Lisa and I invaded Baltimore yesterday. She had a bad tire on her BMW and decided it was time for a whole new set. So I recommended the dealership where I had service work done. They were awesome for me. So we took off the whole day expecting to hang together, do some shopping (remember I'm with Lisa here) and get some good lunch. The plan was to be home early afternoon after a pretty fun day together.
That was the plan.
We got to the dealership early. Before 8:00 a.m. Checked in and all that. Got them to look at a window that was starting to have troubles going up and down smoothly. Got the loaner car and headed to Starbuck's. We hung at Starbuck's for a while. Morning coffee and a munchie there is fun. There were a couple of women there chatting together that looked like fashion models. One of them was talking about her seperation and upcoming divorce. When I looked at her I thought, "Geez! What does the guy have going for him to give up such a beautiful woman?" She was stunning. I think I'd allow her to beat me daily if she was with me. I wouldn't even mind a little bit. :)
But anyway, we left Starbuck's and hit the Mall. Shopping with Lisa is an experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been with a professional shopper. She tries on about 87 things per store. Then she goes to the next store and tries on another 87 things. We keep going until she is tired of it then she goes back and gets the stuff she wants. She always remembers what it was, where it was and where the best price was. Impressive.
The good part for me is that I get to check her out modeling all the stuff.
So we finally realized that it was 11:40. 40 minutes after we were supposed to get a call from the service guy to update us on her car's progress. Lisa calls them and I immediately see something is amiss. Turns out they didn't have the tires for her car. As she talked with them she got hotter and hotter. I was with her when she made the arrangements. She called for the appointment, had them transfer her to the parts department to verify that they had the tires, and then verified with the service guy again that she would be in yesterday. She did all that last Friday. Now they didn't have the tires.
These guys didn't realize that it's not a good idea to piss Lisa off.
So we left right away and went back to the dealer. The conversation got pretty heated. She had done all the things she needed to do and they still had screwed her around. But they promised to have the right tires asap, no later than 3:00. I asked how long it take to put them on. They said 2 hours. Huh? They mount and balance them and then road test the car to be sure they are on right. That meant we would be stranded there for the whole day now. So I suggested, rather strongly, that they should just take the tires from a car on the lot. Then replace them once their screw-up tires got in. They wouldn't do that. Naturally. Because it was our fault.
The whole time they kept insuinating that the whole mess was Lisa's fault. That she should have paid for the service before coming so they would have held the tires. I asked them if they really were serious. If they had lost their freakin minds saying something like that. They were serious. So I asked them if all their customers were supposed to do inventory control for them. I also reminde them of the time 2 summers ago that I made an appointment for exactly the same thing and just came in without incident. Never paid in advance.
Silence.
So we decide to get some lunch. Try to ease off the frustration. We went to this sushi place one of the dealerships receptionists recommended. We knew it might be trouble when we walk in and there are about 25 kids running around unsupervised. They were screaming and playing and one of them was beating on this big ass drum in the lobby. All unsupervised. No parents. They were all having hibachi and saki.
We waited for a long time and then walked into the dining area. Finally someone noticed us and seated us. Then she took our drink order and said someone would be right with us. After about 10 minutes we decided their sense of time wasn't quite like ours. When someone else came to see us she hardly spoke english and kept asking for our drink order. We told her that the other girl had taken the order. She said that girl won't get the drinks and that she had to. So I asked her if that kid would be banging on the drum the whole time we were there. She looked at me, looked toward the screaming, banging kid(s) and then said, "Wat chu want for drink?" So we told her to forget it and left.
We did manage to find another decent sushi place close by and had lunch. Not much to say about that one. It was average but uneventful.
We go back to the dealership and Lisa decided we should just go shop elsewhere until they update us. I agreed but wanted an update first. She didn't want to go back in but we did. They hadn't updated us earlier as promised so I wasn't confident that they ever would. When I finally tracked down the service guy he had more bad news. The tires wouldn't be arriving until 5:00 now. That meant we might be heading home after 7:00. Maybe.
I wanted to know if he was ever going to let us know stuff like that. Did he know what a phone was?
Lisa was more annoyed now. She asked if they had checked the window yet. Nope. They were just starting on it. She said "No they aren't. Get me my car." Service guy tried to talk he rout of it by saying he would finish the car tomorrow and deliver it to her but that was the wrong thing to do. She said, "Yeah right. I'm going to let someone from here drive my car that far, dogging it all the way. No, get me my car now!" (She lives about 52 miles away.)
Finally they get the car and we start to leave. They are still totally unapologetic. The service guy is like, "Your fault. Too bad for you." Big jerk-off. We then head to another dealer where they bend over backwards to help. The difference was like night and day. They didn't have a loaner car when we got there but they got us one. They had the tires and they set them aside to be done this morning. They were very nice, professional and concerned that they could help. Totally different from the place that, unfortunately, I had recommended.
Now Lisa has to trek back down the road this afternoon to pick up her car. The one that was supposed to be done early yesterday.
It's sad really. That we not only have to make appointments for service but now we have to make sure the dealerships have good inventory control too. It would never have occurred to me to make sure the parts needed were there. But Lisa made sure. It still didn't work out. Thats what makes the whole day even more frustrating. She covered her bases and they let her down. Then told her it was her fault.
At least we got to hang together all day and we weren't at work. :)
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