I Need Hearing Aides...
Yesterday - as most of you know - I had to take my car to my mechanic because, well, car's don't like to run when all of their coolant is on the ground. I dropped it off around 7:30 AM and my mechanic - like clockwork - called at 8:30 AM and asked, "How often have you put antifreeze in your car in the last couple of months?" I said, "Once, maybe twice." He said, "Ok." and hung up.
I didn't hear from him the rest of the day. Now, that's a very bad sign because he usually calls me back, tells me what the problem is, and when it comes to price, he does one of two things. One, if it's not going to be that bad he'll say, "It'll be about X." or if it's really cheap, he'll just do it. Now, if it's going to be expensive (And to him that's anything north of $200) he'll say, "Well, this is going to be expensive. It's going to be X."
So, I called him back in the evening yesterday and asked, "What's the damage?" He said, "$486.86." When it comes to money amounts over the phone I ALWAYS repeat back what you just said to avoid confusion. So, I said, "$486?" - "Yup." - "Can I pick it up tomorrow morning?" - "Sure."
The car's Aceitic Intake Valve (Which I didn't even know what the hell that was... Come to think of it, I still don't) broke. He looked up Malibu model history and found out that this is a problem with Malibus. Also, because the valve broke off, it ruptured the power steering line completely, which I kind of knew, seeing as I couldn't steer the car on Tuesday night. So, he had to clean my engine out, replace the power steering line, fill the power steering fluid, replace this valve, and refill the coolant. To me - not knowing a lot about that aspect of car up-keep thought, "That sounds right. I trust him." Plus, I thought I busted a seal and was preparing for a $900 bill.
I proceeded to go to the bank and take out $500 in cash because CASH IS KING BITCHES! (Also, walking around with $500 in cash does two things to you, which create an interesting paradox. You feel kind of paranoid because you're suspicious of a lot more things, but you also feel like a King/God/Immortal/Pimp because... Well, you've got a shitload of cash. Money fight anyone? I digress...)
I walked down to his shop today (Because it's only about a 1/4 mile from my house) go in and he hands me the bill to read over...
The amount her read to me and what it actually was, was off. Really off. I mean REALLY off. REALLY, REALLY off...
The final statement...............................$46.86.
THAT'S IT!?
Not that I'm complaining, but that's one of those things where it's like, "HOLY SHIT! I just dodged that one."
As my usually, I gave him $50, told him to keep the change, he gave me back the $10 and said, "Close enough."
I didn't hear from him the rest of the day. Now, that's a very bad sign because he usually calls me back, tells me what the problem is, and when it comes to price, he does one of two things. One, if it's not going to be that bad he'll say, "It'll be about X." or if it's really cheap, he'll just do it. Now, if it's going to be expensive (And to him that's anything north of $200) he'll say, "Well, this is going to be expensive. It's going to be X."
So, I called him back in the evening yesterday and asked, "What's the damage?" He said, "$486.86." When it comes to money amounts over the phone I ALWAYS repeat back what you just said to avoid confusion. So, I said, "$486?" - "Yup." - "Can I pick it up tomorrow morning?" - "Sure."
The car's Aceitic Intake Valve (Which I didn't even know what the hell that was... Come to think of it, I still don't) broke. He looked up Malibu model history and found out that this is a problem with Malibus. Also, because the valve broke off, it ruptured the power steering line completely, which I kind of knew, seeing as I couldn't steer the car on Tuesday night. So, he had to clean my engine out, replace the power steering line, fill the power steering fluid, replace this valve, and refill the coolant. To me - not knowing a lot about that aspect of car up-keep thought, "That sounds right. I trust him." Plus, I thought I busted a seal and was preparing for a $900 bill.
I proceeded to go to the bank and take out $500 in cash because CASH IS KING BITCHES! (Also, walking around with $500 in cash does two things to you, which create an interesting paradox. You feel kind of paranoid because you're suspicious of a lot more things, but you also feel like a King/God/Immortal/Pimp because... Well, you've got a shitload of cash. Money fight anyone? I digress...)
I walked down to his shop today (Because it's only about a 1/4 mile from my house) go in and he hands me the bill to read over...
The amount her read to me and what it actually was, was off. Really off. I mean REALLY off. REALLY, REALLY off...
The final statement...............................$46.86.
THAT'S IT!?
Not that I'm complaining, but that's one of those things where it's like, "HOLY SHIT! I just dodged that one."
As my usually, I gave him $50, told him to keep the change, he gave me back the $10 and said, "Close enough."