Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my first review on Amazon. Normally, I do not take the time to write such reviews. A little background on myself: I am a long-term user of GPS devices. I purchased my first GPS, a Magellan Pioneer, in the late 90's. I've owned multiple GPS devices from Garmin including GPSMap 276, EDGE 500, ForeRunner 305, Forerunner 310XT, and Nuvi. Garmin just lost a long-term and previously loyal customer. I'd like to explain why: I'll start with my assessment of the Garmin eTrex 30. The unit itself is fine. I found it to be functional, have good battery life, and it is relatively easy to use. The base device appears to be a good value for the money and competitive with offerings from Magellan, etc. Now let's get to the features that make this device usable for a power user: BaseCamp: EPIC FAIL. The base maps have very little detail. You have to purchase additional maps for any useable level of detail. Performance of this product--especially downloading topo or Birdseye maps is incredibly slow. I highly doubt my observations are unique to my configuration. I have the highest end iMac available (i7 hyperthreaded 4-core, 16GB ram, 2GB video) and 30MB internet bandwidth. Every other piece of software (including high-end development tools) work flawlessly on the device. Maps: Garmin does a bit of bait and switch here. I purchased a Topo map at $100. It took forever to download. Garmin's servers are undersized or they have a serious problem with the BaseCamp desktop software. Other reviewers have noted similar observations on Amazon and similar sites. Viewing the maps on BaseCamp requires that you have your GPS connected. Garmin email support is an EPIC fail. When I reported that viewing on BaseCamp for the topo maps is slow and unusable, they responded that while this feature is newly available, it is not a 'supported feature'. So, you can view a topo map on BaseCamp but it is not usable.... that's because viewing is supposedly only licensed on the device itself. Garmin does not provide refunds or exchanges for any of it's mapping products. PERIOD. Now compare this with my past experience with Magellan. Garmin charges $100 per topo map per region. My past topo map purchase from Magellan was $100 for North America. Their desktop software performed very well and it supported easy viewing both on the desktop as well as downloading to the device. For someone who enjoys hiking and mountain biking across a very wide geography, it would cost me several hundred dollars to cover the area I visit. So, I'm paying several times to Garmin for terrible support and an unusable desktop companion product!!! Bottom Line: If you only want base device functionality, consider the Garmin. If you are interested in any detailed mapping, including Topo maps, skip Garmin. Make sure you fully understand the total cost of the additional mapping details you are interested in and make sure to pass your feedback along to Garmin if you do not like their pricing and return policies on their mapping products.