return for only a internal antenna repair?

[Chilao]

Here’s my dilemma:
My internal antenna has stopped working.
But my iQue has been functioning great. No screeching, nominal soft resets. I use a Gilsson antenna with a car kit in my car.
Is there a good reason to send my unit back to Garmin just to fix the internal antenna? I have ordered another Gilsson antenna, this time with a 3 foot cable, for hiking and biking. My thinking is to be able to slip the iQue into a pocket or my camelback and have the external antenna clipped onto to the outside of a pack. This way I’ll get faster satellites and the iQue won’t be exposed.
I’m worried that the new unit they’d send me would have a new set of demons.
:confused:

[Holgado]

I think, soon, I will be on the same dilemma as you. If this happens, I would wait a few weeks, perhaps a month or two, for Garmin to solve all the other problems Que has or a bigger fault on my Que as the pin, or not getting sats at all.

HOLGADO

[rick417]

I had the same concerns when I sent mine back for a bad internal antenna. The answer to your question depends on you...can you overlook the fact that part of your iQue does not work? I couldn't, because at times I may need that internal antenna and not have access to an external one. (It actually happened to me, when I left my external behind while traveling and that's when the internal failed, and I ended up paying a premium price for one that was in the store.)

So far the one I got back has been working the same as my old one. I had a screech (kind of embarrassing because I was on a plane) but I had those occasionally anyway. The graffiti area does work better...oh, and the internal antenna is fixed.

[Franklee]

How much would you have paid if you new antenna was broke. Not much. I sent mine back for bad digitizer and it came back no probs. Try to show someone with bad antenna and they laugh, not want one. get it fixed.

[petesl]

If you wait until you're nearly out of warranty to send back, you'll get the latest possible software builds, etc.

Pete

[EarlyAdopter]

An interesting conundrum, similar to the one I’ve been wrestling with. My antenna failed a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been reluctant to send the unit back, in my case because I really don’t want to be without it for the two weeks or so turn-around time. Most of the time I use it in the car w/ an external antenna, and I too am ordering a second external to use when I am on foot.

I am not so much afraid that it will come back with other problems, as you are Chilao, although that’s possible. My fear is that the fix will only be temporary. So why bother.

On the other hand, this is a kludgey solution. I want an iQue with a working internal antenna and would rather not have to cart the external one.

My current thinking is to wait a while, till I get closer to the end of the warranty period – which I believe, with absolutely no justification, is one year – to send it back, agreeing with someone else here that it will then be more likely that Garmin will have worked out the bugs and the problem won’t return.