The Johnson Rod Affair

I took my car in today to get the oil changed.  I don't like it when I have to give money to people who then do things to my car.  I don't trust them, believing them to be incompetent and corrupt.  Plus, I don't know anything about cars.  I'm pretty sure that they work by magic.  I've never looked in the front part of the car, where the "engine" is supposed to be located.  Sometimes car salesmen loosen the hood and beckon to me, trying to get me to look in there, but I wave them off.  I'd prefer not to know.  The compartment could be empty or it could contain wraiths or animals.  Nothing good could come from me looking in the engine compartment.  

Mechanics can say anything they want to me and I'd never be the wiser: "Seaweed, your Johnson Rod is shot to hell."  

"Well, OK, throw in a new Johnson Rod," I'd say.

You can see, for me, that a good mechanic is more valuable than a good heart surgeon.

When I was visiting Vacation City last year I took my car - which needed an oil change - to the car dealer.  They gave me quote for a lot of unanticipated work which was going to cost about 6X what I expected to pay.  Aghast, my worst suspicions confirmed, I fled.  It would have been cheaper to just buy a new car than submit to their suggested maintenance.  

I chose a company at random out of the phone book and they did the work - they were reasonably priced and fair.  I believed them when they told me what needed to be done so I did whatever they recommended.  I liked the owner.  We talked for a while about Vacation City and he was a good source of information.

I walked into his store today and re-introduced myself.  It took him a minute but he remembered who I was.  As he was writing up my work order I mentioned that a broken light fixture that he replaced last year had broken again.  Being as I own a Very Expensive Car it comes chock-a-block full of Very Expensive Parts.  I asked if he would call the Very Expensive Car Dealer to see if they could "do anything" besides collapse in laughter that someone would ask them to do something like stand behind their Very Expensive Parts.  I was OK with it, really - it wasn't his fault that the Very Expensive Part was a piece of crap in disguise.

I got back.

"Well, I called the dealer," he said.  "And they're really not going to do anything."

I laughed.  "Why doesn't that surprise me?" I said.  "Isn't that their motto: 'We really don't do anything.' "  I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the broken light fixture but I sure wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.

"We're going to take care of it," he said.  "We've ordered the part.  Come by in a few days and we'll put it in for you.  We think that our work should last more than a few months."

How about them apples?  You think that guy has a customer for life?  I didn't ask for this and I wasn't going to ask for this but he did the right thing.

I'm going to put in the top of the line Johnson Rod my next visit.