Hi! We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
But as we’re losing ad-revenue from this then why not make a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:03 pm Post subject:
Andy, I am surprised you are still bothering to put up with a sub service, to be honest its probably time to move on to something that works all of the time with a degree of consistancy.
To be honest if you get used to radio station transmissions and the overhead gantry signs it can be a useable system and its free - Mike
Only putting up with the shoddy service because I still have a subscription running for about 9 months, and I don't want to splash out on a new device at the moment as other things need to paid for first which are far more important than a satnav!
It is a crying shame as it was a brilliant service a year ago, but in true TT style they have taken a brilliant product and ruined it in the interests of profit and so called progress.
Rest assured, any replacement device will not be a TT. They have had the last penny they will ever get from me after this absolute debacle.
Joined: Nov 14, 2003 Posts: 2143 Location: Surrounded by A1, M1 & M25
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:20 pm Post subject:
There is something odd about the servers not being able to cope as you can view the HD traffic online for nearly all of Europe at once on a computer browser and that includes downloading the map as well. Maybe the units cannot cope with large quantities of data? _________________ Drivelux
There is something odd about the servers not being able to cope as you can view the HD traffic online for nearly all of Europe at once on a computer browser and that includes downloading the map as well. Maybe the units cannot cope with large quantities of data?
I don't believe this capacity excuse of theirs. If that was the real reason they've had plenty of time to invest in increasing it. I think it is more likely the cost they have to pay for the use of the Vodafone data network.
Joined: 15/07/2003 22:59:27 Posts: 1050 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:32 pm Post subject:
mikealder wrote:
To be honest if you get used to radio station transmissions and the overhead gantry signs it can be a useable system and its free - Mike
You don't usually get much radio coverage of back-ups off of the main roads - or at least not until it is too late. And there are certainly no overhead signs
That is kept for all of you who travel only the major routes
Locally you cannot even pick up a trafficmaster signal, and if you do they don't cover the roads anyway
So while it may not be perfect, it is pretty damn good, and I fear you will be disappointed with your move
I've spent A WEEK (well, tomorrow I will have) back with my Garmin 3790 instead of my TomTom Go 1000
Cannot wait to get my TT back - no just for traffic, but to keep me off of all these lanes and crazy routes it spouts out _________________ TomTom Go Live 6100, 600
Garmin DriveLux 50, D-Smart 70, NuviCam, 3598, 2699, 2798
Mio Navman 695
Nexus 6p, Apple iPhone 6sPlus and Microsoft Lumia 950xl running TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot, Navigon, Sygic, Here Drive, Google, Waze, MS Maps
...So while it may not be perfect, it is pretty damn good...
Indeed, it is a fantastic system when it is working - really far and away the best. Which is what makes it so frustrating that they are incapable of making it work at a reasonable distance of 160km, which is pretty much certainly less than when they launched it too. (They never answer the question of what the longest it ever was, which pretty much answers it!)
As someone technical, I find the lack of any technical explanation really poor. "It isn't working well" is as bad as the marketing web sites that just say "our product is great, buy it" and don't explain why. There are lots of possible reasons that the system may be causing problems. One presumes that it is not the devices themselves, since the problem would show on the device and not the network. So what could the problem be then? Servers not able to cope? Why not put on some more/faster servers then? Too much data costing too much? Two levels of subscription then and I'll pay more to cover the vodaphone costs. To not be telling us, and how they intend to fix it and make it whole country all the time, strikes me that they know there is a big incompetence in the system somewhere and they don't want to say what it is. Which just leaves us with the conclusion that they are incompetent, and thus didn't help them. But perhaps the maxim "best say nothing and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt" applies.
I do of course expect @TomTom to tweet today heralding their reduction in service, just as they did when it was increased.
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 10118 Location: Bexhill, South Sussex, UK
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:32 am Post subject:
matthewj wrote:
I do of course expect @TomTom to tweet today heralding their reduction in service, just as they did when it was increased.
So you want it at long range but not working until they have told (the very few) people who will actually read the tweet or other communication before they switch to a working shorter range system then. At least this time, they have let 'the few' know this time, without assuming that no one will notice.
Now it in no way of a defense of TT as the issues with this service is a bit of a farce but it can happen to others i.e. RIM this week.
Anyway I feel that TT are not in a winning situation whatever they do in this situation.
They have a problem and the increased range has, for some reason, resulted in the service not working. They can, apparently, reduce the range and it works again.
