Are we being used as beta testers?

[JaymZZZ]

I am looking at all of these threads about the 2405/2505/1005 and in light of these new models coming out in a few days, which seem to have the feature set that we should have had (I pre-ordered a 2505TM, which btw no longer considers itself a TM....go figure) Does anyone feel like the 2505 was just a test? I have to be honest, I think that we were used for some testing purposes and now, to get the real fully functional unit, we have to fork out another $350. I even tried contacting TomTom to no avail. I think TomTom should offer to buy these units back at a decent price, or recall them and replace them...I wish I could return mine, but I sat and waited for TomTom and trusted them, and before I knew it I was past the 90 day mark.

Sorry if this is just some stupid rant...but I feel like I am saying what everyone else is thinking.

 

[canderson]

Not really beta testers, no .. well, maybe really LATE beta.

You didn't get hosed with bugs so much as TomTom just pushed the hardware out the door without the support necessary on the firmware and application side. They're still catching up to promised features, which isn't really the definition of a beta test ... just product managers getting ahead of the engineering team --- badly. Given revenue goals, it doesn't appear to be very easy to mark the box for "Show Stopper" at TomTom when specifications and actuality don't meet yet, and the launch was promised to the press.

 

[mvl]

The PND market sells more units in the 4th quarter than in any other part of the year. Given this seasonality of sales, missing a date is not an acceptable option for Tomtom. So they have 2 options when they fall behind: skimp on testing, or reduce scope.

Each year since I've followed Tomtom (as far back as 2007), Tomtom had chosen to "skimp on testing". They would deliver horribly buggy products over the holidays, and have tons of spring software releases to clean things up.

It seems like this year was the first time they took a different tact, reducing scope. Instead of releasing horribly buggy products with all the features, they got each feature to a pretty stable state before launching it. The GO 1xxx/2xxx were the most stable GO models ever made based on launch software. But now they're devoting the spring releases to delivering the missing features.

If Tomtom follows their usual calendar, we'll get a finished product with all the features working properly by around May.

 

[jrinternet]

I am looking at all of these threads about the 2405/2505/1005 and in light of these new models coming out in a few days, which seem to have the feature set that we should have had (I pre-ordered a 2505TM, which btw no longer considers itself a TM....go figure) Does anyone feel like the 2505 was just a test? I have to be honest, I think that we were used for some testing purposes and now, to get the real fully functional unit, we have to fork out another $350. I even tried contacting TomTom to no avail. I think TomTom should offer to buy these units back at a decent price, or recall them and replace them...I wish I could return mine, but I sat and waited for TomTom and trusted them, and before I knew it I was past the 90 day mark.

Sorry if this is just some stupid rant...but I feel like I am saying what everyone else is thinking.

I asked TT CS the following question, I doubt I'll get an answer...

"I am really getting concerned that tomtom is not going to be able to resolve the issue of installing maps on the GO 2505's. Since I bought the GO 2505 with the lifetime map feature under good faith, what is tomtom going to do to compensate users for not having the latest maps? Since I can no longer return the product to the store where I bought it, will tomtom allow the return of the product for a full refund?"

 

[dhn]

As per your request to be able to return for a refund .......

Think this will be tomtom's answer:

 

[Andy_P]

I am looking at all of these threads about the 2405/2505/1005 and in light of these new models coming out in a few days, which seem to have the feature set that we should have had .

Who's to say these new models WILL have those features from day one? If all you're going on is the advertising blurb, isn't the blurb for the Go1000/1005/2405/2505 still saying the same thing?

Most of the problems appear to be with the MyTomTom delivery system rather than the hardware itself, so another clutch of new models won't necessarily work any better.

 

[canderson]

Most of the problems appear to be with the MyTomTom delivery system rather than the hardware itself, so another clutch of new models won't necessarily work any better.

As an add-on to the original question ... you're only a beta tester when the manufacturer doesn't already know pretty exactly what the product is that's headed out the door.

But I got to thinking yesterday before that post above -- and was about to blame it all on the application -- there are two ends to that "delivery system" that manages the unit and its updates. It's very likely not just a question of eliminating old files and delivering new files to the unit as it once was. I think that became evident during the first (and very short) attempt to deliver new maps to the original GO1XXX users that these units weren't the passive devices they used to be when shuffling files around. I think that the fact that these devices are acting like little mini-servers using SSL over IP says a lot.