I guess I should have known that any day that begins with an appointment at the car dealership from h*ll wouldn't be a good day. Even though every single appointment I've had at this garage over the last 18 months or so has been a complete disaster (let me add that in my 25 years or so of car ownership, I don't recall ever having a problem with a dealership's service department until I got to this place!), optimistic me thought this one would be different...change optimistic to plain ol' stupid!!lol The car was going in for its first tune up and a tire change - for you Southerners, many Northerners change their tires and put winter/snow tires on their cars for the season - helps keep you on the road!lol Shouldn't be complicated - right??lol Long story short, we had a H*nda van for a brief time last year - needed it to do carpool - hated the van, didn't do carpool again this year, got rid of said van and replaced with H*nda SUV. Now, when this trade happened last June, we'd already dished out 4 figures for 4 winter tires on rims for the van which the salesman repeatedly assured me would fit on the SUV... see where this is going??lol Well, sure enough, sit back and start reading my book while SUV is being taken care of and next thing you know, "oh, sorry to disturb you, but we have a problem, where did you get those tires and rims". Well, I explain, got them right here. Oh, sorry, they don't fit, you need new ones. You have got to be f*^$%$#&*ing kidding me. The one thing I made SURE of when we traded cars was that there would be no cost associated with the snow tires. I had the salesman call TWICE to confirm that the tires from the Od*ssey would fit on the SUV and there would be no extra cost. I believe I even had the salesman make a note about this in our file. Let me add, I hate confrontation. So after discussing this with various levels of service management, they agree to take some responsibility for their mistake (we're still discussing just how much, don't have the car back yet as I type, driving a little H*nda C^vic today), so I'm still arguing that one. In the meantime, oops, they don't have the right parts for the tires on the SUV and they have to be ordered. So, finally, after a couple of hours of discussion, they give me a courtesy car and off I go... still waiting to see how this ends. Now, while all this is happening, I get a call from our vet. I brought Toby the cat in yesterday because he just wasn't himself. Because he's a diabetic, I wanted to make sure his sugar levels weren't off. While Toby was there, Doc takes blood and urine samples. Today, Doc calls back, doesn't look good, seems to be some liver issues so now I have to take Toby to another clinic for an ultrasound and various other tests to see what's happening. Our poor little Toby cat - good thoughts for him appreciated. Shortly after hanging up with the vet, another call comes in. Remember that painting that's being shipped from San Francisco. Well, apparently some forms weren't filled out and while it's here in town, they won't release it to me. So, my painting is being held hostage. Not sure exactly who's supposed to give what to whom on this one, but whatever... some airport employee may end up with a painting of my kids on his/her wall. Oh, and this all happened by 11:00am... just can't wait to see what else the day holds in store!!lol Don't you just love days like this?? Not big stuff, but just one annoying thing after another... well, I hope not big stuff for our Toby...he's such a sweet cat! Will keep you posted as to whether I get a car with winter tires, a healthy cat and a painting of my kids any time soon. :-)
***Update: So, it's now 8:00pm and both SUV and cat are back home. SUV has new rims and winter tires, all of which installed at no cost. I'm glad the garage finally stood by its word, but it shouldn't take hours of discussion to get them to do it! Thankfully I was anal enough to have the salesman make a notation in the file that no cost would be incurred in switching snow tires from van to SUV. Salesman was out today, but they reached him on his cell and he confirmed my story, so I guess that took the wind out of their sails...still leaves a bad taste though... Toby's ultrasound came back with some unusual liver pics, but docs are hoping that it's just because of an infection... the $733.60 cost of today's little Toby tests makes me glad the tire thing worked out for free!!!lol Remember the "Six Million Dollar Man"... well, we may have the feline version... our "$50 donation to the animal shelter cat" is now worth a whole lot more after dealing with a year and a half of various tests and effects of diabetes... sure wish now I hadn't thought pet insurance was ridiculous and had gotten it before Toby was diagnosed with diabetes!lol As for the painting, no further word on that, it's still being held. Apparently it's a tax thing... because we don't live in California, we don't pay CA taxes on it but need to pay local taxes and apparently that has to be handled by a broker before painting is released to us...something like that... hopefully it will all be settled and painting will make its way to our house in the next couple of days. :-)
