TomTom Woes
ByIf you are thinking of getting a Tomtom GPS unit, my strong advice is not to bother. They are inherently less capable than Garmin units, notably in their inability to be programmed via a PC for routes etc. and Tomtom`s convoluted update process using the most awful piece of software this side of PC hell (Tomtom Home) is enough to cause you to lose the will to live.
Being at some stage naive, I bought two of these bloody units – a Tomtom Rider for the bike and a Tomtom Go 910 for the car. I no longer use the Rider, having switched to a Garmin on the bike but I still use the Go 910 in the car. As it is now a couple of years old, I decided to buy a new map for the 910. It turns out that I can pay for the map over the web that`s nice.. but I can only download it through the Tomtom Home program and then only if it recognises me. Well it kind of recognises me but only as owning a Rider unit so it won`t let me download the map I paid for using an email address that is associated with the Rider unit.
I spent an age trying to find out how to email Tomtom support but they are one of these companies that deliberately set out to make it hard to email them unless you have been through every bit of irrelevant useless “online” advice that they have hidden under various icons more suited to TeleTubbies than thinking adults before finally emerging on the other side a gibbering idiot.
I have managed to use their contact form which was finally revealed to me after a sort of D&D quiz, to ask for help. An automated reply tells me to expect a response in 2 business days. Well, I understand they have more important stuff to deal with but I am naturally concerned about the £60 I just spent with nothing to show for it.
I`ll keep you posted!