LIVE Services - varying expiration date

[Michael Quinlan]

In this thread, I mentioned that after renewing my LIVE services, some of them - Google Live Search, Weather and QuickGPSfix - have an expiration date in the past, whereas the other services have an expiration date two months from now. According to TomTom support, the is no fix available for this issue, though they are aware of it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if their awareness came as a result of my call.

Their only suggested solution, which didn't work, was a soft reset. On my own I tried logging into my LIVE services using an older email, and then using the current one, but that didn't help either.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[offthegrid]

I think I have the same problem. I just reupped my service and traffic, buddies, quickfix & fuel prices all have an expiration date of 9/2010 but Google Search and Weather have an expiration date of 8/2009. When I try to use search or weather it comes back with "Your LIVE Services are still active. You do not need to renew."

And then it goes back to where I started but I never get search although last night weather worked a couple of times.

I was told they are aware of the issue and that I would get an email in 3-5 days from 2nd level support. That was this morning so maybe sometime next week I'll hear something.

I just did another soft reset and now I lost traffic also. Yet another soft reset and traffic is back.

I can get weather to work if I do a weather check as the traffic is being retrieved on start up then weather seems to always work but no such luck with search. Trying search that way brings up a red screen that alternatively says my software does not support that service or a red screen that says Live services cannot be used abroad.

TomTom has some serious issues with their Live services. I wonder how much of this is related to the lifetime maps/lifetime traffic rollout.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I was told by support yesterday that there is a conflict with the LIVE services and the 850 maps. According to another thread, such a problem does exist. However I can't believe that it has anything to do with my problem (or yours) since the problem started weeks after my map update to 850.

According to the accountinfo2.txt file in the root of my TomTom, the varying expiration dates appeared for the first time on July 1. I don't know it that has anything to do with it, but considering that this file contains several entries for each of the preceding days, it seems odd that this problem would appear coincident with a date and month change.

 

[planetshadow]

I am having the same exact issue. Traffic, Fuel and Safety Cameras all share my correct future expiration date, but weather, quickgpsfix and google all share a past expiration date. These do not work for me as well. I called a week ago and was told I would get an email in 3-5 days. I did not get theemail and called back and was told the same song and dance again.

 

[c4791p]

I am having the same exact issue. Traffic, Fuel and Safety Cameras all share my correct future expiration date, but weather, quickgpsfix and google all share a past expiration date. These do not work for me as well. I called a week ago and was told I would get an email in 3-5 days. I did not get theemail and called back and was told the same song and dance again.

This AM all my live services are working as they should as best I know and have verified expiry dates. Last week I had a problem because I forgot my password to my TomTom account and had devil of a time getting on line and device to all recognize same password at work, at home and on my laptop.

Checking TomTom FAQ I ran into all sorts of guidance pushing toward full backup and reinstall, and got scared to death. So spent some hours fixing my account passwords. Now all has been smooth for a week.

Chuck

 

[offthegrid]

They always shrug off user problems with first soft reset and then hard reset. I wish their reps would look at everything before telling people to do a hard reset. My unit does not make up bad dates its getting that info from TomTom's servers. Before I called I tried emailing them and its as if they didn't even read what I wrote I believe that email responses are like a canned message.

I don't have the 850 maps so thats not it for me anyway.

 

[offthegrid]

Just to add - Its crazy that they look at these services as separate since they are sold as a bundle.

Nothing like engineers that make things more complicated than they have to be.

 

[TomTomSucks]

TomTom refuses to help

I have the exact same problem. Whenever I try to do a Google search or use any Live services I just get a message saying: "Your LIVE Services are still active. You do not need to renew."

I just got off a 90 minute phone call with TomTom support. We did a hard reset, reinstalled the application and tried a few other things, but nothing solved the problem.

The conclusion is that there is nothing TomTom can do to fix my problem because all troubleshooting steps are exhausted. Since I bought the device 13 months ago it is out of warranty and I am on my own. So it's just bad luck for me. They even refused to provide a refund for the Live service subscription, although they never delivered what I paid for. I already filed a charge-back through my credit card company for that. But I really regret that I invested so much money in a device that no longer works after only 13 months. They blame my device for the problem although it is clearly a software / service related issue.

I will never buy any TomTom device again.

 

[offthegrid]

They obviously have a real problem with Live Services and do not have a clue.

DHN linked me to a thread in Pocket GPS world which I believe is mainly Euro users who not only are having the same problem but at least one of them has had their credit card charged multiple times. So I would look at your credit or debit card carefully and make sure its not taking multiple hits from TT.

Pocket GPS World - SatNavs | GPS | Speed Cameras

One user states that they now are up and running completely after a hard reset.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I last spoke with support 3 days ago. Since then I've done a reset to factory settings in an attempt to get the device to forget my name and password and allow me to start fresh and have it re-verify everything. Since doing so I have been unable to contact the TomTom server, preventing me from getting far enough to even enter my account name and password.

 

[offthegrid]

From a user at PocketGPS, this was TomToms response to them. It seems that they will have to update accounts one at a time to fix this and it will no longer be possible to buy Live Services one month at a time.

========================================================================
Unfortunately the error relates to your account here on this end and in order to resolve this issue we will need to remove the Live Service Monthly Subscription.

Once removed, we will immediately assign 3 full months of Live Services to your account for your use.

In order to continue your service after the three months you can purchase a prepaid 1 year Live Service through our Customer Care, Webshop or TomTom Home software, now at a reduced rate of ?47.99. This is a one off payment for the year. It is no longer possible to purchase a rolling subscription on a monthly basis.

