Lessons learned the hard way
Posted on May 8th, 2009 by kimc
The van - our van - our only vehicle, our Precious - is in the shop. This is awkward, and I think the guys at the shop know it. The bill is far higher than we expected, but by the time we have it towed to a more reasonable shop and pay the diagnosis fee for the first, we won't save anything but our dignity, and that doesn't seem worth the trouble.
Anyway, getting this far was such a comedy of errors that I'm not too excited about prolonging the saga. Rather than recount the whole sordid tale, let me just offer a few points of advice.
- Don't rely on AT&T's roadside assistance. Yes, it was helpful to us once. This time it was worthless, and it generally will be in the future. They won't don't tow our van. They say it's a heavy duty vehicle and requires a flatbed trailer for towing. Fine, right? They pay the first $50, and we pay any add'l costs. That's how the policy works. This should be easy, but they refuse. It's not because they can't find somebody to tow it; they did find somebody, but told me I would entirely responsible for the cost. It's just because they choose not to cover their share. Plain and simple.
- Don't take a mechanic's recommendation to have the wrecker bill him for towing your vehicle, so that you can have everything on one bill. The mechanic will mark up the tow service just like he does the parts for your repair. And he won't warn you.
- Do follow the wrecker to the repair shop, even if the mechanic says you don't need to. Somebody has to make sure the wrecker doesn't forget to give your key to the mechanics.
- Do call regularly to check on progress, so you'll know that the mechanics are waiting for the wrecker to come back with the key. I was less than a mile away, with extra keys in my purse. In fact, there was an extra key in the ashtray. They knew I was in a hurry and really hoping to get the van back that day. They had my number and didn't call. We lost nearly 2 hours over a problem that could have been solved in 5 minutes.
- Do call again, even if you just talked to them an hour ago. Even though they assured you that your vehicle is next and they'll get right on it, they might be waiting to get started because your ignition is sticky, and they want to make sure they have the right key. They might not tell you this until you call again just before closing.
- Do prepare for sticker shock, especially if you chose your mechanic based on the fact that he said he could fix it today. And don't forget that even if he's not done today, you'll still be paying the Today Price to the Today Mechanic.
- Don't think you can just switch mechanics if you find a better price. By the time you pay for a second tow and shell out the diagnostic fee, you won't be saving anything but your pride, and even that is debatable. Besides, we try not to put a high value on pride. We'll just call this a lesson in patience and humility. And lots of other stuff.
- Do remember to give thanks in all things. Just last week, we received more than enough unanticipated money from unrelated sources to cover this repair. It's painful to part with the unexpected bounty so soon, but it's also a good reminder that everything is in God's control. He knows our needs even before we know them ourselves.
Related posts:
- Life’s Little Lessons Best Learned Before the Crisis, #47
- The washer saga comes to an end
- Our crisis
- Another life lesson learned the hard way
- I-10 adventures
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Filed under: gone awry, thankful thoughts
ugh! sorry its been such a pain! Hopefully everything will be fixed and The Precious will be back to you. I know how hard it is to not have our 15passenger van and I feel your pain!
That is awesome that it was already unexpected covered tho! God sure takes care of us, even when we don’t realize it!
He is truly a wonderful God!
Amanda
Oh, I hope this is over for you soon! I’ll share that T Mobil Roadside Assistance is equally useless. We called late one night from the side of the highway about 60 miles outside of town because our car was suddenly jerking when we accelerated, and though we suspected it was a spark plug, we just wanted advice for whether we were safe to keep driving or if we were just a breakdown waiting to happen. We were currently at a busy, well-lit rest stop and would have preferred to wait for help there, rather than in the middle of nowhere on a dark highway. I’ll make a long story short and just say we cancelled our Roadside Assistance the next day and signed up for AAA.
Ouch! You’re so right on the “today” price for the “today” mechanic. But if he’s affiliated with a dealership, your complaint letter “tomorrow” might make a difference.
Boo on them!
What was wrong with the van, and has it happened before? Wish you were closer and could make use of our expertise and assistance .
It is a never ending battle to find a shop that really knows what is wrong [ Dealers included] .
Ugh! I feel your pain! We recently had a very similar thing happen. One day my beautiful maroon 12 passenger was running like a champ, the next day it simply would not start. Thankfully for me, it was in my driveway when we realized it wasn’t going to start.
However, we had already bought and paid for tickets to a special event the next day ( a VERY rare thing for our 7 kiddos) so we begged the mechanic to please have it done. Yes, of course he could….well, no he couldn’t.
We ended up renting an SUV for the weekend. That, coupled with my husband’s 3 seater truck took us to our Saturday event and church on Sunday.
Anyway, on Monday we shelled out $300 for the rental car and on Tues we turned over another $1700(!!!!!) for the van repair. Not fun.
About the towing. We do not have roadside, but we have a towing benefit on our insurance. We pay out of pocket, submit the bill to the insurance co., and they reimburse us up to a certain dollar amount. Works better than roadside.
So glad God provided for you to have the cash to pay for your precious vehicle… He really is too good to us!
We have State Farm and pay something like $3/6 months to have an $80 towing benefit. And I think the coverage is actually higher than that now. We fortunately have a wonderful mechanic and all we have to do is call him and he’ll call the tow guy. I’ve not heard of anyone surcharging the tow! That’s really lousy. But we also keep the tow guy’s # in our cell phone. Never the less, I’m sorry you had to go through this. Repair bills are never fun.
What a bummer! I’d highly recommend AAA if it is available in your area. For around $130/yr (for two people) we get four service calls each (pop a lock, jump battery, tows up to 100 miles each). This has more than paid for itself, and we’ve been able to serve many others as it doesn’t have to be your vehicle the call is placed on, just that you are present.
Vika,
This was far cheaper – just 2.99/month – but it looks like you get what you pay for. We had and loved AAA years ago. We’ll just have to weigh the costs and decide if it’s worth it to us now. At least I know a few more questions to ask before I sign up.
We just had some work done on our van last week. It was painful to be without for us as well
Praise God for unexpected bounty! !sn’t it amazing how God always provides what we need right when we need it?!