New Tires

Sooo not a bargain.

My driver side rear tire has been going flat every couple of mornings for about 2 weeks now. I go out to start the car so it is warm for the boys and there is a flat tire. So I drag out the air compressor, let it charge up, air up the tire and put it all away again. All at the butt crack of dawn in the freezing cold. My neighbors are starting to really hate me.

It was getting to be a HUGE pain in the ass so I took it to the tire shop Friday. They said it was a valve stem. They fix it and I bring it home.

By Saturday morning the damn tire is flat again. So I make Hubbs air up the tire so we can run our errands. By 7 that night, the tire was flat. Again.

Yesterday, I took my car back to the tire shop. Obviously it wasn't the valve stem because it is worse than before. I tell them to fix my stupid flucking tire right and call me when it was done.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call. Apparently Friday when I said the driver side rear tire was flat they thought I meant the passenger side front tire was the one with the issue.

That sounds totally the same, right? Stupid shits replaced the valve stem on the passenger side front tire. And the valve stem wasn't even the problem. Uhhh, duh?

My tire keeps going flat because it is separating on the inside. Ok, so I need a new tire. They also casually asked if I knew that my front tires were a different size than the rear ones.

YES? I have been telling them for a year that my tires are rubbing on my struts. I can hear it every time I turn. Plus if I look in the wheel well, I can see where the rubber is being worn away on the inside.

I get that I am a chick and am inferior because I don't have a penis *snort* but I am NOT stupid. I was temped to ask him if he had forgotten that I work in a body shop. Dummy.

So really, I need 4 new tires but can get away with only getting 2 right now.

I had to sit down when they told me how much each tire cost. $250 each tire. I told them very nicely where they could shove those $250 tires. I can get them cheaper somewhere else and would never be using that tire shop again.

In order not to lose business the tire guy said he would give me 2 tires for $211. That was a little more reasonable but not even close to what I really wanted to spend which was nothing since it was their screw up in the first (and second) place.

Ugh, it killed me to write out that check. And I should have just picked up my car and not let that shop touch another thing on it. I know better than that! But it had to be done right then.

I only spent the money I had and didn't have to put it on a credit card. So a teeny yay for me.

BUT, if everything goes as planned........in a couple of weeks Hubbs and I will own half of a business. BIG yay for me! Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

Check back to read more about our big business venture. I have a post started already but it is all jumbled because I am still trying to process it all.

Another Great Customer

I just got off the phone with Crazy Old Man Ed. Ed claims that we put his headrests on backwards.

Yes, his headrests.

But wait! There is more!

He says his back seat is at a downward angle. To clarify, he slides off of it when he sits on it.

Umm, ok?

I asked him if he locks his car up when he gets out of it.

He doesn't. And he has been somewhere in California since my boss delivered his car to him, 2 weeks ago.

There are too many things wrong with the story for me to believe that our shop is responsible for any of it.

#1. I don't think it is possible to put the head rests on backwards. There are these grooves in the metal that hold them into the seat and make them adjustable. They are like a key, sort of. They only go in one way. I could be totally wrong, but I am pretty sure that they are idiot proof.

#2. The boss, the owner, the one who does the final inspection before the car is released to the customer, drove the car to this guy. I think he, of all people, would notice something like that.

#3. On this particular car, the part you put your ass on is attached to the car. With bolts. The part your back rests against is the part that moves. It folds down and you can see the trunk. Now, this is how I am seeing it in our estimating database. We all know how I can see one thing and my brain reads it some other way, so I am not going to say that I am 100% positive on this one.

#4. I can say, without a doubt, none of our guys would pull a stunt like that. They all value their jobs too much to do something that shitty. I don't think that it would even occur to them to do it at all.

#5. The car was parked on the street, unlocked. For two weeks! Hypothetically, say you CAN put in headrests the wrong way. There are tons of asshole teenagers running around town, unsupervised, in the middle of the night. My money is on some little punk or group of punks doing all that crap to his car. Again, hypothetically speaking.

#6. I forgot what my last point was going to be.

In any case, I told Ed to bring his car by and I will have my boss take a look at everything.

