740 Very BUGGY ******* !!!!!!!!!

[claycourtdad]

I should preface all this by saying I also have a ONE3rEd and LOVE it. So much I've convinced many people to buy TT. When I coudl not find a 740 locally, I bought a Nuvi855 which I have been trying. Finally found a 740 so I thought I would benchmark the two. Here is my short (less than 24 hr so far) expereince with TT740...

First BUG: See my prior post that when dialing from Google Search, TT740 automatically puts a 011 before the #. Called help desk and they said I am the first person in the US with this problem.
Second BUG: I connected my device to HOME, downloaded updates and it would no longer connect to Live. Spent 1+ hr on phone with help desk resetting to factory settings and trying to uninstall certain items. AGAIN: this is device is less than 4 hours old!!! They said it was a hardware problem. [On a side note - was on the phone with a supervisor named Jermaine who had my cell in case we got disconnected - which we did - and never called back. Sat on hold twice for > 1hr before giving up on help desk]. SO... I returned the unit for a brand new one since TT thought it could be hardware. Got it home and immediately backed the unit up to HOME. After it was backed up, I disconnected the unit and tested the LIVE service. It worked fine. So next I had it do its first update (I think it was only map share - no voices or anything like that). After the update the LIVE service would not work again. SOMETHING IS BUGGY ABOUT THE UPDATES COMING FROM HOME.

I restored the unit from HOME. This was the first and only backup I made on the unit - before HOME downloaded or updated anything on the unit. The unit STILL does not connect to Live.

BTW... I've been on hold waiting just now for the help desk for about an hour (3rd time calling in on hold).

Oh also - last night I called the help desk at 6:50. Was on hold until 7:15 at which time a recording came on that said they close at 7:00 and disconnected me.

 

[barnwellm]

all these negative reviews about the TT Go 740 and the so called tech support is kinda making me wish I hadnt switched over from Garmin to the TT......So far though my 740 has been working as advertised but now thinking that if I ever have to use tech support it might be useless......I think a company as big as TT would have a lot better tech support seeing how its "us" the people, that are putting bread and butter on their table.

 

[doctormstein1]

not being able to get proper tech support is very disheartning especially on something new, However i do have some friends that also purchased the 740 live and they have no problems and love it. I would agree however that the phone support people definately need more training on their products. At least they should not suggest something that they don't know if it will correct the problem. Guessing from support should not be tollerated

 

[tph06784]

I've had my 740 for 2 weeks. It connected to live without any problem at first. After I downloaded upgrades I couldn't connect to live. Called TT support and took about 15 minutes to get someone. He listened to the problem and then put me on hold to research the problem. Came back in a few minutes and said he would e-mail me the solution. I got the e-mail in about 5 minutes. The solution was to first try a soft reset. That didn't work so then tried a hard reset. That worked. I could connect to live again. I have downloaded map changes since and it has continued to work.

 

[claycourtdad]

So... since I flamed TT in my original post, I thought it only fair to provide an update since I am partly to blame. The net is that After buying and returning 2 devices because of the exact same problem as in my original post, I purchased a 3rd unit (I was determined to get it to work). THis time however, I used my wife's computer to update the unit (instead of mine). This worked! The Tom TOm updated from HOME fine and is getting Live services. The only thing I can think was causing this is I had a previous version of TomTOm installed because I had a TomTOmOne. For the second unit I purchased I uninstalled my previous version and intsalled the version that comes with the unit. Even though the unit failed on this try, I suspect it has something to do with lingering files on my computer from the previous version. This is why I used my wife's computer since it did not have a previous version of Home.

Update on HelpDesk. The help desk person was very helpful and she stuck with me trying to look at all options. That said - it is frustrating to wait for 15+ minutes to get a live person (but its the same for Garmin too).

I've now used the TT740Live through the weekend and it works quite well. The google search is a nice feature (even though you still can't dial from the Google POI). I am still evaluating the traffic as it dropped me into two traffic situations that were 2X as long as it said they would be. Again - I'm not sure it is much better than Garmin's traffic.

 

[mvl]

The traffic delay on the 740 describes how much worse the traffic is vs an average drive at that specific time/day.

So if normal traffic is a 20 minute delay, and the current delay is 20 minutes, the Tomtom will report nothing. (But it will still use the 20 minute delay in calculating its route)

If normal traffic is 20 minutes, but the delay is 25, then the Tomtom will report a 5 minute delay.

The best way to confirm the accuracy of the traffic info is to turn on "view arrival time" in preferences. If the estimated arrival time doesn't change in the traffic jam, then the Tomtom picked it up properly.

