I was driving my car the other day and heard a rumbling noise when I used the brakes.  It soon was time for an oil change and some other general maintenance so I scheduled a service appointment to get everything taken care of in one appointment. Usually, getting serviced is a ‘you’re in, you’re out’ type of thing, but not this time.

My service appointment turned out to be quite the adventure. It took all day, cost me a couple of hundred dollars, and I still wasn’t satisfied.  It went like this.  I drove an hour to the service center and spent the whole trip trying to drown out the rumble of my brakes with a little country music.  When I finally arrived for my appointment, I decided to take the service center shuttle to the nearby mall rather than hang out with the mechanics. There was a time when I wanted to hang with the mechanics in Clyde’s auto mechanics class in high school, but my parents made me take home economics.  I guess it was more important for me to learn how to cook and sew than to fix brakes and change oil. Boy were they wrong.  Anyway, when the driver dropped me off at the mall he said, “You might have to take a taxi back if your car isn’t done before I get off.”  “Well that’s not going happen” I said. “You come back and get me before you ‘get off’ and I’ll wait at the center until my car is ready. I’m not taking a taxi.”  Meanwhile, I’m thinking to myself, “What kind of shuttle driver are you, anyway?  You didn’t think to tell me that little tidbit of information before we left the service center? And besides, I’ve never even seen a taxi at this mall.”  He left and I spent a couple hundred dollars because I was forced to shop for 3 hours. I couldn’t tell you the last time I spent 3 hours shopping.

Upon return to the service center, I learned that the rotors needed turned.  Sounded serious and a little painful but okay, I gave it a whirl.  When questioned about what caused the need for the turning, the serviceman said, “When you brake or run through puddles things happen to the rotors.”  “Oh, you mean when I do routine driving, which always includes braking and often includes puddles, bad things happen?  Shouldn’t rotors hold-up during routine driving?”  He assured me the problem had been fixed and that it was covered under warranty, so I went about my business.  I left the service center as it closed for the day and turned down the volume on the radio since I didn’t need to drown out the rumble on the ride home.  Boy was I wrong.  A few miles down the road I had to do some normal driving.  In other words, I had to brake.  And while there were no puddles, bad things must have happened because I heard the same rumble.  I couldn’t go back to the service center to give them another chance because they were closed. So I turned up the radio and kept driving. I was less than satisfied and I’m still not satisfied today.  What happened to the days of ‘you’re in, you’re out’ and everybody’s happy?

Did you laugh today?

Eliza G.