What a day it was, it really was such a day. I took off early this morning with my sister & her hubby to do our thing at the Flea Market. Our day was interesting and I thought I'd probably write about it in this entry.
However, that got blown right out of the water upon my arrival home.
We pull into my driveway to find Joe sitting dejectedly on the side of the driveway...I looked around and didn't see the truck...where was Big Red? We got out of the car, I started to ask him what was going on. It seems he decided that he would put the truck in for rear shocks, and new rear tires. He went to a "Chain type place" that he always goes to for work like that.
Joe never had a problem with them before. He put the truck, which is a very pretty, well kept, constantly washed, oiled, pampered Dodge Ram four door in their shop in the morning and expected them to be done around 1PM.
Well, they must of been running real slow or something because he called and they kept stalling him telling him that it would be a little later. Finally at 3 P.M. he walked the ten blocks over to the shop to check on Big Red.
The truck was done, Joe even sat down with the manager to talk about future work that he wanted done on it and the guy worked out a discount for him if he gave them all the work. They gave him a bill for the work done...it came to a little over $500.00.
He got into the truck, pulled out of their parking lot into a very busy Park Blvd. (pick the busiest boulevard in your area) Their shop is on 63rd and Park..as he reached 64th and Park the whole back end of the truck started to shimmy & shake...the two back tires spun wildly off in two different directions, the back end of the truck hit the asphalt with a tremendous impact crushing God knows what in the rear of the truck.
Luckily Joe was in the right hand lane as he was headed to the Flea Market, he was able to control the vehicle but still ended up semi crosswide in the next lane, leaving two huge grooves in the street for quite a fewfeet. Cars were screeching to a halt all over the place, I'm telling you an Angel was sitting on Joe's shoulder traffic is so bad on this road I still can't understand why he didn't get hit by another car.
Of course, the police showed up...but get this no police report because no one was hurt. Joe left the cops with his poor truck and ran back to the "repair shop" to get them to come help and see what had happened to his truck. Turns out the mechanic did not put the lug nuts back on properly.
This was like adding insult to injury...it was only a month ago that a woman hit Joe in the back damaging his whole bumper. Everyone else stopped because of something happening ahead of the traffic but she was on her cell phone and slammed into him going 40 miles an hour. Her car caught on fire...Joe's truck only had the damaged bumper because of the tow package that he has on the end of the car.
This time too, it seems to Joe that the tow hitch saved him again.
Anyway, we had just picked the truck up on Friday after getting the new bumper installed.....the new bumper does not look new any more. Nor do the side panels, undercarriage, brake lines not working either...he had to coast to a stop. (Or should I say grind to a stop)
Now our dilema is they say they will check out the truck, what's wrong with it, and fix it. The manager is going to get Joe a rental car to use for the duration of the work on the truck.
We still owe thousands on this truck, I'm afraid of what could still go wrong with it that might be unseen....like the motor mounts, or the engine block..stuff like that cracks, doesn't it? I'm also sure that the transmission got screwed.
I have to call our own insurance tomorrow, maybe they can advise us better...we have collision, fire & theft...but this whole thing is clearly negligence on the part of the mechanic.
I'm very grateful that Joe was not hurt and that no one else got hurt...wonder if any of you guys ever had some thing like this happen?
15 comments:
How scary! He is extremely lucky neither he nor anyone else was harmed.
I am not mechanically inclined, so I know little about vehicles. I do know when I bought my very first brand new car, I noticed a shaking while I was driving it home from the car dealer. It progressively grew more prominent, and I finally pulled into a gas station. Apparently, one of my tires was ready to fall off. The gas station attendant was livid when he discovered that. He said I could have been killed, and he suggested I call the dealership and do some hefty complaining. I let it go (hey, I was young!).
I think you need to have some other mechanic of your choice give a second opinion as to the damage done and any future problems you may encounter before you decide to let that same shop work on the truck again. (And I would be leaning heavily toward cancelling my check for the $500 I had paid.)
