The new F150 clutch didn't hold up under even the light use I've made of it for the 4,000 miles since the the $1,350 repair job, and I was being set up to pay for the entire replacement cost. The installing dealer blamed me and the clutch manufacturer. The clutch maker blamed me and/or the installers. Serious negotiation ensued with a certain firmness on the part of yours truly. ("Pardner, a new clutch on a four-by-four truck ought to be all but immune to even an intentional effort to burn the SOB out just to see what a melted clutch smells like.") A letter with an undertone of "also got a lawyer in my back pocket" may have helped. I'll get the job done for the clutch-kit cost. The dealer will eat the labor. Not perfect , but better than I expected without a good deal more hassle.
Smaller but still satisfying: At the quickie lube center today the bill for routine van service looked a little high. I found a six-buck bite for a new oil plug. The lad in charge and I performed an autopsy on the old plug and then engaged in a deep philosophical discussion. In due course he agreed it wasn't stripped at all and the slight rounding of the hex head might have resulted from his man's use of a wrench one millimeter too large. He seemed relieved that I left smiling after saying I bore him no hard feelings for trying to follow the owner's marketing orders.
It's scummy industry, and it feels kind of good to evade two stabs at sodomy in the same day.
3 comments:
Attaboy!!!!
This may be an indication of my less than stellar intellectual level, but I very much enjoy reading about your personal affairs and do not find it gauche in the least. I can see though how you would see that sort of topic for morons. And to comment more about the actual post, you strike me as the kind of person who wouldn't take any stabs at sodomy, let alone two in one day.
Hilary, you are a good person, and if anyone ever disparaged your brainpower in my hearing I'd take a stab at the SOB. :)
It's flattering you enjoy these little life snippits I sometimes post.
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