Emailed TomTom a few suggestions.

[sageuvagony]

I thought I'd email them just for the heck of it. Hopefully they really do take it into consideration. I'm always firm when it comes to emailing them. Might the response sound like good news? or might it just be some generic response? To me it seems pretty valid.


Over at TomTomForums, many many users have been seriously complaining about the "next street to turn on" being on the top right corner of the screen vs. how it used to be on the bottom of the status bar. I understand TomTom has done this to allow us to view more of the map, but this has been a huge inconvenience for most of us. It's also REALLY bad when the next street we have to turn on has a really long name. The reason this is bad is because if the street name is really long, for some reason the software compresses the name by using an EXTREMELY tiny font size, to the point where the name is virtually unreadable.

We are all begging for us to be able to choose in options whether we want our "next street" to turn on to be on the bottom of the screen or on the top right corner. We are all extremely happy with the progress you guys have done so far and love our TomToms more than ever but we beg for us to have the option to choose either location.

Another question that frequently comes up at least 5 times a week is from new users asking "How the heck to I clear route? It doesn't make much sense to anyone why the "clear route" option is on the 3rd screen rather than on the 1st screen.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to me (us)

Richard

PS. Any idea how long it will be before the "upgrade to quarterly map subscription service" message gets fixed? It's also driving everyone insane, knowing that they have already purchased the map subscription update service, but are still being nagged to purchase the subscription. Because of that message, they can no longer see how many mapshare corrections they have applied to their current map.

Thank you so much once again.

Dear Richard,

Thank you for taking the time to contact TomTom Customer Support with your inquiries. We are always happy to help.

Having the ability to change where you are notified of your 'next street' is a great idea! Moving the 'Clear Route' icon to the first menu screen is a really great idea as well. We appreciate the time you have taken to share these suggestions with us. We frequently use customer feedback as an initiative to add or change device features. Please rest assured that your comments will be forwarded to our Product Management Team for review.

At this time, we understand that the HOME program is suggesting that all users, even those who have already purchased it, update their devices through the Map Update Service. Please rest assured that we understand how frustrating this can be and are diligently working to correct it in a future HOME update. We appreciate your patience as we endeavor to improve your online customer experience.

To stay informed about new TomTom products or features, we recommend that you join our newsletter. For information on how to join the Newsletter, please click on the link provided below. If you are unable to click on the link, please copy and paste it into your Internet browser.

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With Best Regards,

Erica
TomTom Customer Support

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[Malouff]

sageuvagony,

To me it looks like another canned support response.

They say they will forward the idea's to development but they never appear.

TomTom development should have a bug tracker/wiki that lists requested features and weather they have been assigned to anyone or some type of status message.

I feel like all of the suggestions get forwarded to the trash.

Support could also in the very least at least inform users who ask on how about the clear route that they can move it to the first screen by using a custom TomTom.mnu in the SDKRegistry

They also really need to update the TASK documentation for this custom TomTom.mnu as the last documentation released was for version 6 firmware and we are already on version 8

So a lot of menu choices that are present on the default menu will be lost by using the custom menu but clear route will be moved.

Also regarding the quarterly map subscription it has been available in Europe for quite some time and they have been complaining a lot longer than any of us so it is not like this is the first time TomTom has got this support problem.

If they were really working diligently to correct it in a future HOME update we would have already had it.
Those map subscription complaints also seem to get forwarded to the trash.

I would however like it if the TomTom community (we the users) could create our own wiki/bug tracker and list and agree on complaints that way new users will not be in for such a shock.

TomTom does however do one thing very well and that is marketing now if development could catch up and deliver.

 

[RobertB]

sageuvagony,

To me it looks like another canned support response.

They say they will forward the idea's to development but they never appear.

I wouldn't say it looks like a "canned response", at least not entirely. The reply referenced specific items in the inquiry, at least in the first paragraph. On the other hand, the reply to the HOME glitch (which drives me absolutely nuts -- I want my braggin' rights!) looks like cut-and-paste.

I'm pretty sure they forward the ideas to "development", too. But that doesn't mean a programmer will ever get to touch the code. First, it'll have to go through a management-level committee that will assign priorities to each task, where the priorities are:

1) Will it generate new customers?
2) Will it retain existing customers?
3) How much development (and testing!) time will it take?

Development tasks tend to get ranked in that order, depending on how enlightened management is. As a developer, I tend to rank those exactly in reverse (and I'm lucky enough to work at a company where management thinks pretty close to those lines).

But management that puts the "oooh shiny" ahead of the "maintenance" tends to forget all about "development". To borrow an industry maxim, they'll assemble a team of nine women to produce a baby in one month. When deadlines slip, guess what development step gets left out? Testing. Sound like any GPS manufacturer we *coughtomcoughtom* might know?

 

[Malouff]

The reply to the HOME glitch (which drives me absolutely nuts -- I want my braggin' rights!) looks like cut-and-paste.

I have also already seen numerous cut-and-paste support replies.
I also do have to admit that sometimes support will actually take the time to read the question instead of skim it and will add in extra or modify their canned messages.

I'm pretty sure they forward the ideas to "development", too. But that doesn't mean a programmer will ever get to touch the code. First, it'll have to go through a management-level committee

You are probably correct they do get forwarded apparently to the Product Management Team who probably has a huge inbox filled with very similar requests and my be like some of the support staff and know less about the product then the customer does.

I am just steamed that it seems that everyone in every forum is complaining or asking for the same/similar features and they never seem to get addressed by TomTom.

sageuvagony pointed out a few - I will be using (Clear Route and Home map subscriptions) as there are more common requests.

I however also agree that we should be given a choice on the next turn status as the text can and does get to small to read.

It should not be that hard to fix either of these problems.
Home would require either a Select..Case statement or a If..Then statement to fix

If you are subscribed don't show and bug customer to join and show number of corrections applied.

We are of course assuming TomTom's programmers have Home set up to access TomTom's database assuming TomTom has one that is storing when you bought the subscription and/or how many downloads you have remaining.

Clear Route could either be solved either by hard-coding in the Clear Route button to be moved on a future firmware (hopefully the next firmware) or by updating the TASK definitions for the custom TomTom.mnu so we don't loose other functions and are free to move Clear Route ourselves.

If TomTom goes with the custom TomTom.mnu then they should inform all customers that ask support about Clear Route on how to make the change. In fact they should be doing this now (or does support themselves not know how to do this?)

Hard-coding or including a custom TomTom.mnu in new devices by default would also probably be the best idea for TomTom as it would also prevent TomTom's potential customers from also complaining about Clear Route.

Lastly instead of support saying.
Please rest assured that your comments will be forwarded to our Product Management Team for review.

Why not have a public record of requests being made to TomTom so we can see what is being worked on, what will be worked on, what TomTom feels is un-important, what what TomTom is unwilling to do.

I would then feel better that my concerns are being heard.

 

[mvl]

FYI - clear route has been "fixed" in Navcore 8.4. (the one used in the 140/340 models)

It's been moved to the screen that pops up when you click the satellite bars. A much more obvious/sensible location.