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

Mark Kling · Oct 11, 2011

flyingmusician said: ↑

serial number is 710-010584-EL-11W12 V.1.1
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It should have routed you. We checked on shorted between start/stop and it routed okay.

under main screen/preferences/route/freeways - what do you have set?

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Kling · Oct 11, 2011

yankeerose said: ↑

TRUCKERS, READ THIS STORY BEFORE YOU BUY A RAND MCNALLY TND500, TND 500, TND700, TND 700, TND710, TND 700, T7E

Why list all when you have a T7E only. Have you bought anyother models?

You know the old saying "no matter how bad you have it there's always someone else worse off than you"? I'm only going on my 4th Rand McNally TND 700. sportsterbob is on his 7th!

I have attempted to converse with sportsterbob and get some details. Still waiting on details.

The following is the email I sent to Rand McNally's consumer affairs department to which they promptly blew me off and referred me right back to customer service.

Customer support handles support.
......................

First, let me start off by saying "I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER RAND MCNALLY PRODUCT AGAIN"! I am 100% dissatisfied with my Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 700", my Rand McNally Motor Carriers Atlas both of which were purchased in 2010 and Rand McNally Customer Service.

I am an independent trucker and I tell any and every trucker who will listen not to purchase a Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 700". I have a CB in my truck and there are plenty of times other truckers get on the radio asking about the Rand McNally and believe me I tell them plenty. I didn't always feel this way. My husband and I were in the market for a unit and had already decided upon the Rand McNally so when I received it as a gift last September I was thrilled and proud to own the supposedly best unit on the market. Other truckers from all over the country would show great interest in it. They would see it attached to my windshield or see me entering information into it while at a stop. I was more than happy to tell and show them how it worked telling them "it was the greatest thing ever invented". My enthusiasm continued for 2 months as the unit did almost everything I needed it to do. Then the problem started. The USB port became loose and would not hold the connection on the charger in my truck and since it only has a 2 hour battery life the unit became
Battery life is 30 minutes on the 7" and about 2-3 hours on the 5". This is due to the 7" running a high def screen. Did you try the AC cord to see if it did the same? 99% useless to me. One would think that Rand McNally would have considered manufacturing the unit with a replaceable battery or with a battery that would hold a longer charge. The legal length of a trucker's daily on duty status is 14 hours, but we're not all long haul truckers who live in our trucks and drive at all different hours of the day and night. I am a regional driver who is home every night. If I didn't have to deal with the stress of the unit going out on me when I need it the most during the day I could run it on the battery all day or have the option of changing the battery during the day and recharge the unit at home every night. With about 3 million drivers it is hard to make 3 million TND's to suit everyone's needs. It comes with a DC and AC cord. For the most part the driver will have it plugged into the DC connector on their truck.

My feelings of love for my Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 700", quickly turned to hate when I realized that I am now at the mercy of Customer Service and am stuck with a $500. GPS unit that I can barely use. If it was less than a year old it is covered by warranty. It is only by accident that I stumbled upon your email address because none of the customer service reps ever offered it to me or my husband even though we made ourselves perfectly clear how dissatisfied we were with the unit. Did you E-Mail me? Customer Support is the front line of support. I have not had any contact with customer service since they replaced my brand new unit with a refurbished one that was marked as "new" on the receipt that it came with. Most companies will replace with a refurbish. If my phone breaks it will be replaced by a refurbish even though I bought new. But it was clearly not new because it was still set with the previous truckers settings who owned it before me. This was our fault. It should have been cleared and the software reloaded. This used unit started doing the same thing after only 3 weeks of use. They sent me a new charger insisting it was the charger this time and not the unit and of course that didn't work either. They offered to send me another refurbished unit stating that the "intelliroute TND 700" "was now at "end of life" and it would not be possible to send me a new one. It is not at end of life. It is still supported and if within the one year of purchase it is covered by warranty. So Rand McNally decides to come out with a better unit than my unit which I was only able to enjoy for 2 months and I'm basically SOL (Do I have to spell it out?). That was back in the beginning of the year and that's when I gave up on the unit and customer service and stopped syncing the unit with the software that I have nothing but problems with also. In the meantime, I kept receiving emails inviting me to the trade show to see the fabulous new and improved Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 710" to further rub salt into the wound. At the bottom of the E-Mail's you can opt out.

I see where you had the orginal TND replaced once. So what you have now is your 2nd unit. Where are the other two?

So now I only use the unit for directions in to my destination which I have to enter in to the unit the night before while it's charging at home because the USB plug will not maintain the connection while the truck is moving. Then I have to start the unit routing to that destination so that all I have to do the next morning is turn it on and choose "select previous route" in order to save precious battery time when I actually need it to work. But I can only turn it on once I'm within 5 miles of the location and hope that I don't miss a turn or there is no detour along the way. Then I have to quickly turn it off once I get to the street that the destination is on. Then I try to get it to charge up again once I arrive there by trying to get the USB plug on the charger to connect. But it has to be in such a way so that it stays connected and I have to make sure that I don't move around too much in my cab so I don't lose the connection or else the unit will go out while I'm right in the middle of trying to get to my next destination and then I can't use it for the rest of the day. When I punch in my next destination I have to write down the route so that if the unit goes out on me I at least have something else to refer to. Pretty ridiculous isn't it? In the meantime, I can't use any of the other features that the unit provides such as keeping track of my total mileage, state mileage, toll mileage, hours, eta, etc.

