not very happy with TT

[t1mmy]

I just joined this forum. I did so because I have had no luck solving the shortcoming of my TT with customer service and thought that my experiences can't be unique. It's not that customer service is being rude, it's just they keep saying the incredible: we don't offer that. I have read a couple posts from people on this forum who have had my same problems and the advice given to them here is not correct. These problems include the inability to enter an address with a hyphen, and the mysterious disappearing POI catagory, "shops" (mistakenly called "stores" by another member when it disappeared on her TT). Contrary to advice given here, the entering of a hyphenated address by ignoring the hyphen as if it didn't exist does not result in the correct address in many instances. In my recent experience, addresses could not be entered at all. And the advice to go to the "any POI catagory" option to find the things once contained in the "shops" POI, does not work either. Has anyone also noticed that the colleges/university POI contains neither colleges nor universities? Hmmm. I am a musician traveling with a major tour. I am in different cities and countries all the time. I rely on this box everyday because I never know where the heck I am. I have never before owned a piece of technology that is under-engineered. All my needs, and plenty more, have always been anticipated, whether it be with a VCR, a cellphone, even a golfbag. Yet, why couldn't this box find me a grocery store and a Blockbuster on my way to my hotel in Minneapolis this week? That is not much to ask (TT official reply: we don't offer that). It can't even enter the zipcode for the town I play this week in Canada (repeat: we don't offer that). Why shouldn't I be surprised and pissed that I couldn't find my hotel in Hawaii 3 weeks ago, or anything else on the island, because every address there was hyphenated? More importantly, why can't TT tell me if they are working on this stuff, why they no longer have the POI's they used to have, and even if they could install the old POI's if I sent my unit back to them? I work with 60 guys. We all live on the road. A bunch have Garmins. And they have all the stuff my TT is missing. Who anticapated all that stuff for them? It seems like the guys designing for TT never travel! If anyone has solutions, I would love to hear them.

 

[Sextant]

You may need to install custom POI files for grocery stores and Blockbuster. Check the POI threads here and see what you can find that you are interested in. If it's not there, request it and it will get made for you. While the TT POIs seem to be a bit lacking this is overcome I think by the ability to add your own.

 

[lec510]

Do you know how many way people write Sainte Catherine in Quebec?
St-Catherine, Ste-Catherine, Saint-Catherine, Sainte-Catherine, St Catherine , Ste Catherine, Saint Catherine, Sainte Catherine ... The combination can be mid boggling.
Garmin wants you to enter exactly St-xxxxx (no gender even if it's a female 'saint').
With TomTom you can free form a bit like St xxxxx ... or Ste xxxxx.
After a while you just get use to the 'cultural' mode of operation of a GPS. Don't blame a GPS hastily until you're completely familiarized with it.

 

[an89ag]

Shop vs Store

Something interesting, but not overly helpful, concerning the retail POI's.

My 910 has the POI named "Shop". It has lots & lots of retail places.

My Navigator 5.00 on my Palm T3 has the POI named "Store". It also has lots & lots of retail places.

However, my 3 week old ONE has neither "Shop" nor "Store" categories. I suspect the ONE database was reduced to fit on the internal 1 gig of memory, and POI was an area that was cut.

You did not mention which TomTom you had, but I have found many POI data bases on the various TomTom forums. TomTom even has one on it's website with 20, or so, national retailers ("Retail" POI). There is some room on the ONE to add more POI's, especially if you add a large SD card.

 

[Pedro2NR]

my suggestion for the shop, store or school POI is always to navigate to any POI category and the unit will go through all the categories to match your description. Hope this helps.

 

[lec510]

> However, my 3 week old ONE has neither "Shop" nor "Store" categories. I suspect the ONE database was reduced to fit on the internal 1 gig of memory, and POI was an area that was cut. <

What you suspected is correct.
I found that's pityful that GPS manufatures try to save $ whenever they can. 2G flash memory is dirt cheap these days, and I think it's a minimum for serious mapping & POI.

By the way you can download Retail Stores POI from TomTom for free.

 

[ericthered]

> However, my 3 week old ONE has neither "Shop" nor "Store" categories. I suspect the ONE database was reduced to fit on the internal 1 gig of memory, and POI was an area that was cut. <

What you suspected is correct.
I found that's pityful that GPS manufatures try to save $ whenever they can. 2G flash memory is dirt cheap these days, and I think it's a minimum for serious mapping & POI.

By the way you can download Retail Stores POI from TomTom for free.

Come on... it's two of the oldest tricks in the book:

1) keep parts cost down to keep purchase cost down
2) give buyers a reason to buy the next higher priced model. For buyers who are serious about mapping and poi, they will buy a 2gb unit. Others won't.

 

[JimT]

I just joined this forum. I did so because I have had no luck solving the shortcoming of my TT with customer service and thought that my experiences can't be unique. It's not that customer service is being rude, it's just they keep saying the incredible: we don't offer that. I have read a couple posts from people on this forum who have had my same problems and the advice given to them here is not correct. These problems include the inability to enter an address with a hyphen, and the mysterious disappearing POI catagory, "shops" (mistakenly called "stores" by another member when it disappeared on her TT). Contrary to advice given here, the entering of a hyphenated address by ignoring the hyphen as if it didn't exist does not result in the correct address in many instances. In my recent experience, addresses could not be entered at all. And the advice to go to the "any POI catagory" option to find the things once contained in the "shops" POI, does not work either. Has anyone also noticed that the colleges/university POI contains neither colleges nor universities? Hmmm. I am a musician traveling with a major tour. I am in different cities and countries all the time. I rely on this box everyday because I never know where the heck I am. I have never before owned a piece of technology that is under-engineered. All my needs, and plenty more, have always been anticipated, whether it be with a VCR, a cellphone, even a golfbag. Yet, why couldn't this box find me a grocery store and a Blockbuster on my way to my hotel in Minneapolis this week? That is not much to ask (TT official reply: we don't offer that). It can't even enter the zipcode for the town I play this week in Canada (repeat: we don't offer that). Why shouldn't I be surprised and pissed that I couldn't find my hotel in Hawaii 3 weeks ago, or anything else on the island, because every address there was hyphenated? More importantly, why can't TT tell me if they are working on this stuff, why they no longer have the POI's they used to have, and even if they could install the old POI's if I sent my unit back to them? I work with 60 guys. We all live on the road. A bunch have Garmins. And they have all the stuff my TT is missing. Who anticapated all that stuff for them? It seems like the guys designing for TT never travel! If anyone has solutions, I would love to hear them.

I totally agree with you about entering addresses. I had an address which had a "B" in it. I was not able to enter the address. As far as TT's pois are concerned, i do not feel that they are very accurate. A TT poi shwed up on my 510 as a restaurant when in fact it was an autobody shop. How off can you get???? I have made my own pois as well as downloaded the ones created by members on this forum. This has helped to fill in the blanks. sometimes I think I have too many pois. when I turn myy TT on there are bmp icons all over the map!!