Anybody bought a TomTom map this weekend?

[DennisN]

Has anybody succeeded in buying a map download from TomTom this weekend or is their system doing one of its wobblies? Last week my newest toy arrived, HTC Advantage X7510 (230 page manual, published in 6 point font - NO CHANCE!!!) and then the mounts arrived on Friday, so I was ready to get it going.

It comes with TT Navigator 6 and a free download of one small map section which I've done, to see what it's like. So now, I want to buy the GB & ROI map for it to make it useful.

So it takes me ages to set up and test a new email address - yes, I know, I could have asked my domain bloke to do me one and I'd have been running in about 43 seconds, but all my TTs are registered with Virgin Media addresses, so I wanted to be consistent. It took me really ages to find the page where I can set one up. Then it took ages to set it up in Outlook Express, then ages to set up rules to direct them all to the correct folder - bit of housekeeping - I had just one TT folder, so all my zillions of TT emails to four devices all ended up in just the one folder and I have discovered to my annoyance that I can't tell the difference easily between them all - TT do such long titles that all you see is something like re:blahblahblahblahblah..... with the recogniseable bit trunkated off until you actually open the damn thing.

So having got over that hurdle, register a new account with TT and go to buy the map - £29.95. But when I press GO, it says NatWest Secure and goes to security, for which I've only ever done it once before, 6th July when I bought a discounted map for one of the other TT devices. So I've no idea what my password is, so I give it a go with one of the ones I know. No way! So I go back to the beginning and give it another go. No way! So I get out the other switch card and give it a go with that. No way! So I get out the credit card on which last week I bought the new toy for over £700 with the mounts. No way! My TT account Order Record now shows five orders, all refused payment.

So I phone (0845) the credit card company and go through entering the 16 digit card number, pressing God knows how many choices, then the last choice was to speak to an operator, whereupon it said we're closed at weekends! Why can't these damn stupid automated systems TELL you right at the start that there's no human being available until Monday?

So I phoned my 24 hour business banking (0845) helpline and after the usual 16 digit card number, date of birth, house number, choosing from 6 options on five menus, I get a person. Who says you want the Natwest Secure people on 0870 nnn nnnn and I can put you through. So music (I mean "so LOUSY music" - I am a Black Dyke Mills Brass Band, Shostakovich and Chopin lover) "sorry they're busy, do you still want to hold", "YES". Eventually I get to more 16 digit numbers, birthday, house, six options from five menus, I get a person. Who says you want the Natwest Secure people on 0845 nnn nnnn and I can put you through! So (LOUSY) music, numbers, person. You want (the previous) 0870 nnn nnnn, put you through ..... You want 08457 nnn nnn ... You want 0870 nnn nnnn and at last I get somebody sensible. Who tells me the trouble I'm having with a Secure system which I don't want, is because TomTom require it. Then he resets (and tells me) my password. Because it's a temporary one, as soon as I input it on the paying page, it chucks me out requiring that I now enter a new password. That's taken from 5pm to 9pm, with half hour break to eat a meal and I'm NOT happy. So I try again. And again. I now have SEVEN refused payment orders in my TT order records and nothing to show for more than four hours of blood, sweat and tears. I'm losing the will to live!

I realise that at 68 going on 69, I could easily be a dumbo incompetent old fool. But that many times?

So now I can't get a map onto my brand new device to drive to anywhere tomorrow. For goodness sake, it's £29.95. All I want to do is give it to TomTom and get a map download. But I can't get in touch with them now because it's weekend. This is the new modern world, 24 hour humming to and fro, internet the world over, even my local council have got somebody in some country or other somewhere to answer their helpline phones and sort out my drains at 2am on Sunday. TomTom have dragged me into the world of high technology, they refuse to allow me to buy a map other than via internet download and high speed broadband connection. The least they could do is make sure they are there when I arrive!
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[G4GVB]

Sounds about right for TT. Their Customer Service (I use the term very loosely here) is about as much good as mud flaps on a tortoise.

