support advisor

warehouse associate

product support

order administrator

account manager

Garmin

When you first start your training at Garmin, everything seems great. A one hour lunch, 9 to 5:30pm Monday to Friday, no weekends, You're told of all the benefits that come with the job. Your colleagues in Product Support are friendly and approachable, and you're given time to learn the products you'll be supporting for customers. 

But all of this is a charade, hiding deep structural issues you'll soon be on the receiving end of. Team morale in this company is shockingly low. The disconnect between the management and the lower staff are worlds apart. Management actually engages with office gossip about other members of staff, there is a culture of intimidation, fear and bullying at the very top of Product Support. If you can't hold your own in the face of this environment, they will walk all over you. In the time that I was at Garmin, I saw other much younger colleagues who weren't as confident in themselves, get treated like a doormat. I heard some pretty vicious rumours being spoken openly in the breakout room about a particular member of staff for months. The worst part about this is, even the HR team are in on this and they don't care. They're friends who've known each other for years and they don't care about the optics its gives out when the HR manager is at the watercooler with the Product Support head giggling like a pair of schoolgirls and talking about others. Hardly gives you an assurance if you are to make any formal complaint.

And that is what I recommend you don't do. If you have to do this job for the money, keep your head down and don't raise a complaint because you will suffer conseqences for it. There is a gang of about 4 women in the senior department at Product Support who have spent years empire building and gatekeeping so they have no reason to treat you with any form of respect. Expect dirty looks from across the office when you walk to your desk, expect passive aggressive emails and expect put-downs at your expense when theres a group huddle. Nothing is confidential in this office. 

Once you realise this is how the office operates, everything should be bareable. Of course you can expect angry emails, angry phone calls, delays on products and very busy periods in the summer but that's to be expected it is a call centre after all. Oh and don't be sick. Sickness doesn't exist at Garmin. So if you take a sick day off then expect interrogation from your team manager. They will ask you very personal questions about your health which borders on the illegal, and they will *tell* you to go to a doctor even if you are sick for one day. Just tell them no and get the heat for it but there is nothing they can do about it. 

The people on the desk who have been there for years have mastered this advice. Normal regular Product Support staff are good people and you will make friends along the way and thankfully the senior management are buried away in the corner so theres not much to hear from them most of the time. Just don't get tied up in knots if you see something you don't think is acceptable or appropriate. Some of the products are actually really well made like the Fenix and the outdoor products, others aren't so great like the automotive products and the Vivo line of watches. Some "solutions" don't make any technical sense at all on their website for customers and their internal knowledgebase often have the same "solutions" that don't make any sense (Turning an Automotive product off and on again won't fix 99% of issues)

Some effort is put into making the office seasonal which can be fun (Field activities in the summer, Halloween decorations, Christmas lunches) There are a lot of people in product support and large friend groups who go out to smoke and get some air so socially it can be fun. The canteen have some good food and good staff with discount prices. The location of the building is difficult to get to if you don't have a car, its out in the middle of nowhere. 

In conclusion, be careful who you speak to at product support everyone has a strong personality and their likes and dislikes. You will find your group and the work is generally easy stuff.

Where do I start. I joined this company as a manager after leaving a long career as a fancied a new challenge. It started off great, lots of fun, enjoyed coming to work, then after about a month, I started to see the real Garmin. 

Management talking to each other like rubbish, and to the agents on the phones. They shout at them questioning why they aren't taking calls, why they are in wrap and why they are not being quick enough on the phones. this place is horrendous. its hard enough got the agents to work to these strict KPI's let alone have the manager of the department pacing up and down giving people dirty looks, talking to people like rubbish and making them feel small. No respect. There is a "leader" there who breeds back behaviours and the other seniors think its ok to act like this. 

The customers are fobbed off with rubbish excused about the awful service, no complaints procedure, customers are spoken to like rubbish and argue with them. Awful replacement service. if you nice new expensive Garmin product breaks, you got a replacement, a refurbished replacement, which I can assure you will break ! 

No benefits, awful holiday allowance, working hours are awful! 8.30-5.30 with 1hr lunch - NO BREAKS! 

I had to get out, and when I handed in my notice, I was ignored and made to feel awkward coming to work. This place has a bad vibe, people literally stay for a few months and decide they cant hack it and feel mistreated. I had a Varity of conversations with HR who have tried to change this place for the better... 

but there is only 1 problem, and that problem will remain and has done for sometime.... you'll soon work it out! 

Save your sanity, don't do it! They have rinsed through most of Southampton now, hopefully this place will close due to customer complaints.

I only took the job as I was desperate and had heard good things about the company, oh how wrong I was! It's the worst job I've ever had
You are watched constantly during your shift, you're not allowed to talk to anyone or you get moved to another part of the warehouse. Even when it was quiet you were made to just walk around and look busy. After every break someone of management is looking at you and checking there watch even when all the clocks show a different time. 
There was normally about 2 team leaders and one so called supervisor who would stand around and watch you. You stop for 2 minutes and they moan. 
The management in the warehouse is terrible, the supervisor seemed like he gave up years ago and 2 of the 3 team leaders were useless.
They had no idea on how to run a team and would most of time just be heard shouting at people. No motivation what so ever and on a couple of occasions I was actually discouraged from helping another team member out. 
Everything they do in the warehouse goes completely against there motto they have plastered across the wall. You will only get on there if you face fits immediately or you have family working there to help you as certain people could do nothing and get away with it.
I spoke to a few people from rework and even they say how bad it is and to get out of the warehouse as fast as you can, in fact most departments say that about the warehouse. And from what I've heard all other departments are really lovely to work for! 
So in summary work anywhere else other then the warehouse. You have been warned

I joined Garmin quite a while ago now, and left recently. Most people will say yeh any jobs has its ups and downs, that's how the world of work is, but oh no, not Garmin UK.

