Copied Navigation Disks

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Alfie

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We have seen a lot of customers with very poor quality navigation disks having all sorts of problems. Mostly these disks have come from eBay sellers. These disks are sometimes quite convincing in their look. However, these copied disks do not work aswell in the navigation drives due to them having greater error retries, less refelctivity than proper disks and distinct lack of quality control. They also cause a laser mechanism to work harder retrying unsuccessful reads. This shortens the length of the laser's life.

I recently had a very productive meeting with our Teleatlas account manager and they are actively working on seeking out these people who are selling counterfeit disks. They do not seem too worried about the odd individuals who simply copy a disk for themselves. We have agreed to work with them on these commercial scale ripoffs and therefore if anyone knows of or has bought any copied disks and would like to 'expose' the sellers, then please email us or PM me in the strictest of confidence and I will pass on the relevant information. We may even be able to offer a special discount on a proper disk for anyone helping us;)

Thanks.
 
I have a suggestion for your TeleAtlas account manager:

Anyone buying a TeleAtlas nav disc should be able to "update/trade in" that disc for a current disc at a reuced cost. This would encorage people to keep updating and reduce the temptation for pirates.

Most Software packages offer this facility. I assume you view it as software; otherwise as a comparison to a map its bl***y expensive!:cool:
 
I agree with the above, but in even stronger terms - the discs really are a completely *insane* price. I know it's not exactly like for like, but when you can buy a whole navigation system for £100 these days, £250ish for a new disc is absurd.

There ought to be a subscription service, such that you get a new disk whenever it comes out. You could sell that service, Alfie, so it would be regular income for you.
 
I agree with the above, but in even stronger terms - the discs really are a completely *insane* price. I know it's not exactly like for like, but when you can buy a whole navigation system for £100 these days, £250ish for a new disc is absurd.

There ought to be a subscription service, such that you get a new disk whenever it comes out. You could sell that service, Alfie, so it would be regular income for you.

Interesting idea!

The disks (DVD's) are less than £200 if you avoid the dealerships (especially if you are longer standing MBCLUB member;) ). The CD's are generally under £100. Whilst there are small S/W updates on these disks the bulk of the disk contains data which is strictly controlled by Teleatlas. Even with Tom Tom you have to pay for the updates plus Teleatlas get a slice of the price of every new Tom Tom!
 
They are still comparatively expensive. This means I will not go for annual updates but only renew when I find a new road system not on my current disk. There's a price point issue here where TeleAtlas are actually losing repeat sales because currently that point is pitched too high.
 
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They are still comparatively expensive. This means I will not go for annual updates but only renew when I find a new road system not on my current disk. There's a price point issue here where TeleAtlas are actually losing repeat sales because currently that point is pitched too high.

You have the same problem as me, in that if your navigation is wrong you will end up in the sea :mad:
 
The disks (DVD's) are less than £200 if you avoid the dealerships (especially if you are longer standing MBCLUB member;) ). The CD's are generally under £100. Whilst there are small S/W updates on these disks the bulk of the disk contains data which is strictly controlled by Teleatlas. Even with Tom Tom you have to pay for the updates plus Teleatlas get a slice of the price of every new Tom Tom!

I can buy Tom Tom Western Europe for £87.02 of their Website. So why does it cost over £200 in that case. Teleatalas or MB are getting a very big slice of the cake?

Not having a go at you Alfie, but it does get my goat, usually when I have just updated to find that they have suddenly reconfigured some major junctions. :devil: :devil:

David
 
They are still comparatively expensive. This means I will not go for annual updates but only renew when I find a new road system not on my current disk. There's a price point issue here where TeleAtlas are actually losing repeat sales because currently that point is pitched too high.

I do agree with a lot of your points and others. I'll pass this feedback back to the nice lady from Teleatlas. Thanks.
 
Even with Tom Tom you have to pay for the updates
True but a fraction of the price ... the latest Western Europe maps for my TomTom 910 cost £39.95.
 
Also seems that Europeans are subsidising US map sales. At least the Navteq maps for the US are a lot cheaper than the European DVD. On the other hand US owners claim their maps missing a lot of details, like smaller roads to people's homes.

