The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

Surely, with all the GPS info they must have available, they can calculate actual traffic speeds on these roads and route traffic accordingly? That can all be done in real time. Why don't they do that, possibly as a premium service they charge for?

Google Maps does. It adjusts itself continually and it's free. I find it pretty accurate. What it doesn't do is utilise back routes well to shave time where there is heavy traffic. It will route alternatives but it's obsessed with A roads.

Pyxis

Pastures, I think that you should be able to get voice instructions, so you wouldn't need to look at the screen. Better when driving, anyway!

silvercar wrote: »

Google maps will act as a satnav. You can create a wifi hot spot on your phone and connect your ipad to it.

Ah, you see I still don't yet have a smart phone! Long story. Shan't bore you with it!

ivyleaf

Oh Sue, how lovely! What a very nice family

chris_m

chris_m wrote: »

Doncha just love irony?
I've just received part of an order that's due from Wickes and emblazoned across the box is the slogan "Let's do it right" - but five of the items contained within the box are not the ones I ordered.
:rotfl:

Pyxis wrote: »

:rotfl:
Cross that out and write..... "Have another go!"

I wish I had now - they've managed to pick up the incorrect items as arranged on Friday, but still haven't delivered the correct ones which was also supposed to be on Friday. :mad:

The rest of the order, originally supposed have been delivered on Wednesday, didn't materialise. When I called customer services they had to get someone from the "local" (Lancaster) store to call me which, surprisingly (they haven't always) he did. For some reason that he couldn't work out the delivery had been changed to Thursday, but no-one had told him - or me. He said that one item was out of stock but he could get it by Friday, so they'd deliver the rest on Thursday and that item on Friday.

Thursday came and went, no delivery. I had said that if it was easier I'd be happy for it all to come on Friday to save them making 2 return trips around Morecambe Bay, so I didn't chase it on Thursday.

Friday came and went, no delivery - so this time I did chase it. Got a call from a different chap at the store, who apologised profusely, asked if I could make use of a few extra bags of the manure and compost I'd ordered by way of a material apology and promised that it'd be delivered today.

The delivery arrived today (hooray) BUT, one of the packs of timber I'd ordered was missing and the other was the wrong one !!!! :mad::mad::mad:

I'm now waiting for a callback from the chap I spoke to at the store (the last call helpfully gave me the caller ID) who said he'd look into it and get the correct packs of timber out to me today.
I'm also still awaiting an update from Customer Services about the five buckets they sent from the central warehouse which were wrong and have been collected but the correct ones haven't arrived.

I have had a few problems getting deliveries from them in the past but those have always been sorted quickly and right first (well, second) time, this one really takes the biscuit. I wouldn't use them if I could get (and transport) the stuff I want locally.


It's not just Wickes that are having trouble with my orders, it would appear.. I ordered some plants from Thompson & Morgan (as additional items to an order of an MSE blagged deal) a couple of weeks ago. I got an email on Thursday to say that the Viola plug plants had been despatched. When the package arrived yesterday it was the garden ready Primroses. I emailed them straightaway to let them know that they had sent something I'd ordered but that it wasn't what they thought they'd sent.

Got another email this morning to say that they've now despatched the Primroses. I wonder if it will be a second lot of Primroses or if it'll actually be the Violas - or maybe the Snowdrop or Bluebell bulbs I also ordered?

Looking at the order tracking I think they may have fixed it, that now says the Primroses were delivered on the 1st (which is correct) and that the Violas were despatched on the 2nd. I'll find out on Monday or Tuesday I guess.

LydiaJ

SingleSue wrote: »

Joe has now been given an open invitation to come visit whenever he wants and have a drink or some dinner or just wants some company if he is feeling lonely or out of sorts, they said to regard them as his Lincoln mum and dad.

Brilliant trip away and everything is now organised support wise for his start there thank goodness and some new friends made to boot!

Excellent news! That must be so reassuring to you.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've sometimes tried turning my phone on while I am out - and have very very rarely even got a signal. I'm so slow with it too that if I were to try to find where I am and where I'm going I'd be better off booking into a hotel for the night because it'd take me hours on that TIIINY screen trying to see anything!

When I want to go anywhere, I do Google maps on my PC and memorise the shape of the route and understand roughly the distances it covers... then I head out and hope for the best - it always works for me.

I love that "everybody" has sat navs nowadays because if there is a hold up and I suddenly encounter it, I can sit there knowing that "everybody" else is following other routes on their sat nav gleefully .... freeing up the main road for me.



Never seen a sat nav in a car.... wouldn't know how to use it!

I've never had an actual satnav - except once or twice on a hire car when my car's been in for repairs. I just use google maps on my phone. You don't need to find where you are because it knows that from the GPS, and if you tell it where you're going before you set off (a postcode will do) then it knows that too. It will give you voice directions for what to do, and also display the roads from the perspective of where you are, so that you can see what shape the next junction is going to be and which turning you need to take, etc. It colours in the roads according to how good/bad the traffic is in real time, and gives you an ETA that it keeps updating according to the traffic. And it's free. I use it for the traffic information even when travelling a route I know well so I don't need it for directions.

