Strange GO 920 behavior

Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
5
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
TomTom Model(s)
GO920
Hello all!

I recently purchased a GO920 based on all of the glowing reviews I'd read online. I've been cautioned that Garmin has better maps and took it with a grain of salt. I know that both companies will be accurate where one is not and vice versa. Here are some issues I've had since purchasing the unit. Understand that despite all this, I really want to like this unit. I love the Bluetooth connection with my phone, it sounds great! The remote, change of screens, and mapshare are fantastic. Nothing compares really and I feel that even if I switch to a Garmin, I'll feel short changed.

Issue 1: I was at a mall near my house located within the existing POI database. I chose to route to a nearby POI (Best Buy). You literally pull out of the mall, turn right, go over the overpass, and turn right into the strip mall where Best Buy is located. The TT920 routes me right out of the mall, turn right onto the on ramp to the highway! What? And then back on another on ramp, onto that highway and immediately off that highway back onto the one I came off of and exit the road, then right! 3 miles. The obvious choice doesn't appear even when you choose the different routing options. Here's where it gets really bizarre. The POI that the TT lists for Best Buy shows the correct address. However, if I input the address manually, taken directly from the TT920 mind you, it routes me the obvious way! How can this be? The same address is there for both!

Issue 2: POI's in the same area for both the Starbucks, and the local Blockbuster say I've arrived when I'm literally 3/10 of a mile away! We're not talking 350 feet here. I'm literally clueless. As an IT guy, I cannot believe the maps can be this far off, but are they? I don't think that's the issue as is evident in issue 1 above. Seems like a routing quirk in the 920. Further, it's dead on as far as tracking my location on roads and manual addresses.

Issue 3: Tried to navigate to my mom's house in Notheast Ohio where she has lived for 40 years. It's a MAJOR road. You guessed it, cannot find the address at all! It finds the street, but the number, cannot be found. So I contact TT support after 1.25 hours on hold. Sure enough, they try another 920 with the same result. Doesn't exist.

The whole time I've been comparing this along side a Magellan 4250. It's never failed. However, it has locked up on me once, the screen is WAY too bright at night and cannot be dimmed any farther, and Bluetooth is the pits.

I really am pulling for this 920, but I want a GPS for the maps and correct POI locations. Isn't that what it's for? Issue 1 and 3 make me believe there are some serious underlying issues here.

Please don't take this as a TT920 bash, I'm just very frustrated.

Any similiar experiences? Offers of advice?

Brian
Cincinnati, Ohio
 
I really like my 920 as well.

I am seeing map issues as well from switching from Garmin. Hopefully with TT buying their map supplier they will sort this out.

On the car symbol issue I can only change mine in 3D mode. In 2D mode, which I use, I can not change it, why?:(

Regards
 
Hi !

Same for me.

I have wrote a few posts about those problems, but nothing constructive as shown up yet.

Lots of people have the same problems, but I guess Tomtom doesn't care that much.

I would love to go back to my first GPS, a very basic Pionner, at least, it was very accurate. Also I had a Tomtom 910, and it was also accurate. It looks like Tomtom is going backwards in its ability to guide you to correct destinations.

I have my Go 920T since 2 months, and at each updates tomtom is sending am hoping it will correct these issues, but no, it's always the same.



Thanks
George
 
I have to concur with the POI complaints on the 920T

I have only used the 920T for a few days but it has been pretty frustrating to find the POI doesn't even have the Silver Legacy Hotel in Reno, NV which spured me to check for other missing hotels. This is really misleading. Is there something else I should be installing? or should everything be out of the box?
 
Hello all!

I recently purchased a GO920 based on all of the glowing reviews I'd read online. I've been cautioned that Garmin has better maps and took it with a grain of salt. I know that both companies will be accurate where one is not and vice versa. Here are some issues I've had since purchasing the unit. Understand that despite all this, I really want to like this unit. I love the Bluetooth connection with my phone, it sounds great! The remote, change of screens, and mapshare are fantastic. Nothing compares really and I feel that even if I switch to a Garmin, I'll feel short changed.

Issue 1: I was at a mall near my house located within the existing POI database. I chose to route to a nearby POI (Best Buy). You literally pull out of the mall, turn right, go over the overpass, and turn right into the strip mall where Best Buy is located. The TT920 routes me right out of the mall, turn right onto the on ramp to the highway! What? And then back on another on ramp, onto that highway and immediately off that highway back onto the one I came off of and exit the road, then right! 3 miles. The obvious choice doesn't appear even when you choose the different routing options. Here's where it gets really bizarre. The POI that the TT lists for Best Buy shows the correct address. However, if I input the address manually, taken directly from the TT920 mind you, it routes me the obvious way! How can this be? The same address is there for both!

