Follies, Experiences - Volume VIII

FILES OF A TOWING COMPANY And An Automotive Repair Dealer
Follies, Experiences - Volume VIII
We've decided to take a closer look at where we're headed, and why we seem to get them all? Does anyone else get the customer wanna be's like us? Anyways, somehow we still don't think they'll go away. I think they're ours forever. It's our blessing!!
201. It was about 1:30 and we told the customer to come back in a couple of hours since that's how long it would take to repair her vehicle. She said, "OK, I'll come back at 2:00." The mechanic told her again, "No, come back in two hours," She said, "Yeah, at 2:00." "No, he repeats, in two hours, that means no earlier than 3:30." She looks kind of puzzled and says, "I know!"
202. I got a call on my cell phone from a wanna be customer who asked if I was at my shop. I told him "No, I was in Mililani." He said, "Oh, good, I need you to pick up some parts for my car." After what seemed to me to be a long pause and with my mind racing to solve some sort of a puzzle, I said, "Huh?" He said, "I just need you to pick up some parts for me at that parts supply shop in Wahiawa!" After a second semi-long pause I said, "Who is this?" He said, "Oh, you don't know me, but I'll make it good for you!"
203. On Sunday, our shop is closed. We were at the shop, but were working on our own cars. A wanna be customer approaches and asks the mechanic, "can you tell me what's wrong with my truck?" The mechanic, now looking up says, "Probably, I don't know, I'd have to look at it in order to find out!" He then says, "well, its got fuel injection, is that the problem?" "I don't know! You're gonna have to bring it in on Monday and I'll look at it then." "Can't you look at it now?" The mechanic then says, "No, we're closed today. Just bring it in Monday and I'll look at it!" This type of conversation made a few more verbal volleys and a couple more pleas, with the same type of comments coming from both parties, the wanna be then says, "OK, I couldn't get it here till Monday anyways!"
204. Got a call to tow a vehicle. The call went something like this, "So when you gonna tow the car?" . . . as if I had already had this conversation with him before, but I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, so I said, "What car?" He says, "the one in front of my house!" Now wondering if I was missing something I ask, "You have a car you want to have towed?" And then responding like I should have been there a week ago he says, "Yeah, it's in front of my house, when you gonna come!" I told him, "Let me get this straight, you have a car and you want it towed from your property . . . right?" "Yeah, but it's not ready yet! I just need to know when you're gonna come!" Somehow, I would have thought there would have been a better way to enter into and then close this conversation, but considering its content, I decided to just let things flow into the verbal garbage disposal where it was already heading.
205. Early in 1999 the family decided to take a one month vacation to the mainland. Each day, I called the shop to check on how things were going. According to the lead mechanic, it was a rat race, but things seemed to be OK. I had all the work for the month already contracted and set up. No one really needed to do anything other than work on the already scheduled jobs and then maybe a few side jobs to fill out the calendar. After our vacation, we returned home. I went over the books and discovered that despite the income generated, the Company had lost over $2,000 between jobs completed vs. wages paid. So OK, I went back to work and within 3 weeks had earned enough to pay for the losses of the previous month and finish the next month with a small but profitable balance. This is now 8 months later. We decided to take another months vacation to the mainland. The lead mechanic was told that if he didn’t take in any work, but just worked on assigned projects around the property, we won’t lose any money and if nothing else, long term company projects will be completed. I’ve now been gone 6 days. During the course of that 6 days (only 4 of which were working days), the primary security dog has died (appeared to have been poisoned), the secondary dog has disappeared, and the lead mechanic has not showed up except for parts of a few of the days. Although our entire business is supported by the latest in communications systems, cell phones on both ends my end and the Companies end, pagers, computers on both ends, land lines with up to three phone numbers as well as a fax machine, up until the 4th day, I have not been able to contact anyone. Then on the 5th day, I finally made contact only to discover all the above. Hmmmm. I returned from the mainland and found a few more items to add to the list. I jumped into the tow truck to go on a tow and noticed that the rear view mirror had fallen off, the gas compressor had been stolen, (no one knew anything about it), a gear lever for the hydraulics was missing, both battery chargers were missing, the truck obviously hadn't been washed since I left, the radio had been de-programmed (although, when asked, said that there had not been any problems with the battery) the company cell phone was broken and there were 10 recently towed cars/trucks parked on our neighbors property, the soda machine was empty, and the clock on the office wall was not working just for openers. I went over the books and found Work Orders for only 7 jobs totaling $431.96 and material receipts totaling $510.37. I see empty boxes for ball joints, heads and evidence of lots of work, but no work orders to match the evidence found. There was $99.55 worth of cash receipts in hand and misc. rental receipts totaling $2,397.96 which does not include cash from a vehicle which sold for $850. The total loss this month was only 2,152. Oh yeah, they were instructed that every time they purchased gas, to use the bonus card for credits. Not only did they not use it even once, they lost the card all together. Although receipt books were purchased and instructed for usage for each income received, I found evidence of only one receipt having been issued. I just went to use the family car and found that it had been used as a workbench for some water pumps (for which there had been no work orders), with grease and tools still in the back hatch area . . . Oh, and this car radio had also been de-programmed.
