Addresses off by a mile

[ChuckW37]

Hi all, I am having a strange problem and think I may have to return my 720 if I can't get this problem fixed. For some reason when I input an address it shows it approx 1 mile south of the actual location. I contacted tech support and they had me delete my map file from the gps and my pc and reinstall. This hasnt changed anything which is dissapointing to say the least.

Would anyone be willing to do a test to see if it's my unit or just bad maps? Here is a sample address for Mcdonalds: 8394 Ocean Gateway, Easton, MD. Take your result and compare it to google maps and see if they match.


Thanks for any help or info you can give.

 

[46jimbo]

Yes, this particular address is off the mark by quite a bit. (TT One, map v715). The TT locates it further south near Idlewild Ave.

Is the Google map accurate, from what you know?

So this would appear to be a mapping problem. Or are you consistantly this far off on all of your destinations?

Try some other examples in different areas.

 

[ChuckW37]

Thaks for checking this for me, yes the google map is correct for this address. In fact there are many fast food places in that area yet they are all shown a mile south near idlewild ave. You can check the POI in Easton,MD for Applebee's,Bob Evan's... they are all wrong even though the correct address is given by the tomtom.

Here is another address on a different road:
This is a Ruby Tuesday
505 glebe rd, easton,MD

I was hoping it was just my unit so it could be fixed but if yours is doing the same thing it must be a map error. I am heading an hour south this morning and will try to see if it is just my town or what.

 

[flyer1024]

Unfortunately you'll have to get used to things being not where the tomtom says they are.

I just returned from a trip to Maine and every POI I navigated to was off by some distance. Usually I could see it further down the road, but once while literally at the front door of a bookstore, the unit was telling me it was 4.1 kilometres away.

It took me the wrong way down a street for a motel. That time I wouldn't have found it had I not known the unit was wrong.

Once we drove right by an Applebees to a left turn into a subdivision cul-de-sac a half kilometer away, then back out to the main road from where we came, this time to the applebees. This time the tomtom was quite close to being accurate, but I have no idea why the subdivision thing.

I've gotten used to POI's being inaccurate and start looking around well before and after the tomtom arrival point.

One word of advice....never, ever boast to your wife about how neat the unit is! If you do the very next place you want to go will be somewhere else!

Having said the above, the maps I have now (North American 710) have been very good in terms of taking me from city to city. They're pretty iffy though if you're looking for a particular business.

I have the larger POI file which has amazed me at the number of things listed.

 

[gbullman]

That is one of the things I'm trying to sort through about using / depending on a GPS. If you're in sight of, or have building numbers to refer to as you approach your destination hopefully all works out well.

At this point, I feel that I need to do about as much pre-planning when going someplace unfamiliar as I always have (look it up in Microsoft Streets & Trips, or Google Maps, or something like that) and what the GPS is providing is information if my expected route does not work out (traffic, construction, bad maps used for planning, etc.)

Not sure I have the confidence to enter an address and blindly follow the GPS at this point. Having said that, it got me to 2 locations on Friday that I wasn't familiar with, and in general didn't know the areas, and really had no good backup with me if it didn't get me there. That was a definite confidence booster.

 

[Bama Rambler]

It's the way teleatlas divides the addresses. Around here there's a US hwy that runs from the south border of Clarke county to the north border and the addresses are consecutive. The map starts out a few feet off and by the time you get to the northern border it almost 5 miles off. I've reported this to TA in hopes they will change the division number for addresses.

As an example the Teleatlas allows 20ft between address numbers but the governing body decided to allow 30ft between address numbers so you see how at address 1000 TA would show it at 3.79 miles from the origin but it's really 5.68 miles from the south border. (This is just an example to show the issue I didn't use real numbers.)

 

[ChuckW37]

So it sounds like the only solution is to take this thing back and get a Garmin? I really don't want to do that as I like the TomTom so much better. The problem is I am a Field Technician and need to use this thing 3-4 times a day to find customer locations. Oh and of course Circuit City will make me pay a 15% restocking fee...ughh

 

[Pedro2NR]

What are the correct GPS coordinates for this POI?
I would like to correct it and send it via Mapshare.

