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PrintHelp Me Hank: Directions Dilemma
We're on our way to the wedding cake bakery. We're in Boston, we know they're in Danvers and like most drivers we have no idea how to get there.
But we've printed out our trusty Internet mapping instructions, just like so many of the bakery's would-be customers.
Hank
"So, they told you they were using mapping software?"
Kelly Delaney
"Exactly."
So turning left, turning right -- we do what the instructions say and we wind up at this house. Problem is that it’s not the bakery in Danvers. It’s Susan Caposi's house… in Wenham. And Frank and Kelly Delaney told me the same thing was happening to their clients all the time.
Kelly
"I mean that's what’s frustrating."
You can see why this would be bad for biz, Beautiful and Delicious Creations just waiting for the right buyers... brides somehow getting lost on the way to see them.
Frank Delaney
"By the time they show up, they've been so frustrated from getting lost that you really feel bad for them."
Susan confirms she was getting a stream of confused visitors.
Susan Caposi
"When it kept happening, I was like wow, a lot of people were reading the directions wrong."
But when Frank checked several online mapping companies, it wasn't the drivers, the online directions to the shop were sending drivers in the wrong direction.
Hank
"When you look at these instructions, are these correct?Frank
"Oh no, no. They are completely wrong."
You'd get to about here and then -- drivers were doomed.
Hank
"So, it was sending everyone to the wrong place?"Frank
"Yes, it was."
Seemed like he should be able to get that fixed in an e-mail or two -- but no.
Frank
"No one was taking any efforts at all to help me out."
Annoyed and frustrated customers kept driving up to Susan's house, then calling the bakery for directions online the maps were still a mess.
Frank
"We had just gotten to the end of our rope. There was nothing anyone would do for us, so I wrote ‘Help Me Hank’."
So we called and emailed the map people explained, directions are an incredibly complicated merging of atlases and photos and real life driving and they admitted that sometimes things just hit a massive cyber pothole -- this one they promised to fix.
Now, check the bakery directions online and no more side trips to Wenham! You'll wind up at the proper Danvers doorway.
Frank
"We should notice an immediate change, so we're real excited."
Those mapping systems are a terrific innovation, but just as they warn on each set of instructions that you might also want to check a map. If you’re fighting a consumer battle maybe I can help!