Issue 2: POI's in the same area for both the Starbucks, and the local Blockbuster say I've arrived when I'm literally 3/10 of a mile away! We're not talking 350 feet here. I'm literally clueless. As an IT guy, I cannot believe the maps can be this far off, but are they? I don't think that's the issue as is evident in issue 1 above. Seems like a routing quirk in the 920. Further, it's dead on as far as tracking my location on roads and manual addresses.

Issue 3: Tried to navigate to my mom's house in Notheast Ohio where she has lived for 40 years. It's a MAJOR road. You guessed it, cannot find the address at all! It finds the street, but the number, cannot be found. So I contact TT support after 1.25 hours on hold. Sure enough, they try another 920 with the same result. Doesn't exist.

The whole time I've been comparing this along side a Magellan 4250. It's never failed. However, it has locked up on me once, the screen is WAY too bright at night and cannot be dimmed any farther, and Bluetooth is the pits.

I really am pulling for this 920, but I want a GPS for the maps and correct POI locations. Isn't that what it's for? Issue 1 and 3 make me believe there are some serious underlying issues here.

Please don't take this as a TT920 bash, I'm just very frustrated.

Any similiar experiences? Offers of advice?

Brian
Cincinnati, Ohio



Brian - are you the Brian from Blue Ash and SmartStop? If so, small world/internet. :D

I just took my 920 back to Costco today along with a 720 my nephew got for Xmas. Both of us were quite disappointed in the devices. I was coming from a 12 year run as a Garmin user. I can concur with your experiences and that type of operation is frustrating and not worth my hard earned $$$$. I also bought a Mio C320 at Radio Scrap a week ago and I am actually impressed with what it can do for $169. It is hackable and I have upgraded it with TTS and a video player and C520 maps and POIs. GUI is nice and I like the way the map looks and functions. Take a look at MIO if you dump the TT. I have run the Mio alongside my Garmin 680 and routing is darn close, but I do like the info I see/get on the Mio more. The Mio C520 equates better with the Nuvi 6xx or 7xx line.

I am still waiting for Garmin or Tom Tom R&D to call me up so I can tell them how to finally build the perfect GPS! :rolleyes:

Jim
 
Hey everyone,

I also had these issues. I've spoken to tech support and even went as far as able to get to a programmer tech to discuss issues with the TomTom software as well as the 7.1 Maps.

I currently also have the 910 and find that, though it might not have all the features as the 920, the maps are better for me. Yes, the 920 has more POI's but the location of a lot of them are all over the place. Sometimes even half a mile away from where there supposed to be.

If you've added additional POI's, the software doesn't allow you to select the POI's to relocate them if needed.

I think we are really Beta testing the product for TomTom. Its so hard to to talk with tech support when there's issues that are not common.

I've returned my 920 and look forward to it again, once a revision comes out and corrects all the bugs that everyone is running into.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all of your replies. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with these issues. Anyone tried the Panasonic from Costco? I've read that it uses the same maps as Garmin?

Hey Spyder, no, I'm not the Brian from Blue Ash. Withamsville actually, nice to meet you! I thought the Mio's shared the same maps as the TT's?

I'd go with the Garmin's, but don't like the POI's not showing up on the maps as your driving. Perhaps a Mio or Panny is in my future?

Brian
 
Pretty much all of my POI's are off by half a mile to the east... The third party ones come in perfect, but not the built in ones... I've done about a hundred POI edits, but that is only the tip of the icebergs... I'm starting to wonder if there was a shift in the data.

Can we use the v6 maps on the 920?
 
If you want to get a hold of v6 maps you might have to call support to be able to purchase them. I no longer see them available through HOME or the TomTom website.
 
My opinion

I've been using a 920T for the last month and comparing it to my old Garmin 2610 along the way. I'm in Canada, and there's always been updating issues with Garmin as they are pretty slow with Canadian updates. I deliver vehicles all over, so I get to a lot of territory. Travelling in Canada, I use the Trans-Canada a lot, and though it's having major upgrades lately, both machines were off the mark a whole lot on older sections of it. The TomTom had updates that Garmin didn't have, but both were way off on good sections of it. One thing about the TomTom I've noticed is that in certain places it will be off by a block. In Moncton NB there was a street that registered a block off, and the other streets were ok. I can't understand why it's doing this unless it's the snap to route function. Here in Alberta, there is a local road with a turn before an intersection with a main highway, and it's on the mark till the turn, then slides of to the side for the corner, and the intersection is about a quarter mile off the mark. This must just be sloppy map work. Several POIs I've gone to are out by about a quarter mile too. As far as routing goes, I don't find it too much different than my Garmin. You have to watch both of them as they will sometime take you around a block in the cities for some reason. I really like the alternate routeing function on the TomTom though. I've found it handy. The traffic antenna seemed to work good the one time I could use it in Toronto. Took me around some pretty bad traffic I noticed as I drove over it on a detour. All in all happy with it and hoping they'll upgrade the maps. Might be a big job though, and might take a while.
 
I had an issue with the cursor not changing to a new selection. Quick push of the reset button and it was fixed.
 

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