He said sure, as soon as OnStar unlocks the car. Because the one time he does lock the car, he leaves the keys in it.

Dumbass.

Problem Customers

Is it just me or does the auto industry attract the weirdos?

I feel like if there is a nutjob, mentally unstable or flat out asshole within 200 miles, they will come to this shop. I have to deal with jerks every single day, either in person or on the phone.

I have had to deal with enough today to make me want to not show up tomorrow. It has been BAD. As if Mondays aren't hard enough. At least we get to make fun of them after they leave.

This just happened---
Dude (shirtless with his at least 60 year old man boobs swinging around): You all worked on my car about a year ago.
Me (trying not to LoL at the naked man boobs): Mmmkkay. So what can I help you with?
Dude: Well I had the spare key tied up under my bumper and it isn't there anymore.
I look up his repair from a year ago.
Me: Well, it looks like we replaced that bumper, so your key is long gone by now.
Dude: Well where the hell would it have gone!
Me: It more than likely got sent to the trash, along with the bumper it was tied to. Because my techs didn't turn one in. It would be right here in this empty drawer.
Dude: What do you mean it got thrown away! It is a $70 key!
Me: But we took off that bumper and replaced it with another bumper, like YOU asked us to do. We had no way of knowing you hid your spare key somewhere in it.
Dude: Is there a MAN somewhere around here I can talk to?
Me: Sure there is. He isn't going to tell you anything different than I just did.
Over walks Jack.
Jack: We don't have your key that you hid in your bumper from a year ago.
Dude: You mean that they didn't take the key and hang it up somewhere?
Jack: No. We didn't hang up the key that we didn't even know was in there.
Dude: But it was a $70 key!
Jack: Aaannnddd?
Dude: Pfffhhhhtttt. Sugar, you better put something in that doomahickey about this.
Me: My name is not Sugar. And by Doomahicky, you mean what exactly?
Jack: You mean the ESTIMATE file?
Dude: Yeah, that.
Me: ...........whatever you say.

First, don't dismiss what I am saying just because I am a chick. Bad idea. Believe it or not, I DO sometimes know what I am talking about.

Totally different, semi-related story to the one above--
I promise that just because you call it a "Back Windowshield", I know for sure that it is really called "Rear Glass" or even a "Hatch Glass". And there is absolutely NO way that I am supposed to know that you really mean your "Driver's Window". Do NOT get shitty with me when it is completely the wrong piece of glass because YOU gave me the wrong information. Take it somewhere else if you want a mind reader. Or someone who is still nice to you after all that.

And while I am on the subject....yes, we do need ALL that information about you. Like your name, address, phone number, insurance company and if we are lucky a claim number and a claim representative phone number. How are we supposed to know who the hell you are and how the hell we are supposed to get paid? Don't give me attitude when I ask you these questions.

I think that is enough ranting about stupid people for today. There might be more tomorrow though.

Crazy Street People

We live in a town with a lot of transients. They get drunk and wander the streets until the police pick them up and take them to jail or the detox center. The other day, one of them decided to try and sleep it off in one of our customer's cars. The car was parked in front of the shop, the guy opened the door and climbed right in. One of the shop guys saw it and had to physically throw the guy out of the car. Dumbass.

I have had to chase these street people off my own property. They are stubborn! I found one passed out in our camp trailer once. I had gone out the back gate to clean the camp trailer for a camping trip that weekend and noticed the door wide open. I saw him passed out under the table. I had to call the cops on that one because there was no way I was going to try and get him out from under there.

Another one even had the nerve to steal a garden hose out of my neighbor's truck (which I saw because I was outside playing with Monk Man in the sprinkler) and then try to sell it to me for $10. I took the hose from him and threw it over the neighbor's fence. The only reason this one left was because I threatened to turn my dogs loose on him.

I used to feel sorry for them but after some of the crap I have dealt with from them, I don't feel sorry for them anymore.

The worst was when I worked at the gas station. They would come in, try to buy alcohol, I would deny them and they would get nasty. I have been cussed out, spit at, swung at, followed out to my car, and had things thrown at me.