Oh my, what an experience. So glad he was safe because it could have been horrendous. Not happy about that repair place though, they were negligent and it could have caused a fatality. I would certainly find somewhere else.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/
My daughter and her husband had a bad experience with getting some tires put on at a WalMart. Shoddy workmanship seems to be a sign of our times.
I had some brakes put on at a major chain place and by the time I had drove less than 2 miles , the calipher fell off!
I am glad Joe is alright. As for those mechanics, I think they should foot the bill for their faulty work and give you a refund for the services rendered poorly. I do not have a warm fuzzy for mechanics. Some ripped me off in the past. Now I only get my repair and maintenance at the dealership. They cost a bit more but they've been doing the work right.
Wow. Now that's scary. PLEASE tell me they haven't begun work? I wouldn't let them touch another thing. You will be hard pressed to get you insurance agent out there tout d'suite. I had a similar mishap with AAMCO years ago. In the end, I found out that they put my cracked fly wheel BACK IN my car. I was only saved because I had been advised to call The Better Business Bureau...they had !!!25!!! reports on that place! So I get a little bit of unexpected press. What a day. ;) C. http://journals.aol.com/gdireneoe/thedailies
what a scary thing! I didn't have this happen, but years ago after an oil change, when I drove away, I had no brakes. I managed to stop with the parking brake and called my husband. He took it back to them; they said nothing was wrong. He drove it for a few days and had no problems so not sure what happened, but I know I had no brakes.
betty
sorry that had to happen to joe, u cant always blame the mechanic(my son has a shop in NY) sometimes it is the dope he has working for him..i hope u can settle this in a peacful manner, also try and find a better shop!! roberta
OMG, how scary! Thank goodness and God for that Angel! Your insurance company may have an authorized service place that they want you to use instead... I would call them ASAP!!!
Please... keep us posted!!
be well,
Dawn
something like this did happen to me, but it wasn't with a new car. i was on my way to work, had just turned off on old nc 211, which is a short strip of road that goes by the two prisons. i thought i had a flat, managed to get the car to the side of the road and just as i did...i saw my back tire go bouncing across the road. everything fell off. never did figure out why the lugs fell out.
i was lucky, having just turned off the main road busy with rush hour traffic. i'm glad joe's ok. it's a frightening thing to happen. you start thinking about what could have happened...and thank your lucky stars it didn't.
Sandi,
This sounds like a very frightening experience! I'm very glad that Joe didn't get hurt...
But I am wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that Florida does not require yearly auto inspections. At least with the inspections up north, which we always moaned and groaned about....the auto mechanics were accountable if the auto wasn't completely safe to drive afterwards. There's something to be said for that, don't you think?
I was shocked when I discovered that the rusty cars and trucks all over the highways down here can just keep chugging along till they just go dead. But I almost encountered a disaster myself when a rusted truck ran through the intersection in front of me becuase he had no brakes. Luckily his horn still worked.
Good luck with this. I hope it all works out for you and your hubby.
MAryanne
http://insidethegildedcage.blogspot.com/
WOW, I can't even imagine. I'm glad no one hit him! I'd say for sure that shop needs to pay for every single little scrape and anything else you can think of. I would go ahead and call insurance to see what they say, how it will effect the true value of the truck, perhaps you can get them <shop> for depreciation along with the repairs?
Wishing you luck on this one!
Rebecca
Sandi...worries about you and big red...please come back!
be well,
Dawn
ps... hope you are busy with 'good' things...
Sandi I hope everything went OK and you contacted your Insurance Co..(I have been missing some of your alerts) Like to know how things go ~ Ally
Glad Joe wasn't hurt. No I don't recall anything like that happening to me, don't think I'd want to go through that!! I think you'll probably be able to claim from the repairers insurance or sue them for negligence. Jeannette.
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