So, I took the car in yet again today. Yesterday, they simply didn't have time to get to it. Today? I just said I would wait after getting there at 2:30 and they still hadn't had a chance to look at it. To their credit, they were down 2 technicians to illness.
I think I was there about 3-1/2 hours. Well, I wasn't going to try to drive that thing home again the way it was acting up. In fact, it was doing some really strange things. The worst of which, however, is dying out at lights, dying while driving on the freeway, lights coming on and off, fuel gauge jumping around all over the place.
So, we get into all kinds of discussions - just like the last 2 times, we sort of think alike and look at things pretty much the same way. I waited quite a while before they even got to my car, but, this shop has one of the best reputations around the valley, in fact, their reputation spreads to all parts of Arizona and beyond. In other words, no sense in getting cranky about it, I had resolved to spend the rest of the afternoon when I got there and saw they hadn't done anything to it, anyway.
This story goes on with us bantering back and forth, but, the deciding moment came. I knew what that tech was checking and I started feeling sick. He was banging on the computer. I have come to learn that - as primordial as it may sound - this is how they figure out of the computer is bad. Have the car running, diagnostic computer hooked up and start banging on the thing. He banged, the car started coughing and choking. Back and forth, on and on.
The owner - the guy I was chatting with - came to the verdict before the tech - his son - could say it: bad computer. I knew what that meant: a LOT of money. At least, I thought so. I had a car 10 or more years ago whose computer went out - it was priced out at $500. I told him my thoughts, he shook his head, no. I thought, even MORE than that? No, he said, they don't cost that much.
He made a phone call, got off, told me his price was $179 and that he normally would have charged $300, but he would give it to me at cost plus labor. Labor at $80, which included the diagnostics AND the installation. He gave me the cost - easily less than half of what any other shop would have charged me. I don't know why he was being so generous, maybe cause I had the car in there twice already in the past month, maybe because we get along so well, dunno, but I jumped all over it: yes, get that thing and put it in there.
Here's the embarassing and bad part, for me anyway. I deposited a check in the bank this afternoon. They always give me $100 credit instantly on a check, they have never not done that. I have never deposited a bad check or money order, either. With that credit plus what I had in there already that would cover it. If not, I had cash on me as well. I told him to put $220 on the card and the rest I would pay in cash. He goes to do that and it comes back - declined.
Under the "old" bank rules, the card would have gone through and then, if I didn't have the money in the account before bank closure that day, that night I would be assessed an overdraft fee and owe the money left. New rules? Well, this is the first time I have been subjected to it. No go, Joe.
Well, I said, put less on it, I should have that covered. Otherwise, I guess I'll leave the car and will be taking a taxi home. I hated to say that, but I felt pretty - lame - having a card declined. He looked at me and said: "well why don't you do that". I thought he meant take a taxi - I wouldn't expect any repair shop to just let me take the car home without paying for it and I didn't expect it here, either. I said, okay, I'll take a taxi and tomorrow afternoon I'll pay for the car.
No, no, he said, just take the car, I know where you live. You want to talk about genuine shock, I was there. Here's the owner of a shop telling me I can take my car without paying for it. He didn't just start in this business yesterday, I'm sure he's had more than his share of deadbeats, and that's exactly what I felt like: a deadbeat. Yet, he smiled, we shook hands and yes, I left with my car. And yes, I will be over there first thing in the morning, cause that check will definitely clear by then and I can pay that bill.
I haven't heard of anything like that in a long, long, long, long time, much less be on the receiving end of it.
I must say here that I did not expect this car to get into the price range it has in getting it operational. New tires (2); harmonic balancer; crank sensor; new battery; new computer; major tune-up; emissions testing; registration. My son definitely got the ball rolling with the initial $435 he gave me to get it fixed, I figured it would go a little over, I will admit here it went well over that. There is still a leaking valve cover gasket that needs to be replaced and it sounds like it has an exhaust leak.
If I am lucky, that will be the end of it.
Whatever the case, this is the end of this one.
ben
4 comments:
Make good with that man. Credit is something that goes beyond dollars and cents.
Credit is about integrity.
I think he sized you up perfectly. He knows you will pay him.
In fact, you might consider paying him just a little extra as a sign of goodwill. People remember that sort of stuff.
Definitely agree, not a business relationship I want to ruin by not making haste to pay it up. I put cash in his hand this morning and we were good. I offered extra, he refused. Lol. He also said there "IS no embarrassment here" after explaining to him that the bank had turned my card off, even though they said they weren't. That in itself was the source of no small amount of consternation today in trying to get that dealt with.
Yer lucky. The computer on the mitsub was $1200.
Yes, I understand that those things are expensive, but, apparently, they go up in cost as the year increases of it's manufacture. That car is a 1994, old, yes, runs great? FINALLY, it does!
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