TomTom. Apple. I Want My Money Back

Before we ventured out on our roadtrip, I bought TomTom’s US/Canada and Nordic apps for the iPhone for an awful lot of money. Hey, I thought, always having a navigation system in my pocket is a pretty nifty tool for traveling around a foreign country. Gee, golly.

Off we went, got the car, fired up the TomTom app aaaaand… FAIL.

What TomTom forgot to write on their incredibly self-conglatuatory app description (‘has been very well received’, my ass) is that the app is literally only half the product, as it is on its own, incapable of keeping track of your location while driving.

Oh, for that to work properly, you need the TomTom cradle.

I would have bought the cradle in the blink of an eye actually. Except, it wasn’t available. And still isn’t by the way, with ‘Coming Soon’ having been the message on the website for about two months now.

So I bought half a product. Twice. I’m stupid that way.

So the same day we drove to a Target and bought a real TomTom unit. Worked flawlessly and practically saved our trip several times.

I mailed TomTom, asking for my money back on the iPhone apps, reasoning that they had sold me a product which fails to live up to what it promised (and promises still) to do. They told me they couldn’t give me back my money, I would have to take that up with Apple.

Of course, despite in theory having the ability to remotely turn off apps, Apple of course holds the policy of flat out no refunds on iTunes Store purchases.

So… TomTom creates an app which in itself does not do what it promises (and which is expensive, the US & Canada version currently goes for $100), but they unfortunately can’t refund my money. And Apple, renowed for their approval process, which ostensibly is supposed to shield me from bad apps, chose to approve TomTom’s app and gladly took my money despite the app not working?

What is wrong with this picture? What happened to my rights as a consumer? They product may be virtual, but my money isn’t…

And We're Off

Put 250km behind us today, from our Holiday Inn Express just south of SFO over the Bay Bridge, off the freeway through some surreal all yellow hillsides filled with windmills—and locals tail-gating me to push past the 55mph limit—into Modesto, ate at Denny’s, looked across the street and saw Lucas Plaza, where a statue commemorating American Graffiti has been erected (yeah, as if I wasn’t already looking for it; but it was by chance we found it nonetheless). Quick photo op, and then on down to Merced where we’re currently staying at a motel.

Lessons learned so far: Easy to drive over here, people don’t seem to be assholes about driving, like they are in Denmark. Everybody goes at least 5mph past the speed limit. At least. It took me a while to figure out where to turn on the lights on the Mustang. The Mustang has a USB port and line-in, making it hella easy to play music from iPods etc. Oh, and it’s a very nice ride. Oh, and automatics… Droooool. Finally, if it’s hot now, how will it be in Death Valley? The mind boggles.

Before we left the San Francisco area, we stocked up on various supplies and bought a TomTom XL 340-S, despite having bought the US TomTom app for the iPhone. But getting a signal on that was a royal pain in the ass, and I wasn’t going to bet our trip on something so frail, so… And what a pleasure the real thing is to use. How people roadtripped before GPS, I’ll never know. I’m currently updating the maps and hoping to install Homer Simpson…

Anyway, mind is melted. Tomorrow the mountains.