Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ten Dollar Bills And Orange Antifreeze


The other day I needed a $10 bill for someone's birthday card. I was at the grocery store, so I got $40 change from my debit card. The cashier was giving me two 20s so I asked for one 20 and two 10s instead. But she said she didn't have any 10s; they didn't give her any. I asked her if she could get me a couple, but she either wouldn't or couldn't. She shut the drawer and that was it.

I went over to customer service and asked if I could change one of the 20s for two 10s. She also said they didn't have any 10s. No 10s, isn't that funny? Apparently not a 10 dollar bill in the whole damned place! So I left a little ticked off, muttering to myself, "They built this $8 million store to appeal to customers then fall down on the little stuff. Some little piece of customer service like that." Grrrr.

I can only guess they don't believe in the $10 bill. But why? They still deal in 1s and they still have 5s. I know they have 5s because I ended up with four of them! It's just the 10. You're out of luck. Maybe one of the managers lost a $10 bill his dad gave him to go to the store and so he swore, "I'll never carry another 10, and that goes for whatever store I myself happen to manage in the future!"

My story of the orange antifreeze is similar, about a guy who didn't believe in orange antifreeze.

I took my car to a different mechanic when my old mechanic got gangrene in his foot, had to have it amputated, and retired. I was going to take a trip out of town and needed service that included draining the radiator and having it refilled. Sounds simple enough.

At the end of the trip (getting there), my car was acting crazy, overheating, going ballistic. I took it to a mechanic, who had to do major repairs that ended up costing me $539. He told me it had the wrong antifreeze in it! It had green and I was supposed to have orange!

Later then, back home, I was talking to a friend, a guy who coincidentally happened to know the mechanic. We shared some experiences of how rude he was, etc. I had already told him about the $539 bill to get the car fixed and the wrong antifreeze. My friend said something I could barely believe, that he knew for a fact that the mechanic "doesn't believe in orange antifreeze"; he only believes in green. So if your car calls for orange, and you happen to take it to him, he's only going to put in green!

What kind of bullshit is that? A mechanic whose beliefs override what your car physically needs?

This story about the 10 dollar bills and the antifreeze is true, word for word, except it might have been $593. I might have transposed the numbers but I don't think so.

Don't let your beliefs get in the way of either my money or my antifreeze!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why would stores carry 10s. oh wait... ya for you. and you alone. have you ever worked a cash register in a retail store environment? you take your 10s and 20s to the bank to buy 5s and 1s. common practice. And just a heads up, just because you don't get what you want when you want it, doesn't mean they have bad customer service. they have these things called banks. specifically dedicated to currency. with customer service.