F*$+ING ROAD ANGEL !!!! GRRRRRR

[moreausmith]

Hi all, I have had issues today with regards to my Road Angel, I am being told that whilst the company was bought out by Road Angel Group that they are not updating my Road Angel that has a contract on it till late September 2019. They said they have only bought the name and not the contracts even though they have all my contract data, reported them to Trading Standard and Citizens Advice, they are refusing to let me speak to a manager. I have asked how I can get updates and they are saying I would have to buy the new product for £250 and they will then transfer my credit over to that. I also have a Gem that has a faulty screen and they are saying they may be able to fix but if not I would need to buy the Road Angel Pure for a discounted fee of £199 and they will transfer the balance of that contract Feb 2019. Seems like a scam to me I have had various Road Angel products over the last 20 years.

[bad company]

techguyone said:

Crazy, I had an original Road angel, then successive tom toms, I soon got fed up of being fleeced every quarter for 'map updates' and 'live alerts'

Why anyone buys these nowadays baffles me.

It baffles people like Tom Tom too as they make apps for smartphones.

Save your money.

Use google Maps (free updates & live traffic etc)

Use tomtom speed cameras app (yes Tomtom) - you put it in 'overlay' mode and it sits on top of Google Maps, job sorted, completely free, no ads, and as much protection as you'd get from road Angel/Tomtom/Garmin etc.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

complete no brainer, all the features of a sat nav unit on your phone, you can even use HERE maps or something if you don't want to use precious 3G data.

It's really not a hardship to have a mount and a charger, and it's a one off cost.



Ok it's in night mode, but you see the idea.

Edited by techguyone on Saturday 14th April 17:10

That looks really good but it means getting one of those phone cradles installed in the car. Is there a way to integrate this with Apple Car Play?

I have a Road Angel and the subscription is due in a few days. I’ve tried Waze and CamerAlert but neither work properly through the car Bluetooth.

[anonymous-user]

bad company said:

That looks really good but it means getting one of those phone cradles installed in the car. Is there a way to integrate this with Apple Car Play?

Not yet, but from iOS 12 car play will be opened up to third party apps for navigation, so Waze and Google Maps etc will be available on it as well as Apple Maps. Apple Maps is a lot better than it used to be, but Waze is still my personal choice.

[A900ss]

bad company said:

That looks really good but it means getting one of those phone cradles installed in the car. Is there a way to integrate this with Apple Car Play?

I have a Road Angel and the subscription is due in a few days. I’ve tried Waze and CamerAlert but neither work properly through the car Bluetooth.

Tomtom speed cameras is a free app for Android only. They don’t do an iOS equivalent other than their (paid) full blown navigation app that includes speed cameras.

Assuming you have an iPhone (as you mention CarPlay), I use Apple Maps on my carplay (ste but all you can use) but then start up Waze manually on the phone with the sound as ‘alerts only’ and this way it gives you an audible warning of speed cameras (only when speeding as per the normal Waze app) and police ahead through the carplay speakers. It will also ‘fade’ any music you are playing through carplay.

When iOS 12 comes out, I plan to do the same but substitute Apple Maps for google maps as they are better and still use Waze as background alerts only for speed cameras.

I ‘may’ use the Tom Tom iPhone app if it gets carplay approved in iOS 12 as The TT set up is good.

Waze will also be available in iOS 12 (September) but I won’t use it as main display as it looks like something my kid would draw and I’m not too keen on its routing algorithm as it uses some very small roads at times.

Currently Waze doesn’t give ‘map view’ for alternate routes in Android Auto either, just ‘list view’ which is quite poor as well.

Either way, good luck

Edited by A900ss on Thursday 12th July 16:42

[bad company]

Thanks for the help guys.

It sounds like I’m going to have to pay Road Angel another £100 subscription and see what IOS 12 brings. I don’t mind paying for TomTom or whatever speed camera warning system as long as it works properly through the car and has a good, up to date database.

[A900ss]

bad company said:

Thanks for the help guys.

It sounds like I’m going to have to pay Road Angel another £100 subscription and see what IOS 12 brings. I don’t mind paying for TomTom or whatever speed camera warning system as long as it works properly through the car and has a good, up to date database.

For the iPhone and CarPlay you can use tomtom navigation as ‘audible’ alerts only. Similar set-up as I explained above except using TomTom instead of Waze. Good notifications through CarPlay but audibleonly. No visual. I sometimes use this method instead of the Waze method as Tomtom gives an audible warning g regardless if you’re speeding or not.

I do 30k miles a year and (touch wood), clean licence since the mid 90’s.

You can ‘try’ tomtom for free. Albeit you only get 50 free miles a month. Or a fiver gets you a month use to try it.

Good luck.

