DeLorme's Awesome Customer Service Vastly Improves Road Trip
Brendan writes:
My wife and I had a trip planned to drive south from Illinois to Louisiana. The trip included a number of side-journeys, so I decided to upgrade my GPS from an older laptop-tied unit to a hand-held. After looking at various devices on the market, I decided on the DeLorme PN-20 GPS; it had similar features to most of the Garmin GPSMap units, but included full navigation and topographic maps of the United States.
Since the trip was in five days, I bought the GPS through Amazon.com, where I could get it in two days without paying an arm and a leg for shipping. I ordered it Monday, it arrived Wednesday, but the box was an older box. It contained Version 6 of the topographic maps, rather than the 7 that was being bundled with the latest retail packages.That is stellar. Go DeLorme, go DeLorme, it's your birthday! Way to transform a buyer into a loyal customer. Kudos.I called DeLorme support Thursday morning, in the hopes that there would be some sort of upgrade available. I very quickly got through to a live human in their home office in Yarmouth. I'd no sooner finished describing my purchase before she volunteered that I was eligible for an upgrade to Topo 7! I didn't even have to ask, she said it would go out Priority Mail that day.
I was quite pleased, but figured I'd better plan most of my trip using Topo 6, since I was leaving Saturday and the new version may not arrive in time. I installed it on my desktop computer, calculated the main route I'd be taking, and created mapfiles for the GPS. Saturday arrived, everything was packed, and we were just about to hit the road when the mail was dropped off. Sure enough, there was the new software! I tossed it in the laptop bag, figuring that I'd install it on the road, and tweak the maps from there.
Unfortunately, one thing I forgot to pack was the special USB cable the PN-20 uses (not a normal one, since the device is watertight). And it turns out, you can't create PN-20 map files on the software until it's synced up once with the device, to determine firmware version. D'oh! I'd never synced up 6 or 7 with my laptop before heading out the door, just with my desktop.
I posted to the DeLorme company forums, explaining the situation, and asking if there was any way to spoof Topo 7 into thinking it had already synchronized, since I knew the firmware version for my PN-20. I got a PM back from one of the customer service reps, saying that no, this was probably not possible. So instead, they offered to overnight a replacement USB cable to where I was on the trip!
Sure enough, a FedEx package soon arrived in Louisiana, containing not just a USB cable for the PN-20, but also 3 DVDs of pre-cut maps that were being shipped with the latest GPS units, making drive-planning vastly easier. Needless to say, navigating on the remainder of the trip became much more pleasant.
I felt vaguely guilty, since the problems were due to my forgetfulness. I figured the least I could do was tell others about how they went above and beyond to make sure a stranded customer could still use their product!
-Brendan
(Photo: Getty)
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Comments:
As far as I can see he is prasing DeLorme's support, not Garmin's. He only said he chose a DeLorme rather than a Garmin - and, as far as I can see, DeLorme is not a Garmin product.
Wow, now that is customer service. Considering that stuff costs tehm almost nothing. I would def. consider purchasing their brand name after reading these stories.
Are DeLorme and Garmin the same company? No of course not. Rewrite!
Oops, Taki beat me - not even by a minute :P
its nice to see a story that makes me feel warm in fuzz inside!
and this involves garmin how??
@Coder4Life:
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not... Sure, they're stuff costs nothing, but the overnight shipping/priority mail sure costs something, even on the smallest of items, and I challenge you to find any other company that will go above and beyond to make up for a customers forgetfulness in that manner. I've been considering buying a GPS for some time now, and will DEFINITELY be looking in to DeLorme.
I was coming to post about my positive Garmin experience, then I actually RTFA. Just like the title, would have not have been relevent to the OP.
The Gawker family of websites should really invest in a content editor and quality assurance provider.
Ha! I was wondering if I was missing something here, but clearly some other people have caught this too. Hmm. More caffeine, Consumerist?
@B: A. It's not our jobs to be correcting their content and B. the majority of the comments are now devoted to pointing out this "error" instead of commenting on the actual article content.
Garmin is top notch. I have two of their handhelds.
Wow. Did you even read his letter Dear Editor?
Headline changing shortly... this is what I get for prepping a post late at night for the next day!
@B: hey, people can do whatever they want, I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to wanting error free articles from the giddy up.
They fixed it. Can we stop fighting now?
DeLorme's main building in Yarmouth is about 5 or 10 miles down Route 1 from LLBean's Flagship retail store in Freeport. Seems that Southern Maine is the place to look for good customer service!
Great story. Good to know. Garmin's support is abysmal, I will keep this in mind for the next time we're shopping for GPS stuff.
DeLorme is awesome- their retail store is worth a visit, especially for us old-fashioned paper map and compass types.
I've got a PN-20 (thier handheld GPS) as well, great product and the support from both their forums and their CSRs have been spot-on. Definately a positive experience here as well.
For this DeLorme gets my business when I need to upgrade my GPS! Hooray for over-the-top customer service!
DeLorme is good. I love their state-by-state series of topo maps. HOWEVER, they have lately been redesigning them one-by-one, and the new designs are hideous. :(
@JerBearHtL42: I used to drive by Eartha, the giant rotating globe they have there on my trips up to Freeport. In general, the customer service in Maine is excellent. Its nothing like the rest of new England.
Picking between DeLorme and Garmin is kind of a win-win situation. DeLorme seems to be more loose with the upgrades, and Garmin has forever won a place in my heart for replacing a cable that i admitted i had cut through. (kids: don't cut coax when you're not in your panel van and are in your boss' volvo V70XC with lots of cables!)
Either way, though, pick the product that suits you from whatever manufacturer and go for it. I think part of the reason for the confusion is that there's two above and beyond companies in one category when most categories have zero.
What a great story!
Nice to see that their customer service is so awesome!
It might just affect my next GPS purchase.
Thanks consumerist!
If DeLorme were a public company, I'd short them.
1. They spend too much money on overnight shipping.
2. They give away free upgrades.
3. They give away free equipment.
awesome story! awesome customer service.
@JerBearHtL42: Very true Bear... Maine's reputation for "down to Earth" people is very much deserved. The quality of anything made in Maine is always top notch, including its people.
@brewmonkey: Yes, but if taking those actions hasn't historically resulted in their value decreasing, why would you expect it to suddenly start having that effect now?
The PN-20 is pretty well known by backpackers as one of the best GPS's on the market. Right now DeLorme is offering to rebate the difference in price down to $300 (bought online or B&M Feb 12-22).
Um, this story is about DeLorme support, Garmin was only mentioned as a comparison. Might want to correct that.