How to Get Your Mechanic to Spit in Your Oil/Worldbuilding · 12:50am Jul 12th, 2017
I was gonna write another blog post about mechanicing, because people like those, but then I decided to change subjects slightly, due to one of our customers today.
And this actually is a nice lead-in to another blog post that I was going to write eventually, so win/win, I guess?
So, this guy:
(I redacted out all the contact information on his trailer, but I was sorely tempted not to, especially since his company name is also a fanon pony name.)
I'd give him the benefit of the doubt if he were actually working a job, but he's not. He brought his truck for us to do an oil change on, and he's clearly such an important person that he needs to park it on the sidewalk, instead of in the parking lot. That's strike one.
Secondly, he's so important, that he had to also block our main door. That means we've got to move his truck before we can get cars in or out. And it's not like there were other cars parked on the sidewalk, since most of our customers are reasonable people.
He must have been in a hurry to get to his oil change appointment, too, since he left the trailer on. Which, of course, means that we have to unhook it, because we don't have a pit, we've got hoists. So that's more work for us, and it's unfortunately work that we aren't getting paid for.
Personally, if I'd been in charge today, I would have strongly considered either telling him to come back when he hasn't got his trailer on, or else charging him a drop fee.
Okay, next story. This one's about a guy named Nick. He had an appointment one day for an alignment on his old Lincoln. I took it for a test drive, figured that there were loose parts in the front end, and when I got it up on the alignment rack, sure enough, there were. [it's worth noting here that he mentioned that he'd replaced all the front end parts, but it's been my experience has been when somebody says that what they mean is that they put a new part or maybe two on it at some point in the life of the car] A whole bunch of loose parts, so I dutifully wrote up an estimate, which took about fifteen or twenty minutes, since his car was rare and obsolete enough it was rather hard to find some of the parts it needed.
I charged him $20 for the inspection, and he lost his s
t. It escalated to the point where he finally called the owner, and the owner eventually decided to refund his money, probably just to get him to shut up. Sometimes that's worth $20.
Nick gave me this kind of 'I was right and you were wrong' look, got back in his car, and laid rubber out of our parking lot triumphantly.
For those of you who don't know, I live in a small town. Depending on your headcanon, it's about the size of Ponyville, although we don't have very many monster attacks. But there are two points to this. First, obviously, I know the guy. I also know what he drives. I know where he lives, and I know his phone number . . . it wouldn't be too much effort to get a burner phone and prank call him for a little while, if I felt like putting any effort into getting some sort of meaningless revenge, but why should I?
You see, here's the other important thing. In my small town, there are three auto repair facilities. One of them is not very good unless you want exhaust or have a carbureted car. The other shop is skilled enough for any work he might want to have done, but . . .
People like Nick are generally jerks to everyone, so I have a feeling that he might have been to the other shops before. Maybe not, I don't know. But I can say this: he isn't coming back to ours. If he tries to make an appointment, we're booked up. Even if I'm in the back polishing my wrenches [not an euphemism] and there isn't a single car in the shop, we're too busy. Try again on the second of Never.
He's not the only one who gets that kind of treatment. There are customers (like him) that I'm glad we lost, and others that we only kept grudgingly. People who would come for our oil change special and nothing else, they generally got scheduled for a later day, even if there was bugger all that we were doing that day.
And most of those people haven't come back now that we don't have the oil change special any more. They'd rather drive half an hour to have Fast Eddie's 30 Second Oil Change & Savings and Loan do it and save five dollars.
We've got good customers, of course. We've got customers that I'll do stuff for in a heartbeat, no matter how dumb it is. One of our really good customers, both of his cars broke on a Friday, and they were going to go out of town that weekend. We stayed a couple hours late and fixed both of them--and I should point out, he didn't ask, we just did.
There's another guy who runs an auction house. He's got cube vans that are miserable to work on, since they don't fit on our hoist, so we're doing most of the work on our backs underneath, or sitting on the ground with one wheel at a time up on a floor jack. But he gets what he wants, because he's nice and friendly, he fixes what he needs to, and he doesn't complain about the price, or when we honestly can't get his trucks in right away.
And then there was the day of the big snowstorm.
I can't remember what the car was in for, but it doesn't really matter. They'd had an appointment, and they were a pretty decent customer, but they got pushed back all day, because we also had three plow trucks in the shop.
