Vet and car repair features wrong

[sync45]

Hello. I just got a TT XXL Europe for Christmas and all's wprking well, except the Help Me features "Car Repair" and "Vets". There are two car repair garages in this town, and neither shows up on the list. There is a vet right across the street from me, but they don't figure either.In fact, all the vets listed have Italian names and are hundreds of km away, and I live in the German part of Switzerland. My device has been updated, but these problems remain. Any ideas?

Happy New Year,
Sync45

 

[canderson]

Sounds like nothing more than a very weak POI set in your area. All we can recommend is to add, add, add all of your own preferred POI in your area and continue to MapShare them in hopes that they are added to the Western European map set for a future release.

Just out of curiosity, while these do not show up in the "Help me" selections, do they appear in the "Car repair" or "Veterinarian" selections in the actual POI list? I would expect that if missed in "Help me", that they would be missed in both. If so, you can add them directly to the POI list Car Repair and Veterinary categories.

Of interest, my unit does not include vets - my list is
. Nearest car repair services
. Nearest hospital
. Nearest fire station
. Nearest police station
. Nearest pharmacy
. Nearest dentist

 

[Andy_P]

TomTom POIs have always been very poor (but I'll admit they are slowly improving).

In the old days, they often got away with it, because many people didn't bother to check the various POI categories.

But when they added the "Help me" feature, everybody suddenly wanted to try it out and then realised how awful the data was.
For example in the UK we had NO doctors or dentists and were directed to the "nearest" ones that it found, which were in Belgium or the Irish Republic.
TT were inundated with complaints, (which was good for me because I'd been moaning to TT about them for ages, but my lone voice was ignored).

As Canderson says, download third-party POI files for the things that interest you and ignore the rest.

(Although making a complaint to TT would be a good move too...)

 

[sync45]

Thank you both for your comments. It seems like a poor update situation. It's interesting that doctors, dentists and hospitals are fairly current, but the low priority stuff like Vets is not. Having said that, it would be very useful to know where the nearest car repair shop/garage was. I will keep following this, and will also follow your suggestions.

BTW, in the brief time I've had my TomTom I haven't been able to give it a good try-out regarding radar cameras, although one I know of that has been on a nearby motor route for a long time doesn't show while driving by. I guess the solution is a paid update, which to be a bit cynical, is probably the idea in the first place.

Happy new Year!

sync45

 

[dhn]

If you are serious about wanting to have a current, accurate, reliable database of Safety Camera and other warnings, I'd STRONGLY suggest you consider a subscription to a 3rd party provider.

Such as this one:
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=66856

 

[mikealder]

TomTom did release some update files a few months after the HelpMe services were launched to cover the issue with locations being overseas relative to the UK, I wonder if the XXL has shipped without this extra data in it and just relys upon the useless coverage originally supplied.

Get your POI files from reliable sources, even up to date POI files from TomTom are bordering on useless in the UK when compared to decent third party data, PGPSW carries POI files for a large number of different categories that are kept up to date and very accurate, this is in addition to the Speed Camera database - Mike

 

[canderson]

Just got an inside tip about the reason that all of those Help locations for the UK were located in other countries on the Continent.

Turns out that as TomTom's home is NL in the Eurozone, the bureaucrats in Belgium tasked them with finding new and creative ways to get you guys to come across the Channel and spend some 'hard currency' -

something they seem a tad short on at present :focus:

 

[Andy_P]

TomTom did release some update files a few months after the HelpMe services were launched

Did you ever investigate them Mike? They were pretty dreadfulas well!
(but better than none at all I suppose).

They were riddled with mistakes, duplicates and spelling errors (I even found where they had ripped them off from, as I found a web directory with the same errors!)

Even with the added files, one of my nearest doctors was apparently called "Independent mortgages" - I kid you not!

I wonder if the XXL has shipped without this extra data in it and just relys upon the useless coverage originally supplied.

No, they've completely re-done it since then (they released those add-on files in 2007!). Without them we had NO doctors in England at all.
They are much improved now, but still not to be trusted.

I'd second Mike's suggestion to get any POI's you want from somewhere else, like PGPSW.

 

[canderson]

Even with the added files, one of my nearest doctors was apparently called "Independent mortgages" - I kid you not!

With National Health paying what they are, I guess a guy has to have a side business, eh?