Hi all, I am kind of new, so far I have seen about 9 different providers, but I keep having this same issue crop up. I wondered if it’s just me, or if it happens all the time....  

I live in a major city, and I need to schedule appointments for after work. I understand why providers want to do the 2 call thing, where they spring the location on you at the last minute, but sheesh during rush hour in a major city you can’t get anywhere in less that an hour. With my first provider I called her an hour before, and I mentioned the general part of town I was in, and she gave me an intersection to go to, but then she said “It isn’t far don’t leave yet you will be real early...” Well, stupidly, I listened to her, even though in the back of my mind I thought it would take this much time. I ended up leaving 45 mins before the appointment, and got there 20 mins late.

A second time, I was in Atlanta on business. I scheduled an appointment with a provider over email, and she said she would give me the address the morning before. My hotel was near the airport, and I had a feeling she was up north somewhere, so I am thinking I want to give myself an hour and a half for this. Well I don’t hear anything and it’s getting close to my 90 minute window so I start trying to call her. I get voice mail. I wait 15 more minutes, then I figure “I think she is up north somewhere, so I better head out” I find a Starbucks in the north end of town, and I put that address into my navigator. When I get there, I pull over, and try calling her again. I get voice mail again, so I sit there not knowing what to do. Then finally, I get a call 15 min before our appointment, and she gives me the address. Fortunately, my wild guess turned out to be pretty good. I did have to backtrack some, and I ended up being 10 mins late for that appointment.

Then recently it happened again. This time the provider did text me the address about an hour before, and I left right away, but it turned out to be on the other side of a bad construction bottleneck. I ended up being 15 mins late for this one. Anyway, a lot of providers seem to have a pet peeve about clients showing up late, but if it’s a major city and the appointment is between 3pm and 8pm It would be nice to have at least the general locations three hours before. I am trying to figure out how to write a reminder in the initial emails, when we schedule, but I can’t figure out exactly how to word this without sounding condescending, or too eager to get the address.

I do make sure to give a guy my general incall location, and if for some reason I forget to do that, most will ask so that they have an idea of how long it will take to get to me.  

I ask for a final confirmation call at least an hour to an hour and a half before our date, at which time I give him the exact address.  But definitely not unreasonable to simply ask what her general location is so that you have an idea of where in the city you will be heading to for an idea of how long it will take for you to get there for planning ahead.

tell her the general area that you will be in, and ask her how long she thinks it will take you to get to her place.  Also ask her about the traffic between where you are and where she is.  If she is local, she should know.  I understand your concern, most providers don't like it if you are late, as it may interfere with their schedule following your meeting with her.  Traffic is something we all have to deal with.  Where I am, even to see a local lady, it takes me at least half an hour or more to get to most of them.

Unfortunately, other than communication with the provider as to yours and her locations, I don't know what else to tell you.

Swim

I do that and it works very well. I don't give my actual location but maybe somewhere about 3 miles away so the guy can plan his travel time and it works very well with out of town visitors.

I use it all the time in LA, where traffic can be horrible.  If the provider has given you the major cross streets of her incall,  you can enter the  streets and it will let you know the traffic conditions of the route you're planning to take.  

-- Modified on 8/26/2013 12:48:47 AM

and ask how long to get to her location.  Ask if there's a coffee shop nearby & assure her that if you are early you'll wait there rather than hang out at her location drawing attention.  I've been hung up by traffic & even worse, had to cancel once when the sky opened up with unbelievable rain...  I could barely see the other end of the hood and there was over an inch of water on the highway because it could not run off fast enough...   that brought the interstate to a stop.  I was stopped in the high speed lane, a half hour away when I got through to her.  
So now, I plan to arrive a half hour early.  After I locate the hotel or call point, I withdraw get a coffee & cool it (gauging how long it will take me.  Very often I can find a C shop within sight or almost.  
I usually offer that I do not want to spoil our first meeting by being caught in traffic & remind where I'm coming from.  Town W, so I'll be coming up I65.      

-- Modified on 8/26/2013 2:08:10 PM

I have had the same problem from time to time. I live an hour North of town 1 1/2 hours to get to the South part of town. I always point this out when scheduling an appointment. There have been times when I have had to rush to a meeting or was late because of the provider keeps her general location a secret. I don't know what the problem is with knowing where the provider is, within a short distance, so I can get there in time. I don't have a smart phone or GPS in the car.

Yes, the flip side happen to me as well. I leave with plenty of time, and everything goes fine, so I am like 30 mins early. I have just pulled over into to any parking lot, or shopping center, and waited  awhile.

I think part of my frustration is that two out of the three kind of got on my case for being late. Well, I don't want to start a session arguing about traffic, and exactly when she contacted me etc. So I did my best to apologize, and blame traffic, and we moved on. I am just thinking they should be a little more understanding. I mean I am in the middle of Toronto (or whatever) not knowing exactly where I am going.

Thanks for everyone's reply. I will check out the app. It seems like the best approach is to add a line like this at the end of an email:

BTW: I am near the airport, so I would appreciate advice on how long it will take to get there.

If it still doesn't work out, and you are late, then just apologize, and move on.

P.S. I was in Toronto once, and that was the worst traffic I have encountered thus far. (Haven't been to LA yet.)

I might pick up a tablet for coffee shop use...   The call point does not need to be right in front of her place.  I've had several that were:  
A.  a highway exit (about a mile of local roads through a built up area to her location)  
B.  a house number between 2...  across the street (she emerged behind me)
C.  A hotel side door
D.  An intersection, (go through the intersection, take first right, white house on your right)
E.  Turned at the intersection & called (her directions lead me around a block & back to park on the opposite side of the street)
F.  A strip mall where I parked & walked to her location.

In my opinion, the call point should be no more that a couple of minutes away...  but need not give her exact location.

You should leave at least 2 hours before your Session Time  Especially when you're seeing her at her location for the first time. Then the Future Sessions will be a lot faster for you to get to since you already know her location. In my case, for the first Session with my Provider, I left my house one hour and a half before my Scheduled Time with her. This way I had enough Time if I got Lost going to her location. Now it only takes me half an hour to get to her location.

the date is confirmed. I then use a mapping program to determine the route and also the estimated time of travel. I have done this using public transportation as well.

I have been given the address of a library, pizza shop, or other landmark before making the 2nd call which is no more than 5 minutes away.

If I have an appt. booked at say 2 pm, I will usually provide the hotel or incall location at 10 am when he confirms. If he does not confirm, see ya later. In the future, try making these women aware that you've had issues and would like the location (the general area or street at least) maybe 3 hours before to give yourself time.

Yes, I have considered that it was just a string of bad luck. I think the provider in Atlanta really intended to give me her address in the morning, but just frogot. She did not give me any grief about being late, and she extended to give me the full hour. The last one was really kind of a fluke, I am a local, and I really thought an hour would be enough to get there. There was just an unexpected tie up.

At any rate thanks to all those who replied. I got good suggestions on how to handle this.