Getting talked down to....

16vCorey wrote: The shop that does all of my alignments got a new know-it-all/dumbass, and unfortunately he was the one that got assigned my 944 last time I took it in for an alignment. I got a really annoying talking down to, then he calmly got put in his place. The alignment was pretty far off, because I had changed the struts about a year before that, but put less than 1k miles on it since then(and even told the guy on the phone that). So I drop my car off in the morning of the appointment, and this is what happens when I go to pick it up after work. Me: I'm here to pick up my 944. Douche: We couldn't align it because the front struts are totally shot, causing it to be too far out of spec. Me: No they're not. It's got new struts. I put them on less than a year ago and haven't driven the car but a few hundred miles since. Douche: (as he chuckles and speaks in an extremely condecsending tone)Yeah, maybe new to you, but those aren't new struts. They look like there as old as the car. And there's oil on them, so they're obviously blown. Me: No, They're brand new. I put them on myself. These cars take a strut cartridge, so the housings are the original housings, but the struts inside are brand new. There's oil on them because whenever you change the cartridges it's best to put some oil in the tube so you don't trap in moisture. That will cause the cartridges to rust and ultimately fail Douche: Uh, uh, well then, something must be bent, because it's pretty far out. Me: Well I'm driving 800 miles round trip for a wedding this weekend, and I just put new tires on it, so I'd rather not destroy them. Can you just get it as close as you can, and if you find anything bent or messed up, let me know and I'll address that. About half way through this conversation the shop manager walked over and was listening in. He assured me that they would do their best and it would be ready the next day. I went to pick it up the next day and the shop manager was at the counter, and the douche was no where to be seen. Before I even said anything he was looking for my keys. I asked him if everything was alright with the car, and he tells me that it lined up perfect and handed me the spec sheet. He gave me a pretty good discount and never even mentioned the previous day. He was obviously a bit embarrassed.

As a (bike) shop manager myself I would have done the same. Any customer who tolerates that attitude and remains calm and civil is one I want to keep coming back. Young techs with attitude don't last long around here. Old techs with attitude we keep in the back LOL.

Snowdoggie wrote: You have to wonder why he wanted a lifted Jeep to begin with. Does he actually want to go rock crawling with it or does he just think it looks cool. The hard core guys in the Jeep club I used to belong to usually have pickup trucks and trailers to haul their rock crawlers to the trail and know that Jeep stands for Just Empty Every Pocket. $2,000 is nothing to these guys. They are as bad as some road racers.

Before I moved to western Colorado (it's a nice overland drive to Moab from here), I thought every jacked up Jeep with big tires was a poseur. Now that I live here, I think every Jeep that isn't jacked up with big tires is a poseurWhy else would you have one around here?

As a consumer electronics sales person, I did my best to know as much as I could about all that we sold. However, I seemed to attract the customers that had to point out the fact that they knew where in the sub-menus you had to go to do something that needed doing only upon initial set-up, and would talk down to me if I couldn't show them without using the manual. Then, they would tell me that they already own that model, but are looking for something that may or may not be related, but wanted to "test" me. Yes, oh great wise one, I memorize every owner's manual for all of the SKUs that we carry, because I don't have a life otherwise...

Then again, I've had a number of friends buy floor model televisions from Sear's lately, and they all have problems setting them up. I keep getting phone calls that the manuals don't make sense. All three of them have the wrong remotes. I've been able to get around it using my universal, but come on, include the correct remote. All were talked down to when they went in to Sears to complain that the wrong remote was included, and that they wanted the correct remote.

Keith wrote:

Snowdoggie wrote: You have to wonder why he wanted a lifted Jeep to begin with. Does he actually want to go rock crawling with it or does he just think it looks cool. The hard core guys in the Jeep club I used to belong to usually have pickup trucks and trailers to haul their rock crawlers to the trail and know that Jeep stands for Just Empty Every Pocket. $2,000 is nothing to these guys. They are as bad as some road racers.

Before I moved to western Colorado (it's a nice overland drive to Moab from here), I thought every jacked up Jeep with big tires was a poseur. Now that I live here, I think every Jeep that isn't jacked up with big tires is a poseurWhy else would you have one around here?

When I lived in Vail I had a beat to death Bronco II with studded snow tires. It was ugly but it was all I could afford after paying my rent and it was actually a halfway decent off road beast. My memories of it are probably why I still keep my beat up Cherokee around, even though I now live 8 miles from Downtown Dallas and don't really need it to get to work in the winter. My dogs love it and I 'might' want to go off roading again someday.

My late whine:

Wife had two new tires installed on her Odyssey last week, and had the tires rotated. The car pulled hard to the right following the change. Why? Tire pressure...FL 39psi, FR 33psi, RL 32.5psi, RR 35psi. Spare was rattling around in its mount.

Thank you, NTB.

Peter