Car Maintenance 1
09-Jan-03
Well, as long as the servers are tweaked right now, I might as well post a little something about my sucky day yesterday.
I had planned to take off half a day yesterday to get my tires fixed. After we removed the snow chains last week, the tires were all bumping and totally messed up. Everyone I spoke to said it was probably in need of a tire balancing. Everyone.
Oh, except WheelWorks, where I made an appointment in case I wanted to get this done while at work yesterday. But because they don’t offer any sort of drop-off service, I could either be waiting in a tire place in Milpitas and losing work time, or waiting in Scotts Valley and losing work time. Either way– the same.
See, three years and 40,000 miles ago, I had bought these very expensive, self-sealing tires so I would feel safe going over highway 17 every day. They had a warranty: 80,000 miles, and cost $70 each. The place I bought them from (Winston) sold me the lifetime Wheel Alignment warranty for $150. They also sold me the “life of tire” balancing service for $11 each (that’s standard, by the way).
Well, apparently, that warranty is only good if you go in every 3 days or so and have your tires rotated. No, seriously, it’s every 5,000 miles, but it’s still bullshit. Plus, you have to have them rotated by someone other than yourself. What? I learned how to rotate tires when I was 16. This is total bullshit, and yet, there you have it. They want you to have to go to the tire place to get the tires rotated. Even though rotating the tires is free, it takes time, and what do you want to bet that you end up spending money while your tires are being rotated, huh?
Speaking of spending time, here’s how my day went.
I went by at 8:45 and asked if they would honor the warranty. See, the place I bought the tires at, Winston Tires, went out of business last month and this new place took over. They said they could honor part of the warranty (the free balancing and rotation), but not the whole thing. I brought the car in, with the warranty, and signed an agreement that I would pay $45 for them to inspect the tires and another $45 for them to inspect the alignment.
WTF? $90 to look at the tires and the alignment? I didn’t even need them to look at the alignment– I knew it was off and needed to be re-done. $45 to kick the tires? I knew they needed to be rotated and balanced– I don’t think I’d done that in the 3 years between when I bought them and now. They’ve run low on air before– a lot, but yeah, I’m not the most responsible when it comes to making sure my car is in perfect shape. Sue me.
Apparently, those who do not rabidly rotate their tires get screwed royally by these tire warranties– they won’t honor them unless the tires have been rotated– and signed off– every 5,000 miles. So, my 80,000 mile warranty? Worthless. Completely worthless. Oh, and nowhere does my tire warranty say “If you rotate every 5,000 miles.” Hell, I’m not even sure I have a manufacturer warranty card for those tires.
The new place told me my tires would need to be replaced– at least the front ones, and I should replace the back ones. I was fucking furious, believe me. They were expensive tires in the first place– every time I go to have anything done with my tires, they tell me that I need new tires. I’m fed up and pissed off, and I feel completely helpless because I’m female and the motherfuckers treat me like I know nothing about cars.
I’d like to point out, at this time, that I do, in fact, know about cars. I know more about cars than most men. I know more about cars than my father does. The main reasons I don’t change my own oil, rotate my own tires, and do my own maintenance are: a. time (busy doing other things, thankyouverymuch), b. tools (I don’t have more than small hand tools for computer-fixing, not even a torque wrench, which is a must if you are changing an oil filter), c. money (it’s about the same cost if you buy your own materials and pay for oil recycling as it is to have Jiffylube do it for you), and d. knowledge (I know how to change the oil in a car– I’d like to have the Chilton’s to guide me through changing the oil in my car).
And that’s not all. John called the tire place and yelled at them– a lot– for how they were handling this. He got them to shave some of the cost of the tires off, and after they explained that the inspection fees were waived if the work was done, he calmed down a lot. Well, I could have told him that– they explained it to me when I signed the estimate. I still couldn’t understand why they were going to charge me two inspection fees, though, to inspect what are basically the same parts of the car (if you inspect the alignment, you will inspect the tires– no need for two fees, right?) He also basically sided with them on the tire condition, and said we were getting screwed, but we were getting screwed by Winston, not by these guys. At least, not yet. He offered an alternative, Lloyd’s, which could give a second opinion and do the work, but then I’d have to drive down to Soquel to get my tires rotated every 3 days? I think not.
[I should point out that "3 days" is a gross exaggeration. I drive 5,000 miles in about 14 weeks, if I leave the car parked in the driveway on weekends. So, more like 3 months. And if someone said "every 3 months," I would feel better about it, because that's how often I should get my oil changed (go ahead-- ask me how often I really do that....]
