Direction-less in Seattle

[roadside]

Sometimes a little extra info can go a long way.

Me: Want my job?
SC: Lost guy


Me: Thank you for calling ********* roadside assistance. How can I help you today.

sC: It's not really a roadside issue, I just can't find your Seattle location. The GPS led me down a dead end road.

Me: Ok sir, do you know what road you're on?

SC: It's just a dirt road.

Me: Do you know any nearby streets, or possibly the last road you were on?

SC: No, I just see a dead end road and a bunch of trees.

Me: I'm sorry sir, but unless I can somewhat determine your location I have no way of properly giving you directions.

SC: Will the GPS tell me where I am?

Me: *thinking* If you ask it nice enough. *speaking* Yes sir.

SC: Oh, well I'm on (some road that even google can't find).

Me: I'm sorry, I'm unable to find that.

SC: If I get the address will the GPS take me there?

Me: ...........Yes.....

SC: Oh, well that will work then.

[chainedbarista]

OW.

granted, seattle has become a mega-huge city since i lived there in the late 80's-early 90's, but seriously, i could still navigate with a map, gps or something giving me an idea. usually all i need are basic directions, the street address and i'm set.

the dirt road should have clued him in somehow, i'd think...

[Andara Bledin]

You just know that guy isn't on an actual street. He's probably managed to turn onto some development a half block shy of the street he was supposed to turn onto.

^-.-^

[Jack7957]

the dirt road should have clued him in somehow, i'd think...

Not always. I had a service call at a Natural Gas facility several years ago. Tried Mapquest, their directions, for some reason, had me get off an exit from the highway, get back on same highway heading the other direction, and get off again, 30 miles back. So that would have been a 60-mile detour I did not need. So I ended up calling the facility, and part of the directions were to "turn down the dirt road". The last mile or two was through the woods, on roads that did not appear on any map I had at the time.

[Andara Bledin]

First, I don't really like Mapquest that much. Google maps works better for me.

That said, I never trust the directions given by any automatic mapping program unless it's a current GPS (I've never actually used one). The last time I tried them, Mapquest had some particularly bad directions, going the wrong way on a one way street.

I can read a map, so I just print out the area I need to be, and make my own directions.

^-.-^

[ArenaBoy]

First, I don't really like Mapquest that much. Google maps works better for me.

That said, I agree on how bad Mapquest is. I worked at 3 different venues during the summer but they were owned by the same company. The headquarters is the arena I will be fleeing from, aka Whiskeyclone. I've had people pull into the party venue quite irate about ending up at Whiskeyclone which is a good 10 miles away from the Party Venue. The end place on the directions lead to Whiskeyclone instead of the party venue. As soon as I see Mapquest I instantly say use Google maps.

One of the reasons I like Google maps is not only for a clever sense of humor, but that it lists toll roads.

[RentalRacer]

My car rental company just started using a Garmin GPS system, seems to work really good, I took it on a trip to CT and it never steered me wrong. The previous system we had was a Motorola handset that worked on the Nextel network, what a piece of crap.

And to make it even easier for our customers, we have loaded into our GPS units the address for every single location we operate, so all the customer has to do is select the return location and the GPS maps it out for them. Yes, many people can't figure this out and still call the local office for directions.

[roadside]

If you're using Garmin, trust me, you will have some problems. They seem to have a tendency to shut down and stop working. I'm still attributing most of this to operator error.