So, I was expecting a Lazy PJ Weekend this weekend and I did have that expectation met on Saturday. Got up kinda late, meandered into town to cash my tiny mileage check, had someone follow me to the bank to let me know my right front tire was FLAT, had to pay .75 cents to get AIR (the stuff we breathe!), bought my Grampa diabetic socks at the Sock Emporium that is Grand City, picked up my complimentary sets of “pay as you go garbage bags” (whafa!) with my coupon at the local grocery store, and got home to catch up on my reading/napping with cats. On late Sunday afternoon, I wandered out to the garage to throw the cat poop/pee away and decided to check on the status of my tire.
Half-FLAT! No way in hell I’m making it to the gas station with free air on Monday.
So the busyness factor of Sunday increased by 100%.
I called the local VIP and their tire tech just left coz his kid was sick.
I called the next town over’s VIP, “Come on in!”
I get there and it’s an awe-inspiring wait as the one VIP guy behind the desk went all Don Knotts and took forever to twitch his way thru helping everyone in turn. Finally my turn…
I listened to the tire hoopla “we can repair the tire if it’s in the middle of the tread, but if it is on the side, we can’t fix it.” Since I am Murphy’s Law Girl, I asked what the options are if they can’t fix it. I get the spare tire, new tire, etc spiel.
I waited in the waiting room for what seemed like forever (most likely 15 minutes or so) and the first time Don Knotts came up to me, he has my air filter with him. He showed me how black it was and as “it’s part of our 12 point courtesy inspection, he advised I replace it.” I give the go ahead and about 15 minutes later, Don Knotts again approached but this time with my tire with a big-ass something-or-other impaling it to show where the hole is… and it’s not in the middle of the tread. Murphy’s Law is now in full effect.
He told me they CANNOT fix it, he doesn’t have a tire with a tread that matches my current tread in stock, and rambled on. I blanked him out and thought my own thoughts which consisted of, “hmmmm I wonder how close I am to needing new tires, should be real soon”. He paused for breath and I jumped in with my new tire question. He got his handy-dandy tire tread measurer out and informed me (while showing me the measurement) that “I had at most this coming summer’s worth of time on them”.
No telling what the rest of this winter will be like and as typical victim of Murphy’s Law, I decided to go ahead and get all new tires.
He twitched his way through finding the right tires for my car, explained the pricing, sales, treads, rotation schedules, recall information, VIP Hazard benefit, etc and I ended up with tires as close to what was on my car before FLATsville. They're installed and I paid as the lights were being turned off and doors were locked. Nothing like being the last customer on a Sunday late afternoon.
4:00pm and $335 later I’m tooling my way home on brand new tires.
At least my car is happy now. And my credit card company.
Golden sides of the coin: A guy was nice enough to follow me on Saturday to let me know my tire was flat, I checked the car before going to work on Monday morning, I was able to get into VIP while they were still open, and I was able to get 4 good matching new tires on sale.
Half-FLAT! No way in hell I’m making it to the gas station with free air on Monday.
So the busyness factor of Sunday increased by 100%.
I called the local VIP and their tire tech just left coz his kid was sick.
I called the next town over’s VIP, “Come on in!”
I get there and it’s an awe-inspiring wait as the one VIP guy behind the desk went all Don Knotts and took forever to twitch his way thru helping everyone in turn. Finally my turn…
I listened to the tire hoopla “we can repair the tire if it’s in the middle of the tread, but if it is on the side, we can’t fix it.” Since I am Murphy’s Law Girl, I asked what the options are if they can’t fix it. I get the spare tire, new tire, etc spiel.
I waited in the waiting room for what seemed like forever (most likely 15 minutes or so) and the first time Don Knotts came up to me, he has my air filter with him. He showed me how black it was and as “it’s part of our 12 point courtesy inspection, he advised I replace it.” I give the go ahead and about 15 minutes later, Don Knotts again approached but this time with my tire with a big-ass something-or-other impaling it to show where the hole is… and it’s not in the middle of the tread. Murphy’s Law is now in full effect.
He told me they CANNOT fix it, he doesn’t have a tire with a tread that matches my current tread in stock, and rambled on. I blanked him out and thought my own thoughts which consisted of, “hmmmm I wonder how close I am to needing new tires, should be real soon”. He paused for breath and I jumped in with my new tire question. He got his handy-dandy tire tread measurer out and informed me (while showing me the measurement) that “I had at most this coming summer’s worth of time on them”.
No telling what the rest of this winter will be like and as typical victim of Murphy’s Law, I decided to go ahead and get all new tires.
He twitched his way through finding the right tires for my car, explained the pricing, sales, treads, rotation schedules, recall information, VIP Hazard benefit, etc and I ended up with tires as close to what was on my car before FLATsville. They're installed and I paid as the lights were being turned off and doors were locked. Nothing like being the last customer on a Sunday late afternoon.
4:00pm and $335 later I’m tooling my way home on brand new tires.
At least my car is happy now. And my credit card company.
Golden sides of the coin: A guy was nice enough to follow me on Saturday to let me know my tire was flat, I checked the car before going to work on Monday morning, I was able to get into VIP while they were still open, and I was able to get 4 good matching new tires on sale.
No comments:
Post a Comment