Hi,
Just a little rant
Companies everywhere are telling their employees to smile and treat us like honored guests. And they're always surveying to see if we like them.
- except for the competent ones
When I go to Wally, the Greeters always welcome me -- although they might want to check my receipt when I leave. The employees are generally helpful -- as much as possible. But Wally doesn't like them to know any more than the minimum for their job -- so they usually don't.
When I do trot around the store, the aisles are often blocked by the Wally semis with the teamsters loading up orders for pickup,
They have frequent stock outages that they sometimes cover so it looks like they don't carry that product any more.
Of course, I have the usual complain that 3/4 of the store is devoted to crap that nobody really needs.
Then at checkout they want me to rate my experience -- I have done one stars for their management incompetence, but at least one employee has mentioned that they might close the store if the ratings get too low. ( I doubt that as long as the profits are good). SoI usually just skip it.

When I go to Aldi, they have a severely limited selection and only a few employees-- but they are good. They can do any job and they are amazing on the cash registers. They also have self checkout and when one acted up the cashier at the next aisle fixed it from his register -- and quickly.
They don't survey. There employees are pleasant, but they don't seem to need to ask you how you are doing. I definitely prefer shopping there.

There are others
Went to one of the chain oil change places. (Can't do my own since I moved to an apartment).
- They waved me in as if I was taking an airliner to the terminal.
- Hooked up a giant machine to suck the oil the oil through the dipstick
- Incorrectly reset the oil maintenance reminder -- It kept yelling at me until I looked it up.
But they were oh so concerned about me.

Now I go to a place that has actual mechanics -- they offer a lot of other services.
They're always busy
I get the feeling that they might notice if there's something wrong and let me know.
The cashier is pleasant, but seemingly concerned about how I'm doing.
The list goes on....

I vote for competence. I tolerate Wally because they're cheap -- they should be satisfied with that.


hj

 

: meanwhile aunt Martha having taken a tumble is laying in a ditch on the egde of town.

 

We've all got horror stories and attacks on our pet peeves at various retailers. Over the years, I've gone several laps with different oil change shops.

A) Back when it was SuperLube (It's now Take-5) I brought by 302 truck in for its regular oil change. The motor had 100,000 miles on it, but was still so tight that it burned less than a quart of oil between changes. I don't know what happened that day, but they shorted me 4 quarts of oil. 1,500 miles later I was doing some light work on the truck and checked the oil. The dipstick was dry, so I added oil until it wasn't. 4 quarts. The truck would burn a quart of oil every 2,000-2,500 miles after that. I complained to Super Lube and they responded, "just bring it back when it gets low and we'll top it off". Really? You burn the rings up in my truck and offer me a few bucks in oil?

B) I was bring my truck to another shop with good results. The drips on the driveway suggested a seal was failing in the rear end. Crawling underneath it was obvious that the front seal needed replacing by the amount of grease slung on the undercarriage. I took the truck in for an oil change and the tech saw the coating on the bottom of the bed and let me know that the front seal needed replacing. I gave them the go-ahead and went to work. $90. But the leak persisted. I went back to the guys and they said, "oh, we replaced the REAR seal". Really? In what universe will a failing rear seal sling oil all over the bottom of the truck?

C) I'd been using the local Ford dealership for oil changes/service for some time. It was just a block from my work so it was easy to drop it off and pick it up several hours later. The dealership's website promoted a $59 special so I brought the truck in. The bill was $90. They would not honor their own advertising. During COVID, I brought the truck to them and decided to wait since I was working from home. When I first arrived, the service manager pointed to an Expedition in the shop and told me "you're right after that one". And hour later someone came and tried, unsuccessfully, to explain the delay. At the 2 hour mark I could get no answer(s). 2.5 hours in I found someone and told them, "this is nuts. Give me my f'in truck", to which they replied "it's already on the lift". 20 minutes later someone else shows up and tried explain the delay as being due to corrosion on one of the battery terminals. This ended my use of Ford for routing service.

D) Another bait and switcher. The shop just up from the house was adverting $29 and $59 oil changes. My truck got the $59 one, but after their add-ons, the bill broke $90.

Vehicle service is a scam around here....

 

I have all kinds of trouble with parts stores and shops around here but the local CO-OP is the worst. They told me three times the transmission in my truck was bad and all three times it was just a sensor. The last time I brought it to them they wouldn't even take it for a test drive and that was when I was done. They're very rude and the few times I tried to work with them they looked at me like I was some kind of wizard when I explained to them the problems and maybe what I thought was possibly wrong. One guy in there even looked at me funny when I asked if it was a bad tfi (the truck was missing and cutting out) and said no way and sure as **** it was bad. Sadly, these are only a hand full of stories and no one else in town will work on my 94 F150 except the local Goodyear which have treated me very well. I could go on for hours about the trouble I've had with places but to make a long story short, I'm just looking for friendly people willing to explain what's happening to my vehicle and work efficiently as possible.