The guy came by in the middle of the day to check on his car, and asked me if it was done. I just looked him straight in the eye and said that we hadn't even looked at it yet. We had three plow trucks that had to go out ASAP, and his car could just wait. He nodded and said that he understood, and that was that.
Here's where the ponies come in.
From the ant-sized Wiki
From what we see of Ponyville, the vast majority of the stores are sole proprietorships . . . that is, they're the brainchild of one pony who hangs her shingle out front and gets to selling what she's got. Employment is generally very much kind of a family affair: the Apples tend to run their own produce/cider stands (sometimes with a little help from their friends); Pinkie is close enough to the Cakes that she lives with them. The stalls in the market, well, it's hard to imagine that the pony manning the stall isn't the same one who grew the cherries or tomatoes or whatever.
Even the hospital could be kind of a family affair, at least in part. You can't tell me that Dr. Stable isn't hooking up with at least one of the nurses, and where do you think Nursery Rhyme came from? But I digress. . . .
The point is, in a town like Ponyville, you'd get a reputation as a customer.
I'm sure that some of my readers work in retail, or work for some other soul-sucking Megacorp, and you have rules that you have to follow when interacting with customers. To a point, I don't. Depending on the circumstances, I can get away with quite a bit, including never managing to find an open spot on my schedule for an ahole. And you can bet that the same is true for most of the ponies.
Sure, they're mostly a friendly lot . . . I am, too. But there comes a point when a customer crosses a line, and it's not so easy to go back. It's not hard to imagine that some ponies might have a very difficult time scheduling a spa appointment.
They might find in the market that Roma's all sold out of tomatoes. All the ones in the bushel baskets behind her have already been called for by somepony else--anypony else, really. In fact, Roma might rather use some of them for fertilizer rather than sell a single tomato to a pony like Spoiled Rich.
It doesn't take too long to get that reputation, either. And you'd better believe that ponies talk . . . people gossip, after all, and why shouldn't ponies? What's a mare to do while she's at her stand, with no customers at her end of market? Why, talk to her neighbor, of course.
You get a reputation.
And pretty soon, Spoiled Rich is on the train to Canterlot whenever she wants a hooficure, and their fresh produce needs to either come by train or else be purchased by Filthy Rich, because nopony in town will sell to her. Nopony needs the hassle . . . bits aren't worth that much.
And, of course, the opposite is also true. Ponies who are friends, or on good terms with each other get the preferential treatment. I bet that if Rarity needs an emergency spa treatment, Aloe and Lotus are happy to help, no matter what. Even if they have to stay late, or work a little bit harder to fit her in around the appointments they've already got, they'll do it. And they won't charge extra; not for her.
This isn't all I've got on the subject of small-town life, not by a long shot. I could tell you about the restaurant I worked for, where about half of our fresh supplies came from the grocery store across the street, and some mornings I was over there with a shopping list. I could tell you about getting pulled over by a local cop for speeding in a customer's car, and I didn't have my driver's license on me, and he just let me go, because he knows me.
I could tell you about going into the bank and having half the bank employees say 'hi' to me, and I could tell you how the cashier at the local grocery store gets out a paper bag when she sees me walk in, because she knows that's what I like. I could tell you about running into one of our customers and just standing on the sidewalk for half an hour talking about cars in general.
I could tell you that some of the intersections in the town where I live don't have a stop sign on any quadrant of the intersection, because they figure that people will be smart enough to stop if there's a car coming . . . and you can bet that if there is an accident, the local cop will split the responsibility 50/50, because obviously if two cars collided there, they were both being driven by idiots.
And I could tell you about how it's true that in small towns people give directions by landmarks, and that they aren't always landmarks that are still there. But that's all for another time.
Which brings us back to our sidewalk parker.
He didn't get charged extra for being a twit, and we did do his oil change. I also did park his truck so it was nosed up to his trailer, so that he'd have to get in and turn it around before he could hook it back up (we weren't going to do that for him). And next time he calls for an appointment, if I'm the one who takes the call, it might be that he'll have to wait a little bit. Maybe there won't be any appointments available until next week, and maybe he's going to find that after his truck has been worked on, it winds up getting parked at the far corner of the lot instead of near the door.
