Wait times are totally off

[Kronzky]

It seems that in order to come up with your wait times, you're taking the time range that's given by Google, do some math, using popularity and historical values, to then come up with a single number. (So, basically guessing...)

Unfortunately, the result is nowhere close to reality.

I just went to a store that had a 35 MINUTE wait time listed, but, once I was there, there was absolutely NOBODY in line at all. ZERO wait time...
When I got home I checked again, and it still gave me 35 minutes, so, I'm afraid your algorithm isn't really working for quickly changing situations (as we have right now).

[TheJoin95]

Hi, thank you for your feedback.
As you know it is not possible to know where people are, even Google can not do that.

The goal of the project is to make an estimate based on previous data (Google data).

I know that the app may be not accurate and this is why I also added the user feedback feature.

This feature is very useful because, as in your case, an user can update the wait time by giving a very similar real wait time.

By doing this, the app will be more accurate.
I hope it can help, thank you

[Kronzky]

I understand that these are estimates, but if they're off by 30 minutes, then they're useless.

The whole point of the app is to give me an idea of how long I can expect to wait.
Well, it doesn't do that... It gives me a random time that is nowhere close to reality.
So, what's the point of it then?

If you want to make it a crowd-sourcing app, where the times are based on user submissions, then fine. It might work, it might not work (depending on whether there are enough submissions).
But the time that's generated right now by your algorithm isn't any better than a wild guess; which means it's actually misleading people into thinking they're getting useful data, when it's all just a crapshoot.

[YesTrustMe]

Crowdsourcing data is always based on information. Look at Waze. Garbage in, garbage out.

I don't think we can blame the developers here. However, the sluggishness of the application et al has put many people off.

Some other developers, programmers have created their own similar applications which have gained a heckuva lot more traction. Take this application for example https://howbsy.com/

It's very basic, but effective AND ridiculously popular. If the geniuses here would implement some of the features including a very nice and clean interface similar to howsby and fix the terrible mapping UI, covid19-waiting time the join tech might be a success.