Back in Maryland after spending the whole month thus far in Florida – not a bad deal except for all the studying…and tests! Two tests! And there I was bringing books and flying DVDs thinking I’d have all this time to myself in the evenings.
Anyway, you may recall that some ne’er-do-wells throwing rocks onto the freeway damaged my truck. My truck was repaired while I was in FL and today I picked it up. The truck looked great - a new passenger side view mirror was installed, the dent was removed and the door repainted. All for the low low price of my $500 deductible.
But wait! What’s this? My driver’s side mirror isn’t working right – the mirror is binding in the housing. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like this when I dropped it off so I go back into the shop to ask about it. No, they don’t know a thing about it. In the spirit of customer service they send the guy out who repaired my truck.
“Yep, it shouldn’t be like that”, was his measured opinion. While he was failing to yank the mirror into place I noticed the whole housing was a little askew. I’m nearly certain it wasn’t like that before, and the pictures taken during the estimate seem to confirm my opinion. The shop manager says she’ll get me a new mirror and we part ways. I head to the mall to catch up on Christmas.
Intermission: If you’re ever at a mall with a Nordstrom’s, skip the food court and hit Nordstrom’s café. The food is not very expensive but it’s excellent, and the service is outstanding. Much less crowded than the food court too.
Back to the story…
Shopping mission accomplished somewhat, I hop in my truck because I’ve found it’s the fastest way to get my purchases home. I realize I hadn’t adequately pre-flighted the vehicle before…I’ve now see I’ve got just over ¼ of a tank of gas left. I filled it up before I left for FL…I didn’t want water to condense in the tank while I was gone.
Some things that are good to know about me at this point in the story. When I gas up my car or truck, I always record the following items in a notebook I keep in the glove box: date, mileage on the trip meter, amount of fuel purchased, price of the gas. Don’t ask why and feel free to ridicule me about it – my wife did it for the first half of our marriage. The second thing to know is my truck has two trip meters: Trip A and Trip B. I always reset Trip A when I refuel and I’ve never reset Trip B (so it reads the same as the odometer).
Wow, that makes me sound a bit like the Rainman, except I don’t buy my underwear at K-Mart. I am an excellent driver, however.
I check my log, sure enough, I last filled up the day we left on our Thanksgiving trip to Williamsburg, VA and the only time it was driven after I filled up was my wife driving it to the shop for repairs. I figure the truck’s been driven about 200 miles or so to use up that much gas. My trip meters tell me…25 miles and 9 miles. Why, how did Trip B get reset?
I’m furious. I drive back to the shop and march in carrying my serious injury book mileage notebook and eventually end up talking to the owners (a father and his son) and a manager. The only other possibility suggested out is that the trip meters were reset during cleaning and someone siphoned the gas, but that’s quickly dismissed.
What convinced the owner I was right? Yep, the notebook. Combining the mileage written on the estimate with the mileage logged in my notebook we determined that the odometer was about 200 miles higher than it should be.
I talked to all three – both owners and the manager – at length and I’m convinced they’re taking this very seriously. I have no doubt they’ll figure out who went joyriding in the truck (to Dunkin’ Donuts, judging from the trash in the bed). This solves the mystery of the driver’s side mirror too…
The owner wrote me a check for the gas and said he’ll try to figure out some compensation for the extra mileage on the vehicle. I’ll get the new mirror installed next Tuesday.
I hope they figure out who drove my truck…I want to drag his ass before Judge Wapner!
Good for you! I’m glad you could nail someone at the repair shop for joyriding. That’s probably a very common occurance, and very rarely is someone caught.
It’s funny that you mentioned pre-flighting your truck. I just got home from breakfast with my wife. I reached for the key to turn her car off and hesitated momentarily thinking: Wait, I need to turn the avionics off first! I guess that’s actually a good thing.