And another thing . . . if someone happens to ask me the name of a handyman to fix something at their house, you can bet I'll suffer a sudden bout of amnesia and not remember his name. Even if his company name is also a pony name.
Also I forgot to mention in the blog post that I'll be at Trotcon the coming weekend. So if you needed an excuse to come visit. . .
I have worked in retail, but customers were never an issue. I was in the fancy cheese department of a local supermarket, and that's one of those areas where people aren't afraid to admit that they don't know what they're doing.
Now, my boss, there I could tell you some stories...
In any case, thanks for the insight into small town culture and the dangers of being an asshat within one.
Y'know, this explains why we never saw Spoiled Rich onscreen till CotLM. She doesn't have any reason to get out much.
I can't quite tell which way Spoiled is facing.
I grew up in a town of less than 900. Well, we moved to "the big city" when I was little. Before that, it was a trailer park in Kansas with a gas station next door.
Small town life is something else. I can tell you about my friends who got pulled over by the cops, who found weed in their car, but let the kids go because "they're good kids." Of course, the cops had to smoke all the evidence... and apparently, once they knew who you were, they'd know who to pull over to get free weed.
Heh. Small towns.
I can beleive that the local grocery is a small family owned business and they remember me
All of the above is a major part of why I love living in a little town. (Well, truth be told, a twenty minute drive outside of a little town.) It's one of the few places in 21st century America where jerks kinda do get what's coming to them, and nice guys are recognized and valued.
When I walk into the hardware store, the clerks know my dog's name! And, yes, he's welcome in the store.
My mechanic is an awesome guy and he's really gone out of his way for me a couple of times out of sheer coolness. So when we butcher a lamb, we usually drop off a big package of chops for him and the guys. "What goes around, comes around," is a very real thing up here... and it's nice.
In my little mountain town, "behind the Talking Bear" is a legit location that all of the locals instantly recognize!
And I suddenly realized that "where the library tree used to be" would be just as natural a direction in Ponyville.
I live in a small city (cca 400 000 people, for reference) but I've had similar experiences with neighborhood stores. See, as far as I can work out, the 'small town' is roughly the size of a settlement people can deal with, so in practice, cities seem to really act more like a federation of small towns that just happen to be really bunched together.
I still haven't gotten to the point where I can walk into a bar and order 'the usual' though, which is a darn shame. :)
(By the by, I love these Tales from the (inspection) Pit[1] — fixing cars in small town America is so far out of my day-to-day[2] that it fascinates me. It doesn't hurt a bit that you have a dab hand with the written word, either.)
[1] I couldn't think of a suitable pun involving hoists
[2] Doing research & teaching in small city Redactedstan
4599066 Honestly, do you think Spoiled Rich goes to the market? That's a job for servants. The spa, however...
Filthy Rich peeked in the front door of the spa, almost as if he were some sort of burglar scoping out a future job, and only relaxed when both Aloe and Lotus looked up from their examination of the schedule book.
"Ah, girls." Filthy came the rest of the way into the spa and looked around with the attitude of somepony who was fairly certain they were not going to find what they were looking for. "Is my wife done with her appointment already? I was tied up at work and didn't get out until just now."
"So sorry, Mister Rich," said Lotus, indicating by her tone that she was not sorry at all, but her ire was directed in a female direction and not at her current customer. "She left an hour ago."
"I suppose she forgot the gratuity again." Rich tutted quietly while getting out two jingling bags of bits and placing them on the counter. "She's such a busy mare lately. Well, I suppose I should get out of here and back home. My dear wife most likely has the servants hard at work making dinner. Oh, and Randolph may be stopping by tomorrow, since he has the day off because of his lumbago." A third bag of bits joined the first two. "I'll see you girls later. Goodbye."
The door to the spa closed with a cheerful ding and Filthy Rich trotted away, checking his list.
"Only two more places to visit. It's always so expensive when my wife goes out for a day on the town."
If this doesn't show up in a future instalment of Highway 502 . . .
Tried to figure out state from color of plate. However, many states (including my own) use white plates. Also, cannot tell if lettering on top of plate is actual plate or a plate cover (and angle makes it impossible for me to read it at that size)
I live in Norway. That means the small town I grew up in had no more then maybe 10 000 living in it. So you can be damn sure if you behaved like an idiot everyone would eventually know. Since I lived there as a child that meant that what ever mischief we did as kids would reach our parents.
