Ever call Garmin customer service?

I've owned Garmin products for years and I've generally been very happy with them. In the house we've had 2 Edge 500's, 2 Edge 800's, a Forerunner 610, a Forerunner 910xt, foot pods, heart rate straps and a Virb camera. Yet in 4 years and with all those products I've never actually had to call Garmin for support - I've emailed a couple of times, but that's been it. I pretty much avoid calling customer service at any company as much as possible as it's often a long wait, and an awkward experience where you know what you need more than the customer service representative does and have to go through all the steps and play the game to get to the end result you knew you needed from the get-go.

So I ordered a Garmin 920xt watch the day they were announced - a slimmer, lighter, upgrade to the 920xt with an actual low power watch mode, smart phone notification integration and wifi connectivity for auto uploading activities? Yes please.

Unfortunately, so did everyone else, and many earlier in the day than I did apparently. Some manufacturing issues lead to delays, and while I had transferred the money to my debit card to pre-order, since they didn't fully charge my card until they were ready to ship there wasn't enough money on it and it was declined. I got an email saying to call customer service to give them updated information to complete the order. I wanted to get things moving as soon as I could, so I gave them a call on my lunch break and was pleasantly surprised - after going through some menus of which product line I was calling about I got through to someone without any hold time, which is rare these days.

I spoke to Kimberly and asked her to run the same card they had on file again, and while she waited for my order to load and process that we chatted about the 920xt and how it compared with some other products and what features were the killer ones. It was awesome to talk to someone that was not only not reading a script and knowledgeable about a product, but that they were knowledgeable about it because they actually use the products outside of work, and not just because they've had to troubleshoot a million of them on calls.

Employing runners and cyclists to man your phones to support the products just makes sense, and goes a long way to providing a delightful customer experience. My card was charged and within a couple of hours was shipped and on it's way to me. Next time I need to talk to Garmin won't be so hesitant to call and quick to jump to email. Thanks Kimberly!