Rand McNally's TND780 = POS

The purchase of my TND780 was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I have had nothing but problems with the thing. I have had to send it back to the factory for service not once or twice but SIX times!

In addition to six trips to the factory.for repair, they have sent me numerous new cigarette lighter plug power cords and just as many of the magnetic mounts and each has failed.

The last time i sent it in they sent me a "New" replacement unit complete with both the plug and magnetic base.

I have had the "New" unit less than a week and ir is worse than the last one! So far on a nice long STRAIT stretch of interstate it has had the "This is you" icon literally spin like a top telling me I was headding North, East, South, West then suddenly.South, over to West and bounce between the 4 directions randomly for miles... All while on a stretch of near arrow straight interstate.

I can not get it to automatically switch from day to night (or night to day) mode no matter what I do.

It has frozen numerous times a day.

It frequently quits displaying the mile marker number and then it suddenly comes back for awhile then goes away again, all while remaining at a steady speed on the same interstate.

It has (aparently) little interest in actually using the GPS satellite system as it has on numerous times, while.on open interstate, free of trees, buildings or other obstructions quit giving any useful information and displayed a "GPS" symbol inside a red circle with red slash located at the bottom center of the screen. To get it to "reconnect" with the satellite system (after waiting up to 30 minutes for it to do so on its own) I have to power the unit down and restart it. Which "Usually" works but not always.

All this while I have an old Garmin unit I purchased in 1996 sitting right next to it working perfectly the entire time.

Since I initially purchased.this POS TND 780 I have spent countless hours on the phone with technical support which has almost always been a waste of time. On MANY occasions I have actually had to instruct the tech support person on how the unit is supposed to work because they were giving me incorrect information!

Now that I have this latest "New" replacememt and am having all these problems I have called and requested to speak to a supervisor.or manager. I was told it would take 24 to 48 hours for one of them to get around to calling me back.... that was over 96 hours ago.

Real great service for a real great product. I should have just flushed my $500 directly into the toilet, i would have gotten more use and satisfaction from doing that than I have from the TND 780.

I feel.I have been more than fair and reasonable in attempting to get this resolved and have a unit that actually works as it is adveetised to. I have not just run to the internet at the first issue or sign of problem without giving the company a chance to fix.the problem.

As I said, I have sent it in 6 times. I have requested a supervisor with no results.

I have been using GPS devices since the early 1980's when there was only.computer based software and costly antennas you hooked directly to the computer. I was involved in testing and developing some.of the very first GPS based software and equipment for field use by EMS, Fire and Police use.

I have had literally many dozens of various "Modern GPS" units. I am well aware of how they are supposed to work and quite familiar with the technology that makes them work, or should i say, that is SUPPOSED to make them work.

So far, my experience with the TND780 is that it is literally a peice of crap.

If RM ever makes this right I'll be sure to ammend my post.