Please reply as per the instructions at the bottom of this mail to confirm you are happy for us to proceed with cancelling your Live Services Rolling Subscription?

 

[TomTomSucks]

I wish they would have offered me anything. But they basically said, you already had the device for more than a year, so screw you. I am now filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I hope other people do not fall into this trap. It is amazing that they can get away with this because it looks like borderline fraud to me. I hope these crooks will go out of business soon so they can no longer rip off people.

 

[offthegrid]

I just got an email from TomTom:

"Dear Jim,

Thank you for your patience as we looked into this matter for you. Although this issue is not common, we have determined that it is related to part of the LIVE services accessing hardware in your device. As such, we will gladly look into the possibility of a warranty repair/replacement for you. In order to do so, we request the following:

- First and last name

- Physical address for daytime delivery (signature required)

- Daytime telephone number

- Serial number - Instructions to locate this can be found on our website at:"

First I know its not a unit issue, second they have all my information and all the information off the unit.

So I call in and I am told that a software update will solve the problem but everything I read is that they have to kill your Live Services and then give a three month subscription out to make them work again.

TomTom is really losing a lot of good faith with this debacle.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

...It is no longer possible to purchase a rolling subscription on a monthly basis.

It has never been possible, as they have yet to get their recurring billing to work properly. It looks like their method of fixing the problems with the monthly subscription is to stop offering it. The incompetence necessary to let the subscription problem linger for over a year, since introducing LIVE services (in the US), only to abandon the offering, is really staggering.

 

[offthegrid]

I agree this shows a high level of incompetence on their part.

That doesn't bode well for the 1000 which is supposed to be a different animal here than in Europe anyway.

Note that European customers are getting a free three months while at least in my case the offer of a non existent software update down the road. This imo just goes towards my opinion that TT is slowly abandoning the US market.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

After reporting updating my open ticket with the information that I reset to factory defaults and can no longer connect to the TomTom server at all, I was able to enter my account information using "Operate my Go" in TomTom Home. Now I can actually connect, and see that the expiration dates are still wrong. They have since updated the ticket to offer a warranty replacement of the device. IMO, at first glance it would appear that this would in no way solve the problem. But I think it may, because changing the device will necessitate changes on their end due to the device serial number and SIM card change.

Unfortunately, my device is out of warranty. I will probably proceed as if it is in warranty until they tell me it isn't. Who knows, maybe I'll get yet another windshield mount, charger and desktop cradle out of the deal (it happened on both previous warranty replacements). If I have to pay for shipping (one way), it may be cheaper to abandon my current LIVE subscription, change my email address, and start fresh.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

As a last ditch effort to fix this problem on my own, I decided to revert to the 845 maps that still existed on my computer. I removed the 850 maps and then used "Add Maps", and changed the pull-down above the resulting list that says "Recommended" to "All", and the 845 maps on my computer appeared on the list.

After adding the 845 maps to my device, I now have an additional service listed under "LIVE Services" -> "My Services" called "LIVE Services" - as far as I know this was not there before. This particular service shows an expiration date that corresponds to my real expiration date. "Local Search with Google", "TomTom Weather" and "QuickGPSfix" all still show an incorrect expiration date of April 11, 2010, but "Local Search with Google" and "TomTom Weather" now work, instead of just telling me my services are up to date and that I don't need to renew.

QuickGPSfix still tells me that my services are up to date, and appears to do nothing else, but I think it always did that. I also think that it does update from time to time, but there appears to be no way for manually force an update. (There was a way to manually trigger a QuickGPSfix update on my 920 using GPRS data through my phone, but I don't recall anything like that on my 740 LIVE.)

At this point I'll be waiting for an 855 map update, but will do a complete backup before installing it. I also plan on pushing TomTom to extend my map subscription by at least three months, since the current maps are unusable with my device.

 

[mvl]

So I guess they're on to something when they say it's a map issue.

Quickgpsfix waits a few days before updating. I think about half a week old. You can keep a peek at the files in ephem to see when the timestamp last changed.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

It would appear that they might be right about these problems being related to the map, but I don't think that it's the map itself that's the problem. Here's the sequence of events I can confirm dates of on my end:

June 7, 2010 - install 850 maps
June 26, 2010 - LIVE services expire, as expected
June 27, 2010 - renew LIVE services - new expiration date for all services August 26, 2010
June 30, 2010 - LIVE services expiration dates still correct
July 1, 2010 - LIVE services expiration dates vary - some still August 26, 2010, others April 11, 2010
Varying dates - remove & reinstall device software, hard reset device, factory reset - no change in expiration dates
July 15, 2010 - remove 850 maps from device, restore 845 maps using TomTom Home - new "LIVE Services" appears with correct date, other erroneous dates remain but related services now work

I'm wondering if the fact that I changed the map caused something else to be reset. I'm half tempted to now remove the 845 maps and restore the 850 maps and see what happens. Maybe I'll add the 850 maps to the SD card so I can easily switch back and forth for testing.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I now have the 845 maps installed using internal memory, and the 850 maps installed on the microSD card. After switching to the 850 maps, "Local Search with Google" still works, but selecting "Weather" results in a "Your LIVE Services are still active. You do not need to renew." message.

Switching back to the 845 maps does not change anything, even after a hard reset. However, switching to the 850 maps on the SD card, followed by powering off the device and removing the SD card (thus forcing a switch to the 845 maps) did correct the problem, allowing both "Local Search with Google" and "Weather" to work, despite their incorrectly listed expiration dates.