I have noticed lately that I seem to be getting better service at most of the places I patronize. Maybe it's the upside of a bad economy. With jobs at a premium nowadays, anyone who is currently employed seems to feel the need to up their service quotient to show how valuable they are to the company. I was extremely lucky that this was the case over the last couple of days. On Monday, after a long, stressful day of working and with my husband out of town, I decided that I was too tired to cook. So, I ordered pizza for my son and I. This is very unusual for a workday, but I thought I needed a bit of a break. After I ordered a Boompa's pizza from our favorite neighborhood pizzeria, I ran up the street to pick it up. No problem. I opened the car door, laid the pizza in the passenger seat, stuck the key in the ignition and...nothing. No lights, no power...NOTHING! A very wonderful friend of mine came to my rescue and tried to figure out what was wrong. Ends up, the culprit was a dead battery. It was so dead, in fact, that it took an hour and a half and two sets of jumper cables hooked to both of my friend's truck batteries to get me enough juice to start my car. Yeah, THAT dead!
After I expressed my undying gratitude to my wonderful friend, I headed back 
home so that I could drop the pizza off to my hungry teenager (that's a beast you don't want hungry, trust me!) and headed out to find someplace where, not only could I purchase a battery, but where they would also replace it for me. Did I mention my mechanic (i.e., hubby) was out of town (actually in another state) and I had never replaced a battery before? First place I went was Wal-Mart. They had just closed up shop 5 minutes before I got there. I went over to Cosco. "Yes, ma'am. We sell batteries. No ma'am. We don't replace 'em." Gee, thanks. I called Auto Zone. They must have sensed the desperation in my voice, because they explained that they don't normally replace batteries. But, if I brought it in and it wasn't buried beneath all the new-fangled engine crap, they were sure they could help me out. They tried to replace the battery with what the manufacturer recommended. However, it wouldn't fit. So, after 3 1/2 hours of this fun, I decided I was tired, I was hungry and I was done for the day. As soon as they gave me a jump (which took another 1/2 an hour and two sets of jumper cables), I headed home.
Tuesday dawned and my cousin was able to come help me out with the battery. He had the brilliant idea to see if it was still under warranty. A battery under warranty? Tish, tosh! That can't be. Low and behold, I had a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty on the thing from the vehicle manufacturer. I bought my car brand new in June 2006 and I had 32,000 miles on it, thanks to the fact that I telecommute more than physically commute. Viola! Using AAA for towing, my car made it down to the service department and I was even covered for a rental. So, from Carlos, the friendly tow truck driver, to Sarah, the lovely service department coordinator at my dealer, to Steve, the helpful rent-a-car guy who picked me up at the dealer and drove me to get my rental car, my Tuesday ended up much better than my Monday ended. And that, my friends, is service!
Heather Chavez - Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Just Isn't Enough of You to Go Around!
Comments (10)Subscribe to CommentsComment