Lock your car doors

Geoff was telling me that he wants to buy a new 18 subwoofer because someone stole his old one last weekend out of his car. He’s pretty upset about it, but I am having a really hard time refraining from scolding him for leaving his car unlocked overnight. He’s always been adamant about how he lives in a safe area and he never has to lock his doors. I hope now he will start locking his doors from now on!

Whatever Happened to the Quick Oil Change?

Oil change (free clip art)
Oil change (free clip art)
Today I pulled into the Valvoline quick oil change place near my house. I deliberately waited until after the lunch hour so the the place would not be short handed due to their oil change technicians being off for lunch.

I though I had timed the trip well because there are 3 bays and each bay had 1 vehicle in it. One of the tech’s came up to my car and instructed me to pull in behind the pickup truck in the first bay. I don’t know what they were doing to that truck, but it sure seemed to be taking a long time. It was not just an oil change, that’s for sure.

Another car pulled in and was directed to the 3rd bay. About 5 minutes later the vehicle in bay 3 drove away and the car that arrived at least 10 minutes after me pulled into that bay for an oil. Another car pulled up and was directed to wait at bay 3. The car finished and drove off and the new car pulled in. All together, those were 3 cars got their oil changed while I was stuck sitting behind the truck being worked.

The car in the second bay had it’s hood up and no one seemed to be working on it at all. No cars were ever directed to that bay while I was there. Forty minutes after I had arrived I was STILL sitting behind the truck in bay 1. The Assistant Manager came up and apologized and asked me to move to bay 3. I pulled right in and he promised to give me a $10 credit on my bill.

They changed my oil but because I had a coupon for half price, they did not give me that $10 discount that I was promised. I asked if they would replace the burned out light bulb instead of the $10 credit, but they said they could not. WTF?

I totally feel ripped off and taken advantage of. I don’t think i will be going back to Valvoline again. I’d rather go to Firestone and sit inside their customer waiting area and drink free coffee and watch the TV or read a magazine instead of being held hostage in my car for 40 minutes waiting to pull into a Valvoline bay.

Hello new car goodbye old car

My neighbor came over yesterday and told me that they wanted to buy a new car. They’ve been looking into sedans and suvs. She wants something that has plenty of space, good gas mileage and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. She told me they are going to send their old car on an auto transport to their son in California.

I asked her why she was going to ship it instead of driving it across the country. Apparently with the price of gasoline car shipping is actually cheaper than driving it yourself. If she were to drive it she would not only have gas fees, but also fees for hotel stays and food. These additional costs can add up quickly.

I bet her son is going to be thrilled when he goes to pick up the car from the car transport pick up location only 5 miles from his house. He’s been without reliable transportation ever since he got laid off last fall. My neighbor, Karen, is happy to help him and she gets a new car out of the deal too!