4599061
I have this image of the sign above the counter just saying 'fancy cheese.'
One small town where I lived, the hardware store had a sign that said 'boring tools' (for drills and whatnot), and then there was another that said 'interesting tools.'
Bosses and owners are their own special breed. I've had ones that ran the gamut--in corporate auto shops (Firestone), the mechanics generally outlasted management.
You're quite welcome!
4599066
I think that's a perfectly reasonable explanation.
4599067
I know, right? Both ends look like a horse's ass.
4599074
That's a little bit smaller than the small towns I remember (I lived the first four years of my life in a smaller town, but don't remember too many details about it). Most of my life has been spent in towns with populations around 2,000, give or take.
There's still local cops who would do that . . . and as long as they tend to catch the bad guys and let the good guys go, nobody much minds.
I got the former Chief to call off a county cop who kept pulling me over in the belief that there were drugs in my van or something. I got tired of getting pulled over, complained, and that county cop never bothered me again.
Sounds pretty cool, even if I would probably go nuts living in a small town like that. I kind of like the 'everybody is a cog in the social machine' interactions of a big city. Less work for my messed up brain if dealing with other people when I'm out and about isn't a personal interaction.
I certainly would be sending the house's four cars to you if we lived anywhere near you, though. I could even promise we would never park on the sidewalk.
4599076
Isn't it great? Of course, if you've got bad habits they know about that, too. Although usually if they like you, they won't gossip about it.
4599079
I know, right? That's the best part. Some people try to BS their way through, but everybody figures it out pretty quick, and then won't give them the time of day anymore.
I can't say that I know the names of our customer's dogs. But I usually don't mind if they bring them in.
Some people let them kind of wander in the shop, and I don't like that so much, just because there are lots of things that a dog could get into that isn't good for them (like engine coolant).
That was something I should have mentioned--we've got a few customers who will occasionally bring us cookies, brownies, or even beer. They generally get priority, too.
There's probably a great local story that goes with that landmark, too. There often is. . . .
It totally would be. I hadn't thought of that, but you're right--that would be a perfectly logical landmark for the locals, even though it's gone now.
Part of why I love my neighborhood and why I would ahte living in a suburb. To an extent, we've got something similar to what you described. To an extent.
Once again, only up to a point. Somewhere in the company policies, a disrespectful customer can be refused service (though we generally just bear them, cause we're nice. Or canadian. I don't know) , baseless complaints end up being only protocols (I would know, I got one. The bosse told me about it, and that was the end of it. "Your good with the customer usually, probably just the wrong person at the wrong moment, no big deal") and so on.
I do hear story of stupid customer getting away with way to much.
4599103
It says "Pure Michigan" with a swoopy M
i.imgur.com/8KhoRrb.jpg
I am with you on all of this. I work part time at a small, family owned hardware store. If you come in and act nice, no one ever forgets that kind word or your patience when we get busy. If you're a jerk, we might be out of what you need and it'll be next week before we get more....then I'll find it for the next person who needs it after you leave. I forget things, sometimes!
It was the same in the little town in Texas I grew up near. Everyone know everybody else and most of the time, that worked out just fine. Just like Ponyville.
4599080
That's very true--a lot of neighborhoods are just small towns that happen to be connected to another small town . . . and so on, all the way out. Although in America, at least, with suburban living and mega malls, that isn't so much the case a lot of places. When I lived in metro Detroit, even though I was technically in a small suburb, it never really had the same vibe as an honest-to-goodness small town.
Probably other places in the world, with longer histories, have different local micro-cultures.
I've been able to do that at a few restaurants, which is a really nice feeling. One of the local restaurants, I'd call, give my name, and tell them I wanted the usual, and that was that. We'd get our order.
Heck, a bunch of us writers hang out at a nearby bar sometimes and the waitress remembers that I like weird fancy beers.
Coming from you, that's quite the honor--you, too, have quote the way with words.
It's nice to be able to read things about people doing things that we can't do. I dabble in lots of subjects, and always enjoy writers who can explain what they do in a way that's both interesting, and accessible to a mechanic.