So the range is reduced and it works again or they leave the increased range and it doesn't work. The fix is probably going to take an indeterminate time so seems to me the most pragmatic solution is to reduce the range.
Of course we are all fed up with the situation but a working reduced range seems better thana longer range that doesn't work.
I've had a HD Traffic device from the begining and I thought after the inital problems had been sorted, the service was really good but it's been on a steady decline ever since. Recently (last 12 months)I have not been impressed with the quality of information, despite TT's claims to the otherwise - I've been driving along then come to a stop and sat in traffic jams that the TT seemed unaware of.
That aside, maybe (and this is just a guess) because of the increasing number of HD devices the severs can't cope with the amount of data that now has to be processed. Remember the HDT system has both data input and output. Do TT's severs do the processing on the incoming data recieved from devices or is all that done at Vodafones end? If you have a live device but no subscription is the data sent to your device but not acted on or is it filtered at TT's end? Does each device or model range receive the same sort of data? It might seem trivial but all theses operations add load if they are done at the server end and then distributed to X number of thousands of units. Reducing the range obviously reduces the amount of data that needs to be processed
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:33 pm Post subject: Re: HD Traffic range reduced AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
M8TJT wrote:
AndyVaughan wrote:
I bet there isn't an official communication to this effect.
The lovely Dite did earlier today
I wonder if it is front page news on the website, or a headline on the support page?
Or if they put it on facebook or tweet it?
Or if it is one of their marketing spam newsletters as it was when they increased the range to 120km a month ago? Seemed a bit of a cheek to actually include in the newsletter that they had increased the range of HD Traffic. I don't recall the newsletter telling me about the reduction in range last winter
I totally agree, a working 120km is better than a non-working 160km. But I paid for a working 160km so still feel robbed.
When I use the TT I am driving 200 miles plus, so 120km is no use to me - better to listen to Radio 5 and manually plan my route which totally defeats the object.
Joined: Mar 26, 2004 Posts: 548 Location: East Midlands
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:06 am Post subject: Re: HD Traffic range reduced AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AndyVaughan wrote:
I totally agree, a working 120km is better than a non-working 160km. But I paid for a working 160km so still feel robbed.
When I use the TT I am driving 200 miles plus, so 120km is no use to me - better to listen to Radio 5 and manually plan my route which totally defeats the object.
I totally agree that a working service, even with reduced range is preferable to a non-working service but when I first subscribed to Traffic I don't remember being aware what the range was - it could have been 50km for all I knew.
I don't think TomTom ever advertised a specific range of 160km, did they?
The did not specifically state 160km but they do state
Quote:
Get the most up-to-date traffic information available for your route, live on your TomTom LIVE device with TomTom High Definition Traffic™.
You receive detailed incident reports about the length and reason of the delays, the most accurate delay information, travel- and arrival times, and alternative route proposals. All this information is sent directly to your TomTom navigation system.
TomTom HD Traffic is a revolution in traffic information offering you the best coverage, the most updates from the best sources and it is fully automated.
_________________ Mick
Go 1005 in need of resuscitation
GO 950 Dead,
GO 920 Dead
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:42 pm Post subject: Re: HD Traffic range reduced AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
spook51 wrote:
I don't think TomTom ever advertised a specific range of 160km, did they?
No, not that I am aware.
BUT
When I first got the device I had 3 months free LIVE Services with it. At that time the range was a minimum of 160km, this was back when the XL LIVE was first launched. They had screenshots in their marketing material and on their website clearly showing a range in excess of 160km, albeit in the Netherlands.
I subscribed to the service (twice? now) on the basis that I was subscribing to the service I was receiving when I first got the device.
Since then it has been reduced with no communication, but with marketing hype when TT restored half of the reduction!
All fairly academic now as I have given up on TT ever sorting this farce out. As soon as I have decided on what is replacing the TT (and it won't be a TT that is for sure), it is going on ebay with the remainder of the LIVE Services and Map Update Service with it. TT have confirmed I can transfer these across to a new user when I sell the device.
My preference is for an OEM integrated satnav head unit for the car which has RDS-TMC built in. I will live the shortcomings of RDS-TMC as at least I know what I will get, service outages are minimal and I won't feel like I have been robbed by TT anymore.
Posted: Today Post subject: Pocket GPS Advertising
We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
All times are GMT + 1 Hour Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7Next
Page 1 of 7
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Hi! We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
But as we’re losing ad-revenue from this then why not make a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in for private messages
Log in
