Re: Garage attendants...

[rochow@pixelmagic.com]

On Thu, 4 Nov 1999, geordie wrote:

> My complaint here is the people who installed my tyres. I have no
> problem with the tyres but with the fact that they cranked my lug bolts
> on way way way too tight. I couldn't take them off with the silly lug
> wrench audi supplies with their coupes, and in my opinion, if that won't
> take them off, what good is my spare tyre?

Once, I broke my Caprice's lug wrench trying to undo too-tight nuts
(flat tire, middle of nigh, rain, of course), i.e. the actual socket cracked.
(And I had to pay for a new one, as the car was out of warranty....? Never
mind that this was the first use of this wrench ever. It's just as well GM
ceased to produce cars of any interest to me in '96.)
On the recently acquired 5kS, the nuts were too tight when I got it, and
they were at least as tight after getting them back from shop work
involving tire rotation. So, when it was time to check the brakes, I went
back to the place and had them jump around on their breaker bars, after
which *I* tightened them using the single lug wrench I'll have at my disposal
in case of a flat.

BTW, on the "jerk" that didn't know enough about the hardware his store sells:
In my experience, just one of the more and more frequent incidents of having to
deal with people incompetent to do the particular thing that constitutes their
job.
Receptionists who can't get a name and appointment time together, grocery
baggers who've never bought groceries and bag accordingly (vegetable nicely
used as padding under cans and bottles, and all of it ingeniuously hiding the
cold
and frozen items), UPS pitchers, and the department at every business that mails
stuff that employs hordes of people that convincingly act the "of course we mail
to your PO box, we just need your street address for our records" part to then
send
everything to the latter address, resulting in interesting delays on dated items
incl. 
bills. (A certain unnamed MA gas company is good at this; their 1st bill - with
payment 
due 2 weeks after the print date) was hidden thusly, and later discovered
together 
with a second (30 days later) bill which stated that the first one was 48 days
(!) overdue.
--though not polite or apologetic, the address correction was accepted - as
opposed
to some agencies who'll demand that you prove the "new" information or
that a "change" has occurred, when you try to correct their error, e.g. RMV)

As for lug nuts, it would be good rule to attempt loosening a nut immediately
after any wheel-involving service, and have them all un- and redone if needed.

-gbr