My GPS took me to the wrong place, credit me!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

We get these calls more than you might think...

Me: Thank you for calling <red checkmark>, how may I help you?
SC: Well, I'm not in a very good mood. I pay for a phone that should work, I expect to have a phone that works but this one obviously doesn't.
Me: Ok, what's going on with it?
SC: I'm a sales manager for a large retailer, we had a big conference in Baltimore last weekend and I ended up TWO HOURS late because the stupid GPS on this thing doesn't work!
Me: Was this <red check mark nav app>, Google Maps, something else?
SC: It was Google maps.
Me: Ok and you couldn't get the app to start?
SC: Oh it starts to just fine, that's not the problem. I put the address of the conference center in. I even double checked it and it took me to a some shopping plaza on the other side of the city. So then I had to spend time trying to get this stupid thing to take me where I was trying to go. I finally got there but as I said I was two hours late and missed the opening session on the conference. My bosses were not happy and neither am I.
Me: Can I have the address of the conference center?
SC: Sure, let me pull it up...it's 1234 Sucky Avenue W.
[i](at this point I go online and investigate. The conference center is indeed at that address, BUT 1234 Sucky Avenue E [note the direction change] is, in fact, a shopping plaza on the other side of town).
Me: I see it on my screen now, but I also notice 1234 Sucky Avenue E is a shopping plaza, probably the one you ended up at.
SC: Look, I told you, I double checked the address exactly as the company gave it to me.
Me: Is it possible they gave you the wrong one by mistake.
SC: Sir, these kind of things at my company are handled by very smart people well above your pay level. They KNOW what they're doing. I promise you they gave me the right address.
Me: Apps are fallible, they don't always work right. Having said that, the odds of an app messing up in such a way as to cause you to go to an address so close to the one you actually needed are incredibly high.
SC: Well, I'm telling you that's what happened. Your company sold me this phone, it's not working, I expect compensation for the time I've spent dealing with this problem.
Me: We can only give credit for errors we make sir.
SC: Ok...and?
Me: And this is not an error.
SC; The hell it isn't! The phone doesn't work!
Me: The issue is not with the phone, it's with the app. Now you may be right there is an issue with the app but bear in mind that app is not made or supported by <red checkmark>, it's a Google app, you would have to talk to Google about your issues. But I don't think it's an issue with the app, I think your company gave you the wrong address by mistake.
SC: They don't make those kind of mistakes. I don't appreciate you trying to avoid responsibility for this. Credit my account!
Me: I can't do that. We are not responsible for the problem.
SC: If you can't help me, get me someone who can.
Me: I can give you the number to Google support...
SC: It's YOUR problem, Not Google's. I want someone who can help from where you are, right now.
Me: Please hold for a manager.

As usual, my manager shot him down. Even noted the account in case he calls back and tries this same stuff again.

[Mr Hero]

The SC doesn't work with humans?

[Mytical]

The SC doesn't work with humans?

Exactly. I don't care if you have 20 Phd's, graduated in the top .0001% of each class, and make a million dollars a minute. All humans make mistakes.

[AyreBiskits]

i was attending a sci-fi con last year and needed to find the nearest 3-letter drugstore. i used my phone app to try and find it, maybe i should have clairified it. my phone's instructions sent me to a seedy neighborhood, the actual location was a vacant lot. well i guess there were some exchanges of drugs for money being made here but it wasn't the legal kind, i'm pretty sure of that

[icmedia]

I am absolutely inundated with customers who think that I should provide support for whatever random, sketchy apps they've installed on their phones...or, that I should "call Google and deal with them" for the customer because, "that's what I pay you for."

Despite the fact that, last I checked, the customer doesn't write my checks. Or that I haven't made a penny off that customer since I sold them their phone, 18 months prior. Or that I have nothing to do with the apps they downloaded.

[taxguykarl]

I don't care if you have 20 Phd's, graduated in the top .0001% of each class, and make a million dollars a minute. All humans make mistakes.

A degree and high IQ does not mean judgement or, in the case of the SC in the OP, experience with unfamiliar cities.

[AyreBiskits]

i used my phone's map, not an app i added later. but then i didn't call anyone to complain. i actually thought it was funny, took a picture of the location even, and hauled ass out of there before we became a crime statistic.

[earl colby pottinger]

Travel

When I am asked to carry people to some location or they ask me to meet them.

I DEMAND not ask, DEMAND the address.

If they want to use their phone only, I don't go.

If they want to just give directions, I don't go.

Give me the address, I will use Google Maps and store it on my computer to use off-line.

It is amazing how many times it turns out they don't know the real address, leave something out of their directions or worse expect me to divine the real location.

[EricKei]

It's a running joke in my family that I insist that people give me directions by using fast food joints as landmarks -- Why?

- They go out of their way to be visible
- Often brightly-colored (using the red/orange/yellow "make you hungry" color scheme)
- Many have signs high up in the air that makes them noticeable from a distance
- Way too many streets either change names at big intersections, have poor signage, or none at all -- and, by the time I'm close enough to READ any street signs, I'm about to PASS them >_>

[MoonCat]

EricKei, I think you've got a good idea there! I don't drive, so I don't navigate by street names, east, west, south, or north, etc. My directions sound more like this: "Go down this street until you pass the Wegmans, turn right at the next light and keep going up that street until the Noco station..."

[mathnerd]

EricKei, I think you've got a good idea there! I don't drive, so I don't navigate by street names, east, west, south, or north, etc. My directions sound more like this: "Go down this street until you pass the Wegmans, turn right at the next light and keep going up that street until the Noco station..."

My home town was flattened by a major hurricane 20 odd years ago. I still give directions to "turn by the random landmark that used to be there". Maybe I need to update.

[mikoyan29]

It's also possible that when he typed the address in...the GPS started to complete it for him...and he just accepted it...

[wolfie]

The most important lesson in learning how to use a GPS is knowing when to ignore it. My guess is that whoever sent out the addresses left out the directional marker (i.e. gave address as "1234 Sucky Avenue"). Also, SC was a sales manager for a major retailer, and the wrong address was a shopping plaza - did that retailer have an outlet in the plaza? One thing I've learned is to ALWAYS get directions from a live human, rather than trusting a GPS. GPS databases have been known to "stack" all addresses on a little-used road at a single point (which, conveniently, has no cell coverage once you get there), be out of date, so the road you're using isn't in the database, or is shown with its old name, leave out the fact that the truck driveway is off a different street than the postal address, or the loading bays are configured so you need to back into the driveway from the street. Admittedly the last 2 probably wouldn't apply to the SC in this case.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I use a Google Maps app whenever I need to get somewhere and the directions aren't burned in my memory. Fortunately, it actually has a voice prompt to let me know when I need to be making a turn.

You know, "In a half-mile, turn right onto Rte. 503 Nonesuch Street," or whatever.

Granted, the prompt's female voice gets annoying sometimes when I deliberately deviate to get gas or food. It's that insistent, "Make a U-turn. Make a U-turn," that is why I call her 'Navi.'

[KatherineB]

I use a Google Maps app whenever I need to get somewhere and the directions aren't burned in my memory. Fortunately, it actually has a voice prompt to let me know when I need to be making a turn.

You know, "In a half-mile, turn right onto Rte. 503 Nonesuch Street," or whatever.

Granted, the prompt's female voice gets annoying sometimes when I deliberately deviate to get gas or food. It's that insistent, "Make a U-turn. Make a U-turn," that is why I call her 'Navi.'

On an episode of Qi, Stephen Fry said he called his his Navigatrix.