Update: The Developer Program Manager at Garmin took offense of my frustration with their license agreement and apparently is refusing to talk to me, even though she recognizes my frustration and understands my concerns.  I don't know why she is front person in the  negotiations on a legal contract.  Wouldn't the legal department be better at addressing my concerns?

 

I am mulling over my options.  I will reach out to her again.  One possible option would be to invest the license fee into creating a standalone app to download workouts directly from the GPS.  Feel free to add your thoughts here.

 

eric

Don't sign something you're not legally comfortable with. If there is a clause in the contract that says they can hurt you, but they're saying verbally "but we'll never do that---trust us".  Trust what you read in the contract, not what they say. They don't have your best interest in mind at all, only theirs.

 

If there is a clause in the contract that says they can hurt you, but they're saying verbally "but we'll never do that---trust us".

That is exactly what is happening.  I objected to Garmin can terminate the license at any time for any or no reason.  She understood my concern and then said Garmin has no intention of doing that.  I asked her to put that in writing since that's what the contract is for.  She responded by saying it is non-negotiable.  After several rounds of pleading, I expressed my frustration and pointed out that Garmin was being "dishonest and unfair", but will accept those terms.  She took offense and appeared to have terminated the negotiation.

I think Garmin filled out the wrong license agreement template when they created this license.  If you remove references to the name of the service, what remains is a license meant for a free service.  It would explain why it allows Garmin to terminate the service at any time; the mention of possible future fees; the $5,000 appears as an exhibit at the end of the contract; and no clear description of what Garmin is delivering in exchange for the $5,000.

I've been burnt before (Running Wizard) for not having a proper license agreement and I don't want it to happen again.  If this is what I'm experiencing now, what would happen after I handed over the money?

I'd also just like to mention that I loathe the idea of sending my data to Garmin just to send it to RA.  I'd rather Garmin not have it at all, because in comparison to RA their logging tools suck (not to mention the UI is bloated).  So, I'd much favor a Watch->RA client.

 

Don't sign something you're not legally comfortable with. If there is a clause in the contract that says they can hurt you, but they're saying verbally "but we'll never do that---trust us".  Trust what you read in the contract, not what they say. They don't have your best interest in mind at all, only theirs.

+1

And yeah ideally an app that auto detects the watch and pushes our data straight to RA is ideal for a bunch of reasons. It's just that since you have no control over the hardware and would have to endlessly keep up with device drivers and operating systems and whatnot, it's hard to imagine that being the lower cost, lower risk option.

Whatever you decide I'm an RA lifer. I'm not going anywhere. Keep on fighting the good fight.

 

 

Whatever you decide I'm an RA lifer. I'm not going anywhere. Keep on fighting the good fight.

Here for the remainder of life's home stretch and into the afterlife---where I hear you'll be calling it AstrallyProjectingAhead.bardos

Keep going, Eric.

I agree, don't sign something you're not totally comfortable with.

Yes, I've been doing the "Upload From File" option and pulling the workouts straight from my 220 to RA and it works great. I'm actually fine with this as a permanent solution although it only works for those of use with models that can be mounted as a USB drive.

I would, however like to make one feature request related to this: the "Replace Elevation" data or whatever that check box is. If I had that, I'd be set.