Experiences – Volume VI (1994)

FILES OF A TOWING COMPANY Experiences – Volume VI (1994) "Yeah, but I had a reason" Well, at this point in my life, I have pretty much concluded that I no longer enjoyed roofing. I wanted to try something else for a change. It is now 1994. I have returned home from Kauai from repairing all the damage caused by Hurricane Iniki. I still maintain my business license for now, but I don’t actively pursue jobs anymore. I started an automotive and towing business. There shouldn’t be too many follies in this business. Should there? Hmmm, I wonder. This section is dedicated to: The potential customer and the customer wanna B’s. Given data - I lived directly behind Tesoro gas station in Haleiwa. 154. A person is pushed his car through the gas station and onto my property. He asked if he can park his car on my property for just a little while. He said he needed to go get a gas can, because he had run out of gas! After a brief discussion with him, he thought it was illegal to pull into a gas station if you were out of gas. 155. A lady comes to the shop and says she needs a plug. She only described the plug as white. I told her if she was talking about a spark plug. She said she didn’t know. Again, saying that it was only a white plug. I told her I needed the number on the plug in order to find the right plug. She said that she’d bought the car from me but couldn’t remember what year, make or model the car was but that she knows I have the right plug for her. I told her that I just might have the plug, but I really needed that number to find it. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth and around in verbal circles with her, and frustration, she goes back to her house. She comes back about a half-hour later and said that it was the number two plug. I told her that that was a fine discovery, but that I still needed to identify which plug it was. I showed her on the plug where that number was located. I suggested that she remove one of the other plugs and to bring it to me. She asked to borrow a tool to remove the plug. I told her that we don’t loan tools out. So I asked her how did she get the first plug out? And once she gets a second plug how to she plan on putting it back in? She looked puzzled at this point, and wondered why she would have to have a tool to put it in? She said that she would just put it in. I told her that that that’s the way you take out the other plug to find the number on it so that I could get her the right plug again. She stood there looking totally puzzled. I went to my workbench and took out a plug out of my bolt box. I handed it to her and she screamed with joy. “That’s what I needed. That’s it. That’s the plug.” She turned and ran across the street and I assume that whatever joy she got in finding that plug during that moment, carried her on forever because I never saw her again in search of another plug. 156. A little background on this will help. A person purchases of vehicle from one of my workers. Instead of paying for it, he makes an arrangement to take the vehicle from our shop with a promise to pay with no money down and a payment of $150 per month for six months. After about three weeks, my worker had assumed the first payment should come in. But there was no payment. We found the vehicle left at a shop in Haleiwa. We were called to tow it because the other shop owner did not know where it came from or any contact information as to who dropped it off. We pick up the vehicle and move it back to our shop and move on with life. About a year later, the same person comes into our shop to purchase a vehicle. He reintroduces himself as a person on Social Security, handicapped, no income, no money, but needs a vehicle and he would like to see every vehicle we have. I suggest that before we show him any vehicle, he arranged for his money and budget and then perhaps we could talk. He insists that money is available, but not till the end of the month. I mentioned that that’s about two weeks away. It would be better if he secures his money and then attempted purchases vehicle. He again insists that he just spoke to his uncle and knows for certainty that he can have the money needed. He chose the vehicle in front of the property priced at $2300 and asked if he can give us a $75 postdated check till the first of the month and then make the $75 payment each month until paid off. He says there is no problem with the money, but he needs to take the vehicle today. I told him very politely, but with the firm certainty, I told him to take a hike. His comment was that he would just that take his business somewhere else. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s anybody out there that would place a value on his business? 157. I went to the supply store today to pick up a 2 ¼” preformed Gasket. The salesman said they only had a 2 ½ inch gasket. He said that they didn’t make it to a 2 ¼” gasket. I said Hmmm, could I borrow your tape measure? He handed me the 2 ½ inch gasket and a tape measure. I measured the gasket and commented this is a 2 ¼” gasket. He said yeah, but they call it the 2 ½ inch gasket! 