You got the Unit in Sept (10)? 2 months - Dec 10? you had it replaced. So by Jan 11 you get your 2nd unit and within 3 weeks (Feb 11) it is issues. You charge at home, but it will not charge in the truck? It uses the same pins (1,5) on the USB port for both DC and AC, not sure why you say the USB port will not charge, but you charge it each night on AC - this would lead to the DC cord. If they replaced the DC cord and you still have issues, did you look at the connector on the truck to make sure it provides a good connection?

But, back in Feb 11 you are under warranty, but you refuse warranty. It is now Oct 11 and you say the unit is end of life? Your warranty has run out, but you had plenty of time to have it replaced again in warranty.

Rand Customer support is there for you. They are not required to give out my E-Mail address as I do not work for Customer support. I work for R&D. I assist drivers who contact me either via the forum or customer support with their issues.

As for my Rand McNally Motor Carriers Atlas, that's a another story which seems so much less significant than the problem with the GPS unit. I bought it in April of 2010 and it completely fell apart by September of 2010 after very light use. What a coincidence. I received the GPS unit in September. Now, when I have to refer to my Motor Carriers Atlas because I can't use my Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 700" it's a constant reminder of how Rand McNally got the better of me. Not only did Rand McNally fleece me out of over $500. I have to spend another $400.-$500. to purchase another GPS unit (I will not be purchasing another Rand McNally Motor Carriers Atlas).

Did you contact anyone at Rand about your MCRA? If not, why wait till for over a year to mention it here?

The big question in my mind right now is whether I will get a response to this email and is anyone going to actually read it from start to finish. As for me, I'm moving on. I'm already in the market for another GPS unit for truckers. Once I get my new one I'm going to throw my Rand McNally "intelliroute TND 700", out the window of my truck and run it over with my trailer which will give me tremendous pleasure. I'll send you the link to the video when I post it onYouTUBE.

When your 2nd unit failed you were within warranty, but you elected not to use the warranty to correct the 2nd issue.

By what you mention, that you can charge at home on AC, but not DC in the truck. Do you use DC at all in the Truck? If not, is this the main issue? Battery not lasting 14 hours? Rand did survey's and found over 99% of the drivers would have the TND on some sort of DC source.

Thanks,
Mark

.....................

That's it, no "Dear Rand McNally" no "Thank You". They don't deserve any of that. Since this email was sent I sent back my second unit for a 3rd refurbished and defective unit. What defect? DC issue again? I called tech support and asked to speak to a supervisor and the tech refused to give me a supervisor stating that the supervisor hired him to deal with the problem. I then called the corporate office and asked for the president of the company. Of course I didn't get to speak to him or her but I did speak to someone who told me she would have the tech supervisor call me. Of course the supervisor didn't call me but another tech did and asked me if I want another refurbished unit or the fabulous new TND 710. I told him I wanted the TND 710 and he said he could sell it to me for half price! That's when I hung up on him. He called me back not 15 minutes later and said that it just so happens that they just found a brand new TND 700 still in the box that they could send me. It's a miracle! After reading sportserbobs story would I even want a TND 710? So, now I have to send my 3rd unit back before they will send me the 4th supposedly brand new TND 700. The big question in my mind is what happens when this one does the same thing.

In case any of you decide to accuse me of being a salesperson for another GPS manufacturer I assure I am the real deal. I've filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of Lexington, KY to which of course Rand McNally never even bothered to respond.

I will keep you posted.
Click to expand...

If you continue to have issues with the TND not charging in the truck, but will charge at home. This is what I would look at.

DC Cord.

DC source in truck.

Is the DC connector making a proper connection and does not have an "air Gap" at the Postive (tip) end.

The TND get its power on the same pins, as all USB connectors. This is a standard. On a 5 pin - pins 1,5 and on a 4 pin - pins 1,4.

Make sure you use the supplied DC cord that comes with the TND. If you have a 7" it draws 2Amps. Most other USB power cords provide only 1Amp. The TND 7" will run, but about hour 7-9 it will shut off. The 1Amp cannot charge the battery and run the high def screen at the same time. Battery is totally drained by now.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Kling · Oct 12, 2011

Corporal_Clegg said: ↑

TND 710 ... Hey Mark, can you tell me why a leg of the trip In trying to input says no truck routing available? Check from Pilot in Bellemont,AZ to 17500 Shideler Pkwy, Lathrop,CA

My QC routing says to go I40 - I15 - CA58 - CA99 - CA120 - S AIRPORT WAY - W YOSEMITE AVE - SHIDELER PKWY
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Their might be a restriction. I am looking at the next set of maps in Beta and it routes fine as above. I do see a slight issue of it going down to NF-171 and making a U-turn.

I have set for 53', 102", 80,000, no hazmat.

