whiskey tango foxtrot over

[unixronin]

The Dodge dealer's done with our bodywork repairs, but says to pass inspection the car needs a new air filter and new wiper blades.  Now the air filter I can understand, but we just replaced the wiper blades a few months ago... I have difficulty believing they could be that worn that fast.  They seemed to be working fine to us.

In other news, our phone lines must like us today.  We're getting a good 24 kilobits.  I can't remember the last time we got a transfer rate that [relatively speaking] good.

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UPDATE:  They claim one of the wiper blades is torn.  It wasn't torn when we dropped the car off, but I have no doubt that if it isn't torn now, it will be by the time I get a chance to look at it.  And because of the state inspection system, they have us over a barrel.  Grrr......

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

And of course they're gonna charge you $20 labor to put the darn thing on....

bass turds.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, only about $10 labor. What I'm more pissed about is the claim that they needed replacing in the first place. We just put new blades on a few months ago, and when I dropped the car off they were fine.

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

My inclination would be to take the car to their competitor down the road to have the wiper blade replaced.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I still maintain that when I dropped the car off, the blades didn't need replacing in the first place. They were fine. But of course, they wouldn't have been fine by the time I got to look at them, and there'd be no way to prove anything.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

You live in a state that cares what your wiper blades are like? Wow, they don't have a lot to do, do they?

Seriously, every time I used to take the Jimmy in for an oil change at one of the major outlets, they'd do a "oh,and your wiper blades are shot" routine. I think it's part of a pre-prepared script. It mattered not if they had just been replaced a few months back. I would piss them off, when I'd say "Oh, I'll just replace them myself, they're cheap..." And didn't replace them. Well, funny thing, but I had to take the car to my mechanic (honest one, whom I have a great relationship with--he likes my hobbies)a few weeks after one of these wiper blade incidents. Mentioned it to him. He looked at the wipers and said "I thought so, it's that scam again. Nothing wrong with the wipers." So be aware.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm pretty sure it was a scam ... I don't believe there was anything wrong with them. They were working fine just a couple days ago when it last rained poured. But I'm quite certain that if I'd questioned it and asked to see the blades before I approved replacing them, by the time I got down to the dealer, sure enough, one of the blades would be torn.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

Don't challenge the mechanic. Simply tell him that you will take care of that little matter before you have the vehicle inspected.

And don't give that particular mechanic any further business.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

True, we could have done that. Except we'd already asked them to inspect the car for us after the bodywork got done (which they did a nice job on, by the way), so they were already part way through it, and we've been meaning for at least the past month to take it so another particular shop to get it inspected and not getting to it, or not managing to get there early enough to get it in. (The inspection sticker actually expired in February. We're lucky we haven't gotten a ticket.) And, if truth be told, I was just too frazzled and overloaded to think of it.

(Interestingly, it just occurred to me that "the other shop" said they needed a copy of the registration to be able to inspect it. The dealer didn't ask for the registration, they just went ahead and did the inspection.)