Thursday, August 7, 2008

Shattered Glass

Continuing my never-ending struggles...

This morning I take in the Murano to get it nice and shiny for prospective buyers. I sit in the shade, drink my coffee, read a book and wait the hour or so for them to finish it. When they wave their towel at me I thank the guy, tip him and climb in to drive away. It is then that I notice the passenger side rear view mirror is shattered. It wasn't that way way when I drove it in. A lot of back and forth goes on as the manager claims it's impossible for them to have shattered the mirror as they fold it in before it goes through the wash and there would have been no way for anything to have hit the glass in that position. I maintain that it wasn't broken when I arrived. So the manager and I retire to his office to view the camera footage of the car as it went through the wash. Though there were a number of angles to choose from, there were no clear views of the mirror. There was, however, one view that clearly showed the mirror was not folded in as it entered the wash.

The manager decided he would take my word and agreed to pay to replace the mirror. He thought we'd have to put on a whole new mirror assembly. I asked if we could just replace the glass mirror. He called a glass shop and they arranged to install it tomorrow with a factory mirror. Total cost: $40.00. I pointed out to the manager that I knew he thought I was trying to pull a fast one, but really, why would I pay $100.00 bucks for a detail to con him into replacing a 40 dollar mirror? That made sense to him. He said he considered himself a good judge of character and though he doubted me when we first met, after talking to me he got a good sense that I was telling the truth. He offered to give me a free wax on the MDX, as well. A standup guy.

So Red Carpet Car Wash is the place to go. They'll take care of you.

At least it wasn't my seven years of bad luck - got plenty already.

4 comments:

Steve said...

I'm just impressed you were able to find a shop that does detailing for only 100 bucks. When I called around for estimates the floor was a few Benjamins, so now I take it over for the $80 special at Luis's house over in Bluestem-land.

And I'm most glad that they didn't dick you over on the replacement.

arlopop said...

I didn't go for the full nine yards - the car was in pretty good shape to begin with. I just had it washed, waxed, cleaned and had the mats shampooed. It probably would have cost another fifty for the toothbrush/toothpick treatment but I'm selling it so as far as I'm concerned that's enough.

Steve said...

You can pretty much clean an entire house in less time than it takes to properly detail a car, aye?

arlopop said...

That depends on the house and the car.