Nightmare with Garmin Sat Nav what to do?

Miss-spent_2

My sat nav arrived Friday 11th I paid £99.99 from Comet. I tried to make purchase on line but it didn't like my card. I phoned and the purchase went through.
I did not have time to look at it until Sunday 13th when i could not get it to locate a satalite. Following advice from the Sat nav thread I got it working by driving to a flat playing field. I drove to work, it was fine but the distance was only 6 miles.
Havn't used it again until today, did a 35mile journey to a shopping Mall. It took 20 miles to aquire a signal and then kept losing it. Tried again coming home and exactly the same thing happened. It is just no good, hopeless a waste of money.
Phoned Comet and they say that as it is more than 7 days I need to contact the manufacturer send it back, get it repaired. I don't want this, i want a refund.
What should i do?

ukbill69

Send it back under distance selling act, you can return anything without a reason within 7 days for a full refund.

Sput2001

Does your car have a heated windscreen? If it does you may just need an aeriel extension.

solosporos

What car have you got? If you have a athermic coated windscreen then it wont work very well if at all. You will then need a external aerial which you can get from Maplins for £9.99. I have a clio and I had the same problem. since I got the aerial its now perfect.

athermic windscreens = http://www.radar-detector-shop.co.uk/troubleshooting-with-GPS-devices.htm

Maplins aerial

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&criteria=gps%20antenna&ModuleNo=48721&doy=21m8

homer_donut

You could try what I do, I have a Citroen C5 (with athermic coating) and it won't work on the front windscreen, if you attach it to the side windscreen it works great, so long as you don't block the mirror

Miss-spent_2

solosporos wrote:

What car have you got? If you have a athermic coated windscreen then it wont work very well if at all. You will then need a external aerial which you can get from Maplins for £9.99. I have a clio and I had the same problem. since I got the aerial its now perfect.

athermic windscreens = http://www.radar-detector-shop.co.uk/troubleshooting-with-GPS-devices.htm

Maplins aerial

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&criteria=gps%20antenna&ModuleNo=48721&doy=21m8

Huge thanks. yes my car is listed here as having an athermic windscreen.
How do you fit the aerial? Do you have to drill the body work of the car and if you have it stuck on doesn't that advertise the fact you have a sat nav?

anewman

Miss-spent wrote:

Huge thanks. yes my car is listed here as having an athermic windscreen.
How do you fit the aerial? Do you have to drill the body work of the car and if you have it stuck on doesn't that advertise the fact you have a sat nav?

AFAIK these aerials tend to be small, black and magnetic with a long thin cable (and also a thin socket). It would just be a case of routing the cable where you can and magnetising the aerial to the outside of the car somewhere. IT *may* advertise the fact you have a sat nav but so long as you remove it from the car (do not leave it in the glovebox) if someone tries your car you just have to get the window replaced and not the sat nav too.

Remember to also remove any obvious mounts from the windscreen as the thieves look out for these.

avolee

i actually have one of theses ariels for an old sat nav, i have a piece of blue tack on the bottom of it and stick it on the dashboard, it works well on these type of windscreens, then put it in the glove box when not in use, they connect to the back of the sat nav and place the cable out the way.

Miss-spent_2

ukbill69 wrote:

Send it back under distance selling act, you can return anything without a reason within 7 days for a full refund.

Unfortunately its been 10 days, as I said originally I tried it it worked (after a fashion) and then I didn't use it until today because I havn't been anywhere.

anewman

avolee wrote:

i actually have one of theses ariels for an old sat nav, i have a piece of blue tack on the bottom of it and stick it on the dashboard while i use it, then put it in the glove box when not in use, they connect to the back of the sat nav and place the cable out the way.

I am guessing in this instance the aerial on the dashboard would still be susceptible to the affect of the athermic windscreen which prevents a satellite lock.

However it may be a good idea to experiment with the location of the aerial inside the car until it becomes usable.

Miss-spent_2

homer_donut wrote:

You could try what I do, I have a Citroen C5 (with athermic coating) and it won't work on the front windscreen, if you attach it to the side windscreen it works great, so long as you don't block the mirror

Yes I do have a C5. To aggitated to try tonight but will try tomorrow. If it works I will love you forever!