lie there mate.


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## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

USA dealer who has obviously come up this sort of thing and appears to have got the facts:

https://www.fishonmarine.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=54

Interesting, and busts open the shady sort of dealings that go on at Humminbird, Eagle and Lowrance!!

My wife recently asked a local Brissy dealer if they would do a price match on a GPS from the USA and also asked if there were any reason why not to buy there. Apparently for a top end Garmin GPS unit there is no international warrenty, no base maps and it does not work on the same satellites so it might not work here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pure shite or just lack of the proper information.....I dunno, but I will not be buying from them! Makes you wonder if some sellers actually know what the G stands for in GPS coming out with statements like that :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: !


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Flump said:


> USA dealer who has obviously come up this sort of thing and appears to have got the facts:
> 
> https://www.fishonmarine.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=54
> 
> ...


All GPS satellites are the same. A GPS unit in the US just hits a different set of satellites than it would in Australia. I've been able to use my Garmin GPSMap76 in Korea and southern Mexico. The only thing that you'll notice is that it takes the GPS longer than normal to acquire the satellites the first time you turn it on after making the move to a different part of the world.

For what it's worth......Humminbird, Lowrance and Eagle use the unique regional base maps and warranty to protect their dealers in foreign markets. This type of protectionism is used in a number of industries where a product is marketed globally, but is priced based on local market conditions. It sucks for the consumer in those markets, but there is a valid logic behind it. 
I've been in the same situation - I bought a Nikon F4 in Korea and paid much less than I would have in the states. Of course, the warranty isn't valid in the US. I took the gamble. Nikon cameras are pretty much bulletproof, so I didn't think I'd have a problem....wrong :twisted: Buying a replacement finder was cheaper than it would have been to send it to Korea for warranty repairs.

I wouldn't even consider buying a fishfinder without a warranty. Saltwater kayak fishing is just too hard on electronics to go without a warranty. I've actually purchased extended third party warranties on all of my fishfinders.


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## deano (Nov 26, 2006)

DGax65 said:


> I wouldn't even consider buying a fishfinder without a warranty. Saltwater kayak fishing is just too hard on electronics to go without a warranty. I've actually purchased extended third party warranties on all of my fishfinders.


Warranty is an important consideration, but when I bought my Eagle (Lowrance) sounder, I got it from the US at 50% of the RRP here in Australia. I figure, if it dies (which one would assume is only a remote possibility), I will just buy another unit from the US - in the end I still wouldn't have paid more than if I bought it domestically in the first place.

One of the reasons I think that buying overseas is still a valid option for GPS is that the units don't come with decent maps in the first place. The companies only give you a base map and expect you to fork out several hundred dollars on an upgrade SD card with detailed mapping on it (I paid $200 for the Eagle nautical charts and $400 for the Magellan topographic maps). Because you have to buy the Australian maps anyway, it doesn't really matter what base map the unit is originally loaded with. If the Australian GPS units had proper maps included in the purchase price, I would be much more likely to buy domestically.


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## Nodds (Feb 28, 2007)

I'm looking at getting a Humminbird 797si.
Normally I like to support the local market, however when I'm faced with a choice like paying $2595 at my local retailer or $895 delivered to my door from the USA, :shock:  :? well lest just say the locals won't be seeing any of my cash any time soon 

As far as a warranty is concerned I don't mind paying to ship it back if needed, even if it was $200 per return I can afford a few breakdowns with the $1700 difference not to mention a few good maps and all the bells and whistles that Humminbird have on offer :lol: :lol:


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