A ever growing list of products with known issues where you're told to say "nah its not a known issue but rest assured we're actively looking in to this", sometimes leaving customers for MONTHS with a device they paid hundreds of pounds for, which doesn't work properly! And, that's the easiest part of the job! 

The real kicker here folks is the people you're working for. Your Co workers, great, can have a laugh and chat when you're able. But oh god management. Team managers aren't bad, they do genuinely seem to  care about ongoing issues and try to resolve them, but all of this is undone, one rung up the ladder, the lady in charge of the department. You better watch out! If she's had a bad day, and you need help with something, or need to bring something to her attention, she will scowl at you, she will judge you, and she will make you feel small. I can promise you now, if this lady was booted out of Garmin, and they hired someone who upheld the policies that garmin stands for (getting customers back to their passion) then this place would be great. 

Unfortunately she's been there a while, HR  have her back, and will continue to do so. If you're lucky you'll escape in to another department from the wicked witch of product support.

I have never worked in such an awful place. There are so many things wrong with this company that it's hard to list them all.

I won't go into detials about my role as I fear this will get me into trouble but I was in the product support area which is essentially the area where you fob customers off with troubleshooting that doesn't really work! Most devices need replacing but instead they prolong the service so that they don't have to replace. 

Management is the worse I have seen. A lady who runs the department still thinks it's appropriate to talk to people with very little respect and make you feel very uncomfortable! Yeh this job isn't for everyone as you are essentially being shouted at all day everyday by customers. This is one of the reasons that it should be a fun place to work rather than people point scoring or sucking up! 

I used to worry about going in, what was going to be said, how I was going to be made to feel! That's not right. 

This company does all the wrong things! Doesn't pay sickness, doesn't awknowledge when someone is depressed or has perosnal issues, no wellbeing, no vulnerable customers proceed and the office hasn't been refurbed since the office was bought! 

If you want a job for a few months then go for it, anything more and your either nuts or desperate! 

Good luck!

I would answer approximately 90 calls or more a day, offering technical support to customers who had purchased any of the automotive of range GPS devices (In car Satnavs) I would also respond to emails and book devices in for repair using the oracle system. Here I learned keyboard short keys and a lot about computers and GPS devices. There was a large team of people in my department and a few other large departments. However we all go on very well and even completed some challenges together outside of work for an example the Three Peaks Challenge and Race for life. We also attended shows together and socialised together. It was particularly important that we all got on because the job was so demanding and stressful at times this made communication vital. The hardest part of this job was that there was always something new to learn and it was extremely busy. However management always provided us with the training that we needed.

Made a lot of promises in interview which wasn't kept. Only had 3 weeks training instead of the 6 promised and then you get moaned at constantly for not knowing answers or being slow. Told you can ask for help at any time but managers get stressy when you ask. Have reasonable breaks but got moaned at for going to the loo outside of breaks or getting water. If you finished phonecall and took more than 90 seconds to go on next one (to catch your breath) they would Skype you constantly saying hurry up. Same if you went to loo and were just about to sit down they would bombard you with Skype messages saying hurry up log on. Told in interview that you will do mix of time on calls and emails but you are given calls all day and have to do emails at same time, or you get publicly shamed. Forced to go to meetings but then have to sacrifice your lunch break.

Work pattern is unchangeable. Expected performance hard to achieve which cause stressful environment. If you think quality over quantity you're put straight in a few months so quality is secondary. Some people are good and approachable. Lots are miserable and won't even answer to 'hi'. Benefits are not bad but hard to workout. Products are great and employee discount generous.
Other point is management, lack of cooperation, no empathy, expect you sell your soul to the company..if you let them they will walk all over you. Reasonable requests are met with hipocrotical, idiotic and generally noncooperative answers which cause annoyance and loosing will to work for them. It seems like some are trying really hard to discourage working ethics and change your opinion on Garmin as a whole. At first it looks awesome almost glamorous to work for garmin. This approach rapidly change due to few in control..pity. 

Garmin is a terrible place to work, the respect they have for they're employees is a disgrace. Because of the lack of respect they have for they're employees causes a big turn around in staff. People often leave because of the way they are treated or eventually get sacked because they simply don't like you, usually this is because some people actually stand up for themselves and they're basic human rights (they don't let you go to the toilet, you will go as and when they want you to, not when you need to). I wouldn't recommend Garmin to anyone, though If i where to suggest anything I would say that if you are offered a job there then go the 3 weeks classroom training (the trainers are nice and its an easy to just sit there and do nothing). once you've done the 3 weeks training just leave, get paid 3 weeks for doing nothing.

Garmin in the UK is awful. Their customer service if you can call it that is appalling.  You are trained not to talk through the customers problem but to send emails with instructions. 

Garmin products are not cheap and I expected better more professional people.  Apparently in the states is a different story as this is were the company is from. I think Garmin products are great but Garmin UK is dreadful and you can tell by the trainers that they do not spend much money on getting good people actually I think they were from the council. Which shows how low Garmin are prepared to go to cut costs.

The place is ok if you have no experience and want to be around non professional people but want to gain some customer service experience but please do not think this is the standard to attain.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support advisor 15 salaries reported	£27,250 per year
Warehouse associate 11 salaries reported	£25,511 per year
Product support 1 salary reported	£28,750 per year
Order administrator 6 salaries reported	£25,695 per year
Account manager 1 salary reported	£50,000 per year

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