A GPS for my GPS
Grr... of the year
Hello all - as usual Lady Luck is toying with me and I thought I would share with you the story for your amusement. Since my life has become an endless travel itinerary, last year I decided to purchase a GPS. It was a fantastic voice-activated Garmin 885T with MSN live information and such. Before my maiden voyage with my GPS, I happily plugged in the address in Jacksonville, Florida into Bing Maps and skillfully uploaded it into my GPS. Smugly, I believed that I would never get lost again and never have to fumble with a printed map whilst driving. On my flight, I happened to get a bulkhead seat which forced me to put my laptop case in the carry-on compartment. Unbenounced to me, a scourage of a man tried unsuccessfully to jam his carry on top of my laptop bag. Cost of GPS: $300 - last known location: NYC
Oct 2009: Naturally when I reached JAX, I reached into my laptop bag to find my brand new GPS shattered. To add to this, I now had no idea what address I needed to travel to. After much pain and acceptance, I finally sucked it up and called Garmin to cost out a repair. The lady on the phone pitied my sad story and said she would ship me a brand new model for the repair cost in 2 months time. Cost to repair $150 *grrr last known location: JAX
December 2009: Garmin shipped a new GPS to me via the god-awful scourage of the universe - Un Professional Services (UPS). They, in their infinite wisdom made 3 attempts to deliver my package within 24 hours on a day my land lady was out. Naturally, instead of holding the package at the warehouse - they promptly shipped it back to sender without as much as a phone call to me. Cost to reship $15 - last known location: McLean, TX
January 2010: I managed to reach Garmin and explain the whole situation and they agreed to send another package with my GPS to me. This time I called Unable to Perform Service (UPS) to attempt to intercept the package before their alleged deliveries. They informed me that I somehow have to magically find the exact point between deliveries 1 and 2 or 3 in order to hold at a warehouse and only for 3 days. After much agony and time-off work, I managed to find a time to go to the warehouse. Since the warehouse closes at 8pm I was rushing to make it. Had I had my GPS with MSN Traffic updates, it would have warned me of the huge delay on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I was late and my GPS was shipped back to sender. Cost to reship $15+$40 in gas = $55 - last known location: Brooklyn, NY
Feb 2010: I managed to finally convince the warehouse to hold the package with my GPS for one more day and I took the morning off work and managed to pick up my GPS. With victory so close at hand - I opened the box right in the parking lot of Under Performing Services (UPS). and realised I was missing the MSN direct charger which provides the traffic updates. Cost to Replace Charger $35 *grr - last known location: McClean, TX
March 2010: I finally ordered the MSN direct charger and had it in hand. I managed to learn all the great voice activated prompts for making phone calls through my GPS except for how to terminate a call. After several hundred variations of saying "Hang Up" , "Stop Call", "End Call", "Dis-engage", "Phone Off", etc. I finally succumbed and pressed the End Call button. A uncharacteristically observant NJ State Trooper managed to see me do this and pulled me over. Ticket Cost: $265 *grr - last known location: Stamford, CT
May 2010: After having learned my lesson of the bulkhead GPS crushing incident, I always remove my GPS from my laptop bag and place it under the seat. On a whirlwhind trip from Paris to Zurich to Atlanta to JFK to Seattle to Vancouver and back to JFK, I had performed the same routine. Unfortunately, my fiance was unaware of my routine and was very sweet to pack up my laptop bag on the way out as I was too tired to care. Everything was packed except my GPS which lay untouched under the seat. After I realised it was gone, I called Delta who asked me "What are the features of your GPS so we can identify it?" I indicated it was voice activated with MSN traffic updates and maps, etc. They responded "Cool! Err... in that case, we don't have it." To the person at Delta Airlines enjoying this features, may you get a ticket for pressing the End Call button. Grrrr. Cost to re-purchase GPS $160 - last known location: Seattle, WA
Today: I shipped my *new* GPS this time to my fiance's place in NJ to avoid the hassles with Unlimited Problems with Service (UPS) through Amazon. It said shipped today, unfortunately , Amazon had used the old address for my fiance. and I had only checked her name. My new GPS apparently was signed for and is providing voice-activated commands with MSN traffic updates to someone in Boston. To the creditors trying to chase me down for the cost of his/her GPS, make sure you send the supoena by Unbelievably Poor Services (UPS). Cost of stop payment $25. last known location: Boston, MA
Overall estimated cost of GPS $1104 and I still don't have one.
- Conclusion, I will be using paper-based maps from now on.
