Buying a Garmin watch

JustAnotherSaver

Not a whinge here. I'm just popping in to find how to best protect myself before a (not very MSE) purchase.

I'm looking at the Garmin Forerunner 955 that was released a fortnight ago. If you know anything about these kinds of watches and probably even if you don't, you'll know they're not exactly cheap.

As I can't just go in to a store and buy one, I'll be ordering from the Garmin website and getting it delivered to what will be my mother's address as nobody will be at ours to take delivery.

So the question is how to pay giving me as much protection as possible?

I have credit cards (Amex & Nationwide) and PayPal as well as the credit cards being loaded to my PayPal.

I have a funny feeling I've read at some point about using your credit card via PayPal doesn't give you the same protection as credit card direct without PayPal, but I'm not 100% on that.

So 2 potential issues I can think of here:

1) Problem with delivery (although if it ends up being a must for being signed for by the person at the address then that'll remove this issue)

2) Unlikely but faulty device. 

So what's the best way to go ahead on purchasing this? I did think credit card but not sure if PayPal would be a good idea or not or whether credit card through PayPal gives double-bubble on protection?

Jenni_D

As this device will be more than £100 - and make sure you buy from a UK source, so if buying from Garmin make sure it is Garmin UK - then use a credit card directly. This will afford you protection under Section 74 of the Consumer Credit Act.

And as long as they deliver to the address you nominate then that's not an issue.

The risk with using Paypal is if you're signed in to your Paypal account - this breaks the Supplier -> Creditor -> Consumer chain by inserting Paypal into the mix, as you're using your CC to pay Paypal who then pay the supplier. (Paying using a credit card via Paypal as a guest doesn't break the chain, as Paypal are merely acting as a payment processor like Sage, Worldpay etc. It's a subtle but important difference).

born_again

For S75 you will need to pay direct on your CC. But odds on you will never need it as chargebacks cover a lot of issues.

No couriers are using signed for deliveries, neither do RM. It's all done by the driver. Although many do take pictures of the goods at point of delivery. 



But a quick look on Garmin site gives Ready to ship in 5–8 weeks. 
So if that is the case, maybe wait and see if it hits the shops. 👍

Brie

I bought my Garmin from Amazon but that's because it was a special treat and I was using Amazon vouchers I was given.  It's great and I really enjoy having it although I don't use it anywhere near as much as I could - all sorts of extras that are beyond me.  I want a watch, pedometer and a link to my phone.  It's nothing like the one you are looking to get so you may be more able to take full advantage of what you get.

And even though I didn't buy from Garmin directly their customer service has been great - when i ran into problems with the watch after it was out of warranty I did have to pay to get it sorted but that was done quickly and easily - much less fuss than I had anticipated.

Enjoy your watch once you get it!!!

JustAnotherSaver

born_again said:

But a quick look on Garmin site gives Ready to ship in 5–8 weeks. 
So if that is the case, maybe wait and see if it hits the shops. 👍

Thanks for the response guys. Very helpful.

As for the above quote - that's improved then. It was 6-8 weeks when I looked last week

Not sure what shops to see though. That's my main issue with Garmin watches - they're not really available to check out.

Beyond maybe a Vivoactive or so in Currys, there isn't much.