The more owners buy copied discs, the more those genuine discs cost. I wish there was a reasonable way to protect data against copies. On a W221/204 you don't even need the disc once you have uploaded it the HD. Rumours said the discs would be VIN dependent but that does not seem to be the case. Perhaps impossible for logistics.
 
The reality is that, year to year, so little changes that at £200 or so, it's not worth updating, unless you're regularly venturing into mainland Europe.

My car (COMAND APS) came with V2.0, which the dealer kindly updated to V2.2 to fix an issue (can't even remember what is was). Even that rev was way behind the one that was current at the time.

I bought V6.3 off eBay a few mths after it was released for £60. The only reason I bought that was to get TMC. The disk appears to be genuine, it was hologram sealed and wrapped (I know none of which is 100% conclusive) and has worked perfectly, but I do wonder where the eBay sellers get them.

I think the only thing I'd consider paying full price to get an update for now is if they added full postcode lookup - the current address look-up is useless, and I generally find where I'm going using Multimap, then us COMAND's map function to find the same place, then store it in the memory, which is just a ridiculous palaver.
 
a lot of cars i get in still have 2001 discs.. and in most cases they are perfectly fine!
 
I have a slightly different opinion in that frankly the price of a few nav CDs for my COMAND is really the small change of motoring. I'm actually very pleased with the TeleAtlas products and find them good value for money. I always buy original. :)

Whether or not you should update annually depends probably on where you live and drive, but for the London area updating is highly recommended as things change all of the time here. Same for the Europe discs IMHO.

One question: what's the status on Via Michelin versions of the CDs (COMAND 2.5)? :confused: I remember we had a discussion a while ago on whether or not the Via Michelin version are still being made.
 
Alfie,
I`ve sent you a confidential PM.

I also sent an enquiry to your organisation just prior to Christmas 2007 requesting prices for discs but nobody replied!!

Regards
John
 
not that this affects me and I am against pirate software but scare stories like this annoy me.

They also cause a laser mechanism to work harder retrying unsuccessful reads. This shortens the length of the laser's life.

Buy a disk from an eBay seller and it will ruin your laser mechanism

They do not seem too worried about the odd individuals who simply copy a disk for themselves.

but it's OK to make a copy of your own disks for your personal use

I would have thought the laser being used in a mobile unit had far more bearing on it's lifespan than re-reading sections of code on a slightly dodgy disk

less refelctivity than proper disks and distinct lack of quality control.

I fully agree with the lack of quality control but the reflectivity bit - are you sure?? If so it's interesting because I thought DVDs/Cds were made to the same standards and formulas. OK. some may be better quality than others but basics like the number of layers and the reflectivity can't change or they just wouldn't work. Are you saying that's not the case after all?

We may even be able to offer a special discount on a proper disk for anyone helping us;)

nice, a happy ending to the scare story - oh no, it's an advert after all :D

Andy
 
I fully agree with the lack of quality control but the reflectivity bit - are you sure?? If so it's interesting because I thought DVDs/Cds were made to the same standards and formulas. OK. some may be better quality than others but basics like the number of layers and the reflectivity can't change or they just wouldn't work. Are you saying that's not the case after all?

Andy

"Factory discs", be it video, audio or navigation, are produced totally differently from those one can burn at home. This makes a difference on the reflectivity. Even DVD+/-R discs are worse than factory ones. RW discs are worse than R-discs. The difference to factory discs may be less today than it was when first CD Rs came.
 
When I first got my comand I bought what I thought was a genuine disk albeit second hand from ebay for about £50 - This price sounded about right for a second user cd rom. As soon as I opened the package I recognised the smell of inkjet ink!

I complained to Ebay and explained that this fella was selling counterfeit - now heres the icing on the cake; if I went to the police they would keep the disk, so Ebay made me send it back to him in order to get my money back. I go to the police, I lose £50. I send the evidence back to the crook and I get reimbursed. I think Ebay needs change so that I send him back the police records number and then they reimburse me!​
 

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