206. It's 5:45 in the morning. I just got a call from the common customer wanna be. He wants a tire, it has to be in good running condition, on the right rim so that it could be mounted without problems, and it has to be free. When he showed up to pick it up, he decided that he would pay for it . . . not with money, but with two radiators. I asked what vehicle they were out of, and he told me, then he said "they're really good radiators, they just leak." Sometimes I wonder why I even try.
207. Another customer wanna be calls up. "I need to know if you have a complete wheel for a Plymouth voyager." I ask her what size it is. She says, I don't know, I just need the whole thing. Hmmm I said, "if you can find out for me the size, I probably have it." She says, "Can't I just get the whole thing?" "If you tell me the size of the tire, you can."
208. I had an unusual call (or maybe a usual call - depending on how you look at it),
209. I went in to purchase a part from a supply store and he asked my address. I told him it was P O Box 108. He then asked if that was street, road, highway or what? I paused for a minute and told him, you know, I've never been asked that before. It's kind of a stupid question, but it is also a very interesting question. I then asked him if he went to Waialua High School?
210. I was in a conversation with my son and one of his workers. He said that since he was in finish carpentry that they need to make their cuts is 32nd's not in 16th's. The worker proudly stated that he would have no problem with that and says, "I can cut 'em in 15 seconds and then still take another 15 seconds to get it to you." We all just sort of stared at each other and then realized what he'd just said. We asked him if he went to Waialua High School too!
211. I had a visit from a girl who said she wanted to have a tow. She then asked what it would cost to fix her clutch. I told her it would run at least $500. She gasped and asked why it would cost so much. I told her it costs $350 to pull the tranny and at least $150 for the parts. She immediately commented that she didn't have a tranny but that it was a 5-speed. I informed her that a 5-speed was a tranny, a standard tranny. With a look that resembled a large question mark / exclamation point combination look, she turned and walked away without saying a word. I think she was gonna go find someone who knew what they were talking about. Obviously I didn't.
212. I got a frantic call the other day from this girl who said she just put water in her radiator because it seemed low. She started her car but now it's smoking and coughing and won't run. What should she do? I took a ride to her place where I discovered that what she thought was the radiator where she should have put the water was not where the water ended up. She filled her motor through the oil inlet on the valve cover. She filled it to the brim. Hmmmm, I think this was the reason she didn't get too far on her trip.
213. Mac said he borrowed a car from one of his workmates to get some supplies from his office. He drove to the office, which was on a sort of a hill by this nice lake area. He puts the car in park, puts on the emergency brakes and goes into the office to get his supplies. He returns to the car, but come to find out was not there. The car had rolled back down into the lake. His friend forgot to inform him that the emergency brake and the parking gear in the transmission were not working. Hmmmm, of all the things to forget to tell someone.
214. I have this customer who hired us to build a custom 1966 Chevy 3500 - 1 Ton truck. He had a $7,000 custom paint job, which included some minor body work. The truck had been brought back to it's original condition, and then some. The paint alone cost approx. $1,500 per gallon. He paid us over $5,000 to purchase and install a 350 c.i.d. 4 bolt main motor. We fixed any structural problems and any minor bushing problems. Along with the cost of the truck, I would guess that he had over $17,000 in the truck over the 1 ½ years. Then his financial situation changed. He needed to put the truck in storage so I charged him to store the truck over here. Then things went from bad to worse. He tried to sell the truck for $15,000. No bites. He turned down an offer of $10,000. Time went by and now he really needed to sell the truck. The offer of $10,000 had expired and the new offer was only $6,000. He turned down that offer and tried to sell it to anyone for $8,000. No bites. He goes back to the $6,000 offer but now that had expired. He decides to take the truck to the auction. He puts a $5,900 minimum bid on the truck. He asks the girl at the auction how much is the auction fee. The girl says $80. She forgot to mention that there was also a 10% auction fee. The truck's high bid was only $5,100. He had another offer outside the auction for $5,600. But that person had already backed down from his bids before and wasn't considered trustworthy. The auction made a second offer of $5,600 less his fees, my customer was happy. He then goes to pick up his check and discovers that there was also deducted the additional 10% which he didn't know about. He begins to cry again. Then when he took his check, in frustration, it turns out that his bank put a 10 day hold on it. It just seemed to go down hill for him on each and every move he made. I don't recall having this many negatives on one transaction as this customer of mine did. Hmmmm, it must be hard.
215. My final posting for this phase of my towing life is when I get ready to retire, all the rats begin harvesting all my tools and refusing to pay their rents even though things were running smoothly the month before. Amazing how people suddenly turn on you when they know you're planning to move on and that you no longer have a financial stake in their operations or at least have voluntarily waived your financial interests in their operations. Not even a phone call to thank you for all the years you supported them. And no, this is not locals. This is mainland people who have moved here often at your invitation.