UUUhh? Did you get your shortwave radio fixed at Wal-mart? Cause
this is a radio group.

On Sun, 07 Mar 2004 12:25:15 GMT, "Ross" wrote:


"Soliloquy" wrote in message
. 44...
funkbastler wrote in
:

Oh, is this limited to Walmart? We had the same thing happen at Pennzoil
here in PA, caused quite a leak. We didn't realize that the Pennzoil had
buggered up the plug, so we took it to the garage that we normally deal
with. Lo and behold, the plug was stripped but in place.

Repair complaint anecdotes.

Being we humans make mistakes all the time, for all sorts of reasons, it's
basically a statistical fact that any organization that does tens of
thousands of (brake jobs/tire rotations/whatever) a year will screw some of
them up. There are a million distractions or different events that might
result in a drain plug being forgotten, no matter how careful you are with
procedure. FOO-ups will in fact happen.

Gau-ran-teed!

Obviously, avoid shops that are incompetent by doing your research, but
there's always the statistical chance you'll be the victim of one of their
mistakes, no matter where you take your car. Some places are much better
than others, but none will fail to screw up given enough time.

What's important, is how the organization responds when it's called on to
compensate you for their mistakes. It's sad that the integrity of seeking a
square deal is all but dead in our overly-results-driven culture. A culture
in decay primarily because of the primacy of greed and personal gain
dominant in this time. Wall Street calls it virtue, but it's ugly in large
quantities, so I think they are in error.

We should turn this around and look at repair horror anecdotes and focus on
how the shop made things right in the end (or didn't!) to tell which
companies won't steal from you, and which will happily leave you with a
damaged car and keep your money.

As a consumer, I think that's something I'd really want to know before I
entrusted it with my vehicle or for that matter, reward it with my dollars.

Just another way to look at repair complaint anecdotes.




A friend at work took his Ford pickup truck (2 year old truck) to the
FORD DEALER from where he purchased the vehicle. He went to pick it up at
the end of the day, and viola, it was smoking like Jerry Lewis. The
dealer actually tried to pass it off onto my friend, saying that it
smoked like than and ran rough when my friend brought it in. In
actuality, the Ford Dealer mechanics forgot to put the plug in, the
ingoing oil drained out, and they ran the truck without oil. Notice that
they attempted to deceive him in a ludicrous way, he would have had to be
a complete idiot to have accepted the vehicle. Then the Ford Garage
attempted to say that they would "rebuild" his destroyed motor. He
contacted Ford Corporation and they interceded and required that the Ford
Garage install a new motor.

Not limited to Walmart, is it?

Concerning the tire plug, when I went to Goodyear to have a flat tire
repaired, out came the mechanic carrying the tire. The feeling of dread
came over me, it must be a serious puncture. He carried the tire to me,
and said "this puncture is getting near the sidewall", and recommended
buying a new "set" of tires. He concealed the tire so that I could not
see clearly. I took the tire away from him (after all, it is my tire) and
looked inside. The puncture was well away from the sidewalls. I told him
to fix it, which they did. Never had any problems with it. Walmart is not
my first choice for car repairs, but I have had vehicles repaired there.
I don't believe them to be any less ethical than any other garage.

Pursuant to Al's post, when someone performs badly in retail, we often
make sure to excoriate the person to the manager and quite often relate
the negative experience to our friends. When someone is exceptional, we
usually don't even take note. I was at a K-Mart one Christmas season. The
employees and customers had been run through the mill due to the busy
season, crowded conditions, competitive buyers (vying for the last of
this item or that), and late nights (longer store hours). Anyway, this
young black saleswoman shined well beyond the rest. She was as friendly
as can be, informative, and efficient. I made sure to pursue the manager
and tell him that I believed that she was an exceptional employee. We all
need to take the time to adulate those deserving of it, especially in
these days of declining service.

Somehow I can't believe that your mechanics assiduously scrape off ALL
the accumulated dirt and mud. Perhaps this is so if you pay $400 a tire
and $90 for each tire for balancing. No one is going to waste that much
time (they can't, they need to make money to stay in business) perfecting
the tire for balance. They'll scrape off the gross stuff, of course, but
they are not going to dig into every nook and cranny.

Regards.



On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 10:46:04 -0500, Al Patrick wrote:


Wife used to take her car to WalMart to get the oil changed - until
they cross-threaded the drain plug.

They're also the only folks I've ever seen want to plug a hole in
a radial tire instead of breaking it down and patching it properly.


Hmmmm... the folks I use always scrape all the accumulated dirt
and mud off the rims before balancing the tires. I think that
only somebody who hadn't had much (if any) training would do
otherwise. It's kind of a "DUHHH" thing.




--
Never say never.
Nothing is absolute.