TomTom Review #2 and Reasons It's being Returned

L

Laina:}

New member
This will not be an impartial review as you'll see in my notes:

Here is a screen shot that depicts part of my dissatisfaction:

This route is 98.1 Miles. The nav says it will take 2:33 to complete. Well the route is all freeway except for 4 miles in the beginning and 2 miles at the end. There is no way that this route will take more than 1:35 minutes to complete at 70MPH - because I do it at least once a month.
 
The reverse route calculation show in the attached screen shot:

Shows 97.5 miles and 2:33 to complete - reverse is exactly the same distance but perhaps the calculation is off due to different sides of the road etc.
 
Here is a screen shot as I approach (13miles) my final destination. According to TomTom this will take my 23 minutes @75 mph.
 
Here is a routing shot earlier in the trip in 2D. What's missing from this shot and the previous screen shot? There is no scale for the map. And for the life of me I can't find how to add one. It's in the map display and route planning display but there is no scale during actual Nav mode.
 
Here is a shot of a POI (Point of Interest) for a gas station. It does not say anything about location in the description just Ray's Texaco. You don't know the actual address unless you route to that spot and then it will provide it.

BTW, this is no longer Ray's Texaco. It has been switched to an independent station over 3 years ago. Now, I'll say one thing about the data - it's only as good as the source and I haven't seen any of the map or nav programs be perfect yet. I picked this station because I felt it would be inaccurate as it is, yahoo, mapquest, msn and all of the other's are.
 
Here are several reasons outside of the ones noted for my returning the TomTom unit:

1. Most importantly, I have been unable to activate Major Roads of America and Hawaii. I have successfully activated WA, OR, CA, NV, ID, AZ (one mapset) and a seperate Texas. TomTom Tech support has not yet figured it out. They state that you for the Major Roads to activate you must have at least one other mapset on the same card activated - which has them stumped since it is on mine. I have been attempting to get a satisfactory answer on this issue since Tuesday night. TT tech support is taking 18 hours per response to get back to me.

2. Can't add anything else to the SD card. Each time I attempt to add either a JPG or Mobile Access Database to the same SD card an error message Fatal Alert "DataMgr.c, Line:9529, Index out of range" The soft reset button on screen will not initiate the reset so the reset pin must be used on the back of the T3.

The only way I can recover is to delete the contents of the card via my card reader, reformat the card, reinstall the software and be certain that nothing else gets loaded onto the card. My plan was to use a single 512MB card to handle the majority of the maps and any other files that I deemed. Tech support is stumped on this one and offers no information to correct the issue since Tuesday when I informed them of this.

3. TomTom tech support - this is handled via email with a server recording the entire issue so that you can see all of your comments and their comments when replying via the supplied link. The system is good however the tech's aren't. The individual I'm dealing with hasn't fully read my issues - each time I've had to go back and restate the problem with the more emphasis and I'm only dealing with the two issues - the lack of activation capabilities on the map sets and the ability to add something to the SD card without the program crashing.

4. Documentation - there is absolutely no documentation on the BT module itself. How long will it hold a charge, how to read the LED's, how to turn it on (single button) how to turn it off (one button - must be held for 4 seconds - got that much from the tech).

5. There is no documentation on the supplied car power supply (hard wire version not the cig adapter) about how to hook it up. Also, this permanent wired version should have been supplied with a fuse and or circuit breaker. It's not - it's two stripped wires and if you simply hook it into the car circuitry you will pop something. Either the T3 or more costly the ECM(Electronic Control Module - main computer) for the car. Without a fuse and documentation - this could be a really good liability for TomTom.

6. If you remove the SD card your last location is lost. Ok, why would this be an issue. Well see number 2 above. So now that you've lost your location - you can't simply route back home. You must now tell TomTom where you are and then wait for it to find the Sats - my warm boot to locate sats under this situation took 3 minutes.

7. See #6 - You can't multi- task. If you are in the TTN (TomTom Navigator) program and you exit it for any reason such as to log an expense or check your calendar - it doesn't remember what your were doing before you exited the program.

