Friday, July 20, 2007

allright already....


I've been dealing with this particular company for over two months now... the one in San leandro has kept our engine almost hostage. never calling me back, changing their stories and they have lied to me several times. last week i had had enough. i drove to the location and found hundreds of people striking... WTF? i knew what i might be in for but wasn't ready for the hate machine of near peaceful violence... if that makes sense.

i park a block away and cross the line by foot for the first time. i explain to them that i just want to take my business elsewhere and i need my fucking engine.


"where the fuck do i find my engine?"


i haggle with the fucking service manager there for a couple of hours, who promises me that they have people coming down from another branch. i make about forty calls or so and find out that he is outright lying to me. there was no one coming... he asked me to call him back on Friday for an update. i over heard him say this to several people on the phone. i also overheard him say to his co-worker that he had Friday off and felt bad for him due to all the calls he was going to have to deal with...


"I'm going to kill somebody!"


it was at this point i walked into the shop where i thought my engine might be.. looked around and found it in over a hundred pieces... started to box things up when i was kicked out. first by some security guard then by a sheriff with a video camera...


"I'll be back tomorrow!! have my engine ready to go!!!"


now its not like this place is next door to my work or anything... its a three hour plus drive, more with traffic. i return the next day to find the company even more empty than the day before. i bypass having to talk to anyone and head straight to the back door of the shop... four pallets of parts and my engine sitting on a stand strapped to a pallet. i find the fork lift and get started... meanwhile i am getting taunted and jeered from the protesters who have seen me "working" there... just as i get this motor up and over about an inch of the flat bed it stalls and dies... i spent half an hour asking my self; if i was a full bottle of propane where would i be? swap tanks and get two more pallets of parts and the engine loaded. out comes a really apologetic dude and he tries to help for a minute or two..


"no really dude, thanks anyway, I'll get it."


i strap the living shit out of this top heavy load and off i go. i drive another three hours east and drop it off at one of their other branches. (i know you are asking yourself, why on earth is this idiot bringing it to the same company? yeah, i know. but if i would have brought it elsewhere i would have lost the two year warranty i get with it... very handy if you are dealing with Detroit engines. )


"hi I'm Mike, we are expecting you. please pull up around back and I'll get that unloaded for you personally."


i haven't even shut the truck off yet and these guys are already working on my problem. nice. the branch manager already can pronounce my last name correctly. (its not an easy one. think German last names.)


"we will have this done for you next week for sure."
"really?" i almost fall over. "those fucking knuckle heads have had it for two months!"
"i know, I'm very sorry about that. I'll take care of it from here."
"uh, okay, I'll just uh, i guess I'll, well, see you next week."


i was ready to rip into these guys as well but he was nice and i could tell i wasn't getting the run around. that was Thursday last week. i got a call yesterday and the engine is done!


"where is the clutch? we can bolt that on for you, not a problem."
"shit, no clutch in those boxes i brought? fuckers. I'll call you back."


i spend all of Friday threatening to drive up to the first shop and shove this clutch that they swore was not there and i didn't bring to them up their asses.(in so many polite ways) and sure as shit at about four o'clock in the evening i get a phone call..


"we found it, I'll get you a new one coming for next week."
"the fuck you will! get some one there to give me the numbers on it by four thirty."
click.


needless to say i get my numbers and call a truck clutch warehouse in Sacramento, explain my situation, and have a clutch (delivered for free) to the shop where my engine is....

short story long, i pick up my engine Monday morning!!! it took less that a week for them to do what the others spent two months not doing...

i hope you all have a great weekend and if you are in west Sacramento on Monday and happen to see a gold ford one ton driving down the highway with someone with a fat smile on his face that would indeed be me!!

2 comments:

Kay said...

West Sac huh? There's your problem. The BevMo with the beautiful Kokanee is north east of Sac in Roseville.
I'm sorry you had such a shitfest bro. That is so not the Lord.
Next time you're around, we'll get you some Kokanee so the trip's worth your trouble.
And I falsely advertise. I'm a bit north of Sac. I'd still come to Sac to drink with you tho. I'm in good ole Marysville.

Kay said...

I was driving through West Sac Monday, if you were going slow, and some crazy-ass chick in a red Ranger was freaking out behind you, that was me.