Has my love affair with lidl finished?

JOSman

I bought a silvercrest sat nav (pna-e3540n) (one of many items I bought over the years in Lidl's from this manufacturer) last October, but the maps were woefully poor. So eventually contacted silvercrest help desk for maps that reflect the country (not green field sites) and they've more or less told me tough.

They never offered any map support whatsoever and have stated that they only support the hardware (not much good to me as I bought it as a unit). They also stated if you need maps contact the sales team for purchase.

I used to look forward to seeing what Lidl had to offer each week, now I won't even visit a store.

So silvercrest/targa, I will never buy your stuff again. Rant over.

End of an affair.:mad:

jor el

Satnav maps are generally about a year behind the actual roads. Since you bought yours in Oct 2010, I would imagine the maps are (at newest) Jan/Feb 2010. A lot has changed on the roads in that two years, with most of the current motorway network finishing in that time. Any satnav bought at that time will now be out of date, not just Lidl's. Some satnav manufacturer's give you updates, but most charge for them. This is because it costs a lot of money to map the entire country, and they don't do it for the good of their health. Digital maps cost a lot of money to buy/licence.

Perhaps before you go off on a rant about a manufacturer/retailer, you should try to understand what it is you are buying in the first place. If you bought a paper map in Eason at the same time, would you bring that back now demanding they "fix" it?

A Dub in Glasgo

I pick up from the OP that the mapping is very poor not that it is a little bit out of date.

jor el

http://www.mysatnav.ie/faq#q02

Satnavs all use the same maps (from 1 of two sources). I believe the units sold in Lidl use the Navteq maps, which are quite good. If they are old, then you can end up in green space on the map, when in fact you are on a road.

A satnav unit that is nearly a year old now, will have maps that could be 2 to 3 years old.

As of July 2011, the latest mapping from Garmin is version 2012.10. Sat-navs purchased through high street shops and online stores may have map versions anywhere from 2010.10 to 2011.40, i.e. maps already 6-24 months old.

Before buying one, it would be important to check out what map is on the unit. Lidl have an excellent returns policy, so if the unit was not satisfactory when it was purchased, it should have been returned for a full refund.

Del2005

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

I pick up from the OP that the mapping is very poor not that it is a little bit out of date.

The mapping is very poor because it's out of date. It's a nice revenue stream for mapping companies when people need to update their maps.

Generally if you buy an expensive unit it'll have 1 free upgrade, to get you to current maps, after that you'll need to pay for any new maps. But the one good thing of us being broke is that the any current map will stay current for a good while

<snip>

Cabaal

These is why (as long as there's phone coverage) a phone with google maps will beat a satnav because atleast the roads are up to date.

Whilst I understand that the OP may be annoyed in this situation Lidl certainly have done nothing wrong.

Padraig Mor

I believe that even the latest map releases use data that is up to 18 months old. I've also heard that NRA/OSI/whoever have held off passing on all the new Irish motorway data until the 2012 releases in one go.

Henry Ford III

Why not update the maps?

seamus

jor el wrote: »

Before buying one, it would be important to check out what map is on the unit.

As far as I know, Garmin still allow one free map upgrade when you first register the product. This is to allow for the fact that the satnav could be sitting in the shop for 18 months, so the maps will be way out.
From LIDL's point of view, I think it's reasonable that a map upgrade is not provided, since the products are likely all shipped and sold in a relatively short space of time, so they'll have close to the latest maps.

cython

Cabaal wrote: »

These is why (as long as there's phone coverage) a phone with google maps will beat a satnav because atleast the roads are up to date.

Whilst I understand that the OP may be annoyed in this situation Lidl certainly have done nothing wrong.

Not necessarily true at all. I have seen Google maps be months out of date too, as they can be slower to update their own mapping than sat nav manufacturers (at least those who provide updates) are to make updates available.

Edit: This area of Maynooth is wrong this past 5-6 years at this stage, for example. Now I haven't looked at it on a sat nav, but that Google maps is not necessarily up to date is evident.

keithclancy

Its the OI's fault, they don't provide the maps to the vendors and they have to do it all manually.

In other Countries they give them to them for a nominal fee.

Ordinance Survey crowd in Ireland were looking for a few million euros to do the same thing.

ejmaztec

I had the same problem with the first sat-nav that I bought brand-new through Ebay a few years ago. TomTom refused point-blank to give me a free update, even though the most recent map update had been released three months before I bought the feckin thing. At that time the Irish map coverage was less than lousy, with even the "R" road outside my house missing from it (along with most of the other ones in Ireland). That put me off TomTom for life. They used the same excuse that the OP mentioned i.e. "the software's nothing to do with us". Since then of course, they've taken over the mapping provider, TeleAtlas, so can't really use that excuse anymore.

krudler

...so dont buy cheap electronics from lidl?booze, cookies, fruit, meat and cleaning products yay, clothes and electronics, nay.

gizmo555

Del2005 wrote: »

The mapping is very poor because it's out of date. It's a nice revenue stream for mapping companies when people need to update their maps.

. . . and a good reason to buy one of the many Nokia GPS-equipped phones which come with free map updates for the life of the phone.

ejmaztec

gizmo555 wrote: »

. . . and a good reason to buy one of the many Nokia GPS-equipped phones which come with free map updates for the life of the phone.

..mainly thanks to Nokia buying the other main mapping company Navteq.

jor el

krudler wrote: »

...so dont buy cheap electronics from lidl?

There's generally nothing wrong with electronics bought from Lidl. In this case, I believe the problem is just an unreasonable expectation from the purchaser. It seems there's nothing at all wrong with the satnav, just that the maps are old. As I said, you'd have the exact same problem if you'd bought a paper map.

JOSman

Hi all, the fact is I bought the unit at the end of October 2010 and took it for a spin to Belfast in November. The M1 did not exist on the silvercrest. This is what annoyed me. Went to look for an upgrade but none available.

Last month I decided that silvercrest should supply at least one upgrade and after many emails from the company trying to wriggle out of their responsibility they finally told me to take a run and jump.

When I bought the unit the maps were already 18 months old (this from the company themselves, have it on email).

Remember that the purchaser has already paid for the licence and an upgrade should not be as expensive. :mad:

DanWall

On my Garmin the maps where out of date before the warranty, but Garmin still wanted €80 to update, half the price of the unit when new.
It does not recognise any of the new motorways.

JOSman

Just another question, is there a supplier out there that will offer proper maps with a reasonable upgrade time frame?

finbarrk

I upgraded my Garmin through <SNIP> Illegal but it works. Free too.

dudara

finbarrk You knew that site was against Boards policy, yet you went ahead and did it anyway. Please don't do it again.

dudara

The Scientician

Cabaal wrote: »

These is why (as long as there's phone coverage) a phone with google maps will beat a satnav because atleast the roads are up to date.

Whilst I understand that the OP may be annoyed in this situation Lidl certainly have done nothing wrong.

Google maps has had an error on it locally that I reported a few years back and has never been changed.