Let’s have some feedback from Navman

nftang

I also agree that the vendor should have a representative collecting messages that flow around. They don't need to provide solid answer or solution right at the spot but at least to address (on line) their cutomers' concern and even agony.

I don't know what is now the modern culture of customer management but then experiences tell us buyer's satisfaction is always the most neglected!

Dave

Navman are aware of the routing issues, but I don't know if these are being addressed.

gambitgander

support@navman-europe.com. I'm sure they can answer all the questions you may have. After having contacted them, I can confirm that they are aware of the RFI and routing issues, and are busy working on them.
_________________
Who's Your Daddy?

sfi1

Dave, while it's understandable that navman would be concentrating on the 4400 lockup problem as it's their new product do you have any knowledge whether they are investigating the 2 current issues with the 3400 namely re-routing at motorway junctions and improvement in TTFF by RFI reduction.

Dave

I think we all have to agree to disagree here, and the heat isn't helping much!

For the record, we have offered Navman (and other companies) both public and beta forums, where they can actively manage the forums and reply to customers, but no take up. At the end of the day it really boils down to corporate policy and managers discretion. Look at the Retailers to avoid or buy from forum. Some of the retailers getting a knocking in there are very respectible and it only takes one or two bad experiences before you get a stomping ground. I've thought on several occasions whether we should pull support for the forum. Some of the retailers that have taken flack come back and resolve issues and reply, to only be given more flack. In a lot of cases it's a no-win situation supporting publically in forums.

On a brighter side, I'm testing a fix for lockups round roundabouts and it's starting to look good.

nftang

Sorry to say that the doctors' analogy was a real irrelevance.

Of course we could go to the support page and send off whatever problems we might have. I did contact Navman Europe on my problem with the 4400 but that doesn't mean it's not appropriate to put this (with no offence) in an open forum which a lot of potential buyers are seeking for current users' (if not ex-users') experiences. I don't know how many technicians are there in Navman and exactly how big (or small) Navman is. Do you believe in market push? This forum and others are doing partly this job (for free).

A forum can’t be a battleground if there is no real war (of issue) going on.

As for web update, Navman even hasn’t revised that their 4400 has been released! I still can’t register my 4400 on-line. After all, my 13-year son may just be able to update his personal web in a couple of hours’ time.

gambitgander

Point taken, but as Dave said, forums are often places where people vent frustrations. Just look at any HP forum. It's a battleground. You say you've always had satisfactory supportfrom Navman. Well, they must be doing something right then, regarding all those users with the same problem. I agree that their web page is well out of date though, but even larger companies like Tom Tom don't have forums. It's just not a viable option for a small/medium sized business.
_________________
Who's Your Daddy?

Telboy

gambitgander,

I take your point, but let's look at this from another perspective...

there appears to be a number of users all experiencing the same problems, whether it be routing issues, satellite lock etc. Now if all these users were to complete an on-line fault report form as per the Navman web-site, these 2 or 3 technicians would be swampped sending out the same response / recommendations to these users on an individual basis.

Now, if Navman had their own support forum, it would only take one reply per legitimate issue for all to read.

Let's be honest, the Navman site whilst it looks pretty it is not exactly up to date. When was the last time the FAQ's were updated? Even SP1 is different depending on which Navman site you visit.

Don't take this the wrong way, I am in no way critising Navman support in any way, all dealings I have had with them on the phone has always ended up with a satisfactory conclusion, I just feel this could improve the perception of poor customer care that is sometimes echoed in this forum.

Terry

gambitgander

As a long time user of Navman products, I have had corrospondences with the navman Tech dept on a few occasions, and it seems as though there are only 2 or 3 technicians working there. Now, do the math. Navman sell throughout Europe. They sell a fairly wide range of GPS receivers. So were looking at 10's of thousands of units, if not more. In larger companies I'm sure they have a person looking at responses from people on the internet, but it cannot be expected that a company that has only 2 or 3 technicians make provisions for such a time consuming aspect of business. Who knows, they may well look at our comments on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, but why should they make it common knowledge? If you have questions, go to their support page, thats what they're for after all. You don't have doctors going door-to-door asking people if they are ok, you take your problem to the doctor.
_________________
Who's Your Daddy?

Telboy

Dave has mentioned in a previous topic that Navman frequently visit this forum to view comments and issues. Wouldn't it be nice if once in a while Navman could respond to the various issues via this forum.

It would go a long way in demonstrating their customer commitment.

Telboy

Dave,

the thread is not aimed at any one issue in particular. I raised it as there is another forum I visit on a regular basis (nothing to do with GPS) where the support staff in the company concerned actively take part in the discussions and it has proved to be very popular with the forum members.

I'm not suggesting Navman should post anticipated dates for patch's, upgrades etc as I agree with what you say about missed dates and the negative feed back that follows, but it would be nice if Navman could acknowledge they have visited the forum and taken on board what has been said.

Now, about this group hug...............

sfi1

SSShhhh, you're not allowed to mention the g***p h*g as it might be included in the next service pack - maybe - if there is one.

Seriously, If after a long wait all that is offered is to buy the new product at full price then I think that a lot of customer's will go elsewhere.

onbashi

Lets all be happy and have a group hug

_________________
In The Land Of The Blind The One Eyed Man Is King!

Dave

I agree, it's nice to know that it's being addressed. Unfortunately fixes in most cases take a lot longer than developers originally anticipate, and once you go through several sets of beta tests you find your way behind, and this then puts pressure on the company to churn out the fix unfinished and cause more problems, or have a further backlash from users.

It's a very tight line to walk, some companies manage this well, some don't. Most companies prefer to keep things quiet until they know they're happy to release a fix because they've had time to sit back and thoroughly test it.

A classic example was when Navman announced that they were going to release SmartST Pro. The release date came and went, it then was rescheduled, that came and went, and I think all in all it was about 4 months later than anticipated, SmartST Pro was released. Obviously there were a lot of anxious and annoyed Navman customers because they were told early that the product would be released, and then there were a few hiccups in the software which postponed the release.

One thing I can say is that we often get offered patches from most of the major GPS companies to test. Unfortunately in most cases we don't know what they're fixing, so testing a fix can be problematic for us. We also are asked under NDA to not release information about the fixes because of the reasons given above. I'm not sure exactly what this thread is in relation to, whether it's the 2210 hanging problems, but I can tell you it is being addressed.

That's about all I can say at this stage.

Telboy

Good reply sfi1,

I was about to write the same thing myself.

Terry

	PocketGPS
	Web