Garmin server down or some other problem?

Got my City Navigator North America NT Map Update 2008 yesterday.
Have an old i2 with City Navigator North America V8 on it (verified
from unit) Attempting to update the thing, I get an error that says
"This Garmin GPS is not eligible for this update because a previous
map version is not installed. Please verify that the connected Garmin
GPS is the GPS you intend to update, then contact Garmin Customer
Support for assistance"

So I finally reached a rep just before they closed last night, who
confirmed that the unit is registered, that I do own and have the
right base map installed and that there was no reason for this error.
Coming back after going offline for a minute, he told me that the
reason for the error was that the Garmin authentication server had
been down for 1 or 2 days and was being slammed by folks trying to use
it. The error is just what comes up in this situation. He said to
try late in the evening or over the weekend and it should work. He was
reluctant to pass me on to a technician because with this issue,
nothing can be done until the server is back up.

Well, 1 am EDT in US got no results nor did 6 AM so I'm wondering if I
was just brushed off or if indeed there is a server problem keeping me
from doing teh update.

Anyone know? And if the server is up, what the issue over this error
might be?

Thanks

John

I could not connect to their registration server *last* Saturday. I got the
Topo 24k maps, which don't need to be registered to unlock them but I wanted
to do so anyway in case I end up getting an update in the future. I have
read in this newsgroup many times about that server being down, they seem to
have a persistent problem with it.