The perks of small town living are almost identical to the
corresponding downsides of small town living. While knowing your neighbor leads to a more intimate and
community-based lifestyle, it also often means everyone knows everything about
everyone. Often, you end up knowing
things about your fellow townspeople that you would have never even wanted to know. Nevertheless, like an information
compactor, the closer everyone is to each other, the more everyone’s life
becomes an open book.
I chose to see this closeness
as a good thing. Admittedly, it
becomes much easier to ignore the gossip and rumor mill now that I’m happily
settled into my life with a wife. (rhyme time!). Additionally, 98% of the embarrassing details of my life I
end up writing about at length, so the number of secrets I have left is rapidly
dwindling.
Here’s a quick story of the benefits of small town livin.
I bought my car locally. The place I bought it came highly recommended by a few of
the higher ups in my then graduate department. The business itself only sold Volvos, and I wanted a
Volvo. It was a match made in
heaven and I quickly became the owner of a slightly used, low-mileage, 2004
Mattmobile II. I named him
Brutus.
The other wonderful quality about this dealership was that
they had a service department connected to their business that specialized
(obviously) in Volvos. And the
only thing better than buying a car from a place you trust is having a
trustworthy place to bring it for repairs and service. And for the next 5 to 6 years everything was moving along
quite swimmingly. When I needed
the occasional oil-change or repair, the service guys, whose names I knew,
identified the problem and repaired it for a reasonable rate.
Then two years ago, one of the large local Subaru
dealerships (which my wife bought her car
from incidentally) struck up a deal that involved the merger of the Volvo and
Subaru dealerships. My wife and I thought that this would be
the best of both worlds; A consolidation of our automotive destinations.
Both businesses involved in this merger had healthy track
records of both honesty during sales and reliability in repairs. This would seem obvious, as these are
the two qualities paramount to having repeat customers. Somewhere in the stitching together of
the two companies, however, they seem to have added 3 or 4 parts intestines and
left out most of the brains. Which
is to say that the newly merged car dealership is almost completely shit.
Last time my wife went to Steve Smith Subaru (close but not
the actual name) for an oil change they rotated and balanced her tires without
asking. Considering that her tires
had been put on elsewhere the previous week, this added expense was not
appreciated. When she
contested the addition service, they apologized, promised to send her a refund
and to give her a free oil change next visit. Two weeks later, she had to call them back to ask for the
refund to be mailed, which they apologized for “forgetting”.
My wife’s previous visit to Steve Smith Subaru had been to
purchase and change over to new snow tires. She made and appointment and when she arrived they informed
her that they didn’t have snow tires to fit her car (which, again, they sold her). Considering she had called to confirm
her appointment to put these very tires on her car, she was understanbly pissed
to waste her weekend afternoon. She
has since taken her business elsewhere for her tire needs.
When I showed up for my recent oil change, I had low
expectations. Besides the
elongated wait, with my oil change Steve’s Subaru showed me a bill totally over
$3,000 in necessary repairs. I was
crestfallen. I got that nauseous
gas acid feeling in my belly. Three
grand is a truckload of moolah and this woman was casually explaining how
important they are and then asking when I want to set up an appointment to
repair all of these issues. I told
her I would call to make an appointment.
I guess the people at the new dealership don’t realize that
the internet exists. Or perhaps,
they realize that most people will take the easy option (fixing their car at
the dealership) over doing any leg work at all about prices. Hell, if you can repair my car for
anywhere near a reasonable amount, I too would probably go the easy way. But somewhere way before “$3,000” I do
a quick internet search to see what the ball-park price is for similar repair
jobs.
This Subaru (and ex-Volvo) dealership is so far out of the
ball-park, they are playing cricket.
What on the internet (same make and model and repair) was listed as a
few hundred dollars was written down on my repair sheet as 2,000?!?! All up, the repairs seemed as if they
should be closer to one grand rather than three (still no small sum,
granted).
To Facebook I went.
Needed: Trustworthy local
mechanic/auto-repair shop.
An hour later, a number in hand, I called my friend's “go to
guys.” My friend has lived in the
area for well over a decade, and if she gives a place her stamp of approval, I
automatically trust them.
This friend does not suffer
fools.
When the guy picked up the phone he was friendly and helpful
and asked what the problem seemed to be.
I told him I had a number of problems that needed to be checked out, and
that I wasn’t sure what the severity of any of the issues might be. Feeling cryptic, I continued that my
dealership had identified a number of expensive problems and I was fairly
certain that they were trying to screw me over.
He replied without pause, “Steve Smith Subaru?”
“Yes,” I said, a bit shocked and laughing into the
phone. “They really are that bad, aren’t they?”
“We’ll take a look at it and see what’s what,” is all he
said. Very professional, but
telling at the same time. “How
bout Tuesday?”
I can’t wait for tomorrow.
