I am writing this in hopes that a savvy shopper that is doing his research online will stumble on this.
In short, Garmin Forerunner 405 is a piece of shit. It might look sleek and if you were to play with one in a store you’d think it’s the best thing ever. Alas, in the real world, it’s a piece of shit. An expensive one at that.
I’ve owned this device for over 2 years and not once has it worked right in a training or race environment. I have gone through numerous firmware and software upgrades, countless calls to Garmin tech support and in the end I am still stuck with a flakey, unreliable piece of shit.
You see, Garmin has this bezel that functions similar to iPods touch wheel that is used to navigate numerous functions of the device. The problem is, once it a tiny little bit of moisture on your hands or God forbid the said bezel, all hell breaks lose. How much moisture you ask? Go for a jog around to block and work up a tiny little bit of sweat. It should be sufficient. Suddenly when you touch the bezel it starts scrolling through all the possible functions, turning on the backlight or stops responding completely. Essentially the device becomes unusable.
I have contacted Garmin four times trying to either get a resolution to this problem or get a replacement item, hopefully a different model, either 305 or 310xt. I was put through a battery of most ridiculous questions and requests (like asking me to reboot my computer at random) and a numerous “specialists.” Any request to replace the unit was denied. It seems that all support staff at Garmin follows the same protocol: as soon as a customer asks for them to replace the item with a different model he is sent through to another agent who repeats the battery of questions. In the end I wasted by time and still stuck with my piece of shit.
For the purposes of keeping this review unbiased I am not going to recommend you get some other device – I simply strongly advise you against getting Garmin Forerunner 405.
