Dumbass customers

I picked up my new car a couple of weeks ago.

It's a bit complicated. It's got screen and buttons and dials and I got a bit lost during my initial introduction. I played around with menus and figured out a few of the toys but had to extract the handbook to read in quiet moments, allowing me to learn about the finer points.

I was a bit in awe of the car because of its complexity. I loved its looks and it was comfortable. I also liked the idea of the gadgetry even if it was a bit intimidating.

On my first few journeys I decided to play with the satellite navigation. Even though I knew how to get to my destinations I pretended I didn't just to have the satisfaction of using the sat. nav. toy.



I was very confused on these first few, and subsequent, journeys. It was as though the satellite's view of my location was irrelevant. The route was displayed but my position on the map bore no relation to reality. My actual location was often a mile or so away from that shown on the display and the guidance didn't advise me when I went off the recommended route.

I started to hate my car. It clearly wasn't listening to me, or in fact taking any notice of me at all. I found myself badmouthing my vehicle to friends and colleagues which is abnormal for me because I'm usually the biggest product advocate.

I booked an appointment for the car. It needed help, and I needed a car that worked.

There was still something niggling at the back of my mind, so I went back to the complicated menu system.

I remembered that when I first looked at the satellite navigation system I chose the Demo Once option thinking it would be useful to see a demonstration, just to get the hang of things. I selected the No Demo option wondering if that would change things.

What a revelation! It turns out that every time I drove the car it was giving me a demonstration of how the navigation system would work, which meant it ignored my actual location and just showed me how the system should work, hypothetically.

I cancelled the car's appointment with the dealer and have been enjoying driving with a working sat. nav. system along routes that I know anyway.