Nov
25

Car Alarm going off altercation

I am in my retail office and my truck alarm goes off. I go outside to turn off the truck alarm. The guy from next door retail office comes out and starts screaming about the alarm going off again. I realize that it is annoying for a car alarm to go off, but is it really necessary to stop what you are doing and come outside to be a jerk about it. He is all red faced and tells me it goes off every day and tells me my car isn’t worth having an alarm on. The truck is a brand new Toyota Tacoma with a $1000 stereo. I tried to difuse the situation, but he kept on being a jerk so I ended up just walking away from the guy and calling his boss. The boss and I have a good working relationship and he says he will take care of it. Is it really necessary to lose your mind over something so simple? I could understand if you were at home and it woke you up every day, but this is a retail location right on the street with loud cars and buses driving by every day.

Update: I saw the guy in the parking lot that had a problem with the car alarm going off and he apologized. I was amazed although I think he was coerced by the owner of the company. I am glad we worked it out because I don’t like having someone being upset with me for what I consider to be a simple matter.

Update 2: Come to find out that the guy was just out of the military and he had issues with loud abrupt noises. I made sure my truck alarm didn’t go off anymore to annoy him as I felt bad about the whole situation. I talked to him about it and we worked it out. We were both very humble and we are friends now which is a win win in my book.

Sep
02

Buying a Car Saga

My son called this guy to look at his Ford Mustang he had for sale. The seller said come over after work to check out the car. We went over after work to checkout the car, but the owner wasn’t there yet. We speak with his wife and she tells us to wait for her husband. In the meantime we check out the car that is for sale in the driveway. Not a bad car and for $1600 for a 1995 Ford Mustang, it seemed like a pretty good deal.

The owner shows up and right behind him is another potential buyer that wants to look at the car also. I really didn’t want to get into a bidding war with someone over a car, but it doesn’t hurt to look at it and talk to the seller. The owner starts the car and pulls it out so we can get a better look and also hear the motor run.

I ask the owner of the car who called first on the car and the other potential buyer pipes in that he has first dibs on the car and he told the seller of the car so over the phone. Kinda of a jerk move on the other guys part, but oh well. The owner doesn’t say anything at this point. I ask the owner of the car again who the first caller was and the owner says we both called within 5 minutes of each other. Obviously the owner of the car doesn’t want to make any waves. So the other guy gets to take the car out first and he gets to decide whether he wants to buy it or not before we get a crack at it. Kinda upsets me because we were there first to look at it. So the owner and the potential buyer go out in the car and then they come back.

The owner of the car walks over to me and says that the other guy is probably going to buy the car. He says if I want to talk to the other buyer to go ahead. I walk over to the guy and ask if he is going to buy the car and he says yes. Then I ask if he is going to pay full boat for the car, which means pay full price and he says yes also. I am speculating that the other buyer was a friend of the owner or worked with the owner because he drove in like he was being towed by the other guy (thats how close the other buyer was to the seller when they drove in). The one thing we had going for us was that the other buyer had to pay full price.

Jul
27

Honda Fit and Honda Warranties and Defects

I took my Honda Fit in to be serviced by Chapman Honda in Tucson Arizona. What had happened was that the rear tow/camber on the rear passenger side of the car had been out of adjustment and it had eaten a tire. The inside of the tire was cupped because the adjustment was off. I took the car into Chapman Honda to be repaired and they said I would need an alignment for $89. I said ok to the alignment and they proceeded to take the car in for repair. I was told it would be ready by 1:00 to 2:00 o’clock.

We called them at 2:00 in the afternoon and they said it was at the bodyshop being looked at. I asked them why it was at the bodyshop and they said they needed to figure out a way to adjust the tow/camber on the car because it didn’t have an adjustment for the tow/camber. I said ok and left them to work on the car again. I hadn’t heard from them by 4:30 so I called again. They basically said that they couldn’t do anything for the car and that I could come pick it up.

I started thinking about it and I asked them why they couldn’t replace the part under warranty since it couldn’t be adjusted. The service person said “the car is out of warranty”. I asked what the mileage was because I knew it was under the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty. The car has 35,383 miles on it and it is still in warranty. The the service rep said “oh, let met talk to the service manager”. Then of course the service representative said the alignment of the car is covered only by the first 12 months of 12,000 miles it isn’t covered by the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

I said this isn’t a problem with the alignment, it is a defect because it can’t be adjusted. If it could be adjusted it could be aligned, but this car can’t be adjusted so it is a defect. Cars can be aligned and the Honda Fit obviously can’t be aligned so it is defective.  We went round and round and they kept saying it wasn’t under warranty. It is pretty convenient that the car only has a 12,000 mile warranty for alignment seeing that it can’t be adjusted. So basically they make a part that can’t be adjusted with a very limited warranty and don’t support it within the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.  Have you ever had a problem with Honda? I will never buy another car from them.

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