Why do we keep giving them money?
_________________
GO 750 LIVE v9.430 - v8.753612 EU map
XL 350 MT v9.151 - v8.75366 US Map

[mikewall]

Had same issue with Ebay/paypal alot of banks now using this same security system, mine asks for a 8 letter/number password and it has to be mixed! of cause i wrote it down in a safe place! but my male memory has forgotten the safe place!!!! IT'S TOO SAFE! sorry to say Dennis but more and more banks are using this system!!!!!!!!!!!! and it's for our own protection i.e WE CAN'T SPEND OUR money!!!!!!

[Anita]

[Trevor1234]

Hi Anita
I use Password Agent and like you I only have to remember one password. In Password Agent I have scores of passwords stored and as they are all generated it would be impossible to remember even one of them.
I know we have to move with the times but I remember the days when I could go into the Bank and the woman behind the counter would welcome me by name, ask how my wife was keeping, show me her latest pictures of her grandson and then serve me with a smile. Have we really progressed?
_________________
Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G

[mrfreeze]

[Trevor1234]

Hi mrfreeze
I must be honest and admit that I had never thought of using your method. Its simple but works.
_________________
Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G

[Tomo]

[Andy_P]

[Mullet]

My laptop has a fingerprint reader (standalone readers can be purchased). Once configured, an icon will appear on any logon screen inviting me to swipe a digit or I could enter the Windows user logon password.
As a back up I keep a secure text document of all passwords and an export from the "DigitalPersona" finger prints.
Logon to the laptop is also via the finger print reader. Now why didnt the government think of this

[Andy_P]

[DennisN]

[Mullet]

. I had considered the finger clone but not with gummi bears.
The reader needs a precise motion and pressure to register, taking an initial five readings. Now, that can either be a testament of high accuracy or poor performance. I suppose there is no way of knowing for sure, just hope for the former rather than the latter.
The sensor itself seems different to the ones I recall at about the age of that article and seems to close a circuit (wonder what the comparative resistance of a Gummi is?). So one can only hope hardware and software improvements have be made since then.
It wasnt a feature I targeted when buying the lappy and is just a different type of protection that may fox the usual thief. A persistent and informed type is probably going to circumvent the OS anyway.
BTW the major pain is the system is not fully compatible with Firefox 3.0 and so one has to either use IE or switch the rendering with the IE Tab add-on.

[Anita]

I think we've gone a bit off topic here. Sorry, Dennis, I'm afraid I started it!

As Dennis has reminded us:

[cecilrhode]

dennis, I havent tried to download anymaps, but I sympathise with you. It should not be necesary to have all this aggro to make a simple purchase. I did expereince somethng similar buying from Tesco online. My wife had to register in the middle of a purchase becasue of this stupid security thing. Next day, i wanted to buy something and ran into the same probem (differnt shop) so I created a password. My wife tried to buy something............ her card is on my account, and we can only have one password between us! turns out I had reset her passpword and locked her out................ if she chooses, she can reset her password and lock me out of my own account.

anyway, yes, the banks have created this as you say, but I think they are coercing shops into using it, like they coerced them into using chip and pin, by refusing to reimburse them for frauduelent use.

I'm sorry you had a hard time, things with computers always seem to take much more than they should. when they go wrong, they do so in a big way.

I hope maybe you check what you did and find an error somewhere or you can get help from TT customer services. not much consolation for all the aggro but maybe if you did make a mistake you will have learned something from it. a hard lesson perhaps, or just chalk it up to expereince with TT.

just had a thought. last time I had problem with on-line purchase failing, I phoned the CC comapny up. They could see the transaction being presented and being rejected becasue of an error (I used AM Ex, and it was the 3 figure number on the back of the card that was wrong. AM Ex uses a 4 figure number on the front, but there is a 3 figure number on the back as well!) POint is, they could see why it was rejected. Speack to your card provider and ask if they can see if it was presented for payment, if it wasnt, it was TTs system that failed.

you are right about 24 hours systems............... but they are not covered by people 24 hours, so if there is a fault, not all companies have the resources out of hours to put it right

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