8. Did I mention Tech Support?

9. Did I mention Tech Support?

10. Did I mention Tech Support? If I did I meant to say, "lack of tech support.


Let me summarize: Don't forget my experience with the opened package. The second one arrived in a sealed shrink wrap around the box so it definitely was all there - or was it. Don't forget that the original TomTom web site stated that the unit came with 3 different types of mounting solutions for the car.

This is not the case. It comes with only the sunroof/windshield mount. I say sunroof mount because in my Impala it's the only glass area that I could place the mount and be able to reach the handheld while in the drivers seat.

Yes, I'm slightly prejudiced by my bad experience. And my experience may not be typical of anyone else's. But considering I know my way around a Palm pretty well, I can not recommend this product for those of us who are power users of their devices.

I may be asking too much from a handheld and may have to be content to not converge devices. So for now, I will keep what I have and continue to operate the T3 as the PDA of choice and the Que as the gps of choice.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my wife's desire to have a GPS in her car - but unless Garmin is going to annouce another PDA/GPS unit in the next few days - me thinks my wife may get my old Que and I may buy a 2nd Que.
 
Jesus MooseMan -- I thought I was the only one that lived for detail. What an excellent report -- and anyone on this forum should be grateful considering what must be CONSIDERABLE cost for this "rig."

Like I said -- vote with your wallet. For years in Japan they've had Thomas Guides built right in to the windshields -- you look THROUGH the map, while driving. I wonder about the accuracy there, too -- but it shows a lot of people are ahead of the U.S. in the technology we DESIGN AND BUILD HERE IN SILICON VALLEY (??!!)

I'm sorry you had trouble and you've made the right choice. If it smells funny in the beginning, it will probably only get worse, to the point where you throw your hands up and say "God, I thought this high tech stuff was supposed to HELP."

Turns out you'd be better off with a plain paper map and calculating (as you did from experience) the actual driving times yourself. I've tried that "hybrid" approach with the bitmaps on the SD Card -- and so far it's working for me just great and takes up a lot less space. 20MB of maps on the SD Card and 1MB for viewers on the handheld (in flash!) accomplishes an AWFUL LOT despite being a little tedious in the beginning (trimming maps in PhotoShop, installing to card, etc). By comparison however, it's nowhere as much trouble as having to REFORMAT the thing and losing your place if you exit the program -- AcidImage REMEMBERS in a .bak file stored on the card WHAT YOUR SETTINGS WERE for viewing -- if you go back to the map, it's right where you left off.

If you have some maps you use often, email them to me and I'll "tweak them" for you in PhotoShop (adding contrast, adding "red," compressing the .bmp to 8bit, etc) and whiz them back to you. I think you'd be impressed at the draggability, detail and ease of use -- I've tried Mapopolis (complete rip-off) but not actual GPS/TomTom stuff -- have no interest. I think you give up more privacy (people know where YOU ARE, TOO!) AND HAVE MORE HASSLE IN TERMS OF ACTUAL "REAL WORLD" OPERATION.

Take care buddy and GET YOUR MONEY. Call Amex FIRST in case there's any "squeaking" at the TomTom Club.
 
Actually GPS is a one way communications. The satellites send, you receive. So they can't track you with it. You should try the GPS solutions, they are a big step up. I have an iQue and love it. I would have preferred that TomTom worked well and used the T3 instead, but after this review I guess I'll stick with what I know.
 
PalmTealLover, thanks for the offer. I have Photoshop as well and could do as you suggest. I'll have to check out AcidImage and see if that's something I'd be interested for other things.

Since I'm mainly interested in voice prompts to avoid crashing while reading, I won't be using it for scanned maps but possible other uses.

Regarding the detail - I could have gone on because of the benchmark comparison I could make against my iQue 3600. I was trying to consolidate to 1 unit and that's just not going to happen. What I want, does not yet exist so I will have to modify my wants for awhile longer.

I have the RMA numbers from JR.com and will snap pictures of them along with the tracking numbers etc. Will get Amex involved as needed.

It's interesting that the Tom Tom tech support is so ....so....so bad. Granted I've had limited exposure because it seems that once your assigned a tech - you've got them for life but these folks don't realize that 18 hours between responses has cost them a sale, yet. :D
 
At this time that's my recommendation. It may be that I have some software that's on the T3 and could possibly cause the issues that I've described but because of the Tech support, or lack thereof, I can't say that this is a 50% replacement for the Que. The Que still rocks as far as navigation and compatability and I might not have had the T3 if the Que would have been more stable initially. Since the release of Release3 back in February - the Que has not suffered one issue. Initially back in August it just wasn't stable enough to be my everyday PDA as well.

