The Next Saga

Howie.

I was impulsive last Sunday. While out and about I decided it might be a good idea to get Howie’s oil changed. Huge mistake! Remind me never to do that again. I stopped at NTB, National Tire and Battery. I have a very picky friend who goes there and trusts them for things such as oil changes so I thought it would be okay. I thought, since there were only a few cars, that Howie could be finished within the hour and we could be on our way, on to the rest of the day. What a fool I was!

I was lounging on their curb in a sunbeam, happily reading, when the counter guy came and asked if I had trouble with the passenger window. Um, no! Never! He informed me the mechanic put it down by mistake when going for the driver’s window in order to see to pull Howie up on the ramp. And it wouldn’t go back up. Worked perfectly fine for me on Saturday. Of course he didn’t believe me. Naturally I was upset but I was much better behaved than you’d think, considering they broke Howie.

They were mean to me. Downright hateful, treating me like I was lying to them. They told me it wasn’t their problem and oh well, I’d have to get it fixed. Three and a half hours later, I left in tears. The window was wedged up but the whole door was screwed from them doing that. No lock, no alarm, no mirror adjustments.

I called Monday and spoke to the manager who was slightly less rude though not by much. When she finally accepted, with a dramatic sigh, that I wasn’t going to go away, she told me to go for an estimate and have the garage call her before doing anything.

Off Howie went, at the inconvenience of my wonderful friends who transported me for the day. The garage called and surprise, surprise, manager lady wasn’t available and counter guy was nasty to them after leaving them on hold for an extended amount of time. Even though she told me not to do anything without her approval I had Howie fixed. What was I supposed to do? Leave Howie there in pieces and beg my friends to tote me around another day? Have them put him back together and then charge to rip him apart again?

I called the national complaint number that I wrote down in the store. Should have set off warning bells, having it posted so plainly but again, my picky friend was happy with the place. The woman I got there was at least polite to me. She took down all my information, agreed I did the right thing by authorizing the repair and gave me a case reference number, saying I’d hear back within two days.

I did. Unpleasant store manager lady. Yes, they will reimburse me for the repair. But in saying that she had to get in several digs about how she seriously doubted her mechanic had anything to do with Howie being broken. I repeated that the window was fine when I used it the day before which she questioned repeatedly and sarcastically.

So Howie is fixed and paid for and I only had to put up with tremendous abuse and two wrecked days for it to happen. Who else do you know who goes for an oil change and ends up with a broken window/door instead?