Suppport Thread for the TND 500, TND 700 or future Rand McNally products.

Mark, I have a little suggestion for the future of the TND. Hopefully you can pass this info along to the powers that be at Rand McNally. After just having finished the worst week ever with my TND. It found ZERO of the addresses that I had it search for on the first try. My phone and Ipad found all first try. I am totally frustrated with my TND currently

I purchased my TND first and foremost as a GPS. I expect it to be able to find EVERY address I put in, and route me safely to that location.

Between my Ipad, smart phone, laptop, paper maps and TND. I am also never more than two foot away from a mapping unit. Here is the problem as I see it... My Ipad (which doesnt even have a GPS chip) has superior address finding ability to my TND, so does my phone. They all do a better job finding addresses than the TND ever has.

Its not that the TND doesnt have these addresses or towns in its data base. Its just trying to figure out how to get the TND to release the information I need to know. TND "thinks" its the boss, its exactly backwards of how it really should be.

For instance. I wanted to enter a "new address" in Valley Ne. According to the TND "new address function" the town of Valley Ne. does not even exist.

2nd try. Instead of using "new address" I am forced to use the "find Intersection" (which requires me to use another map source to locate an intersection to feed it) the TND likes that, and all of a sudden it now knows where the town of Valley Ne. is. The Suggestive Type feature is the biggest flaw of the entire TND unit. IT IS THE BOSS, IT HAS CONTROL, not me. I have had this happen literally a hundred times in the last couple of years. I waste more time trying to figure out how to squeeze the TND just right to tell me what I want to know. I shouldnt have to do that.

I have no idea why Rand has chosen to partition out its databases inside the unit, and ration by function. It makes zero sense. Im sure this wasnt the intended function, but it is the end result. Its the same with the List feature, so often it wont let me add the next letter or number in a street or highway name. This causes me to back out and restart a new search using a different feature, only to find that the address really does exist inside the TND. I absolutely dread getting a highway name in a delivery address and God forbid a county road. Five of ten times I will abandon the TND and just use my cell phone if there is a county road involved in the delivery address.

The way TND allows users to access the available databases just sucks. There is no more accurate way to say it...

I would like to see Rand refocus their efforts on making the absolute best GPS capable of finding each address and successfully routing me.

My laptop, ipad, and cell phones are all capable of showing me local weather. I am unimpressed with that new TND feature. What would impress me is having my TND find 100% of the addresses I need on the first try.

 

Mark, A little late but you know what they say, thanks again for the help with the Poi issue I was having. Although a bit of a pain in the ### to access them, all 199 of them are in there. Not sure if Rand actually knows the lengths you go through to get our issues straightened out, and from the personal e-mails it seems to be on your own time most of the time. Thanks again.

Rich

 

I have had that problem a lot as well.

 

Mark, the voice on my TND710 is not working. At first it was breaking up now it is gone and I do not get the "click" when I touch the screen. The voice output started working the other day and worked up until the point I turned the unit off overnight and then turned it on in the morning. Any suggestions before I go through tech support and the RMA process. There have been some instances where I missed my turn because I am so engrossed with traffic or there is a lot of glare on the screen and I don't get that voice to warn me.

I've attempted a Diagnostic and Repair and it always fails at file 418 of 437.

Is there anything else I can try before I go to the next phase?

 

FYI all - our tests of the new 720 model are completed and the chart is updated at the usual link:
Truck GPS features comparison and review chart.

As always we will continue to test new features or hardware changes on the models we are tracking.

I know that there is SO MUCH to read there so I am trying to make another version this week that pairs down the biggest differences that we hear in our daily conversations with the drivers that make their buying decision. But I will still leave the full chart up for those seeking the nitty-gritty info too.

- Don