740 live problem - no live services after a year

[canderson]

The 340 is NOT the unit that the 740 is. It's a trade-down. They were unable to supply you with a 740?

No external memory slot on 340.
266MHz processor on 340, 400MHz on 740.
USB 1.1 (slower) on 340, 2.0 on 740.
EasyPort mount on 340, Active Dock on 740 (personal preference issue).
No auto-volume based on road noise on 340, 740 has it.
No auto-brightness sensor on 340, 740 has it.
3D mode is forced auto-zoom on 340, 740 is selectable.

etc

Unless something radical has happened, they DO have Live support specialists - at least they still did just a couple of months ago. There's no reason they shouldn't be able to straighten out your 740 problem.

 

[dhn]

740 has an external sdhc slot, USB 2.1 compliant, 400 mgz processor (vs 266 for 340 Live), Auto day/night is light based, not time based as the 340 is (former is better)

 

[jp1gt]

They said that they can not get a new 740, just refurbished, sounds like they do not make them anymore. All I want is the features of the 740,like maps and the LIVE portion. I do not need an external mem. I guess the only question would be as far as the maps go, is it just as fast?

 

[adidas1124]

In my experience the GO models are a better unit... faster processing, more storage... The difference between my GO720 and my XXL 540TM was night and day in processing power (the XXL took twice as long to calculate a route) my GO LIVE 1535M is again, much faster than the XXL. There may be other differences, but those stand out to me.

 

[jp1gt]

Well, we will only use it for road trips now that we are retired. We live in the mountains in northern CA and know the way to get where we want to go. We used in on road trips to Montana and Washington and it worked real good except it would have been nice to see where road construction was happening. Do you have to hook up to the web in order to get current gas prices or does LIVE do it?

 

[dhn]

All Live Services including gas prices come OTA (over the air).

 

[- et -]

Do you have to hook up to the web in order to get current gas prices or does LIVE do it?

The LIVE services are provided by a specialized cell phone built into the GPS. The cell phone provider in the US is AT&T, so you can estimate where LIVE will be available by looking at a map of AT&T coverage.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[Andy_P]

Interesting... in the UK I've NEVER got fuel prices ota via LIVE.
It always needs a connection to "Home"

 

[Placesandspaces]

I hope this situation turns out better than mine. I had a rep tell me that if you don't use your sim card or live services after about 6 months of the subscription running out the sim card is deactivated for good and not even they can reactivate it. Has anyone else been told this? Seems a bit ridiculous to me.

 

[canderson]

Let's just say it's the first time I'VE heard it, and we hear almost everything you can imagine eventually, both true and false! When you say 'rep', do you mean someone at the other end of the phone at TomTom's tech support line?

 

[jp1gt]

I got some resolve, kind of. I got a 340 instead of the 740 that I bought. I finally works. I too bought the tomtom and did not use it for at least 6 months. I am very happy with the live services. I just wish tomtom would get their act together for people that have problems!!! ONE MORE THING I just tried it for the first time on the road yesterday and live worked OK; today I do not get live services near my home. I live out in the country, but that should not make any difference that I know of.

 

[canderson]

In your location (CA, USA) Live services depend upon access to a cell site operated by AT&T or someone they're partnering with. If you can't hit one of those sites from your rural location, you won't have Live services.

 

[jp1gt]

I wish I could have known that earlier! tomtom has sent 4 gps units out and I have never got live updates on any of them at the home. I live in the mountains and guess what? Only verizion works up here!!!!!!!!!!!! I could have done something else with my time while talking to tomtom for 6 hours while they were trying to figure out with the problem was. NOW IT MAKES SENSE. I always thought that if I got a sat connection, it would get to the live services. Thanks agiain---Jack

 

[canderson]

Alas, no. Live services depend upon a GPRS data connection to a cell tower somewhere. Your unit contains a little cellular modem that handles the connection - even has a regular looking SIM card in it like a typical GSM cell phone. Once connected to a tower, your unit makes a data connection back to TomTom's server, and your Live data is sent back via the same path. Pretty amazing, really.

I'm surprised that Tech Support never once questioned whether or not you have AT&T or partnered cell service out where you are.

 

[jp1gt]

Typical large corp. You would think in this computer age that after4 or 5 calls on the same problem that it would get flagged and AUTOMATICALLY get pushed up to a higher level. It would have saved me a lot of time and tomtom a lot of money. It seems like they never learn!!!!

 

[Placesandspaces]

@Canderson: it was a tech support person that said it can't be fixed. I demanded that a live services person speak to me so it was escalated. It sounds like tech support really needs to get their act together. I have had error codes before and usually they get resolved but not this time.

 

[jp1gt]

yes it is a shame that they could not let me know about the cell tower info. I like the tomtom, if someone could contact someone at tomtom that could actually make some changes, it would really help the company!!! I got a lower grade model, but it works pretty much the same way as the 740 live.Thank you guys for your help ---Jack