Unfiltered Story #344521

I work as a delivery driver for a sandwhich shop and use GPS as a regular part of my job. The city I work in has over a dozen large aparertment complex thanks to there being several colleges, one of which has a student population over 15,000. For nearly all of these apartment complexes, in my experience, the GPS will simply direct you to the aparement complex itself, not to specific buildings within the complex. In fact, I’ve found that the GPS can often be approximate, rather than exact in it’s locating abilities.

On the day this story takes place, I’ve been assigned a delivery to one of the larger complexes on the outskirts of the stores delivery area. It’s worth mentioning I’ve also never delivered to this particular apartment complex. As usual the GPS takes me the outskirts of the complex and says, “you’ve arrived.” As it so happens, the particular spot I’m at at this point is a roundabout with approximately 4 different buildings of equa distance from the roundabout. I drive through the complex looking for the right apartment building. It’s a large complex, with plenty of pedestrians and cars for me to have to pay attention to as I’m driving. What makes it particularly difficult to navigate through this complex is that the building numbers don’t appear to be in any particular order.

After driving through the apartment complex once, and then going back through to a U shaped arrangment of buildings in the center I hadn’t been able to check out properly the first time through, I decide it’s best to call the customer. I don’t usually like to do this since whether or not they’ll answer is hit or miss. Fortunately, they do answer and they’re able to give me directions to where they are, which is on the outskirts of the complex.

When I get back to the store, a little over half an hour after I left, I’m greeted by my manager.

Manager: Where you’ve been gone over 1/2 an hour on one order.

Me: Sorry, I had difficulty navigating the aparment complex.

Manager: Why didn’t you call the store?

(Real reason: I’ve never got good information from them the few times I have called.)

Me: Well, I drove around a few times before calling the customer.

Manager: Well, you should have googled it.

(I’m taken aback at this, as this is of course what I always do)

Me: But the GPS is only approximate, it usually only takes you to the aparment complex itself. Not to the specific building.

Manager: Well, you need to update your GPS.

(She proceeds to take out her phone and enters the adress. When she zooms in, I look at the screen. The entire apartment complex is represeted by a giant green rectangular area. There’s a pin in the middle of this great big rectangular area. None of the multiple roads, parking lots, or buildings are shown. Just the green rectangle.

Manager: See it’s right here!

Me: No it’s not. (I say this as it was on the outskirts of the complex, no where near where the pin on the map is)

Manager: It’s right there.

Me: No it’s not. The apartment building was not there.

Manager: (paying no attention to me, waving the phone in my face) See it’s right here.

At that point another order is up, so I leave. Modern technology is great and all, but it’s not flawless.