I apologize to our readers for not living up to our normal quantity of posts that you have come to expect over the years that the ‘Grok has been open. Three of the five active bloggers of GraniteGrok have been affected by the aftermath of no power or internet access caused by the recent storm. Yes, stuff happens and it sometimes happens to us.
I have been fortunate with no loss of anything (although my back has made it quite clear that it wishes to go all OWS-general strike by no longer wishing to deal with storms that dump 2 feet of snow on my property) but have been occupied (finally, as TMEW might agree) with some personal matters. In lieu of a couple of posts, I’ll put this email that I sent to Tracy Banks (of the Banks auto dealerships in Concord, NH) and to her contact at the Banks Collision Center that fully took up all of my evening last (and thus, no posts from me last nite). I have lightly edited it for posting – while it may not change the outcome of yesterday, it did assuage my soul in writing it:
Dear Ms. Banks,
It is not often that I get to write a letter like this as it seldom that my vehicle needs collision repair work (although this is now the second time I have had to select your repair facilities over others). Bought new from your Saab dealership, this most recent stay for my Saab 9-5 was due to a carefully done parking lot sideswipe performed upon it.
The start of this endeavor was to first deal with the insurance company. Although I had taken a video of the car when I came out of the hotel and sent the URL to my local insurance office, it still took almost a month before an adjustor could come to visually inspect the car – just to note what I had already told and showed (via YouTube) the local office. Then when I called three weeks later to see where the process was, I gently had to remind them that the insurance policy number for the other driver I had given them at first contact – was theirs, as the person who had hit the car had kindly and thoughtfully left a note with his name and number and gave that information to me when I called him. Given that we used State Farm, to use the adjective “underwhelmed” at their efficiency would be understated to describe what had not transpired for progress. Finally, after two more phone calls a couple of weeks apart, a check finally arrived – even though I had already told them that since all repair work on the Saab has been done by Tracy Banks Saab over the years, this would be handled by TBS as well.
Well, with all that insurance "pre-work" nonsense completed, I finally was able to contact Tracy Banks Saab who transferred me to the Banks Collision Center to set up a time to bring the car down. Thus, after working with Emily during the week of 10/17, we agreed for me to bring the Saab down from Gilford on Friday the 21st. I even called that Friday morning to verify that everything was all set. It was during this time that I reminded Emily that I needed the car back by 11/2, at the latest, for a trip to DC starting on 11/3. “No problem, sir!”.
So imagine my surprise…
…when I arrived that Friday afternoon, having taken a vacation day to do so, only to be told that because the Collision Center did not have all the parts, State Farm would not pay for the rental car from Enterprise. “Nonplussed” was the operative word as I turned around to leave after hearing “well, we’ll have them in on Monday”. Yes, I gently reminded them that I had already checked that morning to ensure that all was ready for the drop. Shades of State Farm deja vu?
Thus, to put it mildly, I was not in the most jovial of moods while contemplating having to take yet another vacation day to bring the car down, again, from Gilford on Monday morning. Which I did, reminding them and getting affirmation on my traveling deadline.
A week passed by and not having heard anything, I called yesterday to ensure that the car would be ready for pick up (ever mindful that my anxiety was starting to build for the incipient need to drive down to DC early Thursday morning – a fact that had now been repeated several times during this second half of my most wonderful adventure of Banks Collision Center). I was told that, indeed, the car would be ready today at 5pm. Thus, leaving work early today, I arrived at the Collision Center promptly at 4:45pm.
Introducing myself to Tabitha, with whom I had conversed earlier in the day, I was ready to complete the transaction and head home. Little did I know that a “turn and burn”was not to be in my immediate future as had been planned. For one thing, a most vital part of the car had gone missing – my key. After looking in the proper spot(s) a couple of times, Tabitha enlisted the assistance of Emily as well but to no avail. Medium story short after Emily and Tabitha having come up short, Justin was sent to go “key-finding out back". Five o’clock came and went.
To try to make up some time while Justin was on his high stake hunt, I asked Tabitha if I could clear my bill. She looked up my record and happily smiled as she looked back up at me “the total amount is $2,480.04 – but you are all set to go!”. I returned, with a bewildered look, with “can you recheck that, please?”. Now slightly befuddled, she simply repeated what she had before. TMEW (The Most Esteemed Wife) looked at me and I looked at her, and knowing that we needed to do the right thing, we implored Tabitha to please check once again, informing her that since we had already received a check directly from State Farm for approximately $1,400, I doubted that I was going to get out scot free. With some further review, we paid the $1,424.60 that we owed. And sat back down to wait for the car. Again.
Finally, at 5:45, Justin came around with the car; we went out and he started to explain what had been accomplished (including the fact that they had found some rust from a previous repair – see the first line of this letter). We got in, he went back inside, and I turned the engine over. Drove 10 feet and then drove right back to the front of the office.
I brought in a car that was in need of fixing; I did not expect to attempt to leave in a car that was in need of fixing. You see (er, hear?) when I dropped off the car, the muffler system never entered into the repair project. While the right rear panels, tire, and suspension had to be repaired, the resonator sounded fine last Monday. Today, Tuesday, it didn’t.
I walked back in and told Tabitha that there was a problem and Justin came back out. After listening for a moment, he agreed that it sounded like the resonator had “holed”. I asked him what he was going to do and, once again, reminded him that Thursday morning I was supposed to be heading south. His offer was to put it up on a lift, after first putting forward the argument of "it’s a six year old car, with 70K miles; mufflers start to wear out at that point". I just stared at him, reminded him again that this was not a problem when I dropped off the car, and asked if there was still a technician around at this late hour. His reply was “no, but we can look at it first thing in the morning – you can bring it in then, right?”.
At that point, while my vehicle was supposed to head south soon, my mood was quickly overtaking it. My response was “well, I’ve already burned up two vacation days just to get it here, now you wish for me to use a third (on short notice) to bring it back down a third time?” The response was “well, just leave it and we’ll see what we can do in the morning”. Right. “Justin, I just drove down from Gilford. The Enterprise person just took the key for the rental car away. How are we supposed to get home?” as the look on TMEW’s face made it quite clear that we were not going to stand there all night long in an attempt to be perceived as mild mannered. Thus, not hearing a reasonable solution to a problem that occurred only after the car was in your Collision Center’s possession, we finally said that we would drive our broken car home.
To say that my demeanor could be described as "less than thrilled" is similar to saying that "America has a bit of a debt problem" at the Federal level.
I wish to thank you for putting me onto the horns of a dilemma. The reason for heading to DC is that Americans for Prosperity is having an event; having been selected as their Activist of the Year for 2011, I was told that I was expected to be in attendance. Since I am a blogger that uses all forms of the New Media, I earlier turned down their kind offer to fly me down due to cost of the number of bags that hold all my equipment and said that I would drive instead to ensure I could bring it all down with me. It is now too late now to obtain a reasonably priced flight just to be in attendance; obtaining a rental car is not within my current budget (a fact that TMEW has assured me is true). And now, more vacation will be wasted for a failed trip.
Without trying to be a late Halloween entrant as “Dr. Obvious”, I believe you will understand that my six year stretch as a loyal service customer has probably come to an end. It is probably also true that my next car will not be from a Tracy Banks dealership.
Kindest Regards,
Skip
