Still not fully well, but by the way, I did talk to the Mazda guy

I was supposed to go out with friends today, and when one called this morning to see if I was feeling up to it, she said she knew as soon as she heard my voice what the answer was. What she didn't know was that I sounded like that after sleeping 12 hours last night, and then taking a 2-hour nap. If my father didn't do the same thing when he's sick, I might start to worry, but there you are. Strange things, genetics.

I actually got through Thursday and Friday at work okay, but by the end of Friday, I was wiped out. I headed for home telling myself, you can just go to bed. Go home and go to bed. Maybe a little kitty maintenance, and then go to bed.

And that's about what I did. I tried to stay up a little, to give the medicine time to kick in and soothe this nagging cough (I simply must stop nagging), but gave up and crawled in bed at 6:19 by the wonder-clock. Enjoyed the simple pleasure of being horizontal for a little bit before falling asleep. I woke up a couple of times (gave Pan his pills at 11 ish, took more cold meds at 2 ish), but didn't really awake until around 7 this morning. Even then, I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to get up, but I decided I ought to at least have a bowl of cereal, since I never even ate dinner last night. I did that, watched a little TV, then gave up and went back to bed for the aforementioned 2-hour nap.

I was awake when the phone rang, though. Harold was trying to get me to play with him, pet him, love him, and I was being a bump on a log, and in his wiggly enthusiasm, he slipped right off the bed, poor love. I was trying to call him to come back on and be consoled when the phone rang, and he came and sat on my lap instead. Silly thing.

Anyway, Mazda! Back on Monday, when I just had a slight sore throat (ahh, those were the days), I called the Mazda place and actually got to talk to the customer service manager, after all our phone tag. Surprisingly, I had a not totally waste-of-time conversation with him.

It didn't start well, when he asked what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about? That would be in the letter, sir. But he agreed with me that the annoying guy from my last visit should have explained himself better, and not just blown me off with his "if it comes out, bring it back" line.

He also told me that the guy in question has since been let go, and although part of me thinks that's a rather convenient answer, it would be a pretty quick lie for him to get caught in, if he was lying, so maybe he isn't. I mean, he (the manager) wants me to come back, and if I did (which is still a really big if), and saw this guy was still there, I would turn right around and leave.

Beyond that, he told me that they're under new management/ownership, which I didn't know. They used to be 128 Mazda together with 128 Ford and I think another brand, at the old location, and I hadn't noticed that at the new spot, where they call themselves Liberty Mazda, they're only Mazda (and I thought they were trying to reinvent themselves to get away from their reputation). He's right, though, that they weren't as crazy-busy when I was there, in the new spot. At the previous location, they were always buzzing like a kicked anthill, which I always thought was much to blame for the mediocre service I received there (see: three-hour oil change). There is such a thing as being too busy for one's own good.

I just don't know. I'm not even trying to decide now. I just wanted to thank you guys for being out there, because it helped me not procrastinate on calling him to know that someone would ask if I had.

And now, I'm thinking scrambled eggs and toast, a rest, and then if I feel ambitious, a shower. Woo-hoo. I see the need for another minion, you know? Help when you're sick? Especially for those of us who live alone. I'm so glad I got to the grocery store...

Well, How About That?

I turned on my phone when I left work tonight, and guess who I had a message from?

Liberty Mazda.

He'd like me to return his call. I didn't do so tonight, since my day had had Enough Already (primarily the annual trip to the gynecologist, which is right near the top of my list of all-time least-favorite things to do), but maybe tomorrow.

I was honestly rather surprised that they called. You?

letter to Mazda

You remember the story of how I hate the Mazda dealership where I got my car, right? And how you shouldn't go there (remember, this is Liberty Mazda in Wakefield), and tell your friends not to go there, etcetera, etcetera?

Well, I did finally write them a letter, just to let them know why I won't be coming back. At first I wrote a long, detailed, every-single-thing letter, but then I decided no, let's just hit the highlights. To be honest, based on their track record, I wouldn't be surprised to get no response at all, so who knows if they'll even read this. Why waste time or paper? So I summarized. This is what I sent them.