4599089
You almost have to pity somepony who's that out of touch. I mean, it's obvious where Diamond Tiara got it from--Filthy Rich seems to be a nice pony, and not gloating about his wealth and station at all.
But that kind of 'I'm better than you' attitude always winds up biting you in the flank, eventually. And it ultimately causes more problems than it solves.
4599080
400k? Son in Canada that's top 15 cities.
My city is 500-700 thousand depending on how you define city (if you include the townships and whatnot surrounding the city it's 700, if not the city itself is 500)
And we're top 10 (#9 at 700K)
4599120
Yeah, but... these "friends" also talked about every time they'd steal a car, they'd go through the CD collection, and throw everything they didn't like out the window. Someone lost their entire Hansen collection one fateful weekend...
Not exactly the "good kids" you want to let go. *shrug*
Eh, I'd probably forget the guy's name and face within a week... But I'd probably recognize the truck.
4599094
Heh, maybe. That old joke's taken on a bit of new meaning, especially since ponies love shops that sell two dissimilar things.
4599103
It's a Michigan plate. If you'd been able to zoom in a lot, you could have probably read 'Pure Michigan' at the top of it.
To help with your stalking, I live kinda in the center of the state, at least as Michiganders would refer to it.
4599106
Heh, 10,000. I live in a town that's got just over a tenth of that population (1224, according to Wikipedia).
You're right, though, in a small town everybody knows whose kids have gotten up to mischief. And a lot of times, the parents probably knew before the kids even got home.
4599121
Sometimes that's a con to living in a small town--no matter where you go, you're likely to meet someone that you know, and spend some time talking to them or whatever. Also, we don't have nightlife . . . the town pretty much shuts down at 8pm.
4599144
Ah, MI. So I do not have to worry about running into that dummy here in MA. Just all the similar dummies. My Mom retired earlier this year from Wal*Mart. My brother is manager of a can & bottle redemption center (you live in one of the few states that knows what that is). He has had to tell many people over the years to leave. Mostly for either lying about how many they have, bringing filthy cans, or being outright idiots.
4599052
I'll be seeing you there.
4599125
Heck Sugarcube Corner would another most of the unique buildings would be. If it wasn't for ponies showing her around the instructions gettign around Ponyville probably would've driven Twilight crazy the first few days.
Turn right at the ____ house is another common small town instruction
4599128
It seems less the case in neighborhoods these days, largely because of Megamarts and shopping centers instead of the local grocer, or the local restaurant . . . but there are still strongly-bonded neighborhoods here in the US and abroad. And there is something nice about them.
Yeah, and sometimes there is an advantage to having a company policy--for example, at Firestone, we couldn't fix a tire that had fix-a-flat in it, full stop. As for management, a lot of that depends. Some managers will totally have your back and trust you (and those are the best managers); others have this attitude that they're better than you, and will tend to side against you. I've worked with both kinds, and--bearing in mind the theme of the blog post--it isn't hard to imagine which ones got better work out of their employees.
Yeah, unfortunately that's happens a lot. For us, at least, those customers usually don't wind up being repeat customers, since they're at the mercy of our schedule.
I should also mention, we don't exactly have standard labor rates, and I can adjust the cost up or down pretty much as I feel like.
4599129
Are you aiding and abetting a stalker?
If I really cared, I'd've scribbled over that in the pic.
Me Unc used to run a small garage back in the 70s and 80s, mainly to keep occupied over making any money, the slim extra keeping his own cars going. As such, he is just getting to the point where a modern enough car can still be repairable at home, if you dont mind spending several grand on specialist tools for consumable parts such as bearing replacement. Also prefers diesel because it doesnt have electrics to go wrong. Given the report on the VW emissions scanle, as far as Im concerned the mechanical computer in the injection pump is as good as a properly implemented digital one, as long as its maintained to at least decent quality.
Spacing is strange where I live in the UK. I lived in a hamlet of 12 houses and three farms on the hill above the village of about 150 houses from workers terraces to a small estate where the local school was, with several other hamlets and induvidual farms around, and given the school children came from various buildings and we would go back and walk in summer and ride the bus when it was raining etc and go treating on Haloween and Caroling in winter, pretty much everyone at least had an idea who everyone was in the area of a couple sqaure miles. then there was the main shopping towns a few miles down the valleys either way, where visiting the same shops on a weekly basis for years on end definitely got,a nd still get you recognised.
