Weekly Photo Challenge: Numbers


This is a Hertz ‘NeverLost’ GPS system that Hertz inflict on people renting cars in the US…some numbers about the NeverLost:

The 1st thing you may notice is that it is made by Magellan – once upon a time Magellan may have been good at GPS but now they have lost it as the NeverLost is a Numbah 1000 piece of junk.

The 2nd thing you may notice is that the little ‘where am I’ icon seems to be spinning in circles. That is because this GPS takes 20 minutes to find a strong enough satellite signal.

The satellite signal meter has 10 bars…even with a received signal strength of 9 bars, the NeverLost remains lost.

I used a NeverLost 2 times on this trip in Las Vegas and Washington DC. The closest the NeverLost brought us to our hotel was 3 blocks away – it consistently failed to improve on this for 4 days.

3 was the number of people in the car that could navigate better than the NeverLost.

The closest that a NeverLost will get you to Nellis AFB is 5 miles – on the other side of town. This is despite all the streets at Nellis showing on the NeverLost map when you get there.

5 miles is also the distance we travelled to cover the last 1 mile to Union Station from Observatory Circle because the NeverLost could not acquire a signal anywhere along Massachusetts Avenue.

95 was the 1 number we knew to follow to get to Quantico and Ramp 150B – if we’d relied on the NverLost we’d have been lost somewhere in the South for the last 14 days.

-4 zillion is how I would rate the NeverLost GPS

0 is the number of times I will ever use a Hertz NeverLost again…

This cautionary tale has been brought to you today by the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

1 thought on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Numbers

  1. Our apologies for your horrible experience with our NeverLost product. Like all GPS-based units, none will work without a good GPS reception. In this particular case, it appears that there may have been an error with your unit. One of the most important free services that we provide to all customers is a US-based real-time support at 800-823-2547. When you call this number with an issue, like the one you ran into, we will actually go out to your vehicle to exchange your navigation unit. We are also very happy to plan destinations for you and send them to you in a free USB thumb-drive. We want to make sure that you have a safe and enjoyable trip.

    We also have introduced a new touch-screen Gen5 unit that also has wireless connectivity. This allows you to plan a trip at neverlost.com and then wirelessly download it to your navigation device. Our concierge team at 800-823-2547 is also happy to build this for you for free.

    Please call me at 972-801-4404 to discuss this particular issue. As I mentioned, none of the great services mean anything to you when you cannot route when you need to. You are not happy and we want to try to resolve this issue and give you the confidence to try us again in the future.

    Oscar Loera, Jr.
    Director – Online Marketing & Social Media
    http://www.neverlost.com
    972-801-4404

    Like

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