Itinerant Air Cooled Greetings From Pennsylvania
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:53 am
The North East seems always to welcome my arrival with plunging temperatures and precipitation, and yesterday was no exception. Upon leaving my call in New Jersey (correcting appetite's brutally incompetent brake job performed by a "professional" in the past), the rains came down and the temperatures sank into the upper 40s.
My right side heat exchanger was gaily ticking away, taunting me turn on the heat. So I did. No no no, said my woozy brain under the influence on carbon monoxide and other rich hydrocarbons. I got a call from Bus Depot asking me about things I already specified, like, do you really want this shipment to arrive in Syracuse on Friday? So I said, "no, of course not. I am going to drive to your front door instead and pick up the parts right now." And that is what I did. I pulled a woozy u-turn on I-380 in the rain through one of those "Authorized and EmergencyVehicles Only" medians and drove to Perkiomenville or whatever it was. Halfway down, I get another call from Bus Depot. "Uh we have bad news and worse news, it seems that the right side exchanger we have is actually the last one and it is damaged all up the side with a split seam and bashed in jacketing." Yelling over the ticking exhaust and woozy monoxide in the rain at 70 mph, I spoke emphatically and enunciated extra-clearly, " Doo Yoou Haave Discreetion Too Woork The Priice Doown??" "Yeah sure, we will work something out." So I continued to drive through hills and dells and rain and spray and wooze and tick to Bus Depot.
The exchanger was sitting on the bench. $289.00 said the invoice and the computer guy. "No no no" said I. "We gave you $25.00 off." I asked to speak with the Discretionary One who was on the phone and listened to all the call-takers. "Hey man, Bus Depot, how can I help you?" over at one terminal, "yeah we got notification that the shipment hasn't shipped ye. . . I don't kn . . . maybe it wi . . . I don't know maybe by . . . do you sti . . . I don't know I can ask if . . . " over at another. The heat exchanger had a bashed outlet pipe, a bashed inlet circle, a bashed seam and a dent, and the whole inside seam had been knocked apart and the insulation (yes! insulation and manymany many fins!) was spilling out. Discretionary One came over and I afixed an evil eye upon him," $25.00 off is not going to do it here, my time will be at least two hours to fix this and it is clear this has been on the shelf for decades and I am looking at 25 . . . PERCENT, original VW or not this thing is junk." He agreed. Yay. Let's take advantage of the situation, "and furthermore you all are selling shitty fuel hose and it is a risk to your business as well as your customers, and my stainless steel muffler is rotting out from within was it not a lifetime-guaranteed muffler? ask Ron if you do not personally know the answer and have him email me."
And I drove away with my VW original heat exchanger and the ticking and the monoxide and the woozy fatigue . . . in the rain . . . alone.
Colin
My right side heat exchanger was gaily ticking away, taunting me turn on the heat. So I did. No no no, said my woozy brain under the influence on carbon monoxide and other rich hydrocarbons. I got a call from Bus Depot asking me about things I already specified, like, do you really want this shipment to arrive in Syracuse on Friday? So I said, "no, of course not. I am going to drive to your front door instead and pick up the parts right now." And that is what I did. I pulled a woozy u-turn on I-380 in the rain through one of those "Authorized and EmergencyVehicles Only" medians and drove to Perkiomenville or whatever it was. Halfway down, I get another call from Bus Depot. "Uh we have bad news and worse news, it seems that the right side exchanger we have is actually the last one and it is damaged all up the side with a split seam and bashed in jacketing." Yelling over the ticking exhaust and woozy monoxide in the rain at 70 mph, I spoke emphatically and enunciated extra-clearly, " Doo Yoou Haave Discreetion Too Woork The Priice Doown??" "Yeah sure, we will work something out." So I continued to drive through hills and dells and rain and spray and wooze and tick to Bus Depot.
The exchanger was sitting on the bench. $289.00 said the invoice and the computer guy. "No no no" said I. "We gave you $25.00 off." I asked to speak with the Discretionary One who was on the phone and listened to all the call-takers. "Hey man, Bus Depot, how can I help you?" over at one terminal, "yeah we got notification that the shipment hasn't shipped ye. . . I don't kn . . . maybe it wi . . . I don't know maybe by . . . do you sti . . . I don't know I can ask if . . . " over at another. The heat exchanger had a bashed outlet pipe, a bashed inlet circle, a bashed seam and a dent, and the whole inside seam had been knocked apart and the insulation (yes! insulation and manymany many fins!) was spilling out. Discretionary One came over and I afixed an evil eye upon him," $25.00 off is not going to do it here, my time will be at least two hours to fix this and it is clear this has been on the shelf for decades and I am looking at 25 . . . PERCENT, original VW or not this thing is junk." He agreed. Yay. Let's take advantage of the situation, "and furthermore you all are selling shitty fuel hose and it is a risk to your business as well as your customers, and my stainless steel muffler is rotting out from within was it not a lifetime-guaranteed muffler? ask Ron if you do not personally know the answer and have him email me."
And I drove away with my VW original heat exchanger and the ticking and the monoxide and the woozy fatigue . . . in the rain . . . alone.
Colin