Of Course

Summer's here, the kids are out of school. But day camp hasn't started yet for Kevin. Somehow the county recreation commission didn't schedule day camps this week leaving Kevin without care. He's aged-out of other programs but the county has the teen camp for special needs kids. But not this week. Or the week right before school starts, either. Of course. Grrr.

Anyway, Dan and I are splitting the days to be with the kids. One of us works 7-12 and the other 12-5. That way we don't have to take so much vacation leave. Monday Dan took the early shift at work and I had kid duty. He called mid-morning to tell me the corolla, on which we just had $2600 of repairs made, gave him trouble on the way to work. Then he called at noon to tell me it won't start, when he's supposed to be driving home. sheesh. So I met him in the garage and he took the new car home and I got a ride home with a fellow Bowieite.

After the repairs a month ago, I got a customer service call from the dealership asking if everything was OK with the work done, and I reported we still had trouble starting it, you have to find the "sweet spot" with the clutch or it wouldn't start in the mornings.
Can you bring it back in?
Well, no unless I can get a loaner car.
Well no, because we don't know what's wrong with it so you'll have to wait while we look at it. sheesh.
I'll call you then, when we have time.

So, I called the lady in customer service back on Monday and told her it won't now start at all and it's stuck in a garage 20 miles away and what is she going to do about it? Nothing, apparently, that they don't have to. They work with a towing company, of course, that will come get the car, and take it to the garage. If it was the shop's fault, which it never is, they will pay for the tow.

Tuesday morning, I get a ride to work with the fellow Bowieite for the 7-12 shift and call the tow company when I get there. When the driver gets there I get him through security and over to the garage to get the car. Except he's in a flatbed truck too tall to get in so we push the car out of the spot and I pop the clutch on the ramp and get it started. At that point I could have driven it to a local shop, but didn't and sent it back to Bowie instead.

Dan and I are expecting the worst at this point, having to scrap around and get to work and care for the kids with one car and buy another car all at the same time.

When they finally get around to calling me, my "service tech" (service? pul-eeze) said it was the starter, which was fine when they checked it a couple weeks ago, of course. Which means they won't pay for the tow. And because I didn't go through AAA in the first place, I have to pay the overinflated dealer kick-back price. Of course. Total bill: $630. Better than another $17k, I suppose. But still. Maybe I'll call the general manager today and complain about the whole thing. Something is just fishy.