.:Thursday, September 13, 2007:.
Stupid Car People
| The dealership has had my car for 2 days now without so much as a phone call to me about anything. I dropped it off to them informing them that for the THIRD time, it was doing that whole sputtering thing whenever I started it up and acting like it was going to die. The previous TWO times that I took it in, they told me it needed an electrical update of some sort. The first time I bought that excuse even though I was frustrated with them not doing something that they clearly knew all of these cars needed BEFORE sending it home with me. The second time they gave me that spill, not so much. This time, it was MUCH worse when I took it in. It would do that half way down our street. On top of this, for the third time, I asked them to please fix the driver side door. It wouldn't stay open and if my hands were full I had to use my foot to keep it open while getting out of the car. Neither time did they get that fixed. NOW, there is also a knocking noise over the right rear wheel when brake pressure is applied. DOUBLE ARGH!!!! So, I picked up the phone and called them to get an update on my car this afternoon. I was informed that they were waiting on a part for the door as apparently the hinge was broken and it should be ready this afternoon. GREAT!!! The door is apparently getting fixed finally. Then I asked about the sputtering. "Well, it needed an electronic update," he said. I responded with, "just like the last two times then? Was it not done correctly those times or are there numerous updates that this car needs that I am completely oblivious to?" He stuttered a bit and then stated, "you told me that you were using mid grade fuel, you need to be using 87 octane fuel. This is what is causing the sputtering." "Oh, so it's not an electronic upgrade then? Why didn't anyone tell me about this octane issue before?", I asked. He then proceeds to say, "I'm not sure why no one told you before." Uh huh. If it was the gas that I was using, wouldn't it do this consistently then? Wouldn't it happen more times than not when I start my car? Something about this just doesn't seem right. But what do I know? OOH, but that isn't the BEST part of it! The knocking over the right rear wheel. I ask him about that and what the problem was. "Well," he says, "I had SEVEN different technicians and the specialist drive it and no one could hear any kind of noise." "Really," I question. "So, did you look at that area, the braking system or anything to see if you might be able to visually spot something wrong," I ask. His only response was, "we just couldn't hear anything and if we can't hear it, we can't fix it." What a crock! First of all, I don't believe for a second that they drove a total of eight times and it never did what it does to me 95% of the time! And I'm CERTAIN that the other 5% of the time, I'm seriously just not listening for it anymore. And just exactly how is it that you argue with them about it? I mean, I'm not a mechanic after all! So, he calls me back just now to tell me that my car is ready. Ready for the biggest kicker of them all? Yeah, I asked if they bothered to try checking the noise out one more time and you want to know what he told me? "Well, we would, but your car is pretty close to out of gas, but if you would like to take one of the techs out with you for a spin so that you can show them what the noise is, then we can get it fixed!" First, I'm going to "show" them something that is "heard"? Did I hear this correctly. Secondly, you've driven it eight times, using a quarter of a tank of gas that was in there and NOW you can't drive across the parking lot to the gas station that you are contracted with for your fuel and drop even $5 in there to give it one more whirl? You've got to be kidding me! My car gets on average 25 mpg in the city and is a 16 gallon tank. That means they did a lot of driving and it would have been a lot of IN TOWN driving so that they could hear the braking noise correct? I mean after all, if they got on the highway (which averages around 32 mpg), that really wouldn't do them much good. So, they used at least 100 miles worth of gas "testing" it supposedly? WOW! I must say, I'm super impressed with their thoroughness! They must be oh so proud of themselves and all of their hard work! No, I'm not the least bit frustrated right now. Don't ask about the oven repair guy that I have heard nothing from yet today! Just ONE question here.......exactly how many good deeds is it that I need to do in order to get our karma deficit paid off? |
