Car mechanics - special place in hell!!!

[Cheesecake]

I know, first world problem, but really, there's gotta be a special place in hell reserved for car mechanics.

<rant>

I just brought my car in for it's scheduled maintenance, or well, what they set the computer of my car to. (It's a 25K check up/tune up, which the car wants while I've only driven 10K since the last one. I don't drive enough according to the people who set the computer and make money off me, so if you drive less than 1500KM/month, the system starts speeding up insanely where after you've driven 100KM suddenly you're 2000KM closer to needing maintenance. Evil plot nr 1.)

I come in and have 1 complaint about the car. In super hot weather suddenly the car starts the A/C on it's own without me telling it to while my engine is starting. My engine then stops. It's a stupid system really, it should kick in a few seconds AFTER the engine has started, or only when I turn or leave it on. It's not set that way though, so would they please turn that off.

No ma'am, we can't turn that off, we'll put in a new battery for you though.
Uhm, no you won't, I got a new battery at the end of January, a stronger/bigger one than it had before even, so no, I don't need a new battery.
It's probably no good anyway, we'll put a new one in.
Well, it's still under warranty from the ANWB (Dutch version of AAA) so no, I don't want a new one from you, unless you put it in for free.

Other guy joins

We'll just read out the system, we probably need to fix a lot, there are all kinds of lights blinking.
huh, what lights, it didn't do that on the drive over.
here, the time and date
Yeah, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong, that means I'm lazy and you made setting the time and date unneccesarily complicated.

Guys grumbles and starts setting time and date correctly.

I go over what the scheduled maintenance entails and what I get for my crapload of money (making sure to let them know I don't approve anything besides what's on that sheet of paper without them calling me about it).

Other guy walks by again:
It's a 60K maintenance - and you're almost 10K late for that, so you need to add X, Y and Z to the maintenance.
Uhm no, It's had it's 60K maintenance, about 10K ago. I just don't drive that much, which is why I'm in for my next 25K maintenance after only 10K.
Yeah okay, whatever, but you'll need new spark plugs, because these have 60K on them and that's too much.
Unless you screwed with the odometer (I started to get pissy here) or lied at the 60K maintenance, the spark plugs only have 10K on them. They're good for another 3 or 4 years or 50K, whichever comes first.

Guy grumbles more and walks away.

I finally ask if the checking fluids means they'll top them up too, to which he says, yeah, but we can't add that to your quote in advance, as we don't know if and how much fluids we'll use, we'll charge you after we fill it.

They better damn well charge me for the exact amount they used or I'm going home with a bunch of partially full bottles of fluid which I paid for.

Really, I know I'm a girl, I know I'm a blonde, but really, do I look like they dropped me on the head, repeatedly, when I was a baby??? They NEVER do this to DH (while they'd get away with it way easier), why do they insist on trying to screw women out of their money when it comes to cars.

Seriously, special place in hell!
<rant over>

[americaninoz]

Sounds like you need a new mechanic !! We got screwed over recently when we went to a new place,a good trustworthy mechanic is worth his weight in gold!!

[clogged]

May 31, 2012 4:08:33 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

Really, I know I'm a girl, I know I'm a blonde, but really, do I look like they dropped me on the head, repeatedly, when I was a baby???.

I wasn't going to say anything, but now that you bring it up......


And it is a female thing. My female friend, licensed and practicing mechanic, has to take her car in to their mechanics (some warranty thing). They try and jack her around everytime. Really gets her because some of what they say is made up crap anyway.

[Deleted]

did they call you frautje?

[Cheesecake]

Their balls should thank them that they didn't call me that!

I have fat fingers, please excuse typos!