Following on from yesterday's GPS debacle, I've been passed a link to GPS cocks. What an excellent idea, now if only I had a GPS phone to do it with... Hang on, GPS is what got me into this mess in the first place!

Sat-Nav (or GPS) makes you stupid. Best of all, you don't even need to be in a car to be stupid.

A couple of months ago, I moved house. Having DIY to do hasn't been very conducive to cycling to work, so I haven't managed to do it for about 3 months. During that time, almost every vehicular journey away from the house has been in a car, with a (very lovely) Tom Tom GPS.

I have now lost my ability to travel even short distances on my own. I took my dad to the station (about a 20 minute drive) sans-GPS the other day, and went the wrong way. A couple of weeks ago, I rode my bike to a nearby shop and went the wrong way. Today, I went the wrong way to work.

I swear it's because what previously required a small amount of due care and attention has not needed any. I just get in the car, and it tells me where to go. Sadly, the bike isn't that clever, and the consequences of going the wrong way require considerably more effort on my part to put right.

Thankfully, I'm not alone. There are many stories on the intarwebs about people doing silly things because of wayward satnavs. None of that prevents me from being stupider because of GPS though.

We're buying a new fridge/freezer, and found one we like in Currys, so we ordered it online. A week later, delivery was due (yesterday). I received a 'courtesy call' on Saturday to confirm it all, and all seemed well.

Firstly, the delivery was late - maybe 30-45 minutes later than the end of the 4 hour delivery slot. About 20 minutes before arriving, the driver called to say he was on his way (nice!), but then said "oh, er, top flat?" and proceeded to explain that the fridge we had selected was classed as an "American style fridge/freezer", and so they wouldn't be able to take it upstairs. On arrival, they took one look at the stairs and flat-out refused to do anything more - not even to try, so we refused delivery and sent the goods back.

Naturally, I called Currys and got passed to a couple of people, both were generally unhelpful and unsympathetic. They ended up re-iterating the same line, that they wouldn't deliver American fridges up more than four steps. At no time during the buying process did anyone at Currys ever describe this fridge as "American style", much less that there may be any difficulty delivering it.

In short, Currys Home Delivery appears to be "only if it's easy". If basically, they can drag your items along on a trolley to their final resting place in your house, you may be okay. If there are awkward corners, steps or other obstacles, they won't bother. Oh, and don't expect any sort of help if it's getting close to the end of the shift either.

Of course, now we've found this out, we can find any number of sites on the Internet confirming how rubbish Currys are at delivery. Here a couple:

Don't use Currys Home Delivery Service
The Lowest Circle of Hell is Reserved for Currys Staff
Although a quick web search fill find lots more!

Update: We tried M&S Appliances. They're basically the same people (DRL), but offer a completely different experience. For these guys, nothing was too much hassle, the delivery done swiftly, tidily, and problem-free. It turns out they're about the same price as Currys too (especially if you include delivery, recycling, etc), so clearly a far preferable option.

Honda's new segway-esque super-transport gadget looks seriously cool. A nice round up of it at redferret.

My cow-orker just said "oh yeah, that Honda thing. Yeah, pretty old school". Woteva :-)