I'm fed up with companies like TomTom. They sell products with virtually no support, not explanations, no documentation. I bought a Tomtom GPS, opened the box top find that there was 0 documentation. It tells you to go online to "getstarted." There is no explanation there about what to do. I couldn't find my model listed anywhere. I downloaded some software and plugged in the gps and turned it on. While trying to look through the screens, a screen suddenly appeared with a time counting down. No explanation. The gps went off. I started it up again. Same thing happened. After a while, a concluded that it was going some sort of automatic software download, but there was no explanation what ever. Entering address is terrible. And sometimes I ended up with screens that I had no idea what they were for.
Perhaps the most gauling part of the experience is that you cannot contact Tomtom. They don't show a simple email address or even a simple form. They have some big rigamarole you have to go through, which I couldn't get to work.
I'm fed up with companies too lazy and too cheap to provide reasonable documentation and reasonable support. They want to drop all the responsibility on to the user, so that they save the cost of producing proper manuals and hiring more support staff. And then they put up as many barriers as possible to prevent you from contacting them directly. I don't even both with phone numbers anymore since it usually means at least 1/2 hour on hold. Yeah, this rant is about more than just TomTom, but the last hour that I've spent trying to get their product to work is the last straw.
Incidentally, the device itself is junk. It refused to lock on to a satellite. The screen lag time was far to long. The address entry screen is a joke. The keyboard takes up almost the entire screen so you can see only 1 or 2 possible matches. To see the rest, you have to dismiss the screen. If what you want is not there. You have to go back to the keyboard and block the screen. It's just ridiculous.
Incidentally, I have been a professional software/product developer for many years and taught the subject a universities. This is why companies like TomTom are so aggravating. I know how it should be properly done and the only reason that they don't do it is to save money. Younger people seem to take all this incompetence for granted because they don't know any better. It looks like the TomRoms of the world have managed to recruit the users as unpaid employees, which is exactly what this form is for. Instead of supplying any support, they let the users do it for them for free
Perhaps the most gauling part of the experience is that you cannot contact Tomtom. They don't show a simple email address or even a simple form. They have some big rigamarole you have to go through, which I couldn't get to work.
I'm fed up with companies too lazy and too cheap to provide reasonable documentation and reasonable support. They want to drop all the responsibility on to the user, so that they save the cost of producing proper manuals and hiring more support staff. And then they put up as many barriers as possible to prevent you from contacting them directly. I don't even both with phone numbers anymore since it usually means at least 1/2 hour on hold. Yeah, this rant is about more than just TomTom, but the last hour that I've spent trying to get their product to work is the last straw.
Incidentally, the device itself is junk. It refused to lock on to a satellite. The screen lag time was far to long. The address entry screen is a joke. The keyboard takes up almost the entire screen so you can see only 1 or 2 possible matches. To see the rest, you have to dismiss the screen. If what you want is not there. You have to go back to the keyboard and block the screen. It's just ridiculous.
Incidentally, I have been a professional software/product developer for many years and taught the subject a universities. This is why companies like TomTom are so aggravating. I know how it should be properly done and the only reason that they don't do it is to save money. Younger people seem to take all this incompetence for granted because they don't know any better. It looks like the TomRoms of the world have managed to recruit the users as unpaid employees, which is exactly what this form is for. Instead of supplying any support, they let the users do it for them for free