Large Scale Central

Kick me

General Discussion
#1

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you’re walking around with a big “kick me” sign on your back? Or maybe “sucker” tattooed on your forehead?

Thursday I take my car in to the quickie oil change shop I’ve been using for years. They discover that the last time they changed my oil, they also removed the air filter and neglected to replace it. Manager has gone for the day, and no one there claims to be authorised to do anything about it.

Friday morning I go back with the receipt from the previous visit showing I paid for an air filter that I never received. I get the run around from the manager, who eventually has me fill out a “claims” form. Needless to say, I will no longer be doing business there.

Friday evening the starter died on my car. It was less than a year old, installed by Pep Boys. I’m not a big fan of their service department, but I didn’t want to be stuck without my car over the entire three day weekend – and the starter was still under warranty. So I spent all day there on Saturday waiting for them to fix it.

Later on I noticed a small exhaust leak, and also the check engine light was on. So this morning I took the car in to my regular shop, a more reputable establishment. Turns out the Pep Boys guy stripped the studs (bolts?) when removing the manifold. This will take 3-5 days and a lot of bucks to fix, and then I’ll probably have to fight with PB to get them to reimburse me for their screwup.

Meanwhile… At the beginning of April I paid over $4500 for a new health insurance policy. After several calls to the agent I finally received a policy in the mail today – for some cheapo life insurance! Got ahold of the agent late in the day, who insists I am covered on the health insurance, and he’ll straighten things out. But the way things have been going lately I’ll believe it when I see it, and it better be soon.

#2

What a YUCK few days.

Caveat Emptor is a bit late now but might be the go in the future.

#3

Some days you be the windshield…some days you be the bug…S**T Happens…:wink:

#4

Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you.

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I received a $2409.02 bill in the mail from Sprint. The only problem is that I use another carrier. After spending a total of 6 hours on the phone with idiots who use English as their third or fourth language, I was told late today that I needed to appear in person at a “Sprint Store” to get anything done. The nearest “Sprint Store” is over 20 miles away!

You have my deepest sympathy, and understanding.

#5

I’ve had years like that!

Changed long distance companies once, but kept getting billed by the old one. Many phone calls and a couple letters and that finally was sorted. Or so I thought.

Then I got a letter from a bill collector about many hundreds I owed the old company. I called the phone number on the letter. “Oh, this was related to E#*%))? I’ll take care of that for you.”

Never heard about it again.

#6

Ray, if this was at your local Jiffy Lube well…are you sure they even changed the oil?

Place we went, a big carwash place, they forgot to put the oil cap back on after changing the oil, my wife came home and said “the engine is smoking” went to investigate, found it was only the cap missing and oil spray had gotten on the manifold, so I drive my car back to the carwash, they send an employee back with me, with extra oil, luckily he found the cap in the engine compartment, he cleans up as best he can, checks the oil level, then tells us to bring the car back to the carwash, where they steam cleaned the engine compartment and gave her car a free handwash. We still go there.

#7

I stopped using Jiffy Lube when a mistake they made cost me a motor in a 2 year old car. I had a radiator flush done and they improperly tightened the bottom radiator hose. It blew off on I-87 while crossing the Tappan Zee bridge. By the time I got to a pull-off place the motor had seriously overheated and warped the head. Regional Jiffy Lube manager refused to cover the repair cost because he could see no evidence of a coolant leak after the dealer had torn down the motor. My lawyer said to bite the bullet and forget it. Suing them would cost 5 times the repair cost with no guarantee of a win.

So now, every chance I can I let everyone know how bad they are. Jiffy Lube will never see another one of my vehicles.

#8

I went to a chain Lube store exactly ONCE based on a recommendation from the dealership saying that oil changes there counted under my new car warranty. Yeah right. They over filled the motor. It ran funny on the way home and when I checked the oil level it was coming out of the dip stick tube! 6.5 quarts in a 3.5 quart oil pan. Never again. Of course I had issues with that dealership too.

