Saturday, August 9, 2008

Good Year made for a bad morning

I went to get my tires changed out this morning. I was told that it would take 1 hour, maybe an hour and a half. I agreed for them to go ahead and do the work.

The tires I wanted put on my trunk were in the back of my truck already on rims. All they had to do was take the the ones on my truck off and put the ones in the back on.
I watch them do this in NASCAR races in about 12 to 14 seconds each weekend.
I understand that I had to wait my turn and they had to pull the truck in and the other three or four things that were necessary to pull this off.
When an hour and twenty minutes had passed by I noticed that my truck was in the same spot that I left it in so I asked if it would be much longer. I was told it would be 30 to 45 more minutes and they would be done.
After 30 more minutes were up I looked at my truck and it was still in the same spot untouched.
It was now 11;00 AM and I have a lunch appointment at 12:00. I needed to go home and get ready.
I approached the desk and informed them that I need to leave and they said okay. They got my keys, shrugged they shoulders and said, "sorry".

I didn't mind that they were busy.
What frustrated me was they weren't honest with me about the amount of time it would take to complete the job.
I watched two or three other people come in after me and leave before me.
Maybe they had an appointment. Maybe they had a friend that worked there. Maybe the people that worked there liked them better than me.
I know I enjoy those privileges when they happen to me.

I didn't get mad, I just left.
I felt like I lost my morning due to the neglect of others.
I left with the thought that I will never go back there again.

I always feel there are lessons to be learned in everything that we do or experience.

All of these things may have been out of their control but no one communicated that with me.
A little communication would have gone a long way.
A "you will be first next time pass" would have brought me back.
A smile and sincere "sorry" would have helped.

Instead I left feeling that "Good Year" made for a bad morning.

2 comments:

SmilingSally said...

This is something we've all experienced, and I think you handled it quite well.

And I agree that there's a lesson to be learned.

I can see how FRC is working hard to prevent bad first experiences.

MyNextMile said...

Arrgh! One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don't consider others. I think it is so very selfish because I value my time so much and there are so many other things you can do than sitting down and watching your needs be ignored.