Really strange, to me, going into a bank counter once a fortnight and being recognised and called by name as I walk through the door. At least, it was till the new counter staff were placed a month or so ago. Some of these people wont go near you with money or change, like they think youre that contaminated or sub human or something.
I failed the turing competition years ago. These guys just have No idea whats heading their way like a runaway magnetar.
My first question when looking at designing a computer for critical control? Does it have to be binary digital computational logic?
4599132
That's something I forgot to mention in the blog--how available the parts your car needs might change depending on your attitude. And whether or not I put any effort into finding a better price on the part, or one that's available quicker . . . for that guy I mentioned that we stayed late to fix both his cars? We also drove to the nearest big town, bought four tires from a retailer there, and brought them back and put them on his car because he needed them and we couldn't get them from our supplier until the next day. And we didn't charge him a dime for the extra time and expense to fetch those tires.
It's a double edged sword, in some ways. People need to kind of fit in or else they'll be ostracized (and a bad reputation might stay with you for a lifetime or longer); on the other hand, if people like you, they'll defend you without a moment's hesitation.
4599138
That's because most of Canada is a frozen wasteland with a few igloos clustered around a moose.
4599142
Well, okay, I guess they probably didn't deserve to be let go. Although one could argue that throwing out a Hansen collection was a public service.
4599143
Most of our customers are regulars, so I tend to know the majority of them. And it's funny, I'm generally bad with names, even with people that are fairly regular customers, but I don't have any trouble remembering the people I really don't like.
Also, yeah. One thing that's kind of a curse of the mechanic--I might not quite recognize you, but odds are that I recognize your car.
4599158
Gotta keep on your toes! [/foghornleghorn]
Of course, it's already fairly easy to figure out your home state, you've left enough clues.
I live in the suburbs and work in retail, while that is not as close-knit as the place you live, the exception is this: I live in the American South. Georgia to be exact. Manners are expected, and while we have to be nice, it is expected that you understand when our "Bless your heart," means you really, really, need it and when "Have a nice day,"means "Never, ever come back, because this story is getting passed around more than the salsa bowl on gameday". And maybe an exorcism, çause the demons of stupid and rude are upon you.
So I can tell stories of customers, but unlike bigger cities, we know who the asshats are because no one wants to go too far from the 5 miles around their house. The traffic is bad, and everything is placed in little clusters of traffic hell separated by the open highway until you reach the next cluster of houses, schools, and shops. 
Tl;DR We know you, we know your game, but it's not a small enough town to do much about it besides politely get in your way or get you out of ours. Also, planned cities are for Savannah, Georgia, and you northern folks. The driving style is mostly politely passive-aggressive.
Ouch, this is the reason you treat any service employee well.
4599155
Yeah, you're probably safe from him, although I can't promise that he won't make a trip to MA.
A lot of big stores here and even some smaller ones now have automatic can recyclers. You just put them in, they read the barcode, and then at the end of it, they give you a slip redeemable for cash. I'd imagine that that takes some of the headaches away for the retailers.
And a lot of the small stores that don't have bottle return machines have signs (usually handwritten, with one or two words misspelled) about how if you bring in dirty bottles or too many bottles at once, they won't take them.
4599156
Yay! Look for the big guy with the Biscuit shirt and Biscuit hat!
Rumor is I'm going to be on a couple of panels, but that's not for-sure confirmed yet. I'll post updates when I know for certain.
4599157
That's one thing Ponyville's got going for it--a lot of the buildings are quite distinctive. So that would help . . . although, of course, to locals 'distinctive' has many meanings; I'm sure that in the future things like the stump of the water tower will also be perfectly valid instructions.
The _______ house (or barn) is a popular one, and to the locals it's never diminished as a direction, even if it's been painted a different color or torn down.
4599169
Well, yes--quite a few. Several outright admissions, as well. Plus I'm in two groups for Michiganders.
4599159
These days, a shop's got to keep in mind what kind of thing they're working on, and be willing to send a few down the road (or sublet them to someone who can fix them). We can program Fords and GMs, but not too many other cars . . . that's the bulk of what we see, so it's what it makes sense to invest in.
