Several on the CT forum had the same problem. It seemed to be determined by who you talked to. Those that talked to Frank got the run around. If they talked to Gary like I did then there was no problem.
I absolutely agree, I felt like I was talking to the government. Last Garmin radio that I buy. Funny part is that they actually pay the dealers an hour labor for this "service". Apparently saving money and satisfying customers is less important than an unlikely extra phone call from an owner bothering them with a setup question.Yeah, I got Frank. Unfortunately my nearest avionics dealer is over 100 miles away and my plane isn't flying yet. I'm not driving 100 miles just to get an RMA. Frank's excuse that too many of us call tech support is dumb; first place I would call is the place that sold me the gear, not Garmin.
I'm waiting on Stark Avionics (originally sold me the unit) to call me back. If they can't work it out with Garmin to get me an RMA where I can ship it back then I'm not going to comply with the SB. And I'm going to make every effort in the future to give my business to companies that are more friendly to experimental aviation.
PJ Seipel
RV-10 #40032
Is everyone aware of Garmin Service Bulletin 0921 for the SL30, SL40, and GNS 480(CNX80) comm radio spurious emmissions? Deadline for coverage under warranty is 9/30/10.
Bevan,
Go to http://ctflier.com/ and look under Avionics then General Avionics. You can download it there. It is not on the Garmin website. Nobody flying CT's knew about it and neither did the CT manufacturer.
Living near Garmin here in Oregon I was able to handcarry mine in and get one day turnaround.
I took my SL30 to a Garmin dealer today. Will get upgraded at no cost.
My radio is on it's way back to Garmin at this time. I was told five to seven day turn time. That means I will have an empty hole in my panel for at least ten days, maybe more. I can handle that since I have a second nav/com. What really bothers me is that there seems to be no way for an owner/operator to be notified when these kinds of service alerts/bulletins are issued by Garmin. Now I see that Garmin has apparently changed their mind and will allow owner operators to send in the radio on their own! Yesterday I was told by two different people at Garmin that they absolutely would not allow this with the SL-30. Am I missing something here?
Had I not stumbled onto this information on this forum, I would have missed the warranty fix. That is a real "hole" in Garmin's "customer care"!
Hi Patrick,
If you have properly identified the mod levels of your SL30 the unit does need to have SB0921 performed and I would encourage you to have the work done. We are requesting that all SL30 units be returned through an authorized Garmin dealer and I apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. Please note that warranty coverage for the factory work that is part of the bulletin has been extended another month until October 29, 2010, so as to allow us to accommodate additional customers.
Best Regards,
Bill Parsons
Customer Support Manager
Garmin AT Aviation Product Support
503-581-8101 voice
503-364-2138 fax
Garmin,Our policies do require that SL30s and GNS480s be returned to the factory via an authorized dealer. Here is a link to find the closest Garmin dealer to you http://www8.garmin.com/dealers/. Please fliter for your state and for aviation this will give you a list of aviation dealers in the selected state.
1. The affected units can bleed over to adjoining frequencies while transmitting. The SB fixes that.
2. They do not plan to extend the deadline beyond 30 Sep.
3. If you miss the deadline Garmin will charge $800 to comply with the SB. I am not sure if that is for 1 or 2 radios, but a lot of money either way.
Probably not. Garmin stuff works well and they have good service, but in my experience, you have to pay what they want and do it their way. No exceptions.Do you think Garmin would just let me ship the radio directly to them if I sent a check for $100 to the service center, so I don't have to drive there?
I'm planning to put a g3x in my panel, and someone from Garmin contacted me directly after I posted on this board, and they've answered a bunch of questions from me that probably seem tedious from their end.
It appears it is time for me to start looking at replacing all of my Garmin gear with something that is a little more experimental user friendly.