 

[ChuckW37]

I'm not sure, I could drive by there tomorrow and see what coords it shows. But I can tell you that every address on this road for approx 80 miles appears to be wrong. Start with 8394 Ocean Gateway,easton,MD which is off by approx 1 mile, then try 10712 ocean gateway,berlin,md which is off by nearly 4 miles. These 2 location are about 70 miles apart.

 

[Bama Rambler]

That's almost exactly the same thing I found. It's got to be the distance Teleatlas uses between addresses. I filed an error report with Teleatlas about it. If we could get several people to turn them in when they find this type problem it should be easy for TA to fix. It sounds like it's a universal issue in north America. I've noticed that if the address is listed as a side street it's dead on it's just on long roads that are sequentially numbered that it's an issue. It may be the same on all roads but in a short distance you wouldn't notice it.

 

[Robm]

The sole purpose in life for a GPS is to be accurate and to get you from point a to point b and everything inbetween. If it is way off, you need to either get it fixed or find something that is not. Something like that should not be tolerated regardless of company or device. If mine was way off, and I am in real estate, there is no way I could do my job accurately and quickly.

 

[ChuckW37]

I have a quick update, not very hopeful.

I just got off the phone with TOMTOM for the second time and they really need to look into who they are hiring for tech support. This lady had no idea what she was doing and had to put me on hold 20 times. Anyway they tried to give me the same crap about my map being corrupted until I gave them these addresses and told them to check for themselves. They finally admitted that the map is wrong and that I should report it on the TOMTOM site and www.poihandler.com, not sure what that site has to do with this but whatever.

My fear is that when they finally fix this they are going to want to charge me for the new map. She assured me that it would be a mapshare correction but I am not so sure. I knew I should have bought a Garmin because Navteq has better maps but I had no idea the teleatlas was this bad.

Anyway, I am debating taking the 720 back but I really like it, and the 15% restocking fee is BS.

 

[ChuckW37]

The sole purpose in life for a GPS is to be accurate and to get you from point a to point b and everything inbetween. If it is way off, you need to either get it fixed or find something that is not. Something like that should not be tolerated regardless of company or device. If mine was way off, and I am in real estate, there is no way I could do my job accurately and quickly.

I agree, I use mine primarily to find customer locations throughout the day. The point is yours is wrong, the problem is with Teleatlas you just haven't happened upon it yet.

 

[nino2469]

Hello. I am new to this as I just got my 720 last week. I have noticed that my home is off by about a quarter of a mile and also the gym I go to was off. How do I go about correcting the coordinates for these locations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[nino2469]

just wanting to see if anyone has an answer for this

 

[bilybob]

Unfortunately, there is no way of correcting the street adresses. Believe it or not the newer maps are a lot better with routing/adressing and overall quality but there are still areas that need improvement.
I created a new POI category contacts and add the GPS coordinates of all the places that i find to be off. That way I just route to them directly. Sorry couldn't be of more help.

 

[georges99]

Hi,

My friends, I do not want to get you discourage, but this is the way it's going to be with Tomtom.

I have a go 720, and a Go 920T and they are off just like everyone as mentioned here on this forum.

I contacted Tomtom at least 20 times for this matter, but they make you think they are doing something, but you end up with the same problems.

How can they get away with this. A GPS is supposed to be accurate.

The GPS on my boat is by far more accurate than my Tomtom's.

I am going to report this matter to the Better Business Bureau, I had enough.



George

 

[Bama Rambler]

This really should be a non-issue. In most cases there are 1000 addresses per mile (500 odd and 500 even). This works out to 5.28 feet between addresses.

They already calculate how far it is from where you are to where you want to be. They should know where "zero" address is on the road, so how hard is it to calculate that. If the address is 10.77miles from zero the calculation would be 10.77*1000= address 10770. How hard is that?

 

[nino2469]

I think I am about to bring my 720 back and go with the Garmin nuvi660. The addresses being off is annoying, the POI database is terrible, I was just on the road and sat in a parking lot. I typed in 5 businesses that were around me and 1 showed up. Very frustrating.

My father has a nuvi350 that I borrowed and that thing was golden for businesses and actually brought me to the exact spot.