[V8] Monkey lads and Canadian Tire

[Roger Woodbury]

Dave, I actually think they did a good job for you.

A couple of years ago, my dear friend, the photographer from Ottawa (who
died last year) told me a story about some experience that he had had with
CT.  In his case, he was disappointed with some aspect of customer service
and since he was in the business of helping people and businesses with some
of the issues involved, he told me the story about meeting with the store
manager and reviewing their procedures and customer service policies.

I assume that that tire jockey probably had been trained to look at the
brakes, brake lines and calipers when the tire/wheel is off for balancing.
I assume that all four tires and wheels were balanced. 

That his method of expressing what he found was poor speaks perhaps to his
level of education.  The service manager or service writer should have
reworded it perhaps, but I don't find fault at the observation...besides you
already knew about it.

Now, having said that, I think about approaching any of the big service
joints with fear and trepidation.   I wrote an article that was published in
the a Mercedes SL enthusiasts magazine about how insurance would work for a
car that was damaged while in the shop. The specific example that I wrote
about involved a 560SL that had had the wrong oil filter installed at a
Kmart service center in Florida.  

As a general statement I won't take any of my vehicles to anyone whose
qualifications to work on the car I don't know.  I have written before that
if it weren't for the mechanic I know now, who is ten miles away from me, I
might not have any Audis at all.  

I think that sooner or later we will all be crammed into the same little box
where work can only be done by big service facilities staffed by indifferent
people with little education and less real mechanical training because the
only thing there is to do, is to unplug this box and replace it with that
one at enormous cost per minute.

Roger