Tuesday, February 06, 2007

This is Why My Car is Falling Apart

I have been trying to get my car fixed. And of course I can NOT get it out of a shop without paying for something I did not want to.

Case #1 - The Brakes
I brought my car into the brakes shop on Friday morning. They said - hey - we do all of these things for $100. Great - between buying the brakes and having someone put them in for me it seemed like a good deal. Until they called an hour or so later with $500 worth of extra repairs that I "needed." I of course don't think I need any of it, but they scare me. So I try to get Dave to talk to them and he's at work. So I talk to this guy I work with who says no way you need all that stuff - take it to these guys who I trust who take care of all our trucks here at the shop. So I pull my car from the brakes store, but not until they've charged me $150 for the work that they did. For the record - I can now stop, but my faith in car people is hit one more time.

Case #2 - The New Shop
So on Monday I bring my car into the new shop. I give them the paperwork from the brakes store and ask them to check if I really need these things. They call back and say of all these extra $500 worth of repairs we think you only need this one thing for $57. Great. Go for it. So they call me later in the afternoon and say "have you had any problems with your ignition?" Oh - yes, I say, I forgot to tell you, there's a release under the steering column to get it out. Really, the guy on the line says, the tech didn't tell me anything about that, he just said that when he took the key out it beeps like the key's still in the ignition. Huh I say, that's never happened to me. Long story short (because I'm getting tired of typing all of this out) they get my key out but now the ignition won't turn. They try to blame it on the key, but in the end unless my ignition lock gets replaced the car's not going to start. I really think that the tech forced the key out and that's what broke it and now they're gonna charge me $366 to get my car back to starting. I've told the guy that it never did this before and he just says well you did have problems with the ignition. Yes - but it always would turn. This NEVER happened before I brought it to the shop.

Moral of the story - getting your car fixed always leads to getting MORE things on your car fixed and that is why I HATE getting my car fixed. Also I'm convinced that I get taken advantage of every time I bring my car in somewhere and I swear it's just because I'm a girl. That makes me sooo angry! And this is why I don't bring my car into the shop. I hate it so much.

2 comments:

Viv M. said...

I agree - I have no real clue when it comes to cars and mechanics... oh well, hopefully it'll all be resolved soon.

btw - nice work putting the penguins on your page - maybe hector could stand next to them? he does make cute squishy noises

Christy said...

I hate the car world! I think they know they have you and claim they do nothing wrong.
bummer!