Current off road navigation thinking?

[Dave2000]

Before ordering the tablet mentioned above in an earlier post, I emailed the guy to check he had it in stock, he replied yes, and it would be with me Monday or Tuesday, I ordered and paid for it straight away.

This morning I noticed the 'posted' icon had not been selected by the seller of the tablet, I had paid the extra for it to be tracked but there was indication it had been posted. I emailed him and he has just replied, it will not be here next week, because his supplier does not have any in stock, so the bastard lied to get the sale

I knew the SIM versions were rare in Spain hence the reason for checking it out with him before paying, what with Memory Map advertising maps they don't have but still taking your money and now this guy, what is going on in the world, are the retailers simply turning into bloody thieves and liars and hoping we will not ask for our money back if they do not deliver the goods?

This kind of nonsense makes me want to jump in the car and drive 5ookms to his shop and bust his nose!! And given the refund has not shown up in my back account yet...........that may well happen anyway!!

Going to walk the dog, kick a cat and then go to bed and sulk!!

regards

Dave

 

[garygiles1963]

Before ordering the tablet mentioned above in an earlier post, I emailed the guy to check he had it in stock, he replied yes, and it would be with me Monday or Tuesday, I ordered and paid for it straight away.

This morning I noticed the 'posted' icon had not been selected by the seller of the tablet, I had paid the extra for it to be tracked but there was indication it had been posted. I emailed him and he has just replied, it will not be here next week, because his supplier does not have any in stock, so the bastard lied to get the sale

I knew the SIM versions were rare in Spain hence the reason for checking it out with him before paying, what with Memory Map advertising maps they don't have but still taking your money and now this guy, what is going on in the world, are the retailers simply turning into bloody thieves and liars and hoping we will not ask for our money back if they do not deliver the goods?

This kind of nonsense makes me want to jump in the car and drive 5ookms to his shop and bust his nose!! And given the refund has not shown up in my back account yet...........that may well happen anyway!!

Going to walk the dog, kick a cat and then go to bed and sulk!!

regards

Dave

Thats a real bummer, Sorry for your bad luck.

G.

 

[Dave2000]

Cheers Gary, if he had told me he did not have the tablet but could get it to me at the end of the week, then no big deal. I know this goes on in particular on eBay, where someone advertising something that is clearly in demand takes your money, then orders it from a third party supplier, so you get caught in the sales 'train', this is the reason I checked first.

regards

Dave

 

[Dave2000]

A little note here if you use Viewranger mapping software. My PayPal address is different from my 'normal' email address however, when I downloaded the Viewranger software and did the trial I used my normal email address.

Happy with the trial comparisons between VR and some other mapping software I purchased 'tiles' that covered pretty much all of southern Spain, everything worked fine and still does.

The only irritating thing is because the email addresses do not match between the VR software download, and the purchase of the maps you keep getting warnings that the trial is about to expire although it does not, it was a nuisance and entirely my fault. So a new download of the VR software using my PayPal address sorted the expiry warnings.

regards

Dave

 

[Dave2000]

So another tablet ordered, same make/model and I found this one in Greece! I am solidly assured this will work with a Spanish SIM on the Spanish network, a chat with a friend who has recently returned from Athens said her roaming went without a hitch, but that is the best I can do at the moment, so having forked out again I hope this seller is ok.

The other dick has not refunded my money from the first one I purchased, may need to have a chat, jeeezus I am too old for this agro.

regards

Dave

 

[Dave2000]

In between the ordering/cancelling and re-ordering I had a UK supplier who said he had a T561 and it turned out to be a T560 (non SIM), he did offer a reduction in price and I just asked for my money back which was refunded without delay. This all happened between the first in Spain and the third order in from Greece, I think I am losing it.

The tablet from Greece is shown as being on it's way via DHL so fingers crossed, interestingly this is marked as an 'EU' model, this maybe why the guy is so sure it will work with a Spanish SIM?

I cannot remember the last time I had trouble making an online purchase, discussing this with a friend, he pointed out that Samsung have around 30 different models active at any one time.

I think I will take up smoking again.

regards

Dave

 

[Dave2000]

Almost picked up the tablet today but the DHL van broke down in Murcia!

NO IT DID NOT!!

As mentioned earlier, because tomorrow (Friday) is a local bank holiday the normal trick of the local van drivers is to carry out the 'puente' or 'bridge', finish early Thursday and sod the deliveries. Aware that this WILL happen and my parcel might arrive Monday, I phoned DHL yesterday (Wednesday) to confirm my delivery will be here today. I was told it is on the local courier vehicle (confirmed by my tracking) and will be without doubt....it did not arrive at 14.00. This is when the driver will bugger off, now I do applaud Spain for defending it's holidays but am not happy when they stretch it to the limit. So today I rang and asked where the parcel was, the nice lady asked me to hold for a moment (premium phone number), and then told me it will definitely be with me this afternoon after 16.00 I then explained that as our village is a little outlying from the main drag through Lorca with no villages in between, , it would be very unusual for a driver to come back in the pm, she assured me not to be concerned. About ten minutes later I get a call from DHL They are very sorry but the van has broken down in Murcia (90 minutes drive from where I am), I asked how he got there so quick considering 10 minutes go he was local to me? Oh no he declared, the van broke down early this morning on the way to Murcia city!

