Garmin Nederland Reviews 2,865

I bought fenix 7 pro during holidays in US in September 2023 and from this time because of malfunction Garmin in Poland replaced me the watch 2x with the second hand! The first new watch was broken and the two others were too. E.g. the present watch when I hike doesn’t measure and record properly distance, total rise e.t.c. The one of my planned routes was about 25 km and the watch recorded 13 km and summary rise was measured 400 m instead of over 800 m. Garmin claims arrogantly that the watch is ok without any explanations. I made all their recommendations without any results. I spent almost 2 years discussing with their service. I tried to seek help from Garmin service on the American website, but they redirected me back to the Polish service. So I have no one to turn to. I have had constant problems with Garmin from the beginning and using their watch caused me great dissatisfaction. They neither want to solve the problem nor do they want to return the money for the watch. Looking for help was very frustrating experience and the final their answer for my complaint caused that I will NEVER buy any Garmin product.

Date of experience: June 26, 2025

I bought the Vivomove Sport watch. It only worked for a few months. I contacted customer support, sent all the documentation, photos, but I didn't get the watch fixed or a solution for the problem. It was a bad investment.

Date of experience: July 01, 2025

A few years ago, my grandad unfortunately passed away, and left me a little money. I decided to invest in an expensive Garmin Fenix 6S as it was the first time I would have been able to buy a top of the range model. I researched several different watches and eventually decided to go with Garmin after having some bad experiences with a lesser known competitor.

This was a massive mistake. The watch is without doubt the worst thing I’ve ever bought. I’m stuck with it because I can’t afford to change to another brand now, and at a cost of around £500 I have to say I’m extremely disappointed. Points below explain why:

1. It is the most demotivating training tool ever. Constantly tells you that you are in poor condition (even when fit!) because it doesn’t take into account elevation or climbing over stiles/gates etc. when off road
2. The wrist based HR monitor is absolutely terrible. It constantly records implausible readings of 180bpm on even easy runs, and is so inaccurate I ended up having to buy another chest strap (£140) because these no longer come with the watch anymore.
3. If you don’t use it for absolutely everything you do, the algorithm makes insane assumptions and your training status (which is integral to the watch and cannot be switched off) will constantly switch wildly between strained, productive, unproductive, maintaining, detraining.
4. Garmin technical support are not particularly helpful and will only tell you to turn it on and off, or reset it, or use the latest software. Many of the features on the watch either cannot be turned off or bypassed, or if you do manage to turn them off, render the expensive watch no better than a cheaper simple watch.
5. The solar charging function does absolutely nothing at all, and is not worth the extra cost. I have left the watch in bright sunlight for hours at a time and the battery life has not changed at all. Just a gimmick.
6. Suggested workouts are nonsense, you will often be told to rest or do recovery runs, then your training status will change to detraining/unproductive again. Or it will tell you to do 15 second sprints all the time, which (since the recovery is a walk) will lead to you being told your performance condition is poor or your VO2 max has dropped.
7. Speaking of VO2 max. This is also nonsense. If you do a short fast run every day (15 mins flat out) it will continue increasing your VO2 max right up to silly numbers, and tell you your training and performance condition is great, right up until you injure yourself from foolish training. If you run at a low heart rate (and lower pace) you will see a steady decline in VO2 max, and this will continue despite you getting faster at races and being much fitter. The algorithm doesn’t work.
8. Finally, the pulse oximetry. Sleep and HRV functions are also pointless. I’ve had awful nights where I’ve been awake constantly, only to have an excellent sleep score and high HRV, and equally, had great relaxing sleep but been told by the watch my training status is strained because my HRV is low. It’s not accurate enough using the wrist monitor to mean anything.

In summary. Worst product and support I’ve bought. Thoroughly wish I had gone for a competitors watch, or just bought a cheap one instead.

Date of experience: June 20, 2025

Awful service. Garmin forerunner 255 not working properly in Open Water, when this is purposely what I bought it for. Tried to contact Garmin multiple times with no avail. More than half an hour multiple times in waiting queue for phone contact. Terrible CS and they just send you in circles.

Really a pity considering I like their products generally, and have 3 different devices. Very disappointed they do not reach out to me or help me at all.

Date of experience: June 19, 2025

Garmin Express doesn't run on Linux :-(
I hope this will be changed, as we in Europe should not be pushed on Windows or Mac. Please have it run on Linux!

Date of experience: June 18, 2025

It was communicated by DPD that my watch suppose to arrive 3.5 days ago. The package didn't arrive and any tracking from the DPD part completely dissappeared. Garmin didn't lift a finger to collaborate with their delivery services. I understand things can go wrong, however there is no way for me to find a customer care number for Netherlands. I want Garmin to tell me what happened with my purchase: is it being delayed, is it canceled, willI get my money back, what is happening??? There is no accountability on Garmin's side. And I agree with all the bad reviews here. Before buying directly from Garmin.nl, check these reviews and DON'T BUY FROM HERE!!! Buy through a serious official reseller that takes accountability for the situation of your order.
The only reason I ordered through this website and not through a reseller is because I got corporate benefits (a small discount) from my employer. Never doing that again. Is not worth it.
I managed to write to Garmin customer care in the end, 2 days ago, and I didn't get any reply since 2 days. I called as well waited 20 min!!! on the call and nobody replied. It was just the robot on repeat. Customer Care for Garmin.nl = 0. I am actually starting to believe nobody is handling this. Do they even have employees that suppose to help? Or just robots and that's it??