Thanks,
Mark

Iron Flyer · Oct 12, 2011

I can understand yankee rose's frustrations, I'd feel the same way if that happened to me as well, but, sometimes I've found that how a problem is handled is usually reflective of how I approach it, just some food for thought yankee rose.

My main reason for posting is to say that there are many of us that never post in this thread because our rand mcnally GPS are working as they're supposed to. I had my USB on my 710 wiggle out twice, but have the cord looped around the arm on the window mount and it seems to work fine now. Given that it is not a regular occurance I'm not too worried. I figure if it fails after the warranty is out I think I'll replace the mini USB with a better style of connector. Rand, my question for you is why not use a full size USB connector? Its much more robust and wouldn't impact the unit that much in terms of size would it? Or, move up to a Magsafe connector like Apple has done with their laptops. Just food for thought.

flyingmusician · Oct 12, 2011

cc194217 said: ↑

It should have routed you. We checked on shorted between start/stop and it routed okay.

under main screen/preferences/route/freeways - what do you have set?

Thanks,
Mark
Click to expand...

It's set to allow. I do know how to set it up properly I'm also a commercially licensed pilot so this isn't my first dance with a GPS unit.

It just does some weird #### sometimes lol.....but just seems like I noticed alot of little bugs in it after this last update I did on it.

Mark Kling · Oct 12, 2011

Iron Flyer said: ↑

I can understand yankee rose's frustrations, I'd feel the same way if that happened to me as well, but, sometimes I've found that how a problem is handled is usually reflective of how I approach it, just some food for thought yankee rose.

My main reason for posting is to say that there are many of us that never post in this thread because our rand mcnally GPS are working as they're supposed to. I had my USB on my 710 wiggle out twice, but have the cord looped around the arm on the window mount and it seems to work fine now. Given that it is not a regular occurance I'm not too worried. I figure if it fails after the warranty is out I think I'll replace the mini USB with a better style of connector. Rand, my question for you is why not use a full size USB connector? Its much more robust and wouldn't impact the unit that much in terms of size would it? Or, move up to a Magsafe connector like Apple has done with their laptops. Just food for thought.
Click to expand...

That is a full size USB connector. Rand has looked at the mini-USB and other types of connectors for future models.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Kling · Oct 12, 2011

flyingmusician said: ↑

It's set to allow. I do know how to set it up properly I'm also a commercially licensed pilot so this isn't my first dance with a GPS unit.

It just does some weird #### sometimes lol.....but just seems like I noticed alot of little bugs in it after this last update I did on it.
Click to expand...

Ah, but you are there with the TND and I am here without. Always I try to determine the base settings first so that I can see if it is a setting or maybe an map restriction.

Rand tested with the maps in Beta. I will regress a Unit back to the maps on a 710 and see if that will affect the outcome. Under Navi/user is a file called user.ini. If you could E-Mail me that please. This is where your settings are stored.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Kling · Oct 12, 2011

Iron Flyer said: ↑

I can understand yankee rose's frustrations, I'd feel the same way if that happened to me as well, but, sometimes I've found that how a problem is handled is usually reflective of how I approach it, just some food for thought yankee rose.
Click to expand...

When I read what she wrote I take out the emotions and look for the details.

Sept 2010 -Bought/gift -

Dec 2010 - RMA (1st) -

Jan 2011 - TND is having issues. Driver did contact Rand, but did not use warranty to have TND replaced. Rand did send her a DC cord.

Sept (?) 2011 - Waited till warranty is almost out to contact Rand for RMA (2nd) - Note the issue is the DC. Driver is home everynight and charges on AC for the past (7-8 months). TND uses same pin out on DC/AC. Issue is with DC cord or vehicle.

Aug - Sept (?) 2011 - Rand replaced

Aug - Sept (?) 2011 - RMA'd (3) - close to out of warranty.

If the TND still had an issue from Jan 2011 - Sept 2011 why wait till warranty is close to ending before taking action. Driver is home every night.

From what the driver details the issue is with the DC charging in the truck.

1. DC cord
2. Vehicle

TND cannot charge on DC and charge on AC. You are getting the required DC voltage off the AC charger at the USB Port.

MCRA - MCRA failed Sept 2010, yet driver waits for over a year to mention it. If driver had mention it when the MCRA failed it would have been replaced at that time.

Thanks,
Mark

Iron Flyer · Oct 12, 2011

cc194217 said: ↑

That is a full size USB connector. Rand has looked at the mini-USB and other types of connectors for future models.

Thanks,
Mark
Click to expand...

Well then I have a weird one that left the factory, because my 710 has a Mini USB on it, not to be confused with the tiny Micro USB. My Mini USB is in a type B configuration. So what I am saying is Rand, why not stick a full-size standard type A USB on there instead.

Mark Kling · Oct 12, 2011

Iron Flyer said: ↑

Well then I have a weird one that left the factory, because my 710 has a Mini USB on it, not to be confused with the tiny Micro USB. My Mini USB is in a type B configuration. So what I am saying is Rand, why not stick a full-size standard type A USB on there instead.
Click to expand...

The standard A is on the end of the USB cable. I usually refer to the Mini USB type B as a USB.

Thanks,
Mark

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