Well, they didn't used to have as much in the way of electronics. Modern diesels, though . . . over here, the trucks have very fancy exhausts with lots of sensors in them, and bottles of Diesel Exhaust Fluid as well.
There's a definitely a different vibe to some of the old country. You've got towns and villages that are many hundreds or thousands of years old, and over here in the rebel colony, we can't boast about anything much earlier than the mid 1600s.
We do have some of that going on, though--lots of small towns that died off when the railroads came through. I can think of a few around me that are little more than a road sign and a small cluster of houses amid the fields.
That's sometimes the danger in small towns--people will keep going to the same bank because the like a particular teller or loan officer, and when that person is gone, so is the customer. I've kept the same insurance agent for over 20 years, even though I haven't been in her office in 15 or more, just because I like being able to pick up the phone, say "Hey, it's Admiral Biscuit and I need this," and it gets done. She even calls me when I forget to pay, which is really nice.
I prefer a pigeon-based computer.
HAVE fun at TROTCON I will be near Columbus but I will be working all weekend
4599180
I've been led to believe, from working from a former Georgia boy, that you guys also have some of the greatest expressions ever. His way of describing things . . . well, "High enough to hunt ducks with a rake," for example. Never failed to get a chuckle. But he'd have your back when you needed it, every time.
There are amazing ways to be politely dismissive. Heaven knows I'm pretty good at sounding sorry when I can't get manage to get a customer's car in right away because I simply don't like the customer.
Our driving style is drive fast and don't look back. Whatever's behind you is in the past, and not worth worrying about.
4599182
I know, right? A lot of people don't seem to get it.
4599200
That's sad. You should try and sneak out on a long lunch break or something.
4599204
Work nights so I'll be sleeping while you are having fun
4599163
LIES!
Our Meese gather around the igloos.
4599210
4599216
Oh, yeah, that's right. It's a maple tree in the middle of the igloo ring.
All of my yes, Admiral.
Ah, customers. If I'd've seen that fucker park on the sidewalk, blocking the bay door, with a goddamn trailer, I would've immediately walked outside and very politely informed him that I would be happy to unhitch the trailer and do his oil change, but that there would be a $100 fee for doing so. I find that asshole customers are best dealt with on a preventative method.
Around here, people can just go to another shop, and that's just fine by me. Cuz we've got a decent base of decent customers, and the other shops around me are mostly shitholes, which are perfect for shitty customers.
I think the moral of the story is that you catch more honey with flies.
4599182
I suppose you could say that people treated poorly will merely honor the letter of their duties, while people treated well will honor the spirit. They may even go the extra mile.
4599230
It's a fine line. As a business, we obviously risk losing more than just one customer by being rude (even if he did deserve it). And he is a repeat customer, at least. If he'd been a first-timer? Hit the road, Jack.
It does make me consider yet again the advantages of putting a 'Valet Parking: $50" sign out front.
(I do of course make exceptions for unforeseeable circumstances--if you get a flat on your truck while you're pulling a horse trailer, I won't be mad.)
Yeah, there are a lot of customers that we did our very best to direct to other shops. Like the guy who wanted his exhaust hung back up and said he had his own part . . . which was a metal coat hanger.
I wish I was making that up, but it actually happened.
4599246
Sometimes it's barely even the letter of their duties. Like, your car's gonna go out with the proper amount of oil in it, but I can't be bothered to check anything else on it or top off the other fluids.
Well, I tried to use this convenient picture to stalk you, but I have continued to fail. Drat.
4599255 Oh, I'm usually quite civil with assholes. And I find you can't remain civil with those kind of people unless you really nip all their stupidities in the bud. Like that guy, I would've very politely said something like 'I'm sorry sir, but there is a fee for unhitching the trailer' and usually a person like that's first response would be that they'd go home, unhitch it, and come back. Let them know where you stand, and give them the option (to not be a jackass), it usually works. If and when it doesn't, that's usually when I suddenly have a full schedule, or give an overpriced estimate.
Oh god.
Uhhgggg... reminding me that I need a wheel alignment, and new tires, probably rims too, maybe shocks while I'm at it. Eventually I need to get whatever the check engine light is fixed too. Too bad you are not closer, I could just pay you to do it.
Wait... you mean to say there is another way to give directions?? Blasphemy!