Testimonial

My Garmin Zumo 550 has a new power button and I am absolutely stunned at the quality and swiftness of service by Chris Short at Short Tronics Inc. in Mankato, Minn.

The power button on my aging Garmin Zumo 550 GPS fell off and vanished last Saturday on a ride to the post office. It’s apparently a fairly common occurrence with older Zumos because time and UV light exposure dry out and degrade rubber. Posts on Zumoforums.com indicate Garmin’s response was to charge owners $150 and swap them for a refurbished unit.

But, I learned, Garmin no longer offers any support for the Zumo 550 other than map upgrades that you may have paid for. Which I had.

Happily, one of the members of the Zumo forum posted a link to Short Tronic’s web site: http://www.palmdr.com/garmin-zumo-450_550-button-repair

I contacted them Sunday afternoon and an hour or so later got a reply from Chris Short, the president of the company, saying they would be happy to repair my GPS for $53.90, which included return shipping and insurance.

I boxed it up and sent it off to Chris via Priority Mail on Monday. I was startled to get an email from him two days later saying he had shipped my repaired GPS back to me that day. He emailed later to say they discovered the Zumo’s internal backup battery that remembers all of the data when the GPS is turned off, needed to be replaced, which they did at an additional cost of $11.95. As far as I’m concerned that’s service above and beyond my expectation that saves me some grief in the future.

My Zumo arrived with its new power button in place this morning less than 96 hours after I shipped it to Chris.

Last Saturday, I thought I was looking at a budget busting new Zumo purchase if I wanted to continue with SiriusXM radio and traffic in a GPS this riding season. Losing the Zumo meant losing the map upgrades I’d paid for as well. I now have my Zumo back and repaired for a fraction of the cost.