SWMBOs Smart came with built-in satnav, powered by TomTom, and offering "Live Services".
They're far from critical (and probably at the ongoing annual renewal price not particularly good value for money).
My (her) subscription ran out at the end of May when we were in France. From varied reading I was under the impression that the provision had been discontinued for Smart sometime after my last renewal (though continuing for similar units in Renaults), but on the day of expiry (at which point it was still functional) I got an email invitation from TomTom to renew for a year at a special reduction of 50%.
The email contained a link, which I invoked, and it created an order and (itself) applied an offer code enabling the reduction. I then placed the order which went through processing and cleared, being detailed in my account.
The Live Services however didn't activate.
Allowing a reasonable delay of a couple of days, I am now in communication with TomTom support, who inform me that, as I had suspicions, Live Services have been withdrawn at Daimler's (Smart) request.
They've offered me a free year's use of their App, with a year's subscription to Live Services, which is of little use to me. Any refund (which I have of course requested) as an alternative was only very lightly implied. (I will have my refund, in this life or the next!)
Frankly, the process is carp - the offer email they sent was explicit about renewing the subscription for the Smart. (The graphics have both the TomTom and Smart logos!). The only device on my account is the Smart in-dash device.
I've been rather scathing about TomTom support in the past, but this takes the biscuit.
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Is there any facility for android/ CarPlay ?
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>> Is there any facility for android/ CarPlay ?
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No, the car is nearly 9 years old and doesn't even have Dab :-(.
BUT....
After telling me three times the facility has been withdrawn, the then came back and said ignore all that, it doesn't appear that the order has been associated with a device (apparently I should have done that with the order, but I've re-checked, and there is no method of doing so - there is only one device on the account).
Advised to delete the device and re-add it via the SD card from the car.
It made no difference to any association in the account details, but lo and behold the facility that has reputedly been deprecated is now working perfectly in the car!
Told you I didn't rate them (even if they have now got it working).
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>> Told you I didn't rate them (even if they have now got it working).
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I agree Tomtom tech support is absolutely hopeless theses days - years ago (possibly over a decade ago now!) it was fabulous.
My latest car has Android Auto and on that I use Google Maps that integrates well and I like the "Satellite" view but it's possible to use the Tomtom app in the car if you choose but it doesn't seem to work as well. However I still have my old Tomtom 5200 mounted elsewhere that is still getting lifetime maps etc and traffic "visualization" is way better than G Maps. I keep running as second opinion.
Last edited by: BigJohn on Tue 17 Jun 25 at 23:51
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I declined to pay a subscription for e-services on our Fiat500e. Good decision as free to use WAZE is equally as good.
Yes on the 500e you can do screen mirroring to your phone. But in your case , simply use your phone in a cradle.
Cannot recommend it highly enough Waze ( on Android).
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I much prefer to have whatever Live Services I use on the main screen. (Doesn't stop SWMBO using her 'phone to give me a different, often wildly so, opinion, though ;-) )
Ironically, My Volvo, being MY22 just predates Volvo's migration to AAOS using Google Maps for navigation. My car has the last and latest iteration of their previous "Sensus" system, which includes (subscription-free) Real Time Traffic Information, .......except that it currently doesn't, and hasn't for a couple of months.
Apparently the system is out across the globe, with all countries reporting the same experience. Volvo say it's a problem with a third-party supplier (that would be Inrix, then) and they're urgently trying to fix it (apparently not that urgently).
My suspicion is that a contract has expired somewhere, and there is wrangling over costs and possibly exploration of a different supplier, or even abandonment is being investigated.
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>> My suspicion is that a contract has expired somewhere, and there is wrangling over costs
>> and possibly exploration of a different supplier, or even abandonment is being investigated.
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This happened with a certain age of VAG cars a couple of years ago due to the TMC provider no longer broadcasting.
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>> My suspicion is that a contract has expired somewhere, and there is wrangling over costs
>> and possibly exploration of a different supplier, or even abandonment is being investigated.
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This happened with a certain age of VAG cars a couple of years ago due to the TMC provider no longer broadcasting.
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Yep but it only affects UK VAG cars - when I go over to Europe my TMC picks up a signal again - I'm sure I've seen a hack somewhere where you can change the UK provider but it involves messing with the internal settings via diagnostics which is beyond me.
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...and just to round it off, TomTom support (in India) insist it shouldn't be working as Daimler/Smart have decided to no longer offer it. (I purchased via a direct, targeted invitation specifically for Smart from TomTom themselves, remember).
Anyway, it still works in the car though isn't visible on either of the two ways of managing my account, and they say they're still progressing a potential refund!
(Just leave it alone, won't you!).
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Well, I have my refund......
....and as yet, the services I never got a subscription for and should never have been offered are still there.
A refund would normally invoke cancellation of any associated subscription, but given the initial problem was that one was never registered...... we'll see how long the situation prevails.
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Smart Fortwo - TomTom pah! - carmalade
