Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Further proof that I live in a small town

I needed to get new tires for my car. Since I had the day off work yesterday due to the storm, I took advantage of the time and stopped in at a local tire shop. They told me what they could sell me and asked when I wanted to have the work done. I said, sometime in the next couple of weeks, and they said, we can do it right now if you want. I was told they could put on the new tires, check the alignment and re-align if necessary in about an hour and a half. (One truism I've learned about auto repair is that it generally takes someone much longer to do something than they tell you.) They offered me a ride home and said they'd call when the work was done. At home, I read, watched some TV and waited for their call. As it was getting close to 5:30, their closing time and over two hours since I'd left my car there, I decided to give them a call. The guy who answered the phone said they'd just finished it, and he'd come over and pick me up. I waited about ten minutes or so, and then saw my car drive up with another car behind it. As I went outside, the guy who'd driven my car got out, said something about wanting to make sure he'd got the right house, waved, got in the other car and off they drove. No payment, no bill, they just left my car there. Now granted, they had my phone number and address back at the shop, but it seemed very odd that they'd just drop my car off and not make any arrangements for payment. How many auto places would just let you take off afterwards? So I stopped by the shop on my way home from work today, and one of the guys behind the counter, who I'd never met before yesterday, called me by name as I walked up and pulled up my work order. Ah, small town life.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Our dad gets service like that all the time ~ from the Gerdes'

12:42 AM  
Blogger Kootch said...

They deliver?

5:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do either of the city cops carry a bullet in their pocket?

5:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They probably would if he had oo other way to get the car back.

1:28 AM  
Blogger Lover of Words, Books, Games, Theatre, Film, Art said...

Here's a similar story ...

The auto shop that we go to here in Rushford does much the same thing. They'll pick up and drop off the car, or, if you bring it in, either give you a lift back, or tell you to go ahead and take the keys from one of their cars and drive the car home (last week I drove the tow truck).

Awhile back, my neighbor drove his car down, left it in front of the building (he had called to make the arrangements for some work), walked to the side of the building, and got in to a white Chevy that had the keys in the car, and drove to work. About 5pm, he goes back to get his car and says, "I left the Chevy out near where I found it." They say, "Chevy?"

"Yeah," says my neighbor, "The white one." "Gee, I don't know about any Chevy. None of the guys here drive a white Chevy." They ask around the shop, and nobody knows who it belongs to. To this day, my neighbor doesn't know who's car he was driving to and from work that day.

11:20 PM  
Blogger Kootch said...

What a great story!

(Unless maybe if you're the owner of the white Chevy.)

7:09 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home