First-World Problems...Part 197

Recently my car didn't start on the first try, so when I got home I put a trickle charger (great little device!) on the battery just to make sure it was charged completely. I hadn't driven much more than very local and short trips, so I thought perhaps it hadn't charged enough.

But that was not to be...the starter motor was on its way out...so off to the local service station that had done a good job with something trivial. They promptly diagnosed the issue, and told me it would be a few hours. So when I returned I was pleased that the car was ready to go, and they had also replaced the battery because it was screaming at their diagnostic systems (and it was under warranty..so yippee!).

But as I started the engine to leave, that pesky "check engine" light came on.

Shit.

After spending about 30 minutes with their code reader and being confused, they finally realized that the knock sensor was not working. Oops! because it is behind the starter, and it is a pain to replace. And to top it off, when they pulled the starter out they discovered that they had broken the end of the existing sensor, so it was now their dime. Oh...the new sensors are slightly shorter than the original, so it was even more difficult to replace.

This took hours. But what the hell was I going to do? They were all friendly and pleasant and took the issue seriously. It was just a shitty situation all around. I was stuck in their crappy waiting room, and they were taking up two mechanics to try to wrestle this part into my car.

But in the end they repaired the car correctly, they did the right thing from a customer service perspective, and the manager even gave me a free oil change for the next time I came in.

Does this count as a first-world problem? Maybe...maybe not. But everyone made the best of a bad situation. I could have been pissed off at the manager, but to what end? And he could have tried to charge me for at least part of the additional cost?

But I realized that it was just one of those things, so I just sat around and read some weird blog called Ace of Spades. And the manager did the correct thing and, by the way, made another loyal customer.

posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

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