I recently experienced what no driver wants to experience. A break down. A vehicle that refuses to start no matter how hard the Puerto Rican beats on its underbelly with a jack.
Bang. Bang. Bang. "Try it again, Mami."
Insert eye roll, turn the key, and nothing but a coughing sound that if I were at work listening to it, I'd have it x-rayed.
Repeat the same pattern several times, then call it quits.
It's an emotionally trying ordeal and it will cause the hardest bitch to tear up. So I started tearing up. Right there in my driver's seat. Once the AAA arrangements were made and we had plus one hour to wait, me and the girl went to the Chinese restaurant and got us some grub. The four of us sat in the van an fed on crab rangoons, and combination platters till we were stuffed. Just how I imagined I'd spend my Friday off work. Turned a blah, whine-whine sitch into a pic-nic.
And then comes Brian from Logue's towing. A tall, thin and cranky fella hopped out of the tow truck. Tats x2 that the kids and the Rican admired. Brian hooked up my car and complained the whole time. He complained from the time we piled into the cab and all the way down the boulevard to the Ford dealer. His grumbling didn't bother me, in fact I rather enjoyed listening to someone mutter under his breath and louder that he didn't like his job. He didn't like driving. He didn't like traffic and he certainly wanted out of that truck. We were his last call and he was headed to Seaside in Jersey. And anyone who's anyone knows what Seaside is famous for! I was excited for him. I really was. He hates his job...and so do I.
Me and the 2 kids get out of the cab, we dropped the Rican to get my car and follow us to the dealership. I knew this wasn't gonna be good. I knew from the mere suggestion of fuel pump that it was going to be expensive. I wasn't budgeting on this. Really, what budget? I left it there. I usually do not take my car to any dealer cause they rape their customers and it's legal violation. They charge too much, but seeing that the van was under recall x2 and needed inspection on top of it much less the no start of it all, I left it there and we went home.
Robin Ford is my local dealership. I bought my van there. It was a nugget of pure mommy-ness back in 03. I didn't want it to begin with. I wanted the Explorer. I traded my 5 seater explorer for the mommy mobile. It was a prime example of not putting myself first. I had a habit of doing that. That 19,000$ purchase was not made for me by me. It was made by me for others'. Hindsight is 20/20, though. I was a pleaser then. A major pleaser. I did everything in my life to make sure every one else was just oh-so-fucking happy. And here I sit 8 years later putting a fuel pump in a van instead of a gas guzzling explorer.
Robin Ford...vampires...they latch onto the wallet in your back pocket with their gluttonous fangs and feed on their life source of choice...money. Green suckers. Money munchers.
They had my van in shop for 5 days. It cost slightly less than 1200$. (They threw in a free oil change for kicks. Wasn't that super sweet of them?) They did half an inspection because they said I need 4 new tires and failed me. They only did the emissions test, which I passed. My whole issue with Robin Ford is the cost of the labor. The labor cost more than the part they removed and reinstalled. I find it difficult to believe that labor would be this time consuming and difficult. I swear they jacked the cost of labor so they could get back what they lost repairing their very own recall! I have no proof of this, of course.
What perturbed me the most was when I returned to the facility to pick up the finished product. I stood behind the counter and the service cashier/attendant was tuned away from me talking to a mechanic through a window in the garage. He stated, and I am quoting this because I updated my facebook status in real time with what was said, "
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