Open letter to TomTom about address lookup (Navigator 3 GB)

tom9851 · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 1:06 pm Post subject:

I have to admit that as each day passes I am becoming less and less optimistic about an early resolution of these problems. Crying or Very sad

DavidW · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 3:51 pm Post subject:

I'm hoping over the next few days to write to TomTom's CEO about the outstanding problems. I was hoping to have this done some time back, but I've been extremely busy.

David

Mark R Penn · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject:

Well, here's my posts and the responce I eventually got - the best so far I think. You really do have to keep pushing them! (read from the bottom up!)

BoPeep · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:33 pm Post subject: Open Letter Response #2

Hi Everyone,

Time for another update... Here's the response I received today at 14:04. This is after I opened the help file up a second time as they closed it after one response the first time.

Mark R Penn · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:51 pm Post subject:

Just keep on at them (see my post above yours). Eventually they will get something done.

PW · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 9:16 am Post subject:

This is all just pure guesswork on my part.
My thought is that TomTom are going through a stage of rapid expansion. GPS is becoming big business. They don't have enough people to support the customers properly. Perhaps they have brought new people on to the team but it will take a while before they are experienced enough to really help.
Two other problems they may be facing are
1) The developement team are working like crazy to keep up/keep ahead of the competition. It is sometimes better to put out a product early which is not quite 100% to grab market share.... although if it is too poor, this will effect you in the long run as customers jump ship. It's a very fine line.
As this stage, new stuff may be of higher priority than bug fixes... especially fixes that need external help e.g. map changes.
2) Their internal communication has gone to pot as they expand. The issues that are really annoying customers are just not getting to the right people.

How to resolve this? The more people who complain the more likely it is to get resolved. The only other option is to hit a company where it hurts.... in the pocket. People would have to return the product and say it is not fit for purpose. Obviously one person returning it would have little effect it would take more of a team effort. I wonder how they would react to hundreds of copies of TT3 arriving in their office in Amsterdam in one day! However, as TT3 works (albeit not as well as it could in some areas), it may be difficult to mobilise enough disgruntled users to do this.

Mark R Penn · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:01 am Post subject:

SpeedCam · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 7:41 pm Post subject:

I just don't think they are interested, customer services has never been a strong area for TT, but it would be relatively easy to improve. They appear to be more interested in blindly selling the traffic services instead of fix existing problems, or just keeping them informed on progress. Yet more marketing emails sent today, how about a 'We are working hard to fix it ...' email.

Along with all the problems detailed here, they have a big copy protection issue as both the application and map registration systems have now been cracked.

vxer · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 9:53 pm Post subject: Money Back Option????

I am curious - has anyone actually tried asking for a refund? If so have they been successful? I am seriously contemplating returning to TTN2. Also, sorry if has been referred to in previous threads but just HOW in the world can places be in in TTN 2 and NOT in 3. What a c**k up!

jasuk70 · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

I did but due to non delivery, It will take at least a week to process and they need every single detail about your bank and account to do it.

Basically I couldnt be bothered to wait that long and after getting annoied with the person on the phone it got shipped that night. I have in a thread where someone has asked for their money back though. (Sorry cant remember which one).

Anyhow, as TT3 is my first TomTom Navigator I have to make the most of it as I can't go back to TT2.

Jas

garygfx · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 30, 2004 Posts: 15

I'm new to Tomtom and at first thought I had totally failed to understand how to find an address. Now, thanks to this forum, I know that I'm not being stupid and Tomtom is really crap at finding addresses.

Why on earth can't they use a well established 2 prong approach that I've found works well for www.rac.co.uk, PC based route mapping, and the Royal Mail's developer's kit. (I build an address finder for a website).

1) Search by postcode... type in the postcode and it finds the location. The more letters you type the more accurage it is. e.g. AB1 is for an area, AB1 2CD is for a building or a dozen buildings.
2) Search by city and road. After selecting a city it only searches for roads within the city. Tomtom3 seems to list roads well beyond the walls of a city, sometimes up to 20 miles away! Blinking stupid and a huge waste of time.

My wife couldn't wait for me to look up an address on Sunday so she pulled out the UK Road Atlas and found the street while I was still fiddling around with Tomtom. That was embarrasing as I was trying to impress her with modern technology. Thank God we haven't done away with books just yet.

Gary.

neilsumner2 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 05, 2004 Posts: 4

My guess is that TT have almost no resources to spare on TTN3.
They have rapidly expanded launching a new hardware product TT 2 GO which used up almost all of their development time last year.
Come the new year they needed to launch a new product to keep the cash flow going and did as little work as possible to make TT3. Most of the reason to want to upgrade to TT3 came from a 3rd party... Teleatlas.
There were stacks of good ideas for implementation in the TT2 wishlist but TT did nothing to implement any of those.
What were they doing all year? Working on TT 2 GO thats what!
I love my TT2 and will not even consider upgrading until it is a stable and useable product.

The only way to make TT listen is to hit their pockets by not upgrading or demanding a refund stateing that TT3 is a step backwards and a broken product.

-Neil

DavidW · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 10:29 pm Post subject:

BizBo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 03, 2004 Posts: 10

oh dear and I just bought TT3 thinking it would be better than my Kane Destinator! Seems I have dropped a clanger, ah well at least I have both so not totally left in the cold.

I am sure TT will address this issue and a fix will be out soon I hope!

Rolling Eyes

BizBo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 03, 2004 Posts: 10

why does the forum date indicate I posted this tomorrow 8O

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