Extremely disappointing NA map update(800 to 845)

[IanG]

Rant alert!

I finally decided to upgrade my North America 2G map v800 along with the upgrade service for what came to 80 euro(about C$115), and I'm extremely disappointed with the waste of money. Going from 800 to 845 two major highway interchanges in my neighbourhood that were correct in 800 are now completely wrong. One reflects long-ago history, and the other seems to reflect someone's future fantasy. I've checked Tele Atlas website and the same problems are there so I reported them. But somehow Google Maps has it right(as do my older Garmin City Nav v8 for my handheld). Obviously Google is sourcing their data from more than just Tele Atlas.

I'm beginning to feel very disappointed in my purchase of a TomTom. For all the apparently cool features, their data is SO weak. Far fewer POIs with many of them duplicated, and no subcategories. And the touch-screen is so finicky that a passenger cannot easily enter text while the vehicle is moving. And now map updates that represent an outright degradation from previous versions. I've gone from being mildly disappointed now to outright frustrated and angry. Oh, and not to mention rude, and I suspect dishonest, customer support, who absolutely insist that NA simplified has exactly the same POIs as the NA unsimplified. I could understand if they have some finicky technical reason for not being able to sell me the larger data to install on a 4G SD, but being rude to me rather than acknowledge that there's a difference in the POIs is unnecessary and bad for business.

Now I don't know what to do about having just spent C$115 on a map update that I think I won't want to use because it'll be messed up for every trip I take north of my home. I was just in a GPS store today telling them about it(and they do sell a couple TomToms) and the guy actually said "Yeah, in North America the TomTom is pretty much a throw-away GPS". BTW, I was in that store to buy a RAM mount because the TomTom suction cup is terrible and after less than a year won't stick for more than 10 seconds despite all the cleaning in the world.

Arghhh!
Ian

 

[pianoCM]

Firstly, I understand your frustration, spending money and not getting what you expect. To ease your mind, just thinking that you just donate $105C to Haiti and lost the receipt.

Secondly, as mentioned before many times, this area could well be covered while in other areas not, plus the screw-up and mess-up. Nothing is perfect, not Tomtom, not Garmin, none.

Thirdly,
"Yeah, in North America the TomTom is pretty much a throw-away GPS".
Whoever told you that, is in fact, clueless about gps.
If you choose to believe him/her, go with whatever he/she suggests.

 

[grwebster]

I understand your frustration. I bought my daughter a new XL340 for xmas. Cost me $116 with a free map update. Why would I pay for an update for a old GPS when I can get new hardware with a new map for the same price? My last GPS was LG730. It was a solid GPS with Navteq maps running destinator on a WINCE platform. From my experience so far, I think that the Navteq maps are better. When I stopped using this unit, the navteq map was two years old, and still doing pretty good. I paid under $200 for my GO 630, and I can almost guarantee that I will not be shelling out over $100 for a map update. I will use it until I get tired of it and then buy a new one with a new map in a couple of years.

 

[IanG]

To be fair, there are some features of my 730 I really like, particularly the opportunity to do minor edits to the map and to share them. My Garmin handheld(GPS Map 60CS) with City Nav v6 enormously overestimated the speed of travel on Hope St. in Providence, RI, where I lived for a couple years, and thought I could enter a nearby highway at an entrance that had been permanently closed for several years - yet a Garmin map update to v8 didn't fix either of them. Both of those were a real annoyance. On my TomTom I could fix those problems.

I think my burst of frustration was fed first by the rude(and possibly lying) customer support fellow, and then triggered by the map regression which I can still hardly believe.

If you look at the interchange in this link, Deerfoot/Glenmore interchange in Calgary, AB, and compare it to NA v845 you'll see how wrong the map is now. Until they update, you can see the bad interchange online here. The interchange just west is also wrong now in v845.

Could anyone with older versions have a look and let me know if their version has the correct interchange? v800 had it right and I'm wondering what later maps have it right so I might at least get some improvement over v800 without having to deal with the regression in v845.

I wonder whether customer support would allow me my money back, or at least a credit, until those two interchanges are fixed in a new update. Right now I've gone back to v800, which to many of you all is certainly ancient.

BTW, I really like my new RAM suction mount. I think it may be good enough over the longer term to keep me from having to go for something more permanent than a suction cup.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

...But somehow Google Maps has it right(as do my older Garmin City Nav v8 for my handheld). Obviously Google is sourcing their data from more than just Tele Atlas...

Sometime in the fall of 2009, Google started maintaining their own maps, independent of TeleAtlas and/or Navteq. I don't know exactly how they obtained their base data (they clearly didn't start from scratch when they terminated their relationship with TeleAtlas), but things that used to appear on Google Maps no longer do. Many local street names disappeared, but the road geometry remained.

Google's mechanism for the public submitting corrections for their map data seems way ahead of TeleAtlas and Navteq, but it as it's own frustrations - most notably the inability to accept corrections for errant business listings from anyone but the business owner (for businesses that have been "claimed" in their local business center).

Your example of something that was correct now being incorrect is very frustrating, and makes me wonder what their data sources are and what (if anything) they do to verify the information before making changes to a map.