This is a story about some travel in the USA and the difference in language and how it affects your life.
About three years ago I was in Dallas on business and leaving with a colleague, John to fly to Newark in the late morning with the plan that we drive to the Logistics division of our company in upstate Connecticut. As John had not originally planned to join me on this trip I had previously asked the office to make sure that they booked me a hire car with a Sat/Nav system which they confirmed had been arranged. When you are travelling alone in traffic it does make it easier if you have some assistance.
Anyway, we were pleased with this arrangement as our flight was due to arrive in Newark Airport, New York in the early afternoon so that at least the road signs would be clearly visible. The flight from Dallas was four hours late leaving due to bad weather somewhere and so we arrived in Newark around 6.30 in the evening. By the time we arrived at the car hire depot it was raining and getting dark. However, I reminded us both that we have a Sat/Nav system so there should not be any problem finding our route.
We signed all the car papers and I asked them to confirm the Sat/Nav and the young lady says they do have a system, it’s not built into the car as we expected, and it’s called the Neverlost System which is just what we wanted. She added that anyway where we were going was straight up the I-95 and you don’t need a system for that. However we insisted that we do need it as we may have difficulties and so she handed over this box with a Motorola cell phone in it. I said “what is this” as I have the same cell phone and don’t need another one but she countered this by saying “this is the Neverlost system and very easy to use”. Mind you she said “I have not used it myself, but I think you press this button and tell the people who answer where you want to go and they send you a route plan to the cell phone.” Not quite what I had expected though. I asked “who are these people we phone” and she replied that she was not sure but the system does work and anyway just follow signs for the I-95 and we would be fine.
We left the desk and headed for the car with a certain amount of trepidation as it was now pouring with rain.
My colleague did not want to drive and so he would operate the ‘Neverlost’ system and I would drive. We plugged the phone charger into the cigarette lighter socket, turned on the phone and pressed the button and after a couple of minutes waiting the chap at the other end of the phone asked for our route. We want to go to …… in Connecticut and due to John’s Midland accent the operator could not understand our destination and so I said I would speak to him. After a few minutes discussion with some confusion he said OK, he said wait a moment and the cell phone will receive the routing instruction and you then just start your journey and it will tell you where to go.
So trustingly we waited a couple of minutes and off we went, and of course within less than 300 yards of the Car park exit there was a major airport turning and nothing came from the phone??. So I stopped and John played with the buttons in the half light as cars streamed by. So we called the telephone operator again and said that nothing was happening, they said did we press a certain button to start the system and we said no as there were no instructions. They said they would resend the data we should wait a few minutes and try again. Which we did and nothing happened. This time we could not stopin the middle of the junction but kept going and by some luck and no judgement we actually took the correct road marked to the I-95. Again my colleague rang them and said what is happening as we are not getting any instructions. They said just listen to the phone and follow the instructions and then promptly they hung up. Great!
By this time I had seen further signs for the I-95, plus many other road signs going North, South, East and West and was not sure which direction to head until we came to a toll booth. The last thing we wanted was to be on a Toll road going in the wrong direction. We were both getting very upset by this so called system as it suddenly started and told us to turn left out of the Airport Car park and proceed in a Easterly direction when we would receive more instructions. At this point we were at least forty minutes drive away from the airport, so what should we do. It was not possible to reverse all the way back to the airport so as to meet the instructions on the cell phone and so we called again.
The guy said where are you, we said somewhere in USA trying to head for Connecticut. Where do you guys come from, I said would this help our route planning if we answered his question, he said no but then suddenly we got cut off and the screen on the phone went blank!!!
Both of us having a technical background, John far more than me we decided that when all else fails reboot. We rebooted the cell phone and waited for a signal and eventually we received one, we pressed the start button again and it said please turn left when leaving the Airport Car Park exit. Bloody hell!! It was pouring with rain and cars and huge trucks were tearing past and we were parked on the nearside line with indicators flashing wondering what to do.
So again we called, this time a nice lady answered who said you have a nice voice, where do you come from??? I said England but I was trying to get to …… in Connecticut. So where in New England are you from, I said Weybridge and after a moment she said she could not find Weybridge on the System as it only worked in the USA and sorry she could not help but have a nice day and hung up.
This is very silly I said, let’s hope the road we are on is the right road and so with great difficulty we pulled out into the fast moving traffic and headed for the toll barriers. By pure chance we were in the lane where there was an attendant rather than the ex Las Vegas slot machines where you chuck your coins in when driving past.
I pulled up at the Toll booth and said, Excuse me Sir I think we may be lost and we are trying to find the I-95 North to ….
He looked up and said Hey, where are you guys from?? We said England and he said and what are you doing here on such a miserable night. We said trying to go north on the I-95. Don’t worry he said you are on the right road and in about ninety minutes you should be there. At this point he suddenly noticed the Motorola cell phone on the dashboard and said “Is that a Navigation system?” at which point we laughed.
So at least we were on the I-95 and for the next half an hour John fiddled in the semi darkness with the cell phone and also found a small sheet of instructions on how to use the system which had got attached to the hire car documents. Not sure how this got there.
So after rebooting the cell phone for about the fourth or fifth time John called the number again and explained our problems. The guy on the end of the phone said he was sorry to hear about our problems and that the ‘Neverlost’ System was not perfect as it was first of all a very small screen, which is not possible to see in the dark and also the sound often did not work and they were working on that. Anyway where did John live as he has a strange accent. John politely explained where he was from and then said we are trying to get to the Holiday Inn in ….. and how could we make this machine tell us what to do. The guy said “where are you coming from” and we said Newark Airport, “that’s easy” he said just take the I-95 and get of at Junction…. “What about the ‘Neverlost’ System??” He said turn it off, take out the battery and then reboot and see what happens.
So we followed his instructions and turned on the cell phone again, pressed all the right buttons and the screen came to life with an arrow pointing up confirming we were on the I-95 North and get off at the next junction which was actually correct as by that time we had almost reached …..
At last, after about 80/90 miles, with countless phone calls and continual rebooting this machine it started to work about one mile from our Hotel.
We arrived after eleven PM both tired and hungry and so I said let’s have a drink, I think we have earned it. Sorry Sir, the bar closed at 1045 PM and the restaurant is also closed. Next door was a Wendy’s drive-thru which we did a walk through and sated our appetite and thirst.
Well, on the way back to New Jersey, as we were going to the Hyatt it of course planned a route to coincide with the closing of the ….Bridge after an accident and so we were stuck on Manhattan Island and waited in the queue for the Lincoln Tunnel for well over two hours.
Never again will I take the ‘Neverlost’ system.
I think I will use the train in future…………..
