My worst GPS experience EVER!

[Mogal]

I bought a drivesmart65 about 9 months ago and I am so angry at this thing, its borderline useless.
At home, I didn't search for too many places, but in that time, I bet about 20% of what I searched for wasn't found.
I thought that was pretty bad! Firmware and maps completely upto date, and that squaresoft thing or whatever its called is just as useless.

I'm currently on a 6,000km camping trip across BC and Alberta. And OMG this thing cannot find 50% of what I'm looking for. How is this happening? Again, everythjngnjs up to date, that squaresoft is connected, I have data access and these places are not found on the GPS.

Pull out the phone, I can speak to it, first try and bam! We have it found, and a route plotted.

Voice command is so hit and miss, it useless regardless if the address is found or not.

Is this just a lemon? Or is this what Garmin is today?
I had a Garmin about 10-12 years ago and it was alright. Now? Complete waste of time, effort and money.
Only thing I like about it, is just having live map while I drive.

Can this be fixed somehow? Or is this just the way it is?

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

You don't say what it is that the '65' doesn't find, you would need to explain more than you have, here are some questions :-

1. Are you trying to find addresses or Points of Interest like 'cinemas' , 'restaurants'
2. Is the problem that the items it can't find are on the map but are not found in a search or are they not on the map at all
3. is it only voice searches that don't work and spelled out ones are OK

I hate to state the obvious, but if it ain't on the map the '65' ain't gona find it

 

[Mogal]

1. Most of the places are/were campgrounds during the trip. But some included restaurants (not franchises, generally Mom and Pop shops that locals told us about were not found. (but they are found on google, but not Garmin or its affiliate program foursquare (or what ever its called))

2. This is the problem. From the TECH support I got, Garmin claims its a map issue, but its Garmin's interpretation of it. (IMHO) There were a couple of mountains that were not found. Due to the fact, SOME mountains are titled "Mt" in the map data (is what Garmin said) or its entered in full ("Mountain" or even "Mount") if you type it in, it's a 33.3/100 shot if it finds it... Garmin can not decipher the mountain issue, but it can for Street or St, Ave or Avenue ect...!

It's a GPS right? So one would think it would know where you are? Nope, search for something here in Canada, or Provence, and it will give you a response from the states... Not local surrounding areas?! You can't even set your default country for searching in... or a radius of area... (That I have found)

3. Voice is useless in reality. Voice command tries to interpret what you said, but its so flawed, its not worth the frustration of use. If you give it a word to search, and its not found, it comes up with some outlandish recommendations. Again, Google gets it first shot.

- Firmware and maps are updated to the newest versions (as of last week or so)

"I hate to state the obvious, but if it ain't on the map the '65' ain't gona find it"
- Of course, and this is the problem! Garmin is a GPS company. Built to help you find places. Both through hardware and software. The associate Foursquare is in the same business, but they are no better, IMHO.

Seriously, I no longer use Garmin to search for places! It's just not worth the frustration to use. I use google maps on the phone, and then just watch the GPS for upcoming streets. Makes this a big waste of money for what its advertised for. It can't find allot of places and voice command is just comic relief.

P.S. we now play games with the GPS (to alleviate the frustrations!) We'll play word games and bet on if the Garmin can find them or not!! It's a complete joke.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

I would say that, for a satnav it's search is for roads and addresses on those roads, anything else is a POI (Point Of Interest), which may, or may not be included, no satnav map database is going to compete with an online database like Google, personally I would use Google to find the POI then create a waypoint (Favourite) on the satnav to get me to the location

 

[Mogal]

I guess my beef comes from the fact it's advertised to have these features, and your paying heavily for them. And those features are why I bought it! But from my experience, Garmin is in ALPHA development with this product. The features they claim to have, don't work. Or if they do, it's just too frustrating to use, and it causes serious distractions when driving.... cuz again, THAT"S WHAT IT'S ADVERTISED FOR!

Any way to update these "POI"s?
- It seems like the firmware and map updates don't include them?

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

it's advertised to have these features . . . THAT"S WHAT IT'S ADVERTISED FOR

Are you really saying that Garmin claim to find every campground and Mom & Pop restaurant in North America?, did the Garmin you had about 10-12 years ago find these places?

Any way to update these "POI"s?
- It seems like the firmware and map updates don't include them?

You seem to think that there is a file somewhere that has every place you want to visit in it and that Garmin simply forgot to include it with your satnav, they didn't, it doesn't exist, how could they possibly know where you want to go?