American Made

I've recently been exposed to the underbelly of the grease monkey culture. Yes, this group of individuals who manage to blame you for everything, take longer than expected, bring new meaning to the word "estimate" (after all "it could take one hour; it could take three" . . . oh, okay then.) and leave your car with just a hint of smoke have managed to some how cause this college educated woman to feel inadequet. Ridiculous. Even dumb.

The problem is this I KNOW I'M BEING TAKEN, I just don't know what to do about it. Take my recent experience. My car was having an issue with the blinker. (Granted this issue was recalled by the manufacturer for my model and year, but not my VIN so translation is I get to pay . . . but I digress) Not only has this experience brought me to the dramatic conclusion to buy foreign cars in the future, but it also left me with a severe disdain for my service shop. In the span of less than an hour, these yahoos managed to take over a hundred dollars of my money and return to me a car that while it resembles the one I dropped off, isn't quite the same. Now let me say that yes, the blinker works now and I guess that was all I specifically asked them to do. In the future I will have to be more careful and explain to them NOT TO BREAK anything while fixing said problem.

(Here's where I get a little picky I guess.) My vent is cracked. They had to take it out to reach the thingy-bobber they were replacing and when they ever so gently put it back it broke. Now here's where I'm at. They've broken something small and they call and tell me that it's broken. If I'd like to get it fixed it will only cost me an hour of labor and the part! WHAT?! Moreover I'm told that this is my fault because yes, when I first dropped the car off I told him I would need it back for the weekend and when they couldn't get the part, I still needed it back so they had to put the dashboard back together. I don't feel bad about this given that when I dropped the car off I told them not to do anything to it that day if it was going to mean I couldn't have my car back because I needed it that evening! So they took it apart and couldn't fix it that day and because I still needed my car it was MY FAULT that the second time they addressed the issue the vent cover broke. I don't understand grease monkey logic.

To top things off I think either the mechanic is a heavy smoker and his pores just deposit the stench or he actually smoked in my car!