WomenService that makes you smile - almost
Our family runabout is a Honda Civic estate car. It’s much loved, a bit battered, and has covered 99,000 miles. My wife, Julia, takes it to the local main dealer for a ‘free health check’.
The service dept looks the car over carefully and the man on the desk, Phil, rings me. I'm at work. It’s good news. It needs a bulb replacing, and some brake pads and tyres soon. But it’s otherwise in sound shape. Great. It’ll last for another year and, we hope, won’t cost too much to keep.
I ring my wife, to discover that she’s sat in the garage’s waiting area. Less than 5 paces away from Phil. She can see him as we chat. Has he told her that the car’s ready? No. She learns the news from me.
I’m sure this was a simple mix-up. And I wouldn’t want to be too hard on Phil. He’s a good bloke and has looked after our car for years. But I wonder, if I’d delivered the car and waited, whether he’d have rung Julia and left me guessing. I wonder....
If you’ve a story to rank with this, funny or infuriating, tell us.
I used to have a Saturday job at one of those fast-fit tyre / exhaust places in my later teenage years, and I remember one particular customer who had a problem with his Austin Maestro. It was making a weird clattery noise from the engine, to which two of my colleagues diagnosed the altenator bearings were collapsed. The part was changed, the customer left happy, only to return the following weekend with the same problem. This time, the water pump was changed, and all appear well. The following Saturday, the chap returned - the noise was STILL THERE, and he was obviously getting quite annoyed at it not being erradicated. The mechanic promised to solve it once and for all. The bonnet of the Austin was removed, and I sat on the wing as the car was driven around the car park, trying to hear where the noise was eminating from. With a metal bar in my hands, I placed it on various places until I found the source - the starter motor. The garage had a Maestro van for collections and deliveries, so the starter motor was promptly pilfered from ‘our wheels’ and put on the customer’s car, thus problem solved - at long last! I’m not certain if the customer was refunded for the parts the car didn’t need, though!!