I knew I was going to get the run around and experience dictates how to deal with this. I first ask why not swap the load to another van? Sorry no van available. Why not hire one? He had no answer, but confirmed I would be first priority delivery Monday, this is the 'telling you what you want to hear' strategy. So I announced I was about to leave for Murcia and collect my parcel by hand, bearing in mind he had told the me the van had broken down in Murcia and that is where my parcel is, I know different, it is locked in a van in a private car park about 30 minutes away.

I thought my bluff had failed and the tablet was indeed in Murcia, although the 80 could do with a run anyway. Ah no, the parcel apparently has been transferred to the Monday delivery van and the computer has not been updated with it's tracking position. Now I do not want to 'name drop' but I was getting angry about being given so much BS, and given my regular use of courier companies I had kept the name of the 'director of complaints', I did not ask to be put through to a supervisor, I asked for the director by name, I am politely put on hold, a short pause and the guy returns with "sorry the director is not available but I have just found that your parcel is actually marked as urgent and will be sent from Murcia by special courier tomorrow morning, we will call when it is on the way".

Greece to Alicante was around 8 hours via Italy, Alicante to Aguilas (2 hours) was going to take FIVE days!

Let you know if I have just been blown off with another excuse tomorrow, I swear I am destined not to get the damn thing!

regards

Dave

 

[Rodger]

I do hope that this isn't more BS and you do get it tomorrow.

However, seeing as my 'director of complaints' sleeps in the same bed as me, I'd better get my finger out and email you some of the routes with the coordinates!

Cheers

 

[Dave2000]

I guess a little name dropping can't be all bad.

My personal delivery service ON A BANK HOLIDAY

Regards

Dave

 

[Bert]

I guess a little name dropping can't be all bad. My personal delivery service ON A BANK HOLIDAY View attachment 124037
Regards, Dave

Hallelujah, they came through in the end.....

 

[Dave2000]

Yes Bert they certainly did! I received a phone call to say where the guy would be and at what time, we met outside my friends language school and all was good. The guy had travelled from Murcia through to Lorca and down to me (around 90 minutes), so to be fair they (DHL) did pull out all the stops.

I spent the afternoon 'fiddling' with the new toy, I took it to a friends house to make use of their fast (well for Spain) connection, my internet is not compatible with Android so needed a different connection.

After I downloaded the Viewranger software which seems for the moment to work ok, and after copying the maps from my phone SD card to another, and once the map licencing was sorted, it all seems to be working fine. For test purposes I used my Spanish contract SIM card and that too worked perfectly, I will pick up a 'pre pago' SIM when I get five minutes, it was a bit odd making a call with a 10" phone!

I guess I may have to pop out over the weekend and go inland towards the mountains and do some more testing in the 80.........oh the cross I have to bear.

regards

Dave

 

[Bert]

Hello all.... Has anybody any experience of the new Garmin 276Cx?

 

[RadioBaobab]

Hello all.... Has anybody any experience of the new Garmin 276Cx?

Yes, I do. Been using it for about three months worth of travelling now. Very similar to the 276 or 279, same interface, etc. The good things are still there: the buttons, magnificent screen (bigger now), functionality. A lot of the annoying bits are gone: no more strange external antenna, normal SD card instead of that stupidly expensive prorieraty stuff, much more memory available to install more and more complex maps. It is faster, but because I have much larger maps installed, it is not super fast.
It has bluetooth and wifi and the such... but I dont use that. No touchscreen, which is strange these day, but if that was the sacrifice to keep the screen as bright and readable as it is, it is worth the trade off!

If you still have 279, it is a bit expensive to upgrade considering not that much has changed. my 279 was broken so for me it was worth it. Happy with it.

Edit: just realizee this was an old(ish) post... oh well..

 

[Bert]

[QUOTE="RadioBaobab, post: Edit: just realizee this was an old(ish) post... oh well..[/QUOTE]
......old, but I monitor this post RadioBaobab. Thank you for the information. Regards, Simon

 

[GeekOKent]

Noone using hema maps? They look quote solid.

 

[MarkW]

What’s their base map source? The Americans seem to like it

 

[GeekOKent]

Hema is Australian i thought? In the uk they use OS maps and layer up satellite data from somewhere (is not Google).

 

[MarkW]

might well be GoK, I see it discussed on Expedition Portal hence the americans comment

 

[MarkW]

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/158479-HEMA-Explorer-North-America

discussion on the American version, looking in the iTunes store it seems to be US or Australia mapping only

 

[Michael Clark]

For info, I am successfully using viewranger APP on PC (Windows 10 - Panasonic Toughpad) using an Android Emulator (Bluestack)

So seems we can have the best of both worlds. Memory Map (complete UK offline maps), Oziexplorer and now Viewranger. PC also ideal for Tracks4Africa