Paul replies to my complaints about his complaint!!! Apologies to all for
the length
of this message, this should be the last I have to say about this. All
following comments should be taken with a grain of salt and with sense of
humor turned "ON".
>Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 09:29:55 -0500 (EST)
>From: Paul Amaranth <amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
>Subject: Re: Wheel Collision Center exp.
>Wow, after that series of replies, you can bet I'm not going into politics!
>TVRVixen writes:
>> Paul Amaranth <amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu complains about the service
he
>> got getting his wheel repaired. He says he got an estimate of $75 for the
>> repair ( I assume over the phone without actually seeing the wheel) and
they
>> charged him $10 more than that. Oh my god!!!! It is interesting that at
the
>> end of his note he exaggerates how much he spent on the repair by $15,
>> telling us he spent "nearly $100" when he really spent $85.
>With all shipping and COD charges the total was $110. If you just want
>to count what I had to pay the UPS guy to see that the wheel was chipped,
>it was $97. That seems pretty close to $100 to me. If you want to include
>wheel dismount, remount and balancing, I'm up to $127 for the total repair
>bill. I'm well aware that a phone estimate is just a ball park figure
>and normally the ten bucks wouldn't have bothered me (I did say it was a
>nit), although I never did get an explanation for the increase.
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$30 to dismount, remount and balance? Boy you did get hosed!! I get flats
repaired by the local gas station for $3. Dismount, patch hole and remount.
As I said, I think it unfair of you inflate the "cost of the repair" to make
it seem
like they overcharged you. The UPS charges, the mounting and balancing and
your phone bill are not part of what they charged you. The only way you
could
blame them for these expenses would be if they dug the pothole and then made
you drive over it.
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>[Warning: cheap shot ahead!] Say, since ten bucks doesn't mean a lot to
>you, why don't you take a ten out of your wallet and send it on to me?
>You clearly won't miss it and it might cause me to say good things
>about aol'ers :-)
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You are right, it is cheap shot. Actually I am proud of the AOL e-mail
address I use,
It means I PAY for my access. It means that I am using my computer, my
connect
time and my own personal time to participate here. I am not using an account
funded
by student tuition or taxes. I am not using time that I am supposed to be
working to
type this note. You want me to send you $10? Do you ever stop wanting
something
for nothing? [end of my cheap shot] ;-)
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>> He also complains about a chip he now sees on the wheel. A chip he did not
>> see before and which he did not pay to have repaired, he did not want to
pay
>> the $40 extra for "cosmetic repair". But he wants to complain about the
cosmetics.
>You bet. I had to clean up the wheel before sending it out, which got me
>pretty familiar with the specifics. The wheel has clearly seen action,
>but there were no major cosmetic problems with it. I suppose the next
>time someone keys your LBC, or a mechanic drops a hammer on the boot,
>it won't matter to you because it's just an old car and you expect some
>paint chips, right?
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TVR Vixens have no boot. However, I think the analogy is incorrect. A closer
one
would be as follows...... You take your car in to have a dent pounded out of
the fender,
but you don't want to have it repainted. They fix the dent fine but make a
scratch in the
paint near the dent. They fail to notice the scratch, but you do.
-----------------------------------------
>> So to summarize:
>> 1. He admits they did a good job of fixing the dent he paid to have fixed.
>Yup, no problem there.
>> 2. He is angry about spending an extra $10, even though they gave him an
>> estimate without seeing the dent.
>You're reading in a little to much. Mild annoyance because their level
>of customer service did not match my expectations. If they had polished
>up the other side where the corosion was (which the shop that remounted
>the tire did for free anyway), returned it unchipped or sent it back packed
>as well as I had shipped it out (ok, make it two out of the three), it
>wouldn't have bothered me a bit. Anytime somebody sends out a thinly
>padded package through UPS with the words "Do Not Drop" on it, you have
>to wonder who they're kidding. Even my UPS guy was amazed at that one.
>And it's not like these guys were the low bidder, either. If they're
>not competing on price, they'd better be competing on service.
>> 3. He is angry about the fact that they didn't clean up the corrosion and
a
>> chip in the paint, even though he didn't want to pay extra for the
"cosmetic
>> repair".
>The cosmetic repair was complete stripping, repainting and clearcoating,
>which wouldn't have touched the corrosion anyway. If I got it repainted,
>the other three wheels were not going to match. Why have the work
>done when it looked OK when I sent it out?
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Uhhhhh, the corrosion looked OK when you sent it out?
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>> And people wonder why it is so hard to find mechanics to work on their
British
>> cars.
>OK, you have two shops. One place happens to notice that you have a
>bad spark plug wire and they happen to have a replacement lying around.
>Since you're already having a couple of hundred dollars of work done,
>they throw it in for free. Second shop also notices. They replace all
>of your wires, charge you $40 for the set plus $35 for the labor
>involved in replacing the wires. Both shops fixed your car on time.
>Who has the higher level of customer service? Who's going to get
>your repeat business?
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Although I haven't seen any wheels that have sparkplug wires, I will try
to answer this. I would not be happy with a shop which replaced just one
wire.
If it had deteriorated to the point that one could just happen to notice
it was bad, the rest would follow in short order. Maybe it is better for
repeat business to replace one at a time? Although it would be nice
to get something for nothing, you imply that you should be able to expect
this because you are already spending hundreds of dollars in this particular
shop. This is definately not the case in your wheel repair situation.
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>If I have a problem with work that was done, and I bring it to the
>attention of the merchant, I want them to agree that there is a problem
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Here I feel the need to interject a quote from your original post on this,
You said:
"I've talked to them about it. They just told me to call back when
the owners are around."
You say that if you have a problem you bring it to the attention of the
merchant, but in this case you say you talked with a person who
answered the phone and they asked you to call back when the owners are
there. So, did you call back? No? If not, why are you saying they wouldn't
take care of it?
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>and seek some adjustment, not tell me that I'm wrong and there is
>nothing they can do about it. In this case, if they had said, "well,
>you're right, we're awful sorry about that, what can we do for you?", I
>would most likely have thanked them and done nothing about it, since I
>want to drive the car this week. On second thought, that's not true; I
>probably would have posted about the wonderful job they did and their
>great customer service.
>I said it was probably nitpicking, but since other people may be in a
>similar situation, I thought my experience would be useful. As they
>say, your mileage may vary. I find anecdotal accounts useful and I
>file them away, not that I always pay attention to them.
>Paul Amaranth Manager User Services - office: (810) 370 4541
I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it seems really unfair to bad mouth a
business over $10 and a paint chip in a forum where they are not able to
respond,
explain or defend themselves. Especially when you say you didn't call back
to talk with the owner.
They saved your wheel and therefore the cost of finding a replacement or
even replacing the whole set if you couldn't locate one to match.
Sure, someone chipped the wheel, and it will probably cost $3.50 for a
bottle of touch-up paint and 10 minutes to fix.
Cheers, Don
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