Thursday, July 31, 2008

Car Update!

So on Monday night I sent the car dealership an e-mail. In that one I basically told them what had happened and expressed how dissatisfied we were in how we had been treated. At the end of the e-mail I requested that they refund us the $100 and replace the radio that had been damaged. I told them they had 48 hours to respond or I would be reporting them to the BBB and all that other stuff.
Of course I didn't hear anything back. So last night I sent them a very angry e-mail. I said their lack of response to my first e-mail was just another example of their poor customer service and business practices and that I would be making reports, contacting local news agencies, and writing horrible reviews for them on every internet site I could find. LOL
Well that one seemed to do the trick! I got a phone call at 10 this morning from one of the managers. Who apologized profusely that I had to wait for him to contact me but he had "been on vacation"... yeah right. Anyway, he was very nice and talked to me for about 20 minutes. We finally came to an agreement that they would take the $100 and put it towards fixing our horn since we really need that fixed so we can register our car next month. The first price they quoted us to fix the horn was around $250 and he was going to give us parts at wholesale cost and "tweek" labor so that we wont have to pay anything over the $100 we have already given them. They aren't going to do anything about the radio, but to be honest the radio wasn't that awesome in the first place so I'm ok with what we are getting.

Monday, July 28, 2008

We got ripped off!!!!!

So a few months ago the horn in our car stopped working. Then a few months after that the battery died. After we replaced the battery the radio never came back on. This is because of our anti-theft device. When the radio was disconnected from the battery it automatically shut down until it could be reset.
So 3 weeks ago Andy called and made an appointment with a VW place. They were all booked until today. At 7:30 in the morning he took the car in. He said he just wanted an estimate to fix the horn and radio. They told him if they looked at it and then he refused service they would charge us $90!!! So he almost left right then, but then he decided that the radio should be so easy to fix that it shouldn't be a problem. He came home thinking it would be an hour or two wait. 3 hours later I asked him to call them and find out how much longer it would be since I needed our car back. When he called he got transferred around 3 or 4 different times without a single person being able to tell him what was going on with our car. They then put him through to some random voice mail. So he called back and asked to talk to a manager. Again they only gave him a voice mail. He left a message asking from someone to call him back and give him a status update on our car.
An hour later we still hadn't heard anything. So I called and asked for a manager, and I specifically said I wanted to talk to someone and not to transfer me to a voice mail. But sure enough I was put right through to a voice mail. I left a very nasty message saying this was very poor service that we made an appointment weeks ago and it shouldn't take them 4 hours to do a simple check and then refuse to even keep us informed.
About 40 minutes later we finally got a call back. They told us both the horn and the radio were "defective" and needed to be replaced and it would cost around $500. So of course we said no thanks. Even if it was only going to cost $10 I'd say no because they obviously have crappy customer service.
So Andy went down to pick up the car. They wanted him to pay $96 before they would release it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He fought and fought with them for over an hour and talked to 3 different managers. But they all said they wouldn't give us our car without us paying for them to do nothing to it. He finally had to pay and leave because I needed the car so I could watch Heather's kids.
When he got home he looked at the radio... and they broke it!!!!!!! One of the buttons is missing and the face is all scratched up now. I'm so mad, we had to pay almost 100 bucks for someone to break our radio!!!
I'm writing them a nasty letter tonight, but I don't know what else I can do besides that. I'm going to threaten to make a complaint with the better business bureau and/or legal action. But I really don't think my threats will do anything. Does anyone else have any ideas??? Or are we just out of 100 bucks?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Beware: old ladies driving

Today we got in a car accident. We were driving home from the park and we were at a stop sign. with pickup truck in front of us. The pickup decided they were too far out in the intersection and suddenly backed up... right into our car!!!!! It was obvious they either didn't know they hit us or were trying to make a quick get away. I JUMPED out of the car (pretty impressive for an enormous pregnant lady, I know) and ran to the window of the truck and banged on it.... and inside was a little old lady!!!! Why she was driving a truck instead of a station wagon is beyond me. Well in my haste I didn't put my shoes on and the pavement was burning my feet off so after I banged on the poor ladies window like a crazy lady I turned around and ran back to the car for my shoes. I'm sure I was close to giving her a heart attack, but she got out of her car and when she saw Andy inspecting the damage she said "oh, did I get ya?". She obviously felt really bad and the damage is pretty minor. Our bumper is pretty messed up by the headlight, but Andy's dad can fix it for us. So we told her not to worry about it. I'm sure her insurance rates are high enough as it is.

Here are some pictures of Talan playing at the park today. At one point he decided it would be a really good idea to start digging in the dirt. He is such a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Why today sucks

So today we woke up to a sick baby. Talan always comes in and wakes us up in the morning and when he did today the stuffed bear he slept with last night smelled REALLY bad. So Andy went to look at his bed and found Talan had thrown up everywhere!!! However Talan didn't act like he wasn't feeling well at all. He was running around and playing like normal. So we thought he would be ok. But 20 minutes later Andy looked at him and with one look could tell that he was about to get sick again, which he did... ALL OVER POOR ANDY. I'm so glad it wasn't me, Andy actually had to throw up afterwards as well cause it was so nasty! Again, after the 2nd throw up he seemed fine. We even still were able to go to a birthday party for his cousin. Although him and I mostly just sat on the couch watching Blue's Clues. After the party he took a nap and when he woke up EVERYTHING was covered in the nastiest diaper gross ever. Unfortunately Andy was already at work so I had to do the clean up from that one!
Bad thing #2 from today. I went to the store to buy Talan some Pedilite this morning. When I got home I got some trash out of the car and threw it away before coming inside. Later I couldn't find my phone anywhere so I took the house phone out by the dumpster and called my phone. Sure enough my pregnant brain had somehow allowed me to throw my cell phone away!!!!!!!!!!!! If I weren't pregnant I would climb in and get it myself, however I'm pretty sure digging around in disgusting dumpsters isn't advised for women who are 8 months pregnant. So instead I have to wait till Andy comes home tonight and can do it for me. Being without a cell phone SUCKS. I feel so unconnected from the world!!!
Bad thing #3 from today. Talan and I needed to go to the store. Talan loves to carry the car key to the car. Well today when we got to the car he decided to stick the key threw one of the holes in our hubcaps. Thanks Talan... now we are stranded. We don't have regular hubcaps and I tried for 20 minutes to pry the dang things off but I couldn't do it. So once again I have to wait till Andy gets home!!!!!!!!!
All this combined with it being 400 degrees outside and me being so pregnant I can barely move has just made for one heck of a day! I can't wait till it is over!!!!!!