Sitting in the Lounge of VW, Wasting Time
(I can hear Otis Redding whistling as I write the title.)
My car is in for a recall for the airbag sensors. I opted to wait here, since this dealer isn’t close to home. I’d been told that it’d be a 90 minute to 2 hour repair, so I figured I’d have time to get some breakfast at Harry’s nearby afterwards. Now it’s almost lunchtime and I’m still waiting. So much for trying that corned beef hash today.
In any event, this dealer reminds me quite a bit of the dealer I bought my VW Fox from back in 1988. Small dealer with a very hands on approach. It made me realize just how many VW service departments I’ve seen over the years. Ed has seen more, because all that I’ve dealt with, he has on top of the ones on LI.
When you move to a new town, there are the things you take care of right away: utilities and school enrollments. Then you venture forth and determine the preferential things: which supermarket, hairdresser, gas stations, retailers, eateries.
Next comes the things that are also important, but if you’re lucky, you don’t have to tackle for a while: doctors, dentists, auto dealers. They’re still needed, but they don’t merit the ‘red alert, must find NOW’ paranoia.
So far, so good on this front. There’s a waiting area, there’s coffee, and there’s a TV tuned to the Olympics (though its more background noise for me, since I’m not a follower of volleyball or soccer). The last two dealers spoiled me somewhat-this one doesn’t have WiFi access.
Laptop in hand, I ended up doing some long overdue housecleaning. Pictures got sorted, the desktop tidied, and the spy ware and virus scans completed. Now I get to play with blogging, albeit off line for now. The selfish part of me has wanted to go and buy a Crackberry or that iPhone so that moments without Internet access are few and far between, but it’s probably good to have times like these where there isn’t accessibility.
Then again, I’m still waiting and there’s nothing left to do on the laptop. After a spectacular hard drive failure two years ago, I am loath to put more games on here than what was provided with my Windows. There’s only so many games of Hearts, Free Cell, and Spider that one can take while doing all the scans.
Guess I should have taken advantage of that courtesy shuttle, after all…
**The repair took 3 hours, 10 minutes, largely because they had to remove my bumper to replace the sensors. The service department manager told me I should have been quoted 4 hours and apologized for the delay. I'll admit that I got a little panicked at the fact that it was after 12, Ed was due at work at 1 and I had a 25 minute drive home.
Once they realized that I was frustrated and misquoted, they did bust their butts to get it done. The small town approach was evident: they offer the shuttle, they wash your car and vacuum it and once they realize a customer is unhappy for any reason, they're on top of it to make it right. I'm impressed.
My car is in for a recall for the airbag sensors. I opted to wait here, since this dealer isn’t close to home. I’d been told that it’d be a 90 minute to 2 hour repair, so I figured I’d have time to get some breakfast at Harry’s nearby afterwards. Now it’s almost lunchtime and I’m still waiting. So much for trying that corned beef hash today.
In any event, this dealer reminds me quite a bit of the dealer I bought my VW Fox from back in 1988. Small dealer with a very hands on approach. It made me realize just how many VW service departments I’ve seen over the years. Ed has seen more, because all that I’ve dealt with, he has on top of the ones on LI.
When you move to a new town, there are the things you take care of right away: utilities and school enrollments. Then you venture forth and determine the preferential things: which supermarket, hairdresser, gas stations, retailers, eateries.
Next comes the things that are also important, but if you’re lucky, you don’t have to tackle for a while: doctors, dentists, auto dealers. They’re still needed, but they don’t merit the ‘red alert, must find NOW’ paranoia.
So far, so good on this front. There’s a waiting area, there’s coffee, and there’s a TV tuned to the Olympics (though its more background noise for me, since I’m not a follower of volleyball or soccer). The last two dealers spoiled me somewhat-this one doesn’t have WiFi access.
Laptop in hand, I ended up doing some long overdue housecleaning. Pictures got sorted, the desktop tidied, and the spy ware and virus scans completed. Now I get to play with blogging, albeit off line for now. The selfish part of me has wanted to go and buy a Crackberry or that iPhone so that moments without Internet access are few and far between, but it’s probably good to have times like these where there isn’t accessibility.
Then again, I’m still waiting and there’s nothing left to do on the laptop. After a spectacular hard drive failure two years ago, I am loath to put more games on here than what was provided with my Windows. There’s only so many games of Hearts, Free Cell, and Spider that one can take while doing all the scans.
Guess I should have taken advantage of that courtesy shuttle, after all…
**The repair took 3 hours, 10 minutes, largely because they had to remove my bumper to replace the sensors. The service department manager told me I should have been quoted 4 hours and apologized for the delay. I'll admit that I got a little panicked at the fact that it was after 12, Ed was due at work at 1 and I had a 25 minute drive home.
Once they realized that I was frustrated and misquoted, they did bust their butts to get it done. The small town approach was evident: they offer the shuttle, they wash your car and vacuum it and once they realize a customer is unhappy for any reason, they're on top of it to make it right. I'm impressed.
Comments
Though that *might* be a good Sunday before school starts breakfast!