My suspicion is that the 011 is due to the Tomtom mistranslating the +1 GSM USA dialing standard into 011. Tomtom's are designed in Europe, where countries are so close that they prefer to build the country code into every number to allow easy calling across borders. When translating to the American-built CDMA system that process breaks. I bet you'd have no issues if you had a GSM (ATT/Tmobile) phone.

 

[gatorguy]

IMHO, this is another user example of why TomTom needs to rethink it's traffic presentation. Even tho the traffic reporting is generally acurate in the larger metros, the way TomTom has implimented it will leave the perception of it being poor for many users, particularly those moving from a different traffic service.

 

[mvl]

Tomtom could easily turn on flow alerts for IQroutes information, although that would be really overwhelming as a whole city would light up at rush hour (IQroutes covers just about every urban sideroad).

It's a really tough balance to make for presentation - perhaps only lighting up roads that are 20mph less than their free-flow speed would be a good compromise.

As users begin to trust IQroutes/LIVE traffic, I think it eventually won't matter. I enable auto-reroute and never look at the traffic display screen.

 

[moe3754]

I am a first time user of tomtom and have owned many Garmin units, the latest being a nuvi 785t which is why I switched to tomtom.The 740 is a good unit but I did have my problems with tomtom at first, the 740 had older maps but the at home said I was up to date so after two days, one fax and three calls to tomtom I finally got the update I needed.
I really am not that crazy about the at home software but I can live with it, the big thing that caught my eye was how cheap a year's worth of map updates were next to Garmin although on the tomtom web site it says $39.00 for a year and when I connect through the at home it tells me $45.00 which is still a great price next to the $135.00 that garmin want's for their year of maps.
As for tomtom Vs Garmin I believe that both have good and bad points it is just what works better for you, the Nuvi 785t was so buggy that it drove me nuts yet Garmin always said that there was nothing wrong with it, guess I must have been dreaming when all the problems I had popped up!!!
As for the 740 it is a really good unit and works well in the direct sunlight, it was the first thing I checked, the 785t washed out because Garmin has changed their screen's and now in direct sunlight the 785 was unuseable because I could not see the screen at all. I think that the 740 is a keeper and has got me to change from Garmin to tomtom for good!!

 

[gatorguy]

Not sure where you got your map price comparison between Garmin and TomTom. Garmin's map subscription is about $90 street price for life, not per year. Thus 2 years of TomTom updates would be priced equivalent to Garmin lifetime. Keep it longer and Garmin's updates would be cheaper the TomTom's offering. Granted, many users won't keep their current device more than 2-3 years.

 

[moe3754]

$119.00 for life not $90.00 and that would be about a year for me.My 785t lasted one month before I sold it!!!

nMaps Lifetime?

 

[gatorguy]

You don't have to buy direct from Garmin. I bought my lifetime subscription thru Amazon . . . $84. Garmin has a dealer network for maps, accessories, devices, etc. TomTom does not, so there's no price shopping for TT services.

 

[moe3754]

I have no need for Garmin as soon as I can sell the black 760 I have then I am done with Garmin for good. Their products no longer have quality like my old C580 had and their customer service is the worst, if I could put tomtom on my Nokia 5800 I would get rid of the mobile XT also. Garmin has gone so far on their name and let their products turn to garbage. I have had so many Garmins I have forgotten how many there were, as for quality I purchased a Nuvi 880 when it was first released and three months later it was discontinued Garmin said it was because they wanted lane assist added thus the 885 but I really don't think that was it because mine was so buggy I took it back to the store and bought the 785T another fine Garmin product, what my 740 live replaced.

I did not mean to hijack this thread with my Garmin rants, I am sorry and have said enough on the subject, to the OP I am sorry for this!!!!

 

[gatorguy]

Not saying your displeasure with Garmin isn't warranted, at least in your view. Just pointing out an inaccuracy in your map subscription price comparison.

 

[claycourtdad]

Since this was my original post and it is turning into a garming vs tt - i thought i would add my $.02. I compared the G885 to the TT740 for a few days. Even drove with both on my windshield (what a geek!). Anyway - the Garmin was equally buggy. In fact, there were several instances where the Garmin simply got hung up. I even had to take the battery out a handful of times to get it back to reality. The garmin absolutely has better voice reco. Every command on every screen is recognizable. It can even recognize common places like "find the nearest starbucks". The TT voice reco is not even close. I also agree with many that the G is more intuitive in many cases. All that said, the TT feels like a better unit. The screen is crisper, the traffic seems more informative, and Google search has been lots of fun. After all - who cares if there are 1/2 as many POIs as G if you have google at your finger tips. Now... if only you could search Google on TT via voice. I can do it on my BBerry where I hold down the talk button and Google will perform a local search for me. One reason I bought the TT is I hope that Google/TT will continue to improve the interface so that users can ... for example... google search via voice throught the TT. Should not be that difficult!