I apologize for the typo in the title. It should read: Garmin Anti Military? I guess I was just so shocked I missed it while proof reading.

I have had a Zumo 550 for about a year and a half. I was very happy with it while living in the states. The government has transferred me to Germany where I will be living for the next three to five years. I have been attempting to purchase the download version of the European maps so that I can use the Zumo here in Germany. I just got an e-mail from Garmin indicating that they will NOT sell to military members or government employees that do not have a stateside mailing address. They will not accept APO addresses for credit (debit) card verification. They literally refused me. I was amazed. I understand why some products cannot be mailed to APO addresses. But, this was a download for crying out loud. They were not mailing anything. All they needed was my address so they could verify my debit (credit) card billing address. I gave them my fully address to include the APO and corresponding zip code. They said they cannot accept that because they do not sell anything to APO addresses (which is a United States mailing address for those not familiar with the APO). The order was placed on-line so they DID put a hold on my debit card for the full purchase price before refusing to verify my billing address. Now I'm fighting with them to either release the hold they have on my debit card or make the product available for download.

End of rant. I was just shocked that there is an "American" company that will not sell to Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Marines and civilians supporting these fine troops living overseas. (BTW that means they will not sell updated maps to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because they have APO addresses.)

 

I have a feeling that it either has to do with billing issues or some sort of export problem. I bought both of my Garmins thru the PX and one of them in Iraq. I really don't think we are being singled out as being Military but I have co-worker who's son works for Garmin and have asked him to investigate the reasons. I'll let you know if he finds out anything.

 

I'd go further up the Garmin food chain to find out what the real story is. It might be a goverment thing that has Garmin's hands tied. I find it hard to believe Garmin would just turn away business unless there's something else to the story.

 

Here is my message to Garmin (edit to remove full address followed by their reply).

My Message:
I'm attempting to purchase City Navigator Europe for Download (it should still be in my cart). However. Garmin On-Line will not accept my shipping/billing address. My address is ???????, APO AE 09092. Garmin on-line does not recognize AE as a valid state and when I enter New York as an alternate, Garmin does not recognize 09092 as a valid zip code. I realize some products cannot be SHIPPED to an APO box. However, this is a DOWNLOAD. Nothing is being shipped and my APO addresses should be recognized as a valid billing addresses.

Garmin's response:
It is the same thing, we need to know where you live specifically for tax purposes. That is why we can't use an APO box.


I accept that some states require sales tax on Internet orders. When I lived in NY, I paid them all the time. But, they should treat and APO as a non-taxable state.

As far as purchasing through the PX, I have not seen any City Navigator products at either of the local exchanges. But, to be fair, I haven't looked that hard either. However, the PX does not offer the maps for download.

 

there are torrents of the map products out there... but you didn't hear it from me

 

I don't believe it is a government thing because I have found several companies that will ship the DVD of the product from the states to an APO address. Unfortunately they do not offer downloads of the product that many can get from Garmin directly. I was hoping that I could get the maps downloaded and installed in time for a trip I have coming up. However, it appears that the Zumo will be nothing more than a paper weight for the trip because it will take 2-4 weeks (on average) for shipping to APO. So, I do believe it is a Garmin issue, not an export issue.

 

That really sucks that you can't do the download. However, I doubt it's Garmin being anti-military as your thread title states. I suspect that they use commercially available software for their billing and accounting services, and the software wasn't designed to recognize and deal with APO addresses. That's just my opinion of course. I would try calling Garmin and talk to a live person to see if there's a work-around for you.

I get frustrated with companies who refuse to work around issues that don't fit into the neat little boxes they're so used to. They have this round hole that can deal with nothing but round pegs. If a square peg comes along, there is no readily available solution and instead of trying to adapt their system to accept the square peg they would rather send the square peg away.

 

+1. did a quick search on a couple of different torrent sites for "Garmin City Navigator Europe" and had lots of hits for valid files. There's more than one way to skin a cat...!

 

Have some one state side purchase it for you and send you the link,

 

Not just Garmin and not a military thing, lots of companies won't ship to an APO.