Eleanor Goes to the Doctor.

Image courtesy of anankkml /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The other day, my beautiful baby was not doing so well. I was cutting through a very hilly neighborhood to get from one job to the next when I thought I was going to have to get out and push. She had been having some issues over the last about two or three weeks. I kept trying to pretend that it was nothing, but when the check engine light goes on, you start going up at hill at like 25 mph and are barely moving up it at 5mph….. well you have suck up the fact that unlike people, car will not heal. Things actually don’t get better.
If you take your fist, which I hope you don’t, and punch me hard enough in the arm, I’ll probably burse. However, if I wait long enough, that burse will go away. Unlike a car, if you take a hammer to the door and bag in some dents, they will be there and never get better.

When trying to accelerate I would get a very high pitched sound,  Eleanor wasn’t transitioning from gear to gear very well, and was just over all a lot slower, I thought I had some transmission issues. I really hopped  it was not transmission issues because those are usually really expensive. My car being as sexy as she is, if the amount to repair Eleanor hit a certain level I would be pulling out the old school compare and contract bubble chart to see what I should do. Fix the car or get a new one.

When you think transmission normally you think Aamco. Why? One reason is because they are a big chain repair shop. I’ve used them before in Florida on my 1981 Diesel Mercedes. I also have their little slogan embedded in my head. Double A beep beep M C O. 

I called up the local shop on Tuesday and asked if I wanted to drop my car off tomorrow morning(Wednesday),  would they have time to look at it? Yes, they told me, they would be able to look at it. I asked what time they open, they said 7:30am. I was like cool I’ll see you bright and early. I made arrangement with a friend so she could meet me at Aamco, at 7:30am, I’d be able to drop my keys off, give them any information they need, and she’d drop me off from work.



Wednesday:
7:38am: I arrive at about 7:38am. No one is around. The doors are locked, the lights are off on one is home. Okay, that’s not cool but I can make due.  Most car dealerships have a box you can put your keys in. I look for the box, it’s open, there are no envelopes or anyway I can identify these keys go to my car. So I’m like I’m not leaving them there. So I put the keys the little gas tank door.

8:15am: I wait until about this time to call Aamco to tell them where my keys are and what happened. They said no problem they’ll look at it this morning.

11:45am: I am really kind of anxious about what is going on with my car. I have made plans with someone to pick me up from work, but I’d like to know what is wrong with my car. I give the shop a call. They haven’t looked at her yet. They’ll get to her first thing after lunch.

4:00pm: Still no word. I call the shop again, they say they haven’t had a chance to look at Eleanor, they have been swamped all day. Agitation comes out. I tell them I really need to look at my car so I can figure out what is wrong. I work multiple jobs and making ride arrangements is actually quite hard. If they cannot look at it I am going to have to take it elsewhere.

4:10pm: I get a phone call back from Aamco informing me I gave them the wrong keys. They cannot look at it and tell what’s wrong if they cannot get it to start. By the way they close at 5:30pm.

4:11pm: Shit. What do you mean they are the wrong keys? (In my head:  Maybe they are just using the wrong one? I do have 3 different keys for just one car.) I told them that I was going to try and find someone place else to look at my car. If it doesn’t work out I’ll leave my car there and hope that they can look at it.

4:15pm:  I called two different places recommended by friends. One didn’t get back to me the other doesn’t work on transmissions.

5:05pm. My friend picks me up and I go try to rescue Eleanor. I checked the keys, and they are right, they didn’t work. Where the hell did these keys come from then?

I go in and talk with the guy tell him if I cannot get anyone else to look at it I’ll leave it here and I’d appreciate it if they could look at it tomorrow. He said that would be not a problem. I told him I’ll get the right keys and put them back in the gas tank door. He said no, put them in the box, he’ll find them and know they are mine.

Okay, at this point, sure I’m pissed and the whole key thing is my fault. However, if they would have looked at the car in the morning like they said they would I would have been able to go home on my lunch break and get another set and moved on from there.  Steam is coming out of my ears. I am pissed! They’ve had my car all day and still no word on what is going on with it.  

