TomTom repair.

My TomTom XXL failed the other day. Won't switch on. The power light does illuminate, though, when it's plugged in. Just before it failed totally, it kept on powering down on its own.

TomTom do a fixed price repair which is about the same as a new XXL from Halfords (89.99)- obviously now a run out model on special offer.

However, there are several independents offering a repair service for rather less - roughly 30 quid inc postage. Anyone used one?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
Loading thread data ...

Was thinking about mine the other day- screen looks dull, maps are getting more out of date, etc. If that happened to mine, think I would accept the inevitable and consider what next. (And use my phone in the interim.)

Reply to
polygonum

sounds like a dud battery

Reply to
charles

FWIW, my TomTom (One rather than XXL) has had the battery surgically removed (it wouldn't hold a charge) and works fine when plugged in, both before and after the surgery.

Scott

Reply to
Scott M

charles wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@charleshope.demon.co.uk:

I had a Garmin Nuvi. Had it nicked and got a TomTom. I hated it and bought another Garmin.

Reply to
DerbyBorn

It was powered up from the car at the time. But I'd guess it still could be. My original still works off the car battery, even although the internal one died years ago.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'm happy enough with it - I don't use it much. Originally got it for the large screen, at the time.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

ISTR that electronics should last 7 years or so. I've no idea why manufacturers insist on putting non-replaceable batteries that last 4 or 5 years in electronics (but I can guess).

I returned a TomTom with the receipt when it was 4 or 5 years old and they replaced it with the same model, FOC. Which was nice of them.

Reply to
Onetap

It could also be the back up battery. well worth checking before shelling out a fixed price repair fee.

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Tomtom on a mobile phone isn't too bad. Around £25 for the UK with free map updates. The maps are stored on the phone/SD so you don't need a mobile data stream to use them

Reply to
alan

It is the conflict between using phone as a phone (etc.) as against the navigation which puts me off sticking with that.

Wish the flaming map updates were free or "nominal cost" for the pukka devices.

Reply to
polygonum

Compared with what I used to have to spend on maps, the charges for map updates are good value. Then again, I make a living taking people to places, and I often need address level mapping of some remote village nobody more than a couple of miles away could direct you to.

I do draw the line at paying a couple of hundred quid a year just to find out which bridges are too low for the coach I drive, though.

Reply to
John Williamson

Can't help wishing that somehow the map sourcing was more in the open maps direction. For example, councils, governments and police could simply push out a single update, at short notice if needed, and everyone would get it regardless of device. I'd still be willing to pay something for the delivery service.

Reply to
polygonum

Are you aware of the Open Street Map project?

formatting link

It's almost good enough for what I do, and probably more than good enough for people who just use it for leisure.

It's not what you want, but it could be, if enough people started using it in the way intended.

Reply to
John Williamson

Yep - that is what I meant but brain couldn't get name to fingers. :-)

Reply to
polygonum

I was offered a cheap map update for my TT. I went to their site and found the offer was only valid if I installed the previous updates first at a total cost equivalent to buying a new unit.

Their other trick was to sell units with 2G of memory (which could not be upgraded) and then neglected to inform customers purchasing a new map that it was 2.1Gbytes.

I'm a long time user of TT but not particularly a fan because of their screw the customer attitude when it comes to updates for existing products but I do find TT on an Andriod phone better than most of the (phone based) alternatives I tried.

The downsides is that a phone screen is likely to smaller than their mid/top range models and the GPS on a phone may take longer to acquire the initial position compared to the latest and sensitive GPS chips fitted to TT units.

Reply to
alan

Some of the current offers include lifetime maps and traffic data.

Reply to
dennis

If there are people offering a fixed fee repair, it's quite likely there's a selection of common faults that are easily rectified (if you have the time/inclination). It's unlikely they would do that if they had to spend lots of time faultfinding. Which means there's probably a forum thread out there describing the problems too.

[It's possible there's a selection of common faults and then a 'long tail' of awkward faults - in which case they could simply do a board swap to avoid fixing the tricky ones, which is something you can't do economically as a one-off]

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

Valid right up until the point they change name / claim chapter 11 or some other excuse. (Still using a five year old Tom Tom, used maybe three weeks a year and not inclined to ever update it)

Reply to
The Other Mike

Had to return mine when the screen failed out of warranty. They replaced it with a better model FOC. My daughter had a similar experience. Having said that, it sounds like a failed battery. Either remove it or replace it yourself, plenty of spares and instructions on ebay.

Reply to
Lawrence

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.