Since most of the software developers have released iQue updates couple that with the current flash version 3 - this is where the Que needed to be 6 months ago to keep me from buying the T3.

Bottom line I don't recommend the Tom Tom unit - unless Tech support ever gives me some solid reason for my problems but the unit's going back so they better hurry.
 
Thanks for the kind words.



Nope but I'd love to read your review. ;)


Hadn't seen that article so thanks for the link. The Navman units I've seen in the B&M's haven't impressed me. The Best Buy in town has a working icn 630 and although it's a worthy GPS unit - taking that map interface to a Palm just doesn't seem to be in my tastes, at the moment.

I'll stick with iQue and ponder awhile longer. ;)
 
POI - Points of interest. I pointed out earlier that you have to route to the POI in order to see the address. Well it's worse - you can't tell what side of the road it's on and in fact most of them are listed as on the road and if you have a lot of POI's selected they can actually hide the road name.
 
Well during the installation process for the PC, the software installs a Tom Tom conduit. That's ok but with a Win XP machine there is no removal tool or unistall.

A search of the program files and hard drive show no file references other than one directory.

Well here I go again: off to tech support to wait for another 18 hours.
 
cme4oil,

We both got bit: I'll add an 11th, routing lack of ability to add via's ala the Que. You can ask for another route and it will calculate it but you can't pick anything.

I ran a calculation from Modesto to Las Vegas - first choice by Tom Tom was to go south to Turlock on Hwy 99 and then go over to I-5 and continue to Bakersfield and take S.R. 223 to Hwy 58 and then on to Las Vegas via I-15. This takes you at least 45 miles out of the way and probably 60 minutes because of surface streets rather then freeway 99.

If you chose another route it would take you over Yosemite which is a shorter distance but would take longer because mostly surface streets.

Both routes showed a calculation of nearly 10 hours. I can drive it in 7.5 hours at 72 MPH.

The routing and calculation was just way off and the lack of being able to create the route using a via point or some similar method, nope.

Tech Support still hasn't gotten back to me regarding the registration issues or the PC components. I went in and cleared the registry of the Tom Tom references and removed the Tom Tom folder - which cleared the problem as I knew it would but I'm still wondering what tech support will say.
 
Mooseman, question:
I bought the TomTom Bluetooth GPS w/o consulting this site (bad of me, I know.
When bringing the program on line and the bluetooth working, did the reception strenght bars light up?
Or did you have to do a specific set up?
I connect to the GPS but I dont think the GPS is getting the satellites information. The light stays blue and does not change.
I am about to return it, but I wanted to know if I was missing something
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,

mas
 
Are you outside? I know this sounds like a dumb question but...

I have used the TOMTOM software with a Belkin Bluetooth GPS without any problems.. Other than the fact that it's a piece of crap compared to my iQue 3600. Make sure you go into preferences and select the bluetooth gps.

Did you also register the product? If you didn't do that yet that could be the reason as well.
 
I did registered and manage to download the maps , and I do connect to the gps box with the bluetooth, I just cant get the downlink form the satellites I think.
TomTom told me to send it in, but that would be a pain so I would just return it for now. Unless, of course, I can figure out why its not working an dI can fix it.
Since I never used a GPS before, I was thinking that I was missing some step.
mas
 
Now a happy T3 owner - after experience the delicasy of PDA Navs like my NavMan iPAQ combo last year I didnt want to go down that route again (pardon the pun!).

Instead I bought a TomTom Go - a dedicated compact unit - totally flawless, accurate, holds it's fix, reliable, easy to use, never crashes or locks-up, a whopping 5 hour battery life - it's not an answer to your probs I know but I had to say what a difference the non-PDA option makes.
 
As long as you are outside and not in your car if your not getting bars.....receiver is bad. Some vehicles have a special coating on the windshields that can prevent reception so be certain your in a clear area.

If all of the above has been tried....return it there is no "special" process except the registration of the device to the T3 be certain you have the bluetooth handshake and that you are receiving from the gps device even if there is no bar's.
 
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