Thursday:
1:00am: Late night of pub trivia and randomness and I drop a correct pair of keys off in the box like they told me too.

7:20am: My friend picks me back up and I go to work.

11:40am. I still have not heard anything from Aamco about my car. I call up and say "hey, did you have a chance to look at my car?"

“No, we didn’t have the keys. “

"What do you mean you don’t have the keys. I put them in the box like you told me too, they are there.“

“Hold please while I go check. Oh here they are, we should be able to look at it after lunch.”

“You told me that yesterday. And yesterday you didn’t look at it until 4. Are you going to get it done by 2? I really need to know what is going on with my car. I have to figure out what I’m going to do it something is wrong with it. If I don’t hear anything back by 2pm I’m coming to pick up my car.”

“Oh we’ll go look at it right now.”

12:05pm: I get a phone call and I am informed that that there is something wrong with the exhaust. 
Honestly the next sentence is true I asked “Is there like a potato in my tail pipe?”  

Silence.

“Well we think that it is a catalytic converter problem. I’ll run some numbers and give you a call back.”

12:35pm: I get a call  back and they say “It is the catalytic converter and it will be $400 to fix it.”

“Are you sure there isn’t a transmission problem?”

“ Well because of the whole power issue until that is fixed we wouldn’t be able to tell if it is anything else wrong with it. Honestly, you could probably get someone to replace it for cheaper.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll get back to.”

12:40pm: I call another shop ask them how much it would cost to replace a catalytic converter and he says like $250-$300. I was like okay. Can you do it tomorrow? Nope, they are slammed at the moment. If I were to leave the car there he wouldn’t be able to get to it until Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday.

That, that right there was the open honest answers I was looking for all along. Can you do it yes or no? If not today when? No kidnapping my car. No false answers. Just straight to the point.

6:00pm: I took Eleanor out of the Aamco’s parking lot and drove her around all weekend very slowly avoiding hills as much as possible.

Monday:

4:15pm: I dropped Eleanor off at new car shop to be looked at because I couldn’t drop it off at 8am. I go to one of my jobs. Later that night a friend drops me off at home.

Tuesday:

7:20am: My friend picks me back up and I go to work.

8:15am: I called the new auto shop told them where I put the keys were what was going on etc.

12:30pm: I get a call with a quote, yes it is catalytic converter , this is how much.  Can I pick her up today? Yes. What time do you close? 6:30pm. Go for it, I’ll see you later.

6:15pm: I pay for car repair and drive off the lot only after I thank them profusely for putting up with me and keeping Eleanor alive. I told the mechanic that Eleanor and I have a deal that she was getting me to 2013 and only then will we renegotiate our deal. If I have any other issues I’m coming to him. He kind of looks at me like I’m mad but he is cool with it. I could almost give him a hug, but I’m not sure if you’re supposed to do that to your mechanics.

Now in all of this I tried to keep calm. I tried to be the better person and realize that mistakes were made, like me dropping off the wrong keys. However, the whole thing could have gone so much smoother with Aamco if they would have just told me what was going on. If they would have called early in the morning and said I don’t think we’ll be able to get to it today. I probably would have been more okay with it. Instead, I felt like that had kidnapped my car and they were okay with that fact. I know they could be busy, that is why I asked them in the first call if they could take a look at her. The only time they seemed to be concerned is when I said that I was looking for someone else to look at it. Why do you have to threaten taking your business elsewhere to get service some days? I wasn’t trying to be a problem, I wasn’t trying to cause issues or be unreasonable, but they just didn’t seem to care. They did redeem themselves a little by saying that they think other shops could fix her some place cheaper.

If I'm honest with myself, that won’t save my business for them though. I will try other places and shops first. I would rather pay money and get my car looked at the same day then has it checked out for free and have my car kidnapped for two days. End of story. Go back to the Golden Rule. Do on to other’s as you would like done onto you. I don’t think a car repair man wants his car sitting on a lot for no reason for two days so why do it to someone who is not car savvy? I understand your time is valuable but so is mine. What should have taken a day was spread across 6.

Good news of this story, Eleanor is up and running great! 2013 baby, 2013!!!!