Good Product - Bizarre Support

[Machodoc]

Keep this first statement in mind:
"At TomTom we believe in showing you the way the easy way."
(Signature line from TomTom tech support)
============

I just bought a TomTom as my first highway GPS unit, although I've used GPS for years in boats and planes. One of the main selling points for this unit was that there was a subscription traffic service available for Washington DC.

Ok ... bought the unit, installed the software, did a loooong attempt to update the map. Eventually it said that the software on my disk was out of date, so did an update of that and tried again. Did another loooong map update, but that appeared to work. Now ... on to that traffic service.

After literally hours of looking online, calling the store where I bought it, calling customer support for the store where I bought it, calling the home office for the store where I bought it, then being conferenced back to the store where I bought it ... and being given multiple answers that satisfied the person giving them, but had nothing to do with the problem ... I was finally given a phone number for TomTom support ... and that turned out to be a medical group in Chicago ... I found a couple of hints that such a service existed for the US, but nothing about how to obtain it.

Finally, almost a week later, I received a reply from TomTom's e-mail tech support. Here's what it said, in part:

"(My name), the traffic for the US is available. Traffic can be purchased via TomTom HOME and is listed as Traffic Europe."

How foolish of me!! Why had I not thought of obtaining a traffic service for the US by purchasing "Traffic Europe"? Does TomTom know something that I don't know? Should I be secretly cashing in my greenbacks for Euros?

"At TomTom we believe in showing you the way the easy way" ... to be sure!

 

[lec510]

Did you tell TomTom your country ?

 

[Machodoc]

Did you tell TomTom your country ?

Absolutely! I triple checked to make sure that it was set correctly in the computer software interface, and I made it very clear in my e-mail to tech support that I was in the DC area and was looking for the US traffic service info.

 

[dhn]

Absolutely! I triple checked to make sure that it was set correctly in the computer software interface, and I made it very clear in my e-mail to tech support that I was in the DC area and was looking for the US traffic service info.

You are not the first American to report you need to subscribe to Traffic--Europe in order to active the availability for traffic-US, and wonder why.

Sadly, you probably won't be the last.

 

[manda]

The Europe traffic does work for the US, but since it doesn't show up correctly they will usually give you 3 months free. You may need to e-mail again or call.

 

[TmanT]

As many long-time users will know, Tom Tom has been having consistent difficulties with their online store - and this is one of them. When you purchase the traffic subscription for Europe, it should activate it for your current location. If it doesn't work that way, call their support and explain what happened and they will assign the proper subscription for free. It's generally a five to ten minute call, given there's no hold time. :]