Thinking adults should be able to find our house?

[Adnerb95]

We are selling a place in rural France - nothing fancy, just a little village house and we have been advertising it on APITS website. Had an enquiry several months ago from a couple who said they would be flying out to view a couple of days ago.

I gave them loads of info, checked they had found it on google maps - it is quite remote - helped them arrange car hire, etc etc etc. Also warned them that they would need to learn French as there are v few Expats immigrants in the area.

They sounded v organised and were v laid back about it being off the beaten track.

So I get a phone call on the day they are meant to arrive at the property - an hour and a half AFTER they are meant to arrive. " we are lost we are in XXXXXXXX (town about an hour away and def not en route from the airport to the house)

There is a simple route which I assumed they had worked out whilst still in U.K. Which should have delivered them safely within the timescale agreed - I didn't want to insult their intelligence by giving them step-by-step guidance on roads etc (especially since the route would have come up for them on google maps when they were having a look at the location.)

Turns out they have obviously relied 100% on a very dodgy satnav in an area with intermittent coverage rather than making any prior note of the main towns en route and the road numbers! So no map, no language! I would always , always do this if I had not been somewhere before but then I am a bit obsessive about maps and geography and stuff)

Not only do I then have to spend ages trying to work out where they are and give them guidance but also phone my French neighbour who had kindly agreed to show them round and explain that they are going to be VERY late. They are clearly tired but who undertakes a journey like this without being prepared?

Oh yes, and apparently it was terrifying because of "the mountain roads."

Errrr, it clearly states on the blurb that they have presumably read in order to decide they want to view the house that the house is in a beautiful, MOUNTAINOUS area!!! Also, all the exterior shots show the MOUNTAINS surrounding the house!!

I'm baffled that people can be so clueless or is it just me?

[ShatnersBassoon]

Oh, they buggered up in a country where they don't speak the language, cut them some slack. It will be more stressful to them than you, and they did phone to explain what had happened. Hopefully they'll be suitably apologetic to your neighbour.

[luckylucky24]

To be fair your house is hard to find.

My house is on an estate 10 minutes from a city centre but also backs on to slightly rural villages with long country roads.
People always struggle to find our house first time round.

[wowfudge]

So many people use satnav these days you could have let them know in advance that they should have a map with them. I don't think it would insult anyone's intelligence to provide full directions from the airport. If someone knows part of the route they can always ignore that section. However it does sound as though they were clueless.

[Adnerb95]

Shatners Maybe you're right, I should be more understanding. I spose I just think that I have always managed to turn up on time and in the right place in a similar scenario. And the mountain comments I find baffling.

Lucky actually it IS remote but NOT hard to find if you work out your route in advance. which you would, wouldn't you??!

Once in the village, it's a piece of piss.

[Adnerb95]

In retrospect wow yes, this would have been good. I just know that in the same situation, I would have worked all this out for myself, made even easier now we have t'internet to help.

[ShatnersBassoon]

I don't mean you should be more empathetic, soppy or whatever. Just don't write them off as dysfunctional adults because they made a mess of timing this once. I bet they feel like complete dicks and the driver will be stressed to the hilt, and the mountains comment is probably just a '...and to top it all I'm trying to scale Mont Blanc in a Renault Twingo!' exasperation. They might buy your house by way of an apology

[Adnerb95]

That would be nice shatners 😀 But I'm not hopeful ...

[Booboostwo]

I just knew this would be about France! We are rural but not remote and no one can find us either. Almost no one has satnav, and certainly not delivery drivers, and the roads had no names until very recently (now they all share pretty much the same five names so that doesn't help either!). We get a couple of lost people a week, sometimes huge trucks that get stuck and a lot of people trying to find another property in the village with a similar name. Once I had a lady turn up for a conference at the other property, who would not believe me she had the wrong place...I ended up walking away from her telling her to enjoy the nonexistent conference in the wrong property then.