***************************************************

Service Manager
Liberty Mazda
81 Bay State Rd.
Wakefield, MA 01880

Every time I have come in for service, I have received a letter afterward, claiming you want to know if I am less than perfectly satisfied with the service I received. I am not sure I believe you, considering the continued mediocrity of your service, but I am going to try once final time to get through to you. Do you want to know why I hate your dealership and your service department, why I deeply regret buying a car from you, why I plan never to return, and why I am telling everyone I know and people I don't know to avoid you at all costs?

It was bad enough on my first visit, for the inspection after buying the car, when I arrived to pick it up and they couldn't find the car for half an hour.

It was bad enough when my first oil change took three hours.

It was bad enough when I had an actual automotive problem, and instead of giving me a loaner so that I could go to work while they diagnosed the problem, they made me wait for two hours while they tried to diagnose the problem first. It was bad enough when it turned out that they hadn't fixed the problem, so it happened again, and I had to bring the car back in. And it was bad enough when it turned out that the problem was caused by the installation of the security system in the first place.

But all these incidents have been impersonal, problems with an entity, not with the people within. Those incidents only made me consider not returning. The final straw was the condescending, sneering attitude of one of your employees as he "helped" me on Saturday, July 28th. He "helped" me realize that I never want to deal with that attitude again, in fact. While I will return if the part that he "fixed" breaks again, I otherwise will not be coming back, and I am writing to you on the off-chance that you care at all about the loss of a customer. Judging by your attitude, I doubt that you do, but perhaps as you lose more and more customers, you will come to realize that people do have a choice, and when you treat them like idiots, like they are bothering you, they will be more than happy to take their business elsewhere.

Sincerely,

***************************************************

You realize now I have to find a mechanic. I'm sure I'm already overdue for an oil change, if not more. That damned to-do list is never going to shrink. Depressing thought. I push it away from this otherwise pleasant weekend. The cat on my forearm chases it away. So there.

Just wait, it keeps getting More So

So, the Story of My Saturday, and How Most of It Sucked. Almost all of it, in fact. It's a fun story, really! By today, anyway, it's much more fun. On Saturday, it wasn't really so funny. Interesting how that is.

You already know how Saturday started: the meows of doom, of oh no, when did I last see Pan. And the cleaning of the closet. At the hour my mother refers to as oh-god-hundred (as in, "what time does your flight leave?"). And the throwing away of a soaked-through messenger bag, which I wasn't even going to try to save, since it was the center of the incident.

So there I was, up, risen if not shining, early though certainly not bright. I'm so not a morning person, it took me quite a while to realize that although the first errand I had planned to do was to a place that opened at 9, the one I had planned to do second opened at 7, and I could have gone there early. As it was, I got there by nine, and for me on a Saturday that's actually up and moving pretty early.

This was to go to the Mazda dealership, and I have griped and groused about them before. I bought my car last year, and like it a lot, but I have not had one good service experience with them yet: not one! Their service is awful.

By the way, this is me calmed down. Here's what I scribbled on a bit of paper in the car on Saturday:

I hate 128 Mazda, now calling itself Liberty Mazda. Hate, loathe, despise them.
Do not buy a car from them.
Most especially, never, ever go there for service. Ever. Do yourself a favor.
Can you see the steam coming out of my ears?
I have just had the most condescending experience ... I could spit. He just about patted me on the head and called me "little girl".

By comparison, do I sound calm now? I do, don't I? Sort of?

They really are awful. They lie, for instance. I mean, about little stuff, but that will get on your nerves. They just moved their location, and they send out cards announcing the new location, and the hours are on it. They're supposed to be open until 7 certain nights of the week. And I go after work (and the location is not at all convenient to where I work, by the way), and arrive at 5:40, and am told that all the techs leave at 4.

So either the mailing is wrong, or the guy is lying to me.

This is the same place that, when I took my brand new car in, four days after I bought it, took it in to get it inspected and for a couple of things to be installed, when I went to pick it up it took them thirty minutes to find the car. To find it! They couldn't find it! (I had to tell them which kind of car I had bought, and they sent someone around looking for it, since they couldn't find it in the computer, and we all know that if it isn't in the computer, it doesn't really exist.)