Date of experience: June 12, 2025

Had a problem with the strap on my 3 year old Vivoactive 4 so contacted customer service chat for advice. 5 days later I've got a brand new strap completely free of charge.

Date of experience: June 07, 2025

This is the worst customer service ever. No replies at all. No interest in solving the issue. Comparing Garmin customer services, I have been using Polish support before and that one was amazing. Support in NL is below even depression level.

Date of experience: May 02, 2025

Worst customer service and online purchase experience I ever had. I ordered a red strap and Garmin sent me Flame Red instead and it happened twice , I gave up thought there should be a problem for them to tell apart Red and Flame Red are different in colour, them ordered an Amp Yellow strap, this time they send me a second hand! strap and then apologized for the mistake that they have sent a returned product to me! I had to print three times three return labels on my own expenses and send it back to them. Extremely unhappy for this Garmin service will NEVER buy from Garmin.

Date of experience: April 10, 2025

Their cameras are ok, but charging £14 for a replacement mount which is just a small piece of plastic is outright disgusting.
Don't buy a camera from them and get locked in, get something else

Date of experience: April 20, 2025

Product broke after a few months, support is non existent. Just passed from one person to another, no-one able to help. Forcing me to do a chargeback

Date of experience: April 16, 2025

Absolutely appalling customer service. I bought a brand new Vivofit 4 (direct from Garmin) on 14th Feb 2025. Periodically it fails to automatically sync with the App and I have to manually sync it. I see the app sync, it shows the same data as the device itself, and then it 'forgets' this data when I look at the app later. My device is linked to my Vitality Health insurance so it's losing me actual real money by doing this. Yesterday (15/04/25) I did ~12600 steps, and despite manually syncing 3 times and confirming that the app got the data, the app now thinks I only did ~8500. I contacted Garmin customer service via chat, who asked me to do things I'd already done, and when I asked why they needed me to repeat things I'd already done myself and how they were going to know if it fixed anything as it was an intermittent fault, they cut me off. 'George' was very rude.
If they can't fix this, then the device is unusable to me. And I would suggest anyone else thinking of using it for any purpose other than just interest should AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

UPDATE: I 'chatted' to another person at customer services, and Garmin admitted that they think there is something wrong with my device, and offered me a swap FOR A RECONDITIONED unit. This is AGAINST UK CONSUMER LAW. So not only are they rude, but they are trying to fob me off by breaking the law.

Date of experience: April 16, 2025

Awful customer services Garmin forerunner 255 broke within 8 months. Returned to to them only for them to send me a broken reconditioned replacement.

Contacted them again, they are again sending another reconditioned watch out to me rather than new. Used to be decent watches my 235 is still going strong after 8 years (passed it down to my son).

Probably better look elsewhere nowadays for fitness tracker.

Date of experience: April 14, 2025

Garmin s12 golf watch refuses to pair.

LI've tried all the tips including a reset

What to do next?

Date of experience: April 12, 2025

The Garmin forerunner watch I bought was supposed to be Bluetooth compatible. It's compatible with only 8 different types of headphones. I talked to customer service who said tough, the compatible devices were buried in the FAQs which you should have read before purchase. I'm now stuck with a watch that doesn't work as advertised.

Date of experience: April 07, 2025

Big problems with watches. Update can broke your watch even after 2 year use. Expensive but not usable watches.

Date of experience: March 17, 2025

I just bought a Garmin Edge 540 direct from Garmin.com. It arrived quickly and I went out for my first ride... GREAT! Lovely device, upgraded from Edge 1000 so night and day. HOWEVER, when I got home, I plugged into macbook and then the issues started. Updates were needed and it asked me to fire up Garmin Express but then it just would not connect. 45 mins on chat with customer support and then eventually they said that a few devices have this issue and they need to send a replacement... however they asked me to pay AGAIN for the device in order to send it out. WHAT??? I would expect a deposit hold or an 'at cost' refundable amount but they wanted me to pay more than I originally paid (I got a discount) in order to send a new device out. I felt like Garmin is asking me to crowdfund them or loan them some money. I bought a defective device DIRECTLY and they want to take more money than I paid originally out of my bank account to send a new device. Yes they said they would refund but what if they go bust, or there are logistic issues... that is me c£800 out of pocket with no working device! Garmin, please review your customer journey... and STOP sending DEFECTIVE devices out when it is a known issues. It looks like I now need to send back, wait for them to assess, and then wait for them to send a new unit out. POOR.

Date of experience: March 18, 2025

I have a couple of Garmins and all good watches until it goes wrong! My fenix 6 pro when blank last week for no reason! none of the support systems are working and trying to get in touch with Garmin is absolutely Impossible

Date of experience: March 11, 2025

Garmin RVR 315 rear bicycle radar. Very good but expect device lifetime use minus four years. No value for money ☹️

Date of experience: March 12, 2025

Garmin Approach G12. Shocking. On my second now after returning the first. Freezes mid round whether its cold or warm weather. This will be returned for a full refund. Do not buy.

Date of experience: March 09, 2025