Wednesday, September 27
If you want it done right . . .
It seems that paying someone else to work on my car often causes more problems for me than actually doing the work myself. My adventure today at Reston Automotive illustrated this point. I asked that they replace the tires on the "REAR" of the car with the ones that I had sitting on the back seat. These were brand new tires that I had bought from the Tire Rack. Sure enough, when I went to pick up the car, I found that the front tires had been replaced instead of the rears. And yes, I had written the word rear in capital letters and underlined it on the instructions that I left with the shop.
Now here we have our first problem. I wrote specific instructions to the shop that they did not follow. Now I'm in a predicament where I am uncomfortable; either I can feel like a heel and ask them to correct the problem, or drive off and deal with it myself. Right now I'm faced with "Butch," a large, barrel-chested, unhappy-looking dude. He is not helping me make my decision.
The first thing I do when I walk back into the shop is inform them that they did not follow my instructions.
Butch's reply to me is characteristic: "We thought we were doing you a favor. The last time you were in we told you that the FRONT tires were getting worn, so we thought you had made a mistake!"
I can see now that these guys ran into a bit of a problem. They got my note, checked out the car, and doubted what I had written. Instead of calling me, however, they just went ahead and did what they thought they should do.
When I pointed this out, neither Butch nor his manager had anything to say. I said, "Those rear tires have a slow leak. I got them out of a junkpile and they are worth nothing to me. The tires that were on the front were reliable and had some tread left. What I need you to do is put my old tires back on the rear where they should be, and drive me home so that I can pick the car up later."
I can feel the heat coming off of Butch. By now I feel pretty uncomfortable. I sit down to read a magazine and wait an hour before my car is ready. They made the changes at no extra charge, of course, but I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth. Not only did I pay the $50 they charged me for mounting and balancing two tires, but I waited there for an hour while they fixed their mistake.
Now that I think about it, it seems foolish to pay someone else to work on the car. They are going to make decisions that will cost you as much as possible. I do all of the work on my own cars, and I try to do the best work possible while saving as much money. This is my daily driver, after all.
By the time you factor in the amount of time I spent there, the money I spent to get the work done, and the frustration I felt was definitely not worth it. If I possibly could, I would mount and balance my own tires. Sadly, however, it is one of the few things that I cannot do myself.
The bottom line here is, whenever you place your car in the hands of someone else, make sure you are prepared to deal with whatever might come up. Don't be afraid to tell them to do the job right, even if it takes longer. If you're going to pay someone to do something on your car, make sure you get your money's worth.
Now here we have our first problem. I wrote specific instructions to the shop that they did not follow. Now I'm in a predicament where I am uncomfortable; either I can feel like a heel and ask them to correct the problem, or drive off and deal with it myself. Right now I'm faced with "Butch," a large, barrel-chested, unhappy-looking dude. He is not helping me make my decision.
The first thing I do when I walk back into the shop is inform them that they did not follow my instructions.
Butch's reply to me is characteristic: "We thought we were doing you a favor. The last time you were in we told you that the FRONT tires were getting worn, so we thought you had made a mistake!"
I can see now that these guys ran into a bit of a problem. They got my note, checked out the car, and doubted what I had written. Instead of calling me, however, they just went ahead and did what they thought they should do.
When I pointed this out, neither Butch nor his manager had anything to say. I said, "Those rear tires have a slow leak. I got them out of a junkpile and they are worth nothing to me. The tires that were on the front were reliable and had some tread left. What I need you to do is put my old tires back on the rear where they should be, and drive me home so that I can pick the car up later."
I can feel the heat coming off of Butch. By now I feel pretty uncomfortable. I sit down to read a magazine and wait an hour before my car is ready. They made the changes at no extra charge, of course, but I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth. Not only did I pay the $50 they charged me for mounting and balancing two tires, but I waited there for an hour while they fixed their mistake.
Now that I think about it, it seems foolish to pay someone else to work on the car. They are going to make decisions that will cost you as much as possible. I do all of the work on my own cars, and I try to do the best work possible while saving as much money. This is my daily driver, after all.
By the time you factor in the amount of time I spent there, the money I spent to get the work done, and the frustration I felt was definitely not worth it. If I possibly could, I would mount and balance my own tires. Sadly, however, it is one of the few things that I cannot do myself.
The bottom line here is, whenever you place your car in the hands of someone else, make sure you are prepared to deal with whatever might come up. Don't be afraid to tell them to do the job right, even if it takes longer. If you're going to pay someone to do something on your car, make sure you get your money's worth.