#9
W. Chas. Ronolder IV said:
I went to a chain Lube store exactly ONCE based on a recommendation from the dealership saying that oil changes there counted under my new car warranty. Yeah right. They over filled the motor. It ran funny on the way home and when I checked the oil level it was coming out of the dip stick tube! 6.5 quarts in a 3.5 quart oil pan. Never again. Of course I had issues with that dealership too.
Well, duh! The 18 yo pimply faced kid was told to fill your car with oil, so he did. :D Just be glad he stopped with the engine! :lol:

Once upon a time, after I had rebuilt and replaced a standard three speed transmission in my practically perfect '65 Mustang, I took it to a “Pronto” Lube because I was beat, and greasy. I won’t specify the franchise name because I don’t want any missives from lawyers. I had just filled the new transmission with new 90 wt gear oil. There were no leaks after 2 hours, so it was safe to drive to the perpetrator.

After my Mustang was safely ensconced in the service bay, the manager came to me with a piece of cardboard upon which were two streaks of oil, one that was fresh 90 wt gear oil, and one that was new automatic transmission fluid. He told me that my transmission was about to fail because my lubricant had changed color from red to yellow/brown, indicating that the lubricant was completely worn out and if I even contemplated driving it off his lot, my transmission would be ruined.

I was so stunned that for a moment I was speechless, then I started laughing at him. I doubled checked everything they did on that visit, and never went back. Lesson learned.

#10

Wellllll… My friend Kim recently took her car to Monro for an oil change because they had a $15.99 special…except it wasn’t so special — add about $8.50 in various (undisclosed until they presented the bill) “recycling fees” and it warn’t no bargain no more… Then to add insult to injury something in the motor now rattles at idle (but it ain’t THEIR fault, and they won’t do a diagnostic eval to find the trouble without us paying for it either)

Then there was the time a local garage changed the thermostat in my ex wife’s mini van…except they somehow managed to do it without disturbing the grease…

#11

Last month, my wife took her Honda Prelude to the ‘local’ (~25 miles each way over a mountain pass) Honda dealer for an oil & filter change. A day or two later she noticed that there was oil leaking out from under the car. On closer examination, I found that the oil plug had been left loose. Fortunately she had not driven the car except to bring it home and the oil level was still at the full mark.

I contacted the service manage at the dealershop. He immediately offered to send a truck to pick the car up and said they would “make it right.” I declined his towing offer and simply tightened the plug slightly for her to drive it back to the dealer. They dumped the oil and replaced the oil & plug with a new one. She had previously been complaining about a problem with the idle, but hadn’t wanted to spend the money on a diagnostic test. While she was there for the oil leak, they ran the diagnostic test (at no charge) and determined that an idle sensor was the cause. They ordered the part and when it came, installed it, again for no charge. They also gave her coupons for three free oil & filter changes in the future. All that along with several apologies to both of us.

The reason I’m posting this is to show that there are still companies that understand the value of satisfied customers and will do what is necessary to keep our business. The service manager was very unhappy with his (new) service guy and really stepped up, going way beyond the minimum required to fix the problem. This is a small town dealership where we have purchased several new and used cars over the years. Anyone can have a problem or make a mistake, but the way they resolve the problem is where it counts.

I highly recommend Thurston Honda (formerly Mendo-Lake Honda) in Ukiah, CA. They care!

On the other hand, because of our very recent dealings with Black & Decker (now owned by “Fox International”) they have permanently lost all my business because they tried to charge us for replacing a coffee maker that failed after less than 3 months in service. I realized the coffee maker was cheap chinese junk when we bought it, but (wrongly) assumed that Black & Decker would at least honor their stated 1 year warranty. After several passes through voice mail hell, they agreed to send us a new one after we returned the defective part (at our cost) and sent them cash to ship a new one. No thanks.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#12

A friend, customer and fellow local GRrer told me of his experiences with the local Jag dealership (he has two of the new-fangled ones).
AC had quit.
They wanted $2,000 to remove the dash, as “the problem was in the dash”.
The windscreen washer had stopped functioning (pour fluid in the top, it ran out the bottom), they had to “remove the wing (fender) to access the bad components” for $350.
The rear brake pads were worn, they wanted $1500 to drop the IRS to fix it.

He took it to the local highly recommended independent import shop, all three repairs came to $600.

