{"id":811,"date":"2007-07-10T08:17:51","date_gmt":"2007-07-10T08:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.131.168.108\/wordpress\/?p=811"},"modified":"2014-01-04T03:16:07","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T03:16:07","slug":"811","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/2007\/07\/10\/811\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font style=\"font-weight: bold;\" size=\"4\">The Long Wait&#8230;<\/font><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday morning, I called the Firestone that Karen recommended to ask if they would be able to work on my car. Just after lunch, I took the car in.&nbsp; Here is the story of my afternoon:<\/p>\n<p>1:15 &#8211; Dropped off my car.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I waited in the waiting room for about 30-40 minutes while they brought the car in to see what needed to be done.<\/li>\n<li>I read a book (<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Every Thought Captive<\/span> by Jerusha Clark) and watched a Discovery Channel show about Champ, the American version of the Loch Ness Monster.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1:55 &#8211; They called me to the counter to chat.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I brought my car in to have the brakes checked.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<li>The brakes were shot.&nbsp; Completely.&nbsp; Front pair needed new pads and rotors.&nbsp; Back pair needed cleaned badly.<\/li>\n<li>They also found that I needed a radiator system flush.<\/li>\n<li>They also discovered that my serpentine belt was badly cracked and needed replaced.<\/li>\n<li>Total cost (est.):&nbsp; $500-$79 (a coupon)=$400<\/li>\n<li>I told them to just do whatever needed done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2:00 &#8211; I left the Firestone to amuse myself for the couple of hours they figured it would take to fix my car.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I called Eric to let him know the damage assessment and that he probably wouldn&#8217;t need to pick me up after he got done with work.<\/li>\n<li>I crossed Hilliard-Rome Road (quite a feat, even with a crosswalk there!)<\/li>\n<li>I called my mom and chatted with her for about 20-30 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>I went to Famous Footwear (nothing in my size that I really needed), Michaels (bought some yarn), Old Navy (nothing fits me there), Bed Bath &amp; Beyond (just to cool off, really).<\/li>\n<li>In Michaels, the Firestone calls me.&nbsp; They found another problem.&nbsp; The calipers on my brakes are also shot. I&#8217;d been leaking break fluid (no wonder my brakes had been spongy!).&nbsp; Did they want me to get that taken care of?&nbsp; Um&#8230;YES!&nbsp; (additional cost: $150 for calipers)<\/li>\n<li>It was freakin&#8217; hot outside yesterday.&nbsp; <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Freakin&#8217; hot.<\/span>&nbsp; <\/li>\n<li>Stopped at the Giant Eagle to buy a bottle of water. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4:15 &#8211; I arrive back at the Firestone.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Someone had turned the channel to ESPN.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t know how people watch that channel continuously.&nbsp; Jim Rome was somewhat interesting to watch, but the rest of it is just noise.<\/li>\n<li>I read my book some more. I was getting bored of my book.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5:15 &#8211; The customer service guys called me back up. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was another problem.&nbsp; They had two calipers.&nbsp; One was broken when it came out of the box.&nbsp; Another one was being sent over from a different Firestone.&nbsp; It would take a while longer.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<li>They were really sorry.&nbsp; They were discounting my bill for the wait. (No argument from me!)<\/li>\n<li>No problem, I said.&nbsp; I went outside to call Eric (and to give my butt a rest&#8230;not terribly comfortable chairs!).&nbsp; He&#8217;d been home since 4:00.&nbsp; I told him they would hopefully have it done by 6:00.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<li>I went back inside to wait.<\/li>\n<li>I read the newspaper.<\/li>\n<li>I started to read a magazine.<\/li>\n<li>ESPN was getting really annoying and repetitive.&nbsp; All the shows talk about the same things.&nbsp; I&#8217;d stopped caring about Bonds not showing for the home-run derby hours before.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6:00 &#8211; They call my name again.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is another problem.&nbsp; They take me back to the floor.<\/li>\n<li>The second caliper was also broken in the box.&nbsp;&nbsp;  <\/li>\n<li>They&#8217;d spent most of the last hour trying to fix it themselves.&nbsp; They had two guys working on my car.&nbsp; They were so sorry.&nbsp; They &#8220;feel this [holding index finger and thumb about 1\/4 inch apart] big.&#8221;&nbsp; They won&#8217;t be able to fix it tonight.&nbsp; They will be discounting my bill another 10% for my inconvenience.<\/li>\n<li>I assure them that it is not a big deal.&nbsp; I thank them profusely for all their efforts.&nbsp; I felt bad that they were being so helpful and their own parts were sabotaging them.<\/li>\n<li>The manager offered to give me a ride if I needed one (I didn&#8217;t).&nbsp; He offered the office phone if I needed to make a call (I had my cell).&nbsp; I again thanked him profusely.&nbsp; They had been more than kind all day.<\/li>\n<li>I called Eric who came and picked me up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6:15 &#8211; I arrived home.<\/p>\n<p>Moral of the story: If you know anyone on the west side who needs their car worked on, I would highly recommend the guys at the Firestone on Hilliard-Rome.&nbsp; They worked their butts off to fix my car, didn&#8217;t try to cheat me, didn&#8217;t treat me like a dumb girl, and felt awful when things went so wrong.<\/p>\n<p>PS &#8211; I picked my car up at 7:30 this morning.&nbsp; They actually stayed late last night to fix it.&nbsp; I think I&#8217;ll send them a thank-you note or something.&nbsp; They earned it.<\/p>\n<p>PPS &#8211; The final cost was $573.23.&nbsp; Not bad for all that went wrong and for a 200,000 mile car!&nbsp; That should get me another 100,000, I think!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Long Wait&#8230; Yesterday morning, I called the Firestone that Karen recommended to ask if they would be able to work on my car. Just after lunch, I took the car in.&nbsp; Here is the story of my afternoon: 1:15 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/2007\/07\/10\/811\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}