Okay, so they’ve got me. I’m grudgingly going to let them do the work. I call them at about 11:30 and ask them to proceed. They estimate it will take about an hour. Mind you, when I dropped off the car, they thought it would be done at 11:30, but we had to halt everything while John and I got pissed off about being screwed.
By now, you might be wondering if I’ve gotten out a bottle of lubricant, and yes, I had. I was pretty much resigned to this being expensive– new tires always are, no matter how inexpensive they claim they’re going to be.
While they were at it, they offered to change my oil for $25 (no, they did not mention the fact that the $25 didn’t include the $3.50 “disposal fee” for the used oil) and air filter ($18– they didn’t say how much that would be on the phone), and I accepted because I knew these were things that needed to be done and $25 is high-average for oil filter work. At this point, mind you, it’s mid-day and I’m still planning to leave for work at 1:00, with my car.
Yeah, right.
I called them at 12:50. They said it would be 10-30 minutes. I called at 1:30, they said “very shortly.” (Time in a tire place is meaningless, apparently– “soon” has no value). At 2:00 I called work and told them I wouldn’t be in. By this point, they have had my car for 5 1/2 hours. At 3:00, they called and said it was ready.
I walked down to pick it up, which took 45 minutes (the palce is 10 minutes away, but I had to pay, get the car, explain that no, I’m frustrated, no insane), so I didn’t have time to take the large box I had for my sister to the post office, so John got to sigh and sound all put-upon when he took it today. Yes, I sat around at home all day and couldn’t get one simple errand done because I thought, for 3 hours, that my car would be “ready in 10 minutes.” FUCK! If it’s not ready for another 3 hours, just say so! Jesus fucking christ. You were trying to charge me $45 each for two inspections– make them good enough to tell how long it’s going to take to fix the goddamn car.
The total bill was $400. I told that to John this morning, and he’s still trying to puzzle it out– $50 each for 4 tires ($200), $80 for an alignment. . . . . where’ the rest of it going? I reminded him about the oil change and air filter.
But I’m looking at the receipt from yesterday. “Skippy” (the name of the place is “Skip Tire Co.”) charged me $8.50 per tire for a “Skips Limited Road Hazard Protection Plan,” and $9.00 per tire ($8 labor, $1 parts?) for “Wheel Balance-Computer Spin.” You can decide of $9 for balancing tires is worth it (remember, they were going to honor my balance agreement from Winston), but this protection plan is bogus. I didn’t agree to it, and I have no record of what it is or what it’s good for, plus there should already be a limited warranty on the work, provided by their affiliate Gemini Automotive Car.
My tire’s warranty is if the rotations are done every 7,500 miles– or at least, that’s what the record where I’m supposed to have someone write it down shows. That record also says that the tires need to be balanced and wheels aligned every 15,000 miles. At $80 for the alignment, and $9/tire for balancing, that means I can look forward to paying $114 every 15,000 miles, which is about 9 months for my driving time. See why I don’t bother? It’s costing $400 to replace the tires every 3 years, compared to $456 to have them aligned and balanced 4 times in the same amount of time.
When they explained that the tires need to be rotated every 5,000 miles, they said it was “real quick– only takes about an hour.” I pointed out that finding an hour when they’re open and I’m around is not easy because I work. Yes, I am gone from my home and neighborhood for 11-12 hours a day, so I can work for 8 of those. They open at 7:30 in the morning on weekdays– if they’re not able to do them in 30 minutes during my morning cup of mocha, I’m going to have to take the car and leave.
Side note: I think $1.50 for “valves” is a total rip-off. Use the old goddamn valves. You know, the ones you’re charging me $1 to get rid of? Bastards.
I did have them show me the most damaged tire. It’s hard to tell if someone didn’t just jam a screwdriver into it and pull– I know I didn’t see anything like that when I was fixing the chains last week, and believe me, if there had been pointy metal bits sticking out the way they say there were, I would have certainly cut myself on them. They claimed that I would be able to see the way it was all off-balance if I looked at it from this angle– sorry, hon, put a circle at any angle and you’ll make it look off-center. What was the point you were trying to make there? The tread was worn– I would have needed a tread guage or a penny to tell if it was enough to be unsafe.
John said yesterday that if I trusted these guys to be telling the truth and to do a good job, then I should have them put the new tires on, because it was likely they needed it. Yeah, right. At this point, anyone taking money in order to repair or maintain a car might as well be wearing an eye patch and have a parrot on his shoulder– they’re all pirates. I trust none of them.