As I mentioned in my last post, Garmin's customer support is only open between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday- banker's hours during which 99.9% of their customers are also at work. I'm sure this cuts down on support expenses, but it's so pitifully transparent that I suspect it mainly operates to further piss off the people who are already pissed off about the problem that led them to call product support in the first place.

I left work early yesterday so I could run some errands and then try to get my GPS Unit updated so it would actually be useful. At 4:04 p.m. I called and sat through a message that tried over and over to convince me to use their unhelpful web site for support. I don't know where the answer to my problem is, but I know the one place it ain't is on Garmin's vintage-looking web site.

After waiting on hold for 47 minutes and listening to some classic soul in between pleas that I hang up and visit their web site, I got to speak to Chuck. Chuck was friendly and seemed knowledgeable. I explained my problem to him and, lo and behold, it seems that the City Navigator, Version 8 that I bought from Amazon was NOT the City Navigator, Version 8 that I need. It seems I need the City Navigator, Version 8 HD, which of course is not available.

I told Chuck that they ought to make their DVD packages a lot less like a puzzle and more like something someone can actually understand.

About all I can do is call Garmin back in "a couple of weeks" and see if the City Navigator, Version 8 version that I need is available by then.

Wonderful.