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firstly, I must echo other peoples praise that you are so willing to come on this website and help users. I had seen commented elsewhere that ViaMichelin provided much better customer service than most other GPS companies, and you provide the evidence. However I must also say that the policy regarding the new software slightly undermines this, in my opinion... Why? Here goes -
I bought my first ever satnav, a ViaMichelin 970T europe edition, on 25 Jul this year having done a lot of internet research (and borrowing of friends alternatives), and I have to say that my experience of it has been pretty mixed. Some aspects are great (the windscreen mount, for instance, is one of the best I have seen), but others are not. For instance:
TMC coverage is very intermittent (I live on the surrey/hampshire border, so not exactly in the back of beyond, and travel all around southern Britain), and it regularly disappears altogether until I do a reset of the machine (I only got it working at all after about 3 weeks when I happened to do a reset for another reason and suddenly got some reception). The only place I am reasonably sure of reception is in London, and after a reset!
My satnav regularly tries to take me off motorways in the UK, over the bridge, and back on to the same motorway. In Belgium and Germany last week it tried the same trick about 10 times, but this time down the slip-roads at the side. Does it have a fear of going under bridges?! This is extremely irritating, as I now need to keep the display zoomed out far enough to try to guess whether the junction it wants me to leave is for a real exit, or if it is just having fun wasting my time on roundabouts for a couple of minutes.
I regularly find the satnav travels a couple of hundred meters behind its real position - even with 11 or so satellite-coverage.
Some of the route selections are bizarre - whether on the "quickest route", or "recommended route". I know this can be a problem on all satnavs, but time and again I have manually forced it to select my preferred route, and, surprise, surprise, not only does the trip-distance reduce, but the arrival time also! So why was it originally trying to take me the other, slower way. Any why does it try to take me to my parents on one route, but bring me back on a completely different one (a much, much slower route).
Until last week, I was unable to get it to save any destinations, routes or anything - the option simply did nothing, and the My ViaMichelin section had no working buttons whatsoever (now cured after a lot of effort).
About once a fortnight the satnav jams up altogether, and needs resetting, and in the 3 months I have had it I have also had to do one complete reinstall - a very long process.
The battery self-discharges in a very short time (3-5 days) if left unplugged and unused, and the on/off switch is so super-sensitive that it is extremely easy to turn on or off by mistake.
I repeat, some features of this satnav are very good, but I am emphasizing the negatives because I believe that most of these are software problems (I am using the latest version 6 one, downloaded from your website). Hopefully some have been cured in version 7. However I now understand from your earlier posts that I will have to pay quite a large amount of money to remedy these faults and make the satnav work in the way it was always supposed to do. Surely, when I bought it it should have been fit-for-purpose out of the box? Why, for the sake of having bought it just 3 weeks too early (and at a much higher price than it is now offered for), do I have to pay to remedy the existing faults?
Sorry if this sounds a bit of a whinge, but this satnav had such potential to be great, that I am really irritated about having to pay to fix its existing software faults. I do understand ViaMichelin's need to recover costs of software development, but that should only be for new features, not to fix existing faults. I would also suggest that it would be better customer service to offer a somewhat longer back-dated period in which one becomes eligible for all software updates - say, one year? I certainly wouldn't expect to get a new version of the mapping for free, but I do think that the base software should be provided for free download, or for no more than the actual manufacturing and delivery cost of the DVD.
Any thoughts or comments? As I said at the beginning, I do admire your willingness to help, and hope that maybe you can explain to me this policy, or even better get it amended!
I purchased my x970t in June. I really liked the unit but instantly noticed its short comings.
The lag in position, application errors and the like. Its choice of routes could also be strange. One 'recommended' route it managed to double the distance. A forty mile journey was turned into a Eighty mile journey. It did this by sending me in the opposite direction just to get me on the motorway instead of using A and B roads.
I didn't return the unit as I believed version 7 would be released and fix most of my problems.
