TomTom drops map updates on "older" models but would love to sell you a new SatNav . . .

mrbell1984 said:
We all know lifetime doesn't mean life.

Maybe what the companies should do is allow some sort of trade-in scheme where they give you 50% off a new one + give the old device back as long as it's working. They then could "re-new" the devices by testing and putting a new case on them then sell them at 1/4 of the price with a set of maps on them with no updates. That way they win and still make money and sell the new devices. This creates jobs in the repair/refurb industry.
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I don't agree with the 'new case' idea, as the hardware will likely be ancient, but offering a substantial discount on trade-ins would have perhaps been a better way for TomTom to have managed their decision.
 
TomTom are doing it wrong - whenever the maps get updated they should upgrade the firmware to make the device run slower....:D
 
stockhausen said:
I would suggest that accurate, up-to-date maps are a pretty integral part of a SatNav; so it does effectively stop working as a SatNav when the manufacturer stops producing new maps.
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Haven't updated the maps in my Tom Tom in at least 6 years very rarely is it an issue and I've never failed to get somewhere as a result of it!
 
hornetstinger said:
Would you be ok with your car, when they release a new version of your car, all parts are no longer produced?

ECM dies after 1 year? Buy a new car!

LOL
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Sadly cars are disposable now today as well. The new "norm" amongst, well, everyone... is hire purchase. Your car older than three years? Trade it in. Never own a car, just rent one.

People don't seem to want anything to last; don't want to own anything; just want to pay through the nose in monthly repayments for stuff they get to use but never actually own.

That seems to be the future for all kinds of commodities.
 
FoxEye said:
Sadly cars are disposable now today as well. The new "norm" amongst, well, everyone... is hire purchase. Your car older than three years? Trade it in. Never own a car, just rent one.

People don't seem to want anything to last; don't want to own anything; just want to pay through the nose in monthly repayments for stuff they get to use but never actually own.

That seems to be the future for all kinds of commodities.
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Get with times bro.

Leasing a car makes perfect sense.
The whole world works on principles of never ending resources and infinite finances.
How could it possibly go wrong?
 
This is hardly new news, heard it about 12 months or so ago, I read the story about the person who was moaning about a 2017 bought device and it was actually old stock and the device was 4 or 5 years old and had stopped being produce by Tom Tom a good year or so before purchase.

Haven't Apple been 'bricking' devices for years forcing people into new hardware with various software releases, this is sadly how everything is going nowdays with everything being disposable rather than made to last, printers being the prime example, can buy a printer (complete with ink although they are considered starter packs) for about £25 - £30 but wanna replace the ink, yeah that'll be £40.
 
Maundie said:
Haven't Apple been 'bricking' devices for years forcing people into new hardware with various software releases, this is sadly how everything is going nowdays with everything being disposable rather than made to last, printers being the prime example, can buy a printer (complete with ink although they are considered starter packs) for about £25 - £30 but wanna replace the ink, yeah that'll be £40.
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That's been the way pretty much since the dawn of printers, although the starter ink packs usually contain a lot less than the full refill.
 
Kenai said:
They're not exactly secretive about it though...

WHAT DOES “LIFETIME” MEAN?
Lifetime is the useful life of the device, which means the period of time that TomTom continues to support your device with software updates, services, content or accessories. A device will have reached the end of its life when none of these are available any more.
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Indeed.

I don't really see a problem with it. But I understand that people are naive and annoyed.
 
One More Solo said:
That's been the way pretty much since the dawn of printers, although the starter ink packs usually contain a lot less than the full refill.
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Yep this is true, I used to work in staples when I was at Uni and I explain this to customer’s eps on the **** cheap sub £40 inkjets with £30 black cartages. When they say (or ill ask) is it just going to be go B&W document printing, I try and steer them towards a low end Brother B&W laser. Half of them would go “oh thanks, sounds like I’ll be better off with a cheap laser” and they come back.

The other half would come back bitch the included ink didn’t last long (even though I warned them) and bitch some more about the cost of the cartage (even though I warned) them. Customers a lot of the time just looked at the cost of the printer and not the cost per page for their use case.


I also remember when the first TomTom Navigator came out and people used to nick our dummy units…..
 
Tomtom as a company really slipped up. They used to have a really strong brand and market share of the satnav market.

Then when smartphones first came out, they just sat back and watched google maps, etc overtake. It took them years to even think about making any app.

Over the past 10+ years, they've done very little development on improving the products either. They still pretty much look identical now (chubby things with poor quality screens and chunky bezel's) to how they did when they first came out.
 
Rossi~ said:
Indeed.

I don't really see a problem with it. But I understand that people are naive and annoyed.
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Thats not being naive, thats just being lied to plain and simple.

Lifetime means until it breaks or "dies".

It doesn't mean "however long we fancy". When a product comes with a lifetime warranty it means that it will last a very very long time unless you do something to break it. You aren't allowed to lie in advertising so why is it ok to do so for a warranty.
 
I haven't used a dedicated SatNav in years. I use Waze on my phone. It's free, always up to date (sometimes freakily so!), takes almost no data and means I only have one device hanging off my screen/needing power. I'm amazed that TomTom etc are even still going. I'd have thought they'd gone the way of fax machines. Even my 73 year old Dad uses his mobile as his satnav.
 
fez said:
Thats not being naive, thats just being lied to plain and simple.

Lifetime means until it breaks or "dies".

It doesn't mean "however long we fancy". When a product comes with a lifetime warranty it means that it will last a very very long time unless you do something to break it. You aren't allowed to lie in advertising so why is it ok to do so for a warranty.
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I'd say lifetime is within reason- sufficient hardware is suitable for the software. Ie would you expect a IBM XT to be able to load Windows 10, after all those XT's are still running fine.

Not sure what version of maps I have on the Tomtom Go 300, but certainly a lot newer than the official maps tomtom produced.
 
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