OT: Completely lost it today. Gotta VENT...

[COBALT]

Oh, I'm still angry about this:

My wife goes to leave this morning for work. The battery's dead in the '99 Jetta she drives. Not really a problem, until I push it out of the garage, open the hood, and pull the battery cover. Corroded, leaking, and melting. No charge. None. I could tell it had been slowly corroding itself to death.

Since I just paid a bundle having the 40K mile checkup (like the 60K checkup for other cars) and by looking at the battery I could tell it had NEVER been serviced I called the dealership to find out what is going on (This car is under extended warranty-I'm stuck having the dealership service it-There's a lot to it I wouldn't know anyway). I figured they could at least help me solve the problem, since I was now stuck with a car that needed a new battery, and it was blocking the driveway we share with the neighbors. I at least figured they would be willing to bring out a battery that I would pay for...

I asked them if they could help me out. They told me no way, so I informed them of my displeasure of spending alot of $ and having a bad battery. This is what happened:

The service guy (not a mechanic) starts making excuses: "well...these batteries never last more than 3 years...blah blah blah". I had the 40K service sheet in front of me, and they checked-off the electrical system (last time I checked the battery was apart of that). I asked him if he thought it was reasonable for someone (me) to lay down over $900 to have all of this other crap done (belts, plugs, coolant, thermostat, etc.), but nobody thought of pulling the battery cover and taking a peak to see if the battery was delivering amps, or holding a charge, or NOT MELTING? He gives me arogant attitude like I don't know anything: "Well...I know a little something about cars, sir, and I know that blah blah blah...". Patronizing. More excuses.

He didn'offer to help. He didn't sound concerned. He didn't give a rat's a$$. He didn't offer any solution other than "you can just have it towed over here and maybe we'll take a look at it for you sometime today"...Bullsh!t. I had to get to work!

I simply lost it. I've had so many problems with these idiots they simply had to know how I saw their chicken sh!t operation. I blasted the guy, and when his manager was on the phone I blasted him too. I told them they ought to be kissing my a$$ to get me in there, since I'm paying that kind of $ instead of trying to bully me around and tell me what's best is to simply hand over my money and keep my mouth shut.

These bozos think I don't have a choice, like I can't simply take my service elsewhere! For some reason they don't seem to realize that my happiness is all that's important. I'm a customer. I'm not obligated to take crap from them, and that it's my money, and if I don't want to take the car to them I don't have to.

Sad thing is this: if they were willing to help me to begin with I never would have gotten angry with them. All they had to do was offer some kind of help (to show they considered me a good customer). Instead they forced me to fix the situation myself:

I walked 25 blocks up to the commuter park-n-ride my wife took the truck, went to the store and bought a battery, drove home, and put it in the car. I wasted the entire day, and was forced to take a day off (which I didn't want to do) to get this situation fixed. I had to carry batteries all over the damn place, and figure out how to pull their battery tray, take out the trim, and reconnect everything once I got the new one in (of course a special tool was involved).

If they simply were willing to help me out I could have had it fixed and been at work at 8:00 this morning. But NO-we had to do it the hard way. I told them I'm never stepping foot in their service office again. They didn't seem to care, so I guess everyone's happy.



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'69 3/4 ton C20 2wd w/ 350ci/400THM and a wood bed!
'69 3/4 ton Custom 20 2wd w/ ORIGINAL 350ci/4sp Manual and a wood bed (parts beast).
Seattle, WA.

*See pics of my trucks and project at www.webshots.com!