158. A person wanted a spare tire. He had a Ford five lug tire. He went through the free tire pile. Then came back and said, “I checked every tire in the pilot nothing fits. I tried all the four hole and five hole rims and nothing fit.” My initial thought was, “didn’t you say you had a five lug rim off of a Ford?” He said, “yeah!” Our comment was, “then why are you checking to see if the four lug rims fits?” He just looked off into the distance and said, “just in case!” 159. A person drives up to our property and asked us if we had water. (he had what appeared to be a bunch of 5gal water buckets in the bed of his truck) We told him he’d have somewhere else or he could check with the gas station about 30 yards behind him. Instead of backing up his truck to the water. He parks it gets out his 5 gallon containers and proceeds to walk the 30 yards to the water and fill his containers. (he had about 25@5gallon containers) So, one by one, he fills them and then carries them back to his truck which was also blocking our business driveway. 160. A lady comes up to the shop and tells me she was mad with her mechanic because he wanted to charge her too much to change a part. So, with the seriousness of an attorney, she asked me “how much would you charge me to change a part on my car?” Hmmm, I am thinking, this should be interesting! I told her, “maybe if we work together on this one, we could narrow it down a bit. What type of car do you have and what part do you need changed?” She commented. “It was a big part because it costed $265.” I asked her if she had anything in writing from the other mechanic? She said she didn’t get anything in writing from him because she didn’t want to commit to a contract. I explained to her that her getting something in writing is called a proposal until she signs it, and only at that point would it then become a contract. I told the lady that it would be better to make an appointment and come back when she has time for me to analyze her cars problems. She just said, “maybe it won’t break then, I’ll just leave it like it is” she thanked me for my time and she left. 161. A person showed up to our shop who had purchased parts from before. He needed to borrow $20 and asked if he could borrow it from me until Friday. I figured that he was a low risk case, so I checked my pocket, but didn’t have anything smaller than $100 bill, plus a few ones. I told him if he wanted to come back later in the day when someone comes in and either purchases something or pays a bill, then I might have some change. Usually this would discourage the average borrower. Instead, he says, no problem, he pulls his car over to the side of the property and gets a magazine and begins to read. He waited there for nearly 4 hours doing whatever people do when they’re waiting for a loan. By that time I had change made the loan and he left. Hmmm, now there is a guy with time on his hand. 162. Our job was to replace a punched out door lock on the Honda Accord. The part is not available except from the dealer only/used parts, etc. We chose to purchase two door locks from a used dealer using the reasoning that we could have two locks with the same key after the job was completed. We inspected the locks and discovered that each one came with a different key. At this point, we asked a rather obvious question to the seller. “What it be possible to get two locks with the same key?” With a look of question, he asked, “why would we want two locks with the same key?” Our comment was that “it was because it was supposed to go on the same car!” He said,” so what? What difference would that make?” Hmmm, I wasn’t sure why I was even having this conversation, but I left with the one lock set with an un-matching key 163. After performing semi-major transmission work on a vehicle, the only work left remaining was to check the alternator and battery. The customer was informed that without a working alternator and/or a charged battery that he wouldn’t make it very far. The customer appeared to understand our conversation. I thought that he left to purchase his own used alternator and battery. He returns within a couple of days and asked if this car was ready to drive. We reminded him that he would need to check out his charging system. He scratched his head with a minor concern and with what appeared to be a sign of remembering that it was his duty to purchase an alternator and a battery. A couple of days went by, and again he shows up and asking the car was ready to pick up? And again, I remind him that he would need a battery or alternator in order for his card to function properly. His comment was, “you mean after all this time the car still won’t run?” Trying to show a small portion of compassion, I told him that without changing his alternator and/or battery that it would be difficult for him to leave property and get far. Two months later, the car was still parked in our lot and I have now assumed that it’s abandoned. 164. I had a friend who informed me of an experience where a person attempted to get on an elevator. She pressed the up button. He stated, “why did you press the button when you said you wanted to go down?” She said it was because she wanted the elevator to come up to her! Hmmm, interesting.