National Hate Week Continues

I still haven't officially confirmed that this is National Hate Week. How does one make something become National? Does it have to be confirmed by the government? Does the Senate have to give it a two-thirds thumbs up?

Regardless, I called the great Firestone total auto care last week to get work done on my car.

"Do you guys do GM warranty work?" I ask.

"Of course, we do!" a gentleman named Ken replied with all encompassing enthusiasm. We do everything.

"Ah," I replied, "so you can fix my mechanical car antenna which is stuck in the up position."

"No problem," he says, "bring it in any time."

"So if I bring it in tomorrow morning. you'll have everything you need to fix it?" My ever enduring cynicism had taken over in a big way.

Ken assured me that they had all the necessary parts in house or could easily order them and had an account with GM to get everything taken care of (charge wise).

Next day I show up with my car bright and early.

Some other guy (not Ken) was manning the front desk. I am, of course, bright and cheery.

"Good morning," I say, "I called yesterday about getting my antenna fixed on my Trans-Am."

"Oh," he replied, "We don't do that. You'll have to take it to the dealer."

It completely rained on my bright and cheery attitude and caused a conniption to occur in my happiness dashboard.

"But Ken said to bring it in anytime." I whined in my most unpleasant voice. "He said you guys fix anything."

"Yeah, well Ken no longer works here," is what he said.

"You mean he got fired between yesterday at 4 and this morning?" I asked incredulously. My blood was starting to boil. I went from one conniption straight to another.

"Well, he didn't really get fired, more like transfired." Oh great. I guess a humorous play on the English language is going to make me feel all warm and cozy!

About that time another gentleman came into the store wearing a Bridgestone shirt.

"Oh, there's Ken now. He can take care of this," the man who was quickly losing all my respect and earning much of my day's ire said.

Ken set me up and got my car in the queue and gave me a ride to work. I'm not quite sure what was up with all that. On my way to work, Ken said he was a store manager transferred from Chicago and that he had been working at that store since January. He said he had just got a notice yesterday afternoon that he was to take over a store south of there and was on his way. Thus, he could drop me off on his way to the new store.

I picked up my car that afternoon after work and the lame ass who tried to ruin my day before was the man in charge (apparently). He said that he didn't like signing up for warranty work because it's hard getting the warranty companies to pay for anything (I guess he thinks he can take it out on the customers).

He also said that car companies sucker people into paying for extended warranties and then don't want to pay for anything. I suspect he was elegantly trying to call me a gullible fool. Idiots piss me off and he was approaching severe stupidity.

He said in my case that the total charge was $356, but that the warranty company would only pay $311. $356 to put a new freaking antenna on a car? And he was complaining that GM would only pay $311? No wonder GM is having financial problems! Oh my god!

Ken warned me that I might have to pay $45 of it because I asked him to have them inspect it for any more warranty work. I didn't tell the Lame Ass that. He can suck it up like a big loser.