It Is Me

That was yesterday (see blog below). This is today.
















When we were in Virginia last year, Jared and I went to Wal-Mart and each bought a Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS navigator. I love mine. It has directed me through a number of foreign cities like Lexington, NC; Lexington, KY; Louisville, KY; and St Louis, MO, with only a few weird detours. It's small, the battery lasts for hours for when I use it outside the car, and it even took me right to Bob Timberlake's art gallery in NC when the people in town couldn't figure out how to get there due to a washed-out bridge.

So, a few days ago I decided to upgrade to the lastest maps. The Garmin website confirmed that the 2010 map was right for my Nuvi 200, so I paid the $69 and downloaded it. I knew from upgraging to the 2009 map last year that the memory was limited on the Nuvi, so I deleted all the extra languages--there are about 20--and vehicle icons.

But when I tried to install the map, a message said I could only install a portion of the U.S. 48 states, plus Puerto Rico and Hawaii, due to a lack of memory. Why I can't swap Puerto Rico and Hawaii for the rest of the U.S. I don't know. But this isn't an option.

I wrote to Garmin's tech support. Two days later I received a page of instructions for deleting the extra languages and icons to make room.

I responded that I had already done that.

A day later I got an email with instructions for deleting the extra languages and icons.

This morning I called the "help" line--800-800-1020, good buddy. I was informed that the wait time would be more than 30 minutes, and it was well more than that.

The tech support guy instructed me to delete the extra languages and icons.

Garmin tech support employment test: Can you say, "Delete the extra languages and icons"? You're hired.

Beyond that, he was lost and had to forward me to the software group, "who will fix your problem."

"Due to unusually high call volumes, your wait will be more than 30 minutes."

It was way more.

The next guy asked me to check how much memory my Garmin has by going to "My Computer"...

I made the mistake of telling him I was on a Mac ("My Computer" is a Windows thing).

"I'm sorry. I'll have to transfer you to the Mac team."

"Wait. I can see the memory. There's 991.9 MB with 15.5 MB free."

"I don't know if that's the same. I only know PCs. I'll transfer you right over."

"Will I have to wait another half hour?"

"I don't know why they sent a Mac person to me. I only do PCs." Click.

"Due to unusually high call volumes, your wait will be more than 30 minutes."














I've now been waiting on the phone for two hours and 17 minutes. If I hear "Thank you for calling Garmin International...Our next product support specialist will be with you as soon as possible" one more time, I'm going to mount my Garmin in a Greyhound bus and drive it through M-Star's Whipple heating and air conditioning system while reading six copies of the June issue of Popular Photography.