Hello all - as usual Lady Luck is toying with me and I thought I would share with you the story for your amusement. Since my life has become an endless travel itinerary, last year I decided to purchase a GPS. It was a fantastic voice-activated Garmin 885T with MSN live information and such. Before my maiden voyage with my GPS, I happily plugged in the address in Jacksonville, Florida into Bing Maps and skillfully uploaded it into my GPS. Smugly, I believed that I would never get lost again and never have to fumble with a printed map whilst driving. On my flight, I happened to get a bulkhead seat which forced me to put my laptop case in the carry-on compartment. Unbenounced to me, a scourage of a man tried unsuccessfully to jam his carry on top of my laptop bag. Cost of GPS: $300 - last known location: NYC
Oct 2009: Naturally when I reached JAX, I reached into my laptop bag to find my brand new GPS shattered. To add to this, I now had no idea what address I needed to travel to. After much pain and acceptance, I finally sucked it up and called Garmin to cost out a repair. The lady on the phone pitied my sad story and said she would ship me a brand new model for the repair cost in 2 months time. Cost to repair $150 *grrr last known location: JAX
December 2009: Garmin shipped a new GPS to me via the god-awful scourage of the universe - Un Professional Services (UPS). They, in their infinite wisdom made 3 attempts to deliver my package within 24 hours on a day my land lady was out. Naturally, instead of holding the package at the warehouse - they promptly shipped it back to sender without as much as a phone call to me. Cost to reship $15 - last known location: McLean, TX
January 2010: I managed to reach Garmin and explain the whole situation and they agreed to send another package with my GPS to me. This time I called Unable to Perform Service (UPS) to attempt to intercept the package before their alleged deliveries. They informed me that I somehow have to magically find the exact point between deliveries 1 and 2 or 3 in order to hold at a warehouse and only for 3 days. After much agony and time-off work, I managed to find a time to go to the warehouse. Since the warehouse closes at 8pm I was rushing to make it. Had I had my GPS with MSN Traffic updates, it would have warned me of the huge delay on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I was late and my GPS was shipped back to sender. Cost to reship $15+$40 in gas = $55 - last known location: Brooklyn, NY
Feb 2010: I managed to finally convince the warehouse to hold the package with my GPS for one more day and I took the morning off work and managed to pick up my GPS. With victory so close at hand - I opened the box right in the parking lot of Under Performing Services (UPS). and realised I was missing the MSN direct charger which provides the traffic updates. Cost to Replace Charger $35 *grr - last known location: McClean, TX
March 2010: I finally ordered the MSN direct charger and had it in hand. I managed to learn all the great voice activated prompts for making phone calls through my GPS except for how to terminate a call. After several hundred variations of saying "Hang Up" , "Stop Call", "End Call", "Dis-engage", "Phone Off", etc. I finally succumbed and pressed the End Call button. A uncharacteristically observant NJ State Trooper managed to see me do this and pulled me over. Ticket Cost: $265 *grr - last known location: Stamford, CT
May 2010: After having learned my lesson of the bulkhead GPS crushing incident, I always remove my GPS from my laptop bag and place it under the seat. On a whirlwhind trip from Paris to Zurich to Atlanta to JFK to Seattle to Vancouver and back to JFK, I had performed the same routine. Unfortunately, my fiance was unaware of my routine and was very sweet to pack up my laptop bag on the way out as I was too tired to care. Everything was packed except my GPS which lay untouched under the seat. After I realised it was gone, I called Delta who asked me "What are the features of your GPS so we can identify it?" I indicated it was voice activated with MSN traffic updates and maps, etc. They responded "Cool! Err... in that case, we don't have it." To the person at Delta Airlines enjoying this features, may you get a ticket for pressing the End Call button. Grrrr. Cost to re-purchase GPS $160 - last known location: Seattle, WA
Today: I shipped my *new* GPS this time to my fiance's place in NJ to avoid the hassles with Unlimited Problems with Service (UPS) through Amazon. It said shipped today, unfortunately , Amazon had used the old address for my fiance. and I had only checked her name. My new GPS apparently was signed for and is providing voice-activated commands with MSN traffic updates to someone in Boston. To the creditors trying to chase me down for the cost of his/her GPS, make sure you send the supoena by Unbelievably Poor Services (UPS). Cost of stop payment $25. last known location: Boston, MA
Overall estimated cost of GPS $1104 and I still don't have one.
- Conclusion, I will be using paper-based maps from now on.
posted by Megalomaniac at 12:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home