Very Disappointed with Tom Tom POI's

[gatorguy]

My best results are always using Google Search along with my mobile app (Garmin Mobile for Blackberry - - - Sorry!). Garmin's categorized restaurant listings are certainly much easier to use than the non-categorized TomTom lookup, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, it doesn't mean that the POI is valid on either device. Mobile nav is quickly becoming the platform of choice for a lot of users.

 

[pianoCM]

Let me tell you all my little story.
Probably 2 years ago when I owned a Garmin nuvi 660, the one with the flipped antenna, I must agree with you all that Garmin does good job of listing POI in category. Friends and I were on night out and looked for the bowling lanes to spend, looked up into my 660 under Bowling Center category, there were many listed such American Lanes, Bowling Center Co, Strike lanes, Bowl America Inc, .... and Panda Bowl, ..... we happened to pick Panda Bowl since the name is somewhat cool and we never been there. After 30' driving, we had arrived at the tiny take-out Chinese restaurant.

 

[pianoCM]

Another experience and I suggest you all pls take a minute or so to "prepare" before arrived.
With "huge" POI database (GO920) plus ton of custom-made POIs, I frequently, yes, frequently arrive these POI locations and found out they are not in bussiness, closed or gone for good. So pls, do NOT depend on your built-in & custom POIs 100%, if you have its phone number, make a quick call to verify, I don't think you want to spend half of an hour in traffic to then find out it's not there.

 

[mvl]

I don't think you want to spend half of an hour in traffic to then find out it's not there.

Do you have mapshare POI updating turned on in HOME? It's not on by default, you have to checked of all POI category boxes in Home, and set the slider to "reported by many" or lower.

One thing that is great with tomtom is that mapshare makes POI changes near realtime. In downtown Boston and southwestern suburbs, I've never found a closure that wasn't in my tomtom. Often I found POI closures in tomtom before anyone told me the physical location was closed. And the updates are much better than you'd get from a static Garmin/Magellan map.

 

[pianoCM]

Do you have mapshare POI updating turned on in HOME? It's not on by default, you have to checked of all POI category boxes in Home, and set the slider to "reported by many" or lower.

One thing that is great with tomtom is that mapshare makes POI changes near realtime. In downtown Boston and southwestern suburbs, I've never found a closure that wasn't in my tomtom. Often I found POI closures in tomtom before anyone told me the physical location was closed. And the updates are much better than you'd get from a static Garmin/Magellan map.

I'm glad you are in Boston, now do a little test.
Find No name Restaurant and you will see it is a dead wrong location.

 

[pianoCM]

Or you drive to Boston Catch Seafood & Grill in Somerville to find out it is now Cafe Belo.