I figured if Andy can bitch about poor product design, I can too.
Dear TomTom,
I’ve had your GPS for 4 years now and I must say that I truly love your device. I can’t count the number of times when traveling when your device has navigated me through the toughest of directions with ease and in such a friendly voice. Your device gets me to my destination fast, warns me of impending toll roads and even helps me find a massage parlor near the highway when I’m feeling down.
I’ve recommended your GPS products to all of my friends and family as I feel they are superior to other devices on the market.
However, I’ve recently encountered a problem with you GPS device: It lacks a “no ghetto” button.
See, a week ago my wife and young son were visiting family in Washington DC. After a late dinner at a relatives house we headed off in our mini-van to where we were spending the night. “Need directions to the highway?” asked the relative. “No, not us, we have a TomTom GPS system capable of directing us to our final destination with ease” I responded.
We punched our final destination into our device and off we headed to the nearby highway, or so we thought. Instead of being directed to the highway on-ramp that was less than a mile from our departure point, your device directed us through some of the “more challenging” streets of Washington D.C. Streets that I would never drive through by myself at night, let alone with my pregnant wife and one year-old son.
Your device is always sure to warn me that I might have to pay a toll on a road, then gives me the option to continue or not. Why not have the same thing for unsuspecting out-of-towners going through bad neighborhood? I’ve even gone ahead and developed a nice little screen for you to use up top.
Regards,
Mark
Tagged with: new tomtom maps • tomtom gps