I also didn't think I'd be charged for the update as when the x970t was announced some articles stated that it would have v7 software. The fact it didn't I put down to last minute software bugs delaying its release and so the unit was released with ver 6 as a stop gap.
Once I realised it was a pay for update I got rid of it.
Well I'm yet to find the 'perfect GPS' but the x980t is closer to it than others I have used.
In answer to paying for the upgrade to fix bugs, all I can say is at least we are getting the option. Navman's answer to fixing bugs is deny they even exsist then release a Totally new GPS with the fixes and never release the promised software updates for the older models.
You only have to look at Navman's product cycle to see this as at one time they were bringing out new units every few months, then strangly they were looking for a buyer because of finicial problems.
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:30 pm Post subject: Phone volume
Quote:
Even on full volume, the speaker is very quiet, to the point of being totally unusable - I know the x970 has a loud enough speaker as I can get the navigation voice instructions very loud, so why not in in handsfree
A glimmer of a smile today thanks to my downloaded "new edition" full manual.
In v7 the phone volume is set independently from the general volume settings.
For spoken instructions:
Main Menu/set/setting adjustments/sound.
For setting telephone volume and also telephone ring tone:
Main Menu/set/before you go/telephone/telephone options/telephone volume.
The blue tooth link with my phone worked OK once I realised that you have to persevere beyond the VM seeing my Sony Ericsson T610.
ie then select the phone and create a pairing and set as a default.
Easy once you know how
HOWEVER even though my phone is on the list of telephones currently approved by ViaMichelin - Attempting to copy the phone directory to the 970 results in "copy failed. check that your phone is compatible on our web site"
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject: Re: Phone volume
Yes I did see this, I set the phone volume to the max on the phone menu, but it is still too quiet
Clive06 wrote:
Quote:
Even on full volume, the speaker is very quiet, to the point of being totally unusable - I know the x970 has a loud enough speaker as I can get the navigation voice instructions very loud, so why not in in handsfree
A glimmer of a smile today thanks to my downloaded "new edition" full manual.
In v7 the phone volume is set independently from the general volume settings.
For spoken instructions:
Main Menu/set/setting adjustments/sound.
For setting telephone volume and also telephone ring tone:
Main Menu/set/before you go/telephone/telephone options/telephone volume.
The blue tooth link with my phone worked OK once I realised that you have to persevere beyond the VM seeing my Sony Ericsson T610.
ie then select the phone and create a pairing and set as a default.
Easy once you know how
HOWEVER even though my phone is on the list of telephones currently approved by ViaMichelin - Attempting to copy the phone directory to the 970 results in "copy failed. check that your phone is compatible on our web site"
OK sorry - thought I'd cracked it for you
I guess you need some help from Stu or the Michelin man in france.
Hope we have not frightened Stu away - that would be a shame.
Hope he is just very busy today?
Joined: May 07, 2005 Posts: 115 Location: Guildford
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Continuing on the speed camera files front: Can it be made possible that, as well as having a special icon associated with a particular file of camera locations, a sound file could also be associated with the same file?
Also on the subject of sounds the manual makes mention of different sounds/warners BUT which is which? My X-970T makes all kinds of sounds BUT I don't understand what they are for! Can someone make a list of what sound is what and why does my screen flash sometimes when I know I am definately NOT speeding?
STU
The above questions, asked some time ago, I would appreciate an illuminating response from someone.
In answer to paying for the upgrade to fix bugs, all I can say is at least we are getting the option. Navman's answer to fixing bugs is deny they even exsist then release a Totally new GPS with the fixes and never release the promised software updates for the older models.
Yes, but I don't think one should simply aspire to beat the worst. One of the reasons why I went for the ViaMichelin satnav in the end was the belief (based upon comments made on this website and several others) that the company had one of the best, if not the best, reputations for customer service and fixed its bugs more often than most, and for free.
Quote:
I think a Sat-Nav is a personal thing and down to personal taste.
