- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 96 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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39 out of 40 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Almost No Customer Support"
Pros: Easy to use, great screen, good navigation, AAA POI's, POIs, Predictive Typing, a lot for the money
Cons: Lousy customer support, freezes up sometimes, limited bluetooth
Summary: Pros:
I bought the 4250 and was excited as it's a beautiful device packed with a lot of features for the money. I haven't seen TomTom's up close (the 920 looks good online), but to me, the 4250 is far more attractive than the Nuvi 680.
The 4250's screen is sharper and brighter, although, the Nuvi has larger easier to read fonts when driving. Overall, I think the 4250's screen is great.
The 4250's voice prompt functions are fun and somewhat useful. You may have to repeat yourself several times, but you can keep your eyes on the road and say "Magellan, distance to destination" and it will tell you how far you have to go, and when you will arrive. That's actually pretty cool.
The menu system is good, very intuitive. The predictive text is great.
The POIs and AAA POIs are very cool. Garmin charges $69 for their travel guide.
Cons:
Unfortunately, the 4250 froze up on me a few times. It was frozen over 3 minutes under clear skies so I don't know what was going on. All I could do is shut it off and turn it back on. It found sats within seconds after rebooting.
I had a problem signing up for the free 3 month traffic subscription that comes with the 4250. The bottom line is the foreign CSR was unable to help me register for my free subscription that I rate and said I needed to pay for an annual subscription if I wanted the traffic service. That's a deal breaker to me.
Customer service is farmed out overseas and the CSRs cannot help you with anything more basic troubleshooting. Even though you can create an account online and enter all of your personal information, the CSR doesn't have access to your account. You have to speak slowly, and repeat the very same information that you already entered online.
There's no email support of any kind either.
I sent a letter to them just after Thanksgiving, and I still haven't heard back from them. I don't expect to.
If the 4250 were to stop working I don't trust Magellan to support it. Garmin on the other hand has a fantastic reputation for customer service.
The 4250s list of phones supported for bluetooth is very limited. I have a Sony W300i, there is no way to sync my contacts, and no automatic pairing. I can manually pair it and it works for basic hands free use, but thats it. Magellan is way behind on this compared to Garmin.
Summary:
I want Magellan's features/hardware with Garmin's customer service and bluetooth functionality (and smaller windshield mount).
Since I can't have both, I decided to buy the Garmin Nuvi 680 and return the 4250. The 680 cost me more than the 4250, but it automatically pairs with my phone, and my contacts automatically synchronized too. The 680 has worked flawlessly.
It's too bad, because I really liked the 4250, and I normally don't worry about customer support, but these things are expensive and I'm not going to support a company that doesn't support their product.
If you do buy the 4250, get it from a warehouse store in case you need to return it someday.
Hardware 8, customer support 0, that's why they get a 5. Sorry for being so wordy, but this is a real eval.
Where to buy
Magellan Maestro 4250:
$119.99 - $299.00
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$261.27 | Yes |
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All Time Deals
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$119.99 | Yes |
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$139.95 | Yes |
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RadioShack.com
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$299.00 | Yes |
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