Glad The Mechanic Around The Corner was open until 3, and I had time to make a U-turn and bring it back. I really had no recourse but to request that the guy I handed over my credit card to in the morning step into my car and look at the lights himself.
I don't want to come down on these guys. I like them on a personal level, and they seem -- seem -- to be nice people. But this has be to be noted and corrected. And if this guy is a man of integrity, he won't deny what he saw when he stepped into my car. To ensure that, I had to, for lack of a better word, confront him with what I saw: That, basically, nothing was fixed.
"I thought everything was fixed?" "Then why are the indicator lights on?" Those were the two questions I asked The Mechanic Around The Corner while he was looking at the car dashboard. He turned off the engine, turned it on, then asked for the car back to take another look at it ... Monday. That would mean that he would have my car for more than a week.
The more I think about it, the more I think I have to be a bit angry about this. I could just let them look at why the lights are still on, but as much as I hate it, I think I have to call them on Monday and ... I wouldn't say read them the Riot Act, but act like a man who isn't getting what he paid for, which is almost $1,600. (By the way, I had to remind The Mechanic Around The Corner that I have AAA. The guy then took off its customary discount for AAA members, which in this case is about $97. I thought, however, that when I okayed the repairs I reminded them I had AAA. Now I have to remind them again? I'm glad I did, otherwise I would be out almost a hundred bucks.) I sure as hell am not going to pay more money to get more stuff on my car fixed, especially when I was led to believe it has already been done. And I think I should begin to start insinuating that I don't think I should pay for it. Yes, it's an old car, and I'm probably throwing a lot more money into it than I should. But they didn't say that when I got the car back that the indicator lights would still be on.
What's really bad about this is that this really bad issue reawakens my fears that these guys are ripping me off. They've done things over the years that I've considered dodgy. Either that's because they're being "overcautious" and asking for more money from me in order to fix it, or they don't know what the hell they're doing. I've had to go back to them; they're the only people I know who've done good things, are open on weekends and is close to home. But if they've screwed up a $1,600 "repair" bill, well, that has to be a deal-breaker. I can't come back to people to whom I paid so much for a bunch of fixes which turned out not to do anything, then fork over more money to them. Not only would that break me financially, I can't forgive such incompetence/corruption based on principle. I don't want to do it, but I'm going to have to act a little pissed off.
And this doesn't even address my driver's-side front door splitting apart.
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