While being in NY during my USA vacation I thought about buying a navigation system. Walking down Broadway, I was happy to find stores that are open at this time. I'm not a specialist in this topic, but I knew pretty well wich features I needed, so I went in "Broadway Electronics" to ask for the price of my prefered "TOMTOM model".
The salesman anounced that unfortenaly they don't have it on stock, but " to be honest with you, the "GARMIN" is a lot better for you, since in the states the TOMTOMs don't work as well, and (with tomtom) you have to pay for every single upgrade (wich is also not true, the tom tom has a feature called: "Future Proof", wich gives you free updates).
He kept on claiming, that the GARMIN 200W has all the features I wanted to have, like "Voice recognition" and spoken commands, (not just "turn left..." but with outspoken streetnames), wich, in fact, it does not have. It also doesn't provide any additional Navigation Informations as TrafficJams or Speed Limits.
The package cover didn't say much about the features, the manual is PDF on CD and the batteries were not charged, sohow could I tell, of course I trusted the salesman information...
And the additional European maps, wich I need for regular use at home, are downloadable for 20$ at garmin's website; the salesman told me several times.
Now I found out, that I need to pay more then 7 times as much: 149$ for the maps at http://shop. Garmin.com/basket. Jsp? Resume_page=http://www.garmin.com/cartography/
As if all this wasn't enough, they charged me a price, that I now consider as a RIP OFF: 380$ for a device, that isn't worth half. The salesman showed me a price sticker on the box wich even said something like 420$ and gave me a generous discount... Now I believe he ether grabbed another premnium - model's box, or this shop just provides some stickers to put on quickly however needed... (on most of the items standing around there are no price stickers, you have to ask for most of the prices...)
To put this clear: If the garmin200w had all the features the salesman proclaimed, 380$ would have been okay.
I was also told, that it is the new model, wich just came out; in fact a found a test on a german website dated to more than one year ago: june http://www.pcwelt.De/start/mobility_handy_pda/navigation/news/84379/orientierungshilfen_garmin_nuevi_200w_nuevi_250w/
As I went back to the shop to return the Navi (3 days later, so within one week), they told me they won't take it back, since it says " No Refund" on the recipe!!! What a bad joke: Since you get a recipe AFTER you purchase something and there's no sign in the whole shop that calls attention to this "unusal paragraph"...
How can a shop like this stay in buisness? Of course only because of the foreign visitors that are stupid enough to get caught in such a miserable tourist trap!
As tourist normally need their electronic stuff right away and don't have much time to compare and think about it! And by the time you realize what happened, you might already be flying over the ocean. And last but not least: you don't want to ruin your vacation by arguing around with a bunch of thiefs...
For sure I can get this model "GARMIN-NAV200W" for 90 to140 at home http://de. Shopping.com/xPO-Garmin-nuvi-200W. It is not available on the german garmin-website but for 250$ I could get it straight from
the "garmin.com" company: https://buy. Garmin.com/shop/shop. Do? CID=134
I will not blame the shop for selling me something totally overpriced, but I will do so for telling me WRONG details about the product, wich induced me to purchase. This is not ok. And I guess unlegal
I really hope this shop changes it's unfair buisness practice or even better, gets closed by authorities...
To be fair, I'll mention that at least I was offered to exchange the "nav" for another electronic device out of their stock, but, despite of the fact I'm already pretty well equiped, it's all just too f* expensive there.
Jochen W
Koeln
Germany
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