Hello all,
I'm writing to express my astonishment at some of TomTom's implementation of their software, and of their apparent attitude toward customer support.
I'm a somewhat new user of GPS equipment. I thought I had done my research fairly well. I need to install 9 GPS units in the fire engines used by our town's fire department. We all know how to get around in our own town, but we get called out to other towns frequently where we are not necessarily familiar with the streets. Hence, the GPS. Should be simple, right?
What I have learned:
1) TomTom does NOT have an interest in supporting fleet customers - like taxi cab companies, trucking lines, or... fire departments. In fact, they don't even want to sell more than one TomTom to a household (say, one for Dad, one for Mom, and one for their child). Here's why:
Every TomTom unit is associated - and can only be associated - with one email address. In my case, I must go to our town's network administrator and ask him to create some 10 different bogus email addresses, all of which will alias/forward to me, in order for me to update our units. I need to log in 10 different times with 10 different email logins. I wonder what UPS would think of this if they were considering a GPS supplier?
TomTom's response is: 'We need to protect our software.' Now, I am also responsible for maintaining and programming our Motorola radios. Moto is also very protective of their software. Nevertheless, with one license number, I can do everything I need to do with our 80+ radios with comparative ease. One license number is associated with x radio serial numbers and.. voila.
2) POIs can not be organized alphabetically. TomTom insists that all POIs be arbitrarily organized based on distance from one's home location. Thus, instead of being able to easily identify all the fire stations in some town, I have to search through pages of jumbled names. TomTom's response to my query on this was: "That's right, locations can only be sorted by distance." I can't believe that I'm alone in needing this kind of basic functionality.
3) Even this would only be maddening if not for another quirk of their POI handling. TomTom claims that you may have an unlimited number of POIs. However, if you try to navigate to a POI In City or POI Near Home, you are only able to scroll through four (4) pages of six (6) entries each. So: while you may be able to *enter* more than 24 POIs, and while they may (or may not, I don't know yet) show up on the map, YOU CAN'T SCROLL THROUGH MORE THAN 24 ENTRIES - AND THOSE ENTRIES CAN'T BE ALPHABETICALLY SORTED! TomTom's response: "You could make several different POI Categories each with less than 24 entries."
This is like a product that has been designed by someone who has never and never wants to use it!
IMHO, this is an excellent and truly useful technology that is simply being killed by terrible customer care and support.
While I'm writing this to blow off some steam, I'm also hoping that the folks at TomTom read this forum, and that someone there actually does care about their customers.
If anyone has figured out a way around some of these blunders, I'd love to hear about it.
As it stands now, I have to decide whether to bumble through with the units we've got or try to get something else. Any suggestions?
Thanks to all,
wrfd16
I'm writing to express my astonishment at some of TomTom's implementation of their software, and of their apparent attitude toward customer support.
I'm a somewhat new user of GPS equipment. I thought I had done my research fairly well. I need to install 9 GPS units in the fire engines used by our town's fire department. We all know how to get around in our own town, but we get called out to other towns frequently where we are not necessarily familiar with the streets. Hence, the GPS. Should be simple, right?
What I have learned:
1) TomTom does NOT have an interest in supporting fleet customers - like taxi cab companies, trucking lines, or... fire departments. In fact, they don't even want to sell more than one TomTom to a household (say, one for Dad, one for Mom, and one for their child). Here's why:
Every TomTom unit is associated - and can only be associated - with one email address. In my case, I must go to our town's network administrator and ask him to create some 10 different bogus email addresses, all of which will alias/forward to me, in order for me to update our units. I need to log in 10 different times with 10 different email logins. I wonder what UPS would think of this if they were considering a GPS supplier?
TomTom's response is: 'We need to protect our software.' Now, I am also responsible for maintaining and programming our Motorola radios. Moto is also very protective of their software. Nevertheless, with one license number, I can do everything I need to do with our 80+ radios with comparative ease. One license number is associated with x radio serial numbers and.. voila.
2) POIs can not be organized alphabetically. TomTom insists that all POIs be arbitrarily organized based on distance from one's home location. Thus, instead of being able to easily identify all the fire stations in some town, I have to search through pages of jumbled names. TomTom's response to my query on this was: "That's right, locations can only be sorted by distance." I can't believe that I'm alone in needing this kind of basic functionality.
3) Even this would only be maddening if not for another quirk of their POI handling. TomTom claims that you may have an unlimited number of POIs. However, if you try to navigate to a POI In City or POI Near Home, you are only able to scroll through four (4) pages of six (6) entries each. So: while you may be able to *enter* more than 24 POIs, and while they may (or may not, I don't know yet) show up on the map, YOU CAN'T SCROLL THROUGH MORE THAN 24 ENTRIES - AND THOSE ENTRIES CAN'T BE ALPHABETICALLY SORTED! TomTom's response: "You could make several different POI Categories each with less than 24 entries."
This is like a product that has been designed by someone who has never and never wants to use it!
IMHO, this is an excellent and truly useful technology that is simply being killed by terrible customer care and support.
While I'm writing this to blow off some steam, I'm also hoping that the folks at TomTom read this forum, and that someone there actually does care about their customers.
If anyone has figured out a way around some of these blunders, I'd love to hear about it.
As it stands now, I have to decide whether to bumble through with the units we've got or try to get something else. Any suggestions?
Thanks to all,
wrfd16