Again, yes, but sort of! Personal taste affects such things as display colours, ease of use etc. For instance, I think the cartoony mapping on Garmin Nuvi units is horrid! But promised functionality is not a matter of taste - most of my earlier complaints are not aspects of personal taste, but core functions not working properly. And I simply cannot afford to get rid of this satnav and buy an alternative (or not for a few years, at least!), so really want to get it to work in the way that its handbook claims it should. And if the upgrade to version 7 gets it closer to the promises made, then I do believe that this upgrade should be free or at minimal cost.
Last edited by archie159 on Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:25 pm Post subject: Re: Phone volume
[quote="Clive06"]
Quote:
A glimmer of a smile today thanks to my downloaded "new edition" full manual.
The blue tooth link with my phone worked OK once I realised that you have to persevere beyond the VM seeing my Sony Ericsson T610.
ie then select the phone and create a pairing and set as a default.
Easy once you know how
HOWEVER even though my phone is on the list of telephones currently approved by ViaMichelin - Attempting to copy the phone directory to the 970 results in "copy failed. check that your phone is compatible on our web site"
Guys - I may have been a bit quick off the mark with positive remarks re bluetooth hands free!
Out-going calls from the car are perfect.
However the 1st incoming call suggested a problem.
My wife at home could hear me (directly from the phone or via the 970T is not clear), but I could hear nothing.
It then became apparent that all sounds where U/S regardless of volume settings.
Only solution was a system reset using a paperclip.
All sounds then OK.
I repeated the tests several times from home, this time without the cradle.
The first incoming test worked fine but with the second incoming test once again nothing heard after accepting the call, but then established that all sounds where once again U/S.
A volume test only resulted in a very faint hiss rather than the usual spoken words - A reset was once again required.
Conclusion - Incoming hands free calls via my (approved) T610 tend to cause a partial system crash which renders the 970T silent, requiring a reset to restore normal operation.
I can find no ref to this on the VM Help pages, so will talk to France tomorrow.
Stu - do you have any comment on this please and the failure to copy the phone directory?
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject: info bar
is there anyway of making the text bigger in the info bar ie
when the road you need comes up in the navigation mode say the A34 its so small i cant read them same goes for the motorway signs
thanks kelvin
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 20 Location: N ~51.5958 W ~0.3341
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject:
OK, used the same vehicle today with the TMC aerial stuck more or less on the same spot. Again, patchy for the first part of the trip and then from the M1, roughly from the junction with the M6, I got a green icon all the way to Buxton. It was more or less the same on the return trip. As for it not working when the aerial is plugged directly on the back X970T, the fact that the socket is apparently for an external GPS aerial might have something to do with it
I am giving up on the bluetooth Aborted 4 calls as I simply could not hear anything and talking to the other parties later, found that on 3 occasions, they could not hear me either and 1 could only hear me very garbled. I sussed out that the reason it worked fine on some calls yesterday was simply due to the fact that I was stationary with the engine off, therefore no background noise... in short, useless.
Again, it tried to get me off the motorway only to rejoin it 3 times today so, as another forum member hinted, you need to make sure you zoom out or familiarise yourself with the route before you set-out so that you know when the needed exit is actually needed, yup, not terribly helpful.
As for the most important bit... except for this annoying tendency to get you on and off the motorway now and then (just though of something... maybe it's a ruse to make sure the driver stays alert ), it got me where I needed to go ! _________________ VM X-970T Europe V7
Joined: May 07, 2005 Posts: 115 Location: Guildford
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject:
Quote:
except for this annoying tendency to get you on and off the motorway now and then
I think you will find, as I did, that you have set your route preferences to the shortest. I regularly make trips around the M25 and the one time I forgot to change back to quickest at every junction it tried to take me off!
or perhaps not!
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:35 pm Post subject: Re: Safety Camera Update - October 2007
livi17 wrote:
I am trying to install the new camera updates for October 2007 onto a X-970T, however it is for version 6 and I have the new V7 software.
any ideas please?
Chers.
I think I read that the speed cameras can be updated though the software itself on the PC. I don't think you need to go to the website. Not certain as I don't have v7 yet.
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), it got me where I needed to go !
