Support from GPS companies

On Jan 8, 2007, at 2:05 PM, Adam C. Engst wrote:

> Another one I've been remiss in not forwarding sooner. I'm curious
> about experiences others have had with Magellan and the other GPS
> makers; I've heard some horror stories from other friends too.

I bought the TomTom GO 700 (with hard drive) August, 2005. It
contains the entire US and Canada road maps. It's the only GPS I've
ever owned and I bought it because of it's Mac compatibility. It's an
excellent unit with only one downside: sunlight reflections almost
wipe out the screen. I eagerly awaited my first update as road
changes made some of the directions obsolete.

My wife doesn't like the unit as she expects it to speak in her
vocabulary, which it doesn't. I recommend that everyone work with
their unit to experience its quirks before using it on trips.

I was able to update November, 2006. Everything is better now,
including (amazingly) the display; the colors have been changed to
not reflect the sun as much making it much better. Connecting on-line
to update was a learning experience of trial and error (not as Mac
like as possible), but the result was excellent.

I highly recommend the TomTom.

- Hal


[So the question is, have you had any interaction with TomTom customer service, and how has the Mac compatibility been useful to you. -Adam]

I own a Magellan RoadMate 700 which I bought in June 2005. I had a reasonable experience with customer support last year when I was having difficulties getting it to lock-on to a satellite signal. It took a couple of tries getting through but once I did, they stayed on line with me while I went out in my car (using my cordless house phone) and walked me through a debug procedure which eliminated my problem. However, I have continued having difficulty with signal strength. I think the problem is with the antenna connection. The antenna is designed to 'break away' from the unit. The coiled power cord has yanked the unit into the center floor console and floor of my car on numerous occasions when the suction cup windshield mount and/or the 'quick release' slider attaching the power base to the mounting arm have unintentionally come detached. This has caused the antenna to pop off several dozen times. I now get no signal whatsoever. I ordered a new antenna from the website along with the latest software version but the antenna has been unavailable for a month now - I have no idea when it will ship.

So, needing a GPS for a trip over Christmas, I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 660. The Garmin has an amazing feature set but I don't like the navigation routing as well as I liked the Magellan. It's routing seems to strongly favor major roads even when local streets are considerably shorter distance and, seemingly, faster travel times. When set to 'shortest distance' mode, it goes to the other extreme - weaving you all over creation and directing you down neighborhood streets where there are more major streets one block away. I haven't had it give me 'bad' directions but I don't recommend trying to use it in areas you are very familiar with. I have not contacted Garmin for any customer service so I don't know how well they will stack up in that comparison.

My experience with Magellan has been good, though I'll admit I've never called their tech support. A
couple years ago I bought a Magellan RoadMate 700 ($850 at Costco). The only problem I encountered
was that Magellan seems to be consistently backordered on accessories -- it took over a month for my
2nd windshield mount and car power adapter to ship.

About a year later Magellan came out with the much improved RoadMate 760. I was disappointed because
it had many more "points of interest" (six million versus two million) as well as new features such
as automatic rerouting in traffic jams. I even thought about selling my 700 and buying a 760 new --
but the price drops of the newer models meant I would lose a lot of money on the transaction (at that
time used 700s were selling for under $500 and the 760 was $700 or so). Then I received a wonderful
notice from Magellan. For $99 (less than I'd have had to spend for a new 760), they sent me a DVD
software upgrade. I had to boot up my hardly used Windows PC and hook the RoadMate to it via USB, but
a few hours later my 700 was transformed into a 760 -- the only difference being that it still says
"700" on the front of the unit.

I've been totally happy with the upgrade and the unit. It works great and has really come in handy on
many occasions. My only "complaint" is that it doesn't work off a battery but must connect to your
car's cigarette lighter outlet -- a pain when I've got iPod and cell phone and other things and only
one outlet. But since I recently bought an iPod compatible head unit that lets me keep my iPod in the
glove compartment and charges it, that's not such a big problem. I highly recommend these portable
GPS navigators -- while slightly more hassle than built-in ones, they are much cheaper and easier to
upgrade (my brother paid over $2500 for the built-in system in his Magnum and it isn't as nice as my
RoadMate), and you can move them from car to car if you have more than one vehicle. I used mine in a
rental car on a trip last year and it was great -- getting a rental car with GPS would have doubled
my rental fee!

-- Marc

______________________________________________________________________
      Marc Zeedar * Publisher * REALbasic Developer Magazine
                    <http://www.rbdeveloper.com/>

On 10/01/2007, at 3:12, Hal Weinstock wrote:

> I bought the TomTom GO 700 (with hard drive) August, 2005.
> [...]
> I highly recommend the TomTom.
>
> - Hal
>
> [So the question is, have you had any interaction with TomTom
> customer service, and how has the Mac compatibility been useful to
> you. -Adam]

I got a Navman N20 GPS last Christmas as a present. The first thing I
did was go to my Mac, fire Safari and start searching for Mac
compatibility and this product. Nothing at all. A couple of days
afterwards I went to the store with the "Gift Ticket" and exchanged
it for a TomTom Go 710. This model doesn't have hard drive, but I did
not want one as I plan to use it different scenarios where I can
eventually shake it a lot (if you need a hard drive buy the 910 model).

I live in Spain and here having a Mac is not like in the USA, so I
asked the salesman for Mac compatible GPS units. He didn't know
anything about it (and was the "expert" at this store). I was
expecting this answer, but being an Apple Consultant working for
three Apple Centers (sorry, now the should be called Premium
Resellers) and although it was my first GPS, I had been reading about
them a lot these years and had done some market research on
compatible software, GPS systems, etc... and I had my homework done.

I bought the TomTom because it is widely available here in Europe, it
has an iPod port, you can control your mobile phone via BlueTooth...
and because it is has Mac software. The software will not win one of
Apple's awards but it works. You can backup the contents of your SD
card, you can update de system, load maps, traffic cameras, voices,
color schemes and many other things, but it hangs more often than
desirable. I have seen forums where people use the TomTom directly on
the Finder, without software. When you connect the unit to its USB
cradle it mounts on your desktop, so you can browse the contents of
your SD card and load or remove things by hand. It is a little more
complicated but it works.

For driving directions I highly recommend the TomTom (any of their
models, depending on your needs), but for a more serious GPS usage
(tracks, way points, etc...) you will need another brand.

Victor Bottacco victorskios.es