Car stress
I realy don't know if this is a good or a bad start of this new and shiny year! On the 25th of december at the end of the evening at my sisters place, first christmas day, my own car broke down. Since the garage was closed till the 2nd of januari, there wasn't really much I could do. I decided to leave my car at my sisters place since I could borrow a car from my sister. Two days later I exchanged that car for a car from my dad so I was mobile at least. I had an amazing new year in Leuven with the WoW gang + friends, there was only one slight problem...the car of my dad broke down as well. The start-engine didn't run anymore so the only way to start the car is by pushing it and hope it starts running. However, the car was parked on a ramp, so we had to pull it out first. The street was under construction and there wasn't much space to pull out the car. Don't ask me how, but somehow we managed to pull it out and start the engine! I drove back home and started calling!
I called road emergency services (after this, called ANWB) , and it seems that for some silly reason, they can only help me in foreign countries. In order to update my subscription with domestic service (which I always had), I need to be at my car where I need to sign some papers to update my subscription and then they'll help me (finally!). Of course it's obvious that I have to pay a higher rate for the new subscription, but by doing that my car will be towed away to the garage where they can fix it, hurray...I think.
Stan was planning on visiting his parents, so he arrived last night at my place so he had an early start and could help me push the car so it could start! Unfortunately, I got up around 11 am, kinda late but...I was tired! Unfortunately, we didn't succeed in starting the car. Even with a few extra people, it wouldn't start. As extra new exciting thing for the new year, I wrecked the door of the car when we were pushing it back by leaving it open *sigh* So, time to call the ANWB! They arrived within 30 minutes and amazingly enough they could fix my dad's car! I signed all the papers, paid the extra subscription money and off I drove to my own car! After a relaxing 2 hour drive, I arrived and called road service again. They were happy to tell me that when you update your subscription while your car is broken, they don't tow it away *glares* We had some tough discussions and I spoke to different people with different positions within the company. However, they weren't gonna tow me away, they would if I pay for the towing costs which are around the 400 euros...man, I hate this year already!
After 30 minutes of arguing, they offered me an employe would look at my car, maybe he could fix it. After almost 2 hours, he finally arrived! He opened the hood, turned on his flashlight, looked at the broken thing, looked at me, looked at the broken thing again... "Sorry, I can't fix this, you need to bring it to a garage."
Soooo, I've been really easy about this. I decided not to get mad about it and tried to schedule it as good as I possibly could. I had to keep in mind that my dad needed his car, I had a garage standing by to fix my car after it arrived there on the towing truck, I had to travel to Amsterdam to fix a server. I had it all arranged and the ANWB told me they would tow my car...and now there was this freakin' idiot that looks for 5 seconds at the problem and told me he couldn't fix it and he wouldn't tow it away under any circumstances. At first, I tried to escalate the situation, but unfortunately the guy stayed as cool as the statue of Napoleon in London and he wasn't even thinking about changing his opinion on the matter. It was at that moment that I lost it, told the guy some nasty stuff about his mom and kicked him back in his ugly yellow car. I had nothing to loose, and it felt refreshing *grin*
Right, so the car still wasn't at the garage, my dad still wanted his car back, I still had to service the server and I was less mad then an hour before all of this. There was only one solution left, and that was to bring the car to a local garage and let it fix there. It will cost quite a bit, I probably won't get the money back from the garage that originally fixed the problem two weeks before it broke down again but I would have a a working car again!
I wonder if this last week of 2006 and the first week of 2007 were the lousiest ones I ever experienced. I don't know. Good and bad stuff happened. I met some great people, but didn't had the chance to catch up with a person in particular. I had a great time, but I drunk way too much and forgot to sleep. I guess time will learn what will happen. For now, happy new year! :)
cheers,
Jeff
I called road emergency services (after this, called ANWB) , and it seems that for some silly reason, they can only help me in foreign countries. In order to update my subscription with domestic service (which I always had), I need to be at my car where I need to sign some papers to update my subscription and then they'll help me (finally!). Of course it's obvious that I have to pay a higher rate for the new subscription, but by doing that my car will be towed away to the garage where they can fix it, hurray...I think.
Stan was planning on visiting his parents, so he arrived last night at my place so he had an early start and could help me push the car so it could start! Unfortunately, I got up around 11 am, kinda late but...I was tired! Unfortunately, we didn't succeed in starting the car. Even with a few extra people, it wouldn't start. As extra new exciting thing for the new year, I wrecked the door of the car when we were pushing it back by leaving it open *sigh* So, time to call the ANWB! They arrived within 30 minutes and amazingly enough they could fix my dad's car! I signed all the papers, paid the extra subscription money and off I drove to my own car! After a relaxing 2 hour drive, I arrived and called road service again. They were happy to tell me that when you update your subscription while your car is broken, they don't tow it away *glares* We had some tough discussions and I spoke to different people with different positions within the company. However, they weren't gonna tow me away, they would if I pay for the towing costs which are around the 400 euros...man, I hate this year already!
After 30 minutes of arguing, they offered me an employe would look at my car, maybe he could fix it. After almost 2 hours, he finally arrived! He opened the hood, turned on his flashlight, looked at the broken thing, looked at me, looked at the broken thing again... "Sorry, I can't fix this, you need to bring it to a garage."
Soooo, I've been really easy about this. I decided not to get mad about it and tried to schedule it as good as I possibly could. I had to keep in mind that my dad needed his car, I had a garage standing by to fix my car after it arrived there on the towing truck, I had to travel to Amsterdam to fix a server. I had it all arranged and the ANWB told me they would tow my car...and now there was this freakin' idiot that looks for 5 seconds at the problem and told me he couldn't fix it and he wouldn't tow it away under any circumstances. At first, I tried to escalate the situation, but unfortunately the guy stayed as cool as the statue of Napoleon in London and he wasn't even thinking about changing his opinion on the matter. It was at that moment that I lost it, told the guy some nasty stuff about his mom and kicked him back in his ugly yellow car. I had nothing to loose, and it felt refreshing *grin*
Right, so the car still wasn't at the garage, my dad still wanted his car back, I still had to service the server and I was less mad then an hour before all of this. There was only one solution left, and that was to bring the car to a local garage and let it fix there. It will cost quite a bit, I probably won't get the money back from the garage that originally fixed the problem two weeks before it broke down again but I would have a a working car again!
I wonder if this last week of 2006 and the first week of 2007 were the lousiest ones I ever experienced. I don't know. Good and bad stuff happened. I met some great people, but didn't had the chance to catch up with a person in particular. I had a great time, but I drunk way too much and forgot to sleep. I guess time will learn what will happen. For now, happy new year! :)
cheers,
Jeff