Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Tele(Atlas)Transported


If you look up our address in Google Maps (I am not publishing it - just believe me) you will find yourself some way down a disused road, beyond a No Entry sign.

Likewise, if you are a tradesman trying to find us by GPS, there is a 50% chance that you will get to the No Entry sign & have to phone for guidance.
Actually, we are now so used to this, that we usually manage to warn potential visitors beforehand.
But not always.

It seems that all map publishers (even Michelin) get their information from one of two sources.
NAVTEQ in USA & Tele Atlas in the Netherlands (now taken over by TomTom).

NAVTEQ has us correctly positioned.
Tele Atlas has chosen, taking itself for a tornado or angry deity, to uproot our whole road & dump it half a mile away, in no-mans-land.

Now both providers have special sites where they invite the public to provide feedback to correct errors:
http://mapfeedback.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php
http://mapreporter.navteq.com/
Tele Atlas even sends you a polite e-mail with 32-digit reference number (they expect that many errors?) for your contribution, so you can follow its progress.

The only problem is that there is no progress.
I reported my problem first in April 2007, then again in January 2009 & August 2009.
Then the Mairie (town hall) had a go in October 2009.
And I tried again yesterday.

I am wondering what I need to do to grab their attention.
Immolation is out of the question.

Parting thot: "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins

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