Postcodes?

[musicreative]

As a beta tester, did you test with Compaq iPAQ 3970 and/or Emtac BT GPS? Have you seen the problems we're experiencing?



Tim

[Mark R Penn]

On the evidence of their actions so far, no they don't, but lets keep hoping!
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[johnmar]

Mark, I think we subscribe to the same book. TT will be judged, certainly by their customers on how they seek to remedy the situation.



The trouble is, do they perceive the problem?




_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Mark R Penn]

John, you're right that it is probably a cock up not conspiracy. My only point is that there does come a point (and I'd say approx one month after the initial anowncement we must have reached it), where there is no excuse for not doing whatever thay can to limit the damage, ie correct their statements.



A mistake becomes a lie as soon as you are aware of it and choose not to correct it, in my book.
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[planetc]

I have to admit, the postcode search is the reason I went for tomtom. I work in NW London and the majority of my work comes via MDT with full postcodes so this would have been ideal.

However despite having only used the software for a mere 24hrs due to hardware problems I did find that the postfix was enough to enable me to confirm I had the correct street (eg NW6).

It's not what I wanted, and I'd still like to think it will be updated, but it does work for me.
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no longer lost...

[johnmar]

Mark, you are 100% correct, I totally overlooked what is as you say a "vital word" which implies in their second sentence, that what is there is even better than the system available for other countries. I am sorry



Clearly, IF the facts as related to you are accurate then your interpretation is not unreasonable and any reference in their copy should have included a satement along the lines of - not currently available for GB - assuming that they intend to make the feature available in the forseeable future.



Being generous, they could well have overlooked changing their publicity material when making a last-minute decision to change the product. Only they can tell us. In view of the obvious adverse feed-back which they have received, it is 'strange' that their copy remains unchanged.



I generally tend to subscribe to cock-up rather than conspiracy-theories since all companies, organisations and individuals are very capable of getting things wrong. The important thing is how they deal with problems when things do go wrong.



We shall have to wait and see.






_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Mark R Penn]

Well, I'm sorry, but if we are talking semantics, you missed out one vital word:

Quote: You can now use a postal code as a short-cut for entering a city name; In Great Britain, streets now also have a postal code postfix.

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---

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Makes all the difference, don't you think?



Plus, Mark told us that they made a concious decision to remove the feature from the UK edition. I interpret that to mean that they did have something better (but not working) before, but then physically removed it. ie what we see now is NOT what the web site is describing. If that is the case, to leave any unqualified reference to postcodes in advertising material aimed at the UK market is lieing. I know that's an emotive phrase, but it seams to me that is exactly what they have done, so why mince words?
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[MikeB]

John,



I agree that the release does not lie per se but it is incredibly misleading for people who are used to finding things using postcodes.



Now I would have thought that the Postcode would be part of the mapping data. If this is the case then there should not really be any excuse for not being able to do full postcode searches, unless the mapping data is not up to scratch.



The difference between numbers and the UK alpha/number sequence again shouldnt be an issue either. All you are doing in either case is using a code to look up a location.
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Mike Barrett

[musicreative]

Whatever the semantics, unfortunately the postcode 'feature' is of very limited use (if any) in the UK. This ought to be made clear and unambiguous in their advertising of the product.



Tim

[johnmar]

I have looked again at the wording on the TomTom site which says the following:



Postal codes

You can now use a postal code as a short-cut for entering a city name; In Great Britain, streets now have a postal code postfix.



I am not an apologist for Tom Tom ( I have also suffered from this problem) but that statement can in my opinion be interpreted (maybe with 20:20 hindsight) as saying:



ON MAINLAND EUROPE you can now use a postal code as a short-cut for entering a city name; BUT NOT IN GREAT BRITAIN where streets now have a postal code as a post(fix/script) WHICH WILL CONFIRM (fix?) THE PARTICULAR STREET.



They don't of course use the term "Post Code Search" and that plus their actual statement would I think negate the perception of any lies.



At the end of the day, it wasn't what we expected (assumed) it to be, but was it what TomTom said they were going to supply?



Have a good weekend




_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Mark R Penn]

While I can completely accept that they might have needed to pull the post code search for the UK if they couldn't get it working in time, what I don't accept is being lied to in order to get hold of my money. It clearly says on their site (and still does today) that the feature is there, even adding extra features for the UK, and yet it is not. It is not a difficult or time consuming thing to add a few words to the web site and/or upgrade e-mails saying that the feature is "to follow" for the UK, and doing so would have allowed us to decide whether or not to spend our €39.99 + p&p.



I actually think the information Mark has provided makes me feal less tollerant of TomTom. If it were a previously unfound problem (how it could be I don't know, but never-the-less...), I could accept that they had made best efforts, but needed time to sort it out. To hear that they KNEW of the problem, but still deliberately lied to me, is hard to accept.
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[iancjc]

Whatever you say in defense of Tomtom they still shipped a product to us which doesn't work as promised.



The postcode option is total crap - it is impossible to find an address by inputting the first 3 digits of a post code - it saves no time at all.



It must have come as a total shock to realise that we don't use numeric post codes. Perhaps they should have looked at the address database they have for UK customers! What happened to TESTING?



What they have done is charged loyal customers 30 quid to become paying beta testers!



The "support" pages on Tomtom's web site doesn't mention or acknowledge any problems.



In fact the best thing to come out of this is mistyping tomtom.com as tomtom.co.uk and buying some decent cigars!



Ian

[pauldr]

Well, I can't say that I've actually tested TomTom 2 yet although I do have it installed. I decided to search the forums for any clues as to the Postcode search feature which I can't seem to find any reference to. Does anyone know whether navigation to a particular postcode is possible? According to the TomTom website, this is a feature of v2, only, from playing around with TomTom 2 at home, i can't seem to find it.

[mantliff]

Hi



Subject: Postcodes



I work for www.totalpda.co.uk, and have been lucky enough to have had the Beta version of TomTom II and now have the final released version.

The problem is all round Europe they only use numeric post codes, whereas in the UK we use partial Alphanumeric. This has caused a problem with the software only giving around a 70% success rate. TomTom decided to pull this at the last moment rather than delay even further the UK launch and are looking into ways of fixing it with updates.

Still one of the best PDA/GPS systems around
_________________
Mark

<a target="_blank" href= "http://www.totalpda.co.uk">www.totalpda.co.uk</a>

[Mark R Penn]

I phoned at about 4.00 UK time, probably when they are least busy, and not at lunch.



And no, I don't believe they ever did test it properly for the UK (or other countries it seams). The guy's exact words were "we've had quite a few complaints, and we are trying to find out if it's a bug or something else.". Any beta tester based here would have pointed this problem out within minutes. And I doubt it would have taken that long for a Nordic beta tester to discover the problems over there. Driving on the correct side of the road is pretty fundamental after all!



Then again, I suppose they actually do have a very big beta programme. We're it!



Anyway, I'm going to Amsterdam next Thursday. Anyone want me to take a petition/box of TTN2 CDs/post code directory with me?
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