Compressor seal, hose had fallen off the bottom of the washer bottle, and the calipers/pads come out witout dropping the IRS.

After his last repair visit to the dealership, his outside mirrors no longer worked (they had when it went in).
They looked at it, was going to be $700 in parts for the switch panel on the driver’s door.

He went home, removed the switch panel, sat at his bench for 2 hours, drew a schematic, figured two tracks were bad, soldered jumpers across the bad spots, re-assembled, and it works fine.

#13

When my cousin Sam in Ontario was building the roof on his grarj, he accidentally nailed himself to the truss through his left index finger.

He didn’t feel a thing, he noted afterwards, because his immediate reaction was to violently hit his head on the other truss, rendering him unconscious. When he woke up a few minutes later, the pain of the finger had been beaten by the pain in his head.

And foot, where he’d dropped the nailer.

Recovering enough to pull the nail out of his finger, he scrambled down the ladder to find something to staunch the blood, missed his footing and sprained his ankle.

When I got there about ten minutes later, he was sitting on the ground, laffin’ his head off, looking like he had walked into an operating combine harvester.

tac

#14

Anyone remember the early V6 Turbo Volvo that motor was so stuffed into the engine compartment that in order to reach the spark plugs the motor had to be pulled ???

#15
Ray Dunakin said:
Meanwhile... At the beginning of April I paid over $4500 for a new health insurance policy. After several calls to the agent I finally received a policy in the mail today -- for some cheapo _life_ insurance! Got ahold of the agent late in the day, who insists I am covered on the health insurance, and he'll straighten things out. But the way things have been going lately I'll believe it when I see it, and it better be soon.
That's about what my daughter and son-in-law pay annually for their health insurance. We pay less than half that for identical coverage because I'm eligible for a policy through the union.

I used to think unions were a waste of space, right into my 40s. I have changed my point of view, in part because of the tangible benefits of plans like these.

#16

The wife and I were in the local tyre dealership having two rear tyres fitted to her car. While filling in time, I told her the story of how my younger brother had worked in the same dealership during school holidays. His best friend was the son of the owner of the dealership. Well, a car had returned to the shop with a noise coming from a tyre that had just been fitted. Sure enough, the wheelnuts had not been tightened. My brother was blamed for the incident, even though it was the son of the owner who had actually fitted the tyre.

Well, eventually our two rear tyres were fitted and the bill paid for. We had only driven about two metres when I told the wife to stop the car. I went straight into the office and told the manager to come and inspect the car and bring a tyre wrench with him. Sure enough, both sets of tyre retention nuts were only hand tightened. It was very ironic as we had only just been discussing the same scenario that had occurred to my brother over thirty years previously.

#17

My health insurance policy finally arrived a couple days ago. Seems to be in order, though it’s hard to tell what all these reams of legalese actually mean. But at least it already reduced my cost on the prescription I had to refill yesterday so that’s a good sign.

As for the car, got a call from the mechanic, says the manifold is cracked. Looking at another 3-5 days to get a replacement. Total cost now up to $2200. :frowning:

The only bright side to this is that we’re spending less on gas. Cris’ little Scion is a lot more fuel efficient than my Trooper.

BTW, this Saturday we’re having all the neighbors over to see the layout. Only a few have ever seen it during construction, so for most this will be their first glimpse of it. This will also be the first time we’ve actually gotten acquainted with some of the folks on our block.

#18

Sophira’s 12 years old and still gets 33MPG. I think I’ll stick with my old chevy.

#19
Tom Ruby said:
Sophira's 12 years old and still gets 33MPG.
Thats amazing Tom, my inlaws can't get their 12 yr old to do the ruddy Dishes! :D :D :D
#20
Ray Dunakin said:
Cris' little Scion is a lot more fuel efficient than my Trooper.

BTW, this Saturday we’re having all the neighbors over to see the layout. Only a few have ever seen it during construction, so for most this will be their first glimpse of it. This will also be the first time we’ve actually gotten acquainted with some of the folks on our block.


I dig my Scion Xb! Have you considered possibly trying to get your layout onto next years Big Train Show tour schedule?

BTW hope to see you there this weekend, I’ll be at the MLS booth Saturday and maybe Sunday as well. Later Vic