PS - I think you must have a destination entered in tomtom for it to give you alerts. You don’t need the voice on, silence that but the alerts will come through.

Edited by A900ss on Thursday 12th July 19:19

Edited by A900ss on Thursday 12th July 19:19

[bad company]

A900ss said:

For the iPhone and CarPlay you can use tomtom navigation as ‘audible’ alerts only. Similar set-up as I explained above except using TomTom instead of Waze. Good notifications through CarPlay but audibleonly. No visual. I sometimes use this method instead of the Waze method as Tomtom gives an audible warning g regardless if you’re speeding or not.

I do 30k miles a year and (touch wood), clean licence since the mid 90’s.

You can ‘try’ tomtom for free. Albeit you only get 50 free miles a month. Or a fiver gets you a month use to try it.

Good luck.

PS - I think you must have a destination entered in tomtom for it to give you alerts. You don’t need the voice on, silence that but the alerts will come through.

Edited by A900ss on Thursday 12th July 19:19

Edited by A900ss on Thursday 12th July 19:19

Thanks. I’ve downloaded the TomTom Go app. I’ll give it a go. Anything I need to put into the settings?

[LarsG]

I have a collection of Tom Toms that I reviewed and I still find Google Maps superior.

[A900ss]

Just check over the sounds and warnings in settings, I have mine set to ‘read aloud warnings’ and toggle on/off the ones you want. I just use the default.

Then I turn the voice off.

This way I get no ‘turn left, turn toght’ but I do get the audible camera/mobile speed camera warnings in carplay.

I do enter a destination though as I read somewhere if no destination is entered, you get no warnings. Not sure if true.

Good luck with it. If you get any problems, just shout. I was using this set up today around M40/M42/M5 today as loads of variable cameras that Waze will only warn you about if you are exceeding 70MPH. Tomtom warns of them at any speed you care to drive which is useful when the variable speed limit is set at 40MPH, well below the Waze notification threshold.

[A900ss]

LarsG said:

I have a collection of Tom Toms that I reviewed and I still find Google Maps superior.

This isn’t about the navigation, it’s about speed camera notifications.

[AW10]

moreausmith said:

Hi all, I have had issues today with regards to my Road Angel, I am being told that whilst the company was bought out by Road Angel Group that they are not updating my Road Angel that has a contract on it till late September 2019. They said they have only bought the name and not the contracts even though they have all my contract data, reported them to Trading Standard and Citizens Advice, they are refusing to let me speak to a manager. I have asked how I can get updates and they are saying I would have to buy the new product for £250 and they will then transfer my credit over to that. I also have a Gem that has a faulty screen and they are saying they may be able to fix but if not I would need to buy the Road Angel Pure for a discounted fee of £199 and they will transfer the balance of that contract Feb 2019. Seems like a scam to me I have had various Road Angel products over the last 20 years.

If you made the purchase with a credit card I would file a claim with the card company for non-delivery of the contracted service. And then give RA a wide berth.

[A900ss]

Just to complete my carplay/camera notifications, The Cameralert and Cyclops iOS apps also give audible notifications through CarPlay.

As the title of this thread is about Road Angel, I will update an earlier threa dhat I started about Carplay a few months ago.

[bad company]

A900ss said:

Just to complete my carplay/camera notifications, The Cameralert and Cyclops iOS apps also give audible notifications through CarPlay.

As the title of this thread is about Road Angel, I will update an earlier threa dhat I started about Carplay a few months ago.

Interesting, I have been unable to get CamerAlert to work through my 2017 BMW 540 but not sure I was using CarPlay at the time.

Do you have a link to the CarPlay thread?

[A900ss]

bad company said:

Interesting, I have been unable to get CamerAlert to work through my 2017 BMW 540 but not sure I was using CarPlay at the time.

Do you have a link to the CarPlay thread?

I can’t find the thread!!!

Cameralert definitely working on my VW through CarPlay as I tried it around Bristol this morning. I had the sound setting on the app set to the music icon rather than the phone speaker or the headset icon.

I wasn’t listening to any other music app or radio and had the CarPlay screen on Apple maps and the sound was loud and clear.

I’ll create a new thread later today when I have more time.

[A900ss]

bad company said:

Interesting, I have been unable to get CamerAlert to work through my 2017 BMW 540 but not sure I was using CarPlay at the time.

Do you have a link to the CarPlay thread?

I can’t find the thread!!!

Cameralert definitely working on my VW through CarPlay as I tried it around Bristol this morning. I had the sound setting on the app set to the music icon rather than the phone speaker or the headset icon.

I wasn’t listening to any other music app or radio and had the CarPlay screen on Apple maps and the sound was loud and clear.

I’ll create a new thread later today when I have more time.

[A900ss]

New thread just about CarPlay here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...