Then, last summer, I went in for my first oil change and it took them three hours. For an oil change. And when I wrote them a letter expressing my dismay about their service (they send out letters after every service experience, ironically enough, saying that my satisfaction is very important to them, and to let them know if I'm less than perfectly satisfied), they never responded to the letter. At all. Not one word. Apparently they just want to know if I'm not satisfied: they're not actually planning to do anything about it.

Then there was the time I brought the car in with an actual problem, and it took them two hours to give me a loaner.

But I digress. Are we all convinced they're awful? Good. It's funny that they've changed their name, isn't it? I'm sure they'd say it's because they moved, but they're not that far off 128, really. Anyway, just remember, 128 Mazda, Liberty Mazda, terrible, awful, horrible, avoid, right?

So, why was I going there again? Because I had a small, Mazda-specific problem. The car I have is what they call the 5-door, what I would otherwise call a wagon. When you open the back or fifth door, it lifts up the part that hides all your groceries or what have you, except that the little doohickeys on mine won't stay in lately. So I went in, doohickeys in hand, the day that all the techs were gone by 4, to have them fixed. No techs, no fix, so I went back on Saturday, ready to stay as long as it took (remember: three hour oil change) until it got fixed (except that I would have to leave in about two hours to take Harold to the vet, but I was hoping it wouldn't actually take that long).

So the same bozo was there who told me everyone was gone by 4, and he collared a tech and took him right out to my car. I opened the back, and they poked at the holes for a minute and then essentially stuck the doohickeys back in and said there you go.

I said yeah, but they won't stay there.

The guy said they're in.

I said yeah, but they won't stay in. They stay for a little while, a few days, even, then they come back out. I want you to actually fix them.

He said. If they come out again you can come back.

!

That was the point at which I said something like Oh you bet I'll come back. I don't think I actually said you bet your ass I'll come back, though I was sputtering so much I'm not sure how coherent I was. I haven't been that mad in a long time.

Up to that point, as mad as I've been at this Mazda dealership, it's been impersonal. This is the first time I've been livid at an actual, specific person. He was so condescending, so "I'm right, you're wrong", so ... I don't even know, smug and jerky in his behavior to me.

I don't think that the customer is always right. I've worked in retail, I know that customers can be wrong and stupid and stubborn, and even when they're right they can be annoying and a pain. But treating a customer the way he treated me is never right.

It's certainly possible that there was something I didn't know about putting the doohickeys back it. It's not like I took them out in the first place, so why would I know how to put them in? If he had explained that they needed to be put in with the ends turned this way so that the whatever interfaced with the whoosis properly, and that therefore they would now stay in just fine, but to bring it back if I had any further problem, I would have said wow, really? That's great, thank you so much. I might have been slightly skeptical of an easy fix, but I'd like to believe, and I'd certainly be delighted if it turned out to be true.

Instead, he treated me like I was an idiot. How is that good service?

So far the doohickeys are still in. I bet they'll come out, but even if they stay in until the car falls apart of old age, he was wrong.

Anyway, wait, my Saturday isn't over yet! That was the low point, but not the end! There's still take Harold to the vet ... in the car, which he hates ... and on the way over, we were joined by a thunderstorm, which terrifies him!

Is anyone else having visions of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day yet?

It was a huge, enormous, torrential storm. Harold was truly unhappy, and I would have rescheduled if I'd known it would be that bad. The drive home was about as bad as I can recall driving through. All afternoon it poured and stopped and boomed and stopped, and just kept tormenting the cats (not that I like it either). By that time, it was a good thing I had something to look forward to, because I was feeling pretty beaten down by the events of the day.

Happily for my sometimes-tenuous grip on sanity, I had plans Saturday night to go to dinner and a movie with friends. Otherwise, I would have been grasping at straws for good things about the day, those lack-of-bad-news items like, I didn't have a headache, or, the vet didn't have anything bad to say about Harold beyond the usual (he shouldn't gain any weight). While these are not bad things, it was still nice to have an actively pleasant evening after such a day.

After a nice crepe dinner, we saw Waitress, which was deemed enjoyable by all three of us. And in my case, quite a relief after the day I had. Thank heaven days like those don't come too often.