The Long Wait...

It was with some dismay a couple of weeks back that I decided my car needed to pay a visit to the garage as it had begun to play up. Initially, i thought it was the damp (it had rained heavily and the car hadn't been used for a day or two) but the problem persisted. Basically, the engine had begun to stutter, sometimes cutting out and generally just being hard to drive in low gears and speeds. However, on the way to the garage the problem seemed to right itself, at least for a day or so - until the 'engine check' light came on and the engine began to have unusually high revs. So, off I went to the Hyundai garage on Highway 17 (that heads out to Savannah) to see what they could do. After arranging an appointment the following Wednesday (this was the 14th), I dropped the car off early (8.00am) and they said they would be in touch by the end of the day. Of course, this didn't happen but I got a call around 8.30am on Thursday saying that they had identified the problem (the air intake or something) and had sorted it. Great, I thought, and then as garages do, they told me of other problems they had found - the rear brake pads were 'getting thin' and the drive belts (fan belts) were cracking (I found out after that this was indeed the case). THey had the parts - it would be ready by the end of the day.

So, I called later "Oh no, it's not done. Definitely tomorrow." Nothing all Friday. I called in the afternoon "Oh, yes, we made a mistake. One of the parts we thought we had, was wrong. I misread the serial number. It's on order, here tomorrow. The car will DEFINITELY be done before noon." Guess what. Noon came and went, off I went out of town and came back - nothing at all. Sunday, they're closed and Monday was a Bank Holiday although I believe they were actually open. So, Tuesday morning I finally get a call from them saying it was ready - and off I went at lunchtime to get it back before they changed their minds. Once I got their, I was told I owed about $537 - to which I politely told them to go jump. Perplexed, they asked why whereupon I pointed out they originally quoted me $425 for it all, and assured me it would be done in two days whereas they had now been in possession of my car for a week nearly. After some humming, they agreed to knock $50 off the bill and that was the best they could do - so I took it. Thankfully, the car is driving smoothly and all is well at the moment. The ironic thing is that this particular Hyundai had recently won awards for its service and record. All I'll say is, if the best in Charleston takes 6 days to sort your car out, I feel very sorry for those people who go to the worst.