Goodbye TomTom

qkjb · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 01, 2005 Posts: 93

I have used TomToms for a very very long time - I used to run the early software on an HP Ipaq. My latest TomTom, a Go1005 died a couple of weeks ago as a result of doing a map update. The customer service agent I spoke to now seems to be based on a different continent and I found them very hard to understand. More importantly they gave me completely incorrect information and bad advice. Fortunately I had taken an extended warranty from John Lewis and with only a week left to go on it they collected it for repair and when it couldn't be repaired gave me the full price back that I had paid years ago. Very very good service from John Lewis - very bad service from TomTom. Having researched the latest TomTom models and finding that having put the price up they now build the unit they want, not what I want, (inter alia no 3rd party poi's can be input despite many promises), I have bought a Garmin (from John Lewis) which does everything I want and cost less than the over sized TomTom 6000.
I read many reviews from people who had bought the new TomTom units and had given them one or no stars for performance and features so I decided to change to Garmin. A real shame as TomTom used to be a good company.
I still have an old hand held military style Garmin GPS from decades ago which still works and about five TomTom units which don't.
Thank Goodness for PocketGPS and their forum members who have helped me through the years and hopefully still will albeit in a different part of the forums.
Goodbye TomTom.

tonylathes · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 7

gazza70 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 28, 2006 Posts: 129

I did the same and took my new tomtom back and replaced it with a garmin digital unit , the funny thing was when I posted on the tomtom.com forum ,they just kept deleting my post and sent me a snotty email telling me that they don't approve of me discussing other brands and if I continued to keep posting about them then they would ban me and delete my tomtom account ,

qkjb · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 01, 2005 Posts: 93

That sounds like TomTom's usual approach to customer complaints. If it doesn't work it's your fault for buying their equipment. And you can't tell anyone.
Meanwhile I am really enjoying my new Garmin although it's "fastest" routing can be a touch pedantic and odd. I am sure I will get used to it. The Pocket GPS speed cams installed perfectly - directly to the machine - by following all the careful guidance given on the database pages. My long enjoyed voices talk to me again as Gladys (the name we gave to the TomTom) has relocated to Garmin.
Again, what a shame for TomTom. To lose a loyal customer base built up over a couple of decades by not listening to what it wants is just plain daft.

DennisN · Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:55 am Post subject:

I personally haven't been getting new TomToms for several years, since the x50 range was replaced by the new Nav3 rubbish. And I used to buy whatever new came out whenever it came out. And I have been using at least two, usually three, on my dashboard for several years now, replacing each, so I've owned more than two dozen TT units since my first one in 2005.

They've lost quite a lot of cash from me, although I still use TT PNDs.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

Privateer · Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:17 pm Post subject:

Agree with DennisN. I started using TomTom products in 2003 (TomTom Navigator 2 on an iPAQ H3970). I've used TomTom ever since, although I have tried others.

TomTom used to be such an innovative company, they introduced the ability to create your own POI categories and import third party POIs as well. They used to have an SDK which allowed third party programmers to create useful add-ons, anybody remember POI Capture or POI-Warner? Unfortunately TomTom soon removed the ability to use add-ons created by the SDK. TomTom did add some features that the add-ons once provided and you might be forgiven in thinking that TomTom only used the SDK to see what features they could add.

Unfortunately as we have seen, TomTom have removed too many features. I'm guessing is that when SatNavs were only used by us 'geeks' then features were king. Now SatNavs have became mainstream, those consumers who jumped onto the bandwagon will not miss features that they never knew about - so they will continue to buy TomTom.

What I don't understand is why TomTom doesn't sell versions of its PNDs and Apps in "Standard" and "Pro" versions so that everybody is happy, i.e. the mainstream users can have the "Standard" version whilst the geeks and road warriors can use the "Pro" version. If you want to know what features have been given and then taken away by TomTom then Andy_P's post about "What's been dropped in new models" will inform you.

My current TomTom is still my old faithful 950, although I'm starting to use the TomTom iOS APP. Whilst I can use third part POIs by a little hacking, I can't create POIs on the iOS APP which will always be essential to me.

However, when my TomTom 950 dies then I will jump ship to another manufacturer unless TomTom suddenly brings back all of the features that I want and need.

Regards,
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

DennisN · Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:15 pm Post subject:

qkjb · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 01, 2005 Posts: 93

I'd still be using my TomTom 1005 if installing a map hadn't "destroyed" the main logic board. Their words not mine. A Sat Nav without a map is a brick and an expensive one. So I have jumped ship.
I still have TomTom on my iPhone which I use when the Garmin is at home. But I suspect the Apple hardware is more reliable than TomTom's.

IanS100 · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:23 pm Post subject:

I started out with a 520 well over 10 years ago and onto a 550, which still works well, although I broke the sucker mount some years ago. When the Android app came out 2 years ago I snapped it up immediately, but following the 'highlighted' route is next to impossible and rather that fix the problems TomTom now appear to have abandoned development in favour of the new TomTom GO app (but only available in Italy). The only reason I've put up with sub-standard app for so long is HD Traffic, but that's now up for renewal so if TomTom don't do something soon I'll be off to CoPilot!
_________________
Galaxy Note 4 / TomTom GO : CamerAlert : CoPilot

Privateer · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:46 pm Post subject:

sgould · Frequent Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2004 Posts: 1320

I don't think that there's a market for the "pro" version. Although there appear to be a lot of people on this forum demanding it, they are not a group big enough to register on the Tomtom user profile. Why put features into something at extra cost that 99.999% of the users won't use and many of the ones that try to use it don't understand and complain that the product is "broken".

That way lies less profit and less buyers.

I compare the small world of the "enthusiast" forums with a similar one for a car club. All the active guys on the forum thought that they were the centre of the world for that car make. There is a longstanding owners club for owners of that make. I went to their AGM and found that virtually none of the long term members knew of the internet forum and weren't interested anyway. They didn't want to know how to fix the car or tune it up. They were more interested in club discounts at caravan sites for their weekend meets!

Two different worlds using the same product.
_________________
TTGO 700 (dead)
iPhone 3GS + TT holder
iPhone 5 (hers!)
Western Europe Map
Eastern Europe Map
Kenwood DNX-4210DAB with Garmin maps

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

Take care how you go about moving away - TomTom's software turns out to be aware of how you are thinking. Today I connected my 740 to get the POIs for the last time and try to transfer them to my iPhone. The TomTom Home software said it had a critical update, so I sat while it installed and thinking it ironic that I'd not be using it again. And then it said it was interrupted so couldn't finish, and I should install again later. Only I had nothing to run any more as it had removed the old one, and not left me a way to run the installer.

So, instead of doing a last update, it read my mind and helped tidy my computer instead.

Stampy72 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:22 am Post subject:

Afraid to say, I too have jumped ship from TomTom after trying to update my map on my XL LIVE.

Downloaded map to my PC, went to install it to my LIVE, and then said there was not enough space - even with just the ONE map zone.

So it promptly DELETED the map, rebooted itself, and then refused to work again*...

Have now switched to a BRILLIANT app on my phone called Waze.

*I've even gone back to a backup, deleted EVERYTHING from my LIVE and started again.
Re-installed TomTom Software, and nothing works - even asked TT for advice and they're stuck for ideas.
_________________
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Europe)
App 9.465.1074274.2
OS 842337 (2025, 27/9/2012)
GPS v1.20, Boot 5.5138
Map : "Europe_North" v 900.4602

DennisN · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:07 am Post subject:

mccririck · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject:

I'd like to know why my phone connects to GPS in seconds but my TomTom can take almost a minute to do the same.

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