I too am someone who likes maps. But I can't read a map and drive a car at the same time. So I like to have the phone do the map reading so I can concentrate on the driving.

chris_m

LydiaJ wrote: »

I too am someone who likes maps. But I can't read a map and drive a car at the same time. So I like to have the phone do the map reading so I can concentrate on the driving.

That is precisely why I first got a satnav, some 12 years ago I reckon.

On my first visit to the Lake District I was driving alone on a couple of the days with an OS map (still the best IMO) on the passenger seat so I could grab it any time I was able to stop, if need be. Many were the times I came to a turning and wasn't sure if it was the right one, but had cars behind me and nowhere to pull over to check. Nine times out of ten I'd drive to the next place I could pull over, to find that the turning now half a mile back was indeed the one I'd wanted :mad:

So, when I changed my car I also bought a PDA with satnav to go with it. I knew that the maps were a tad out of date but that didn't bother me, the last significant change to the roads up here was when someone decided to stick a layer of some newfangled thing called "Tarmac" on top of the cart tracks :rotfl:

I went for the PDA rather than something like a TomTom unit because that meant I could also have OS maps which link to the GPS on it as well as the TomTom satnav software.

Now I have satnav in the car, I only use the PDA for walking - or planning road routes when I'm not in the car.

michaels

Google maps satnav is very good, especially knowing the traffic and rerouting live if it makes sense but 2 problems in devon.
1) It said turn right just before a road so we took it and went 2 miles down a tiny lane that ended in a field, in fact we should have taken the next right 50m round a bend.
2) Sometimes the B1234 that you are travelling on is not the main road but requires a turn off to stay on the same road number and google does not know that so does not say 'slight left' onto B1234 so you carry on down the same road but have effectively 'turned off' the correct route.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

I too am someone who likes maps. But I can't read a map and drive a car at the same time. So I like to have the phone do the map reading so I can concentrate on the driving.

What I do is go over the maps and make a list of the road numbers and direction like a big R @ or L @ whatever Junction, or a circle in a circle for a roundabout, or "3rd on L after Sainsbury"", or "R after garden centre" etc.
Big enough for me to be able to see at a glance from the driver's seat. Colour-coded to make the directions stand out.

Then I have a small clipboard thing with suckers that is attached to the bottom of my windscreen just to the left of my line of view, so it's legal. Whenever I'm at some lights, or in a queue, I glance at the list and memorise the next junction or the next instruction. Sometimes the next two instructions.

I do keep the map to hand, just in case I get diverted etc. But very rarely have to use it.

chris_m

michaels wrote: »

2) Sometimes the B1234 that you are travelling on is not the main road but requires a turn off to stay on the same road number and google does not know that so does not say 'slight left' onto B1234 so you carry on down the same road but have effectively 'turned off' the correct route.

We have a "turn off to stay on" junction on the A595 near me, but all three satnavs I've used know about it.

The satnav in my Mercedes had a funny one around here. If heading towards my place, coming down the A5093 towards Millom, it would tell you to take the next right onto the A5093 - when, in fact, that right turn takes you onto a very much "cart track with a bit of tarmac bunged on top" road whilst teh A5093 caries on into Millom. The side road does, however, lead to the A5093 where it comes out on the other side of Millom. I refer to it as the Millom Bypass

It's OK if you're in a car but I hope that the satnavs used by truckers are a bit more savvy - I suspect they are coz I've never met anything bigger than a tractor on that road, phew :rotfl:

chris_m

The funniest I ever had was driving through the New Forest with one of my Scouts navigating. Every time we came to a turning, he'd say "This one." so I'd slow down, but he'd then say "No, no, carry on."

Eventually I happened to glance to my left at the right time to see what happening. He was tracking where we were with his finger on the map and every time we got to a junction he'd move his finger - but instead of just thinking "This one." as he did so, he said it out loud :rotfl:

We had another lad who turned out to be a first-class navigator. Heading off to Summer Camp at Wareham, the M27 was at a complete standstill so I turned off on to the Lyndhurst road, handed him the map as told him to find me a route that did not involve the M27 nor, preferably, the A31 until the other side of Bournemouth. After poring over the map for a bit he said that the only route he could find would take us through Bournemouth. "OK," I said, "you navigate me and we'll give it a go."
He found us a little road that bypassed the centre of Lyndhurst, and navigated me through Bournemouth perfectly, spotting all the signs and telling me the correct turning or roundabout exit well in advance - all I had to do was drive and concentrate on the road/traffic/pedestrians/etc.

When we got to the campsite I told him that he'd just completed, nay, exceeded the requirements for the road part of the Navigator's Badge so we'd better sort out some hiking navigation tests and he'd get the badge.