Yes Sir, May I Have Another

So the car drama is never ending. After being told Friday afternoon that the car was not going to be ready on time (i.e. Friday), I was totally prepared to pick it up this morning as promised. "Mark" said all he had to do was finish a few things and take it for a test drive in the morning to make sure everything was ok. My father gave me a ride to the dealership this morning before heading off to a meeting and eventually to San Diego. This, of course, meant that after he left I was stuck at the dealership with only my car as transportation. I eventually talked to some guy in the service department who informed me that it was going to be another 4 hours before my car was actually done. After almost losing my cool and unleashing my most belittling and sarcastic alter ego...I decided to just give him a look of disappointment. I figure that always worked when my parents did it when I was a kid. He didn't seem as affected by it as I remember being. I told him I had to go to work. He asked where so I told him worcester ( a little outside their usual complimentary van service route). Eventually they did give me a ride and I made it to work before 10 but still without my car. I am a little disappointed in the service I have recieved there in general and I am considering filling a complaint with the BBB of Boston about the whole thing. The real test will be this afternoon when I finally pay for the whole thing. If it is even a little over estimate I'm going to have a real problem with these folks and they are not going to like it. Which reminds me of the time I was a "Code Blue" at the Cingular store. Long story short, I lost my phone and was trying to get a new one without paying the $170 list price for a new phone. I talked to some guy at the store who said I could buy another phone wherever as long as it met a short list of criteria. Eventually I bought a phone off of eBay for $50 that was "unlocked" and met the criteria. I went back to the store and he told me I couldn't use it because of something that he had not originally mentioned. I then caught him in a lie about how cell phones work. Well, it might not have been a lie...he might have just been stupid. Either way, I had done my research about the whole thing and knew what he was saying was BS. We had a louder than usual verbal exchange, where he called to a manager and described me as a code blue and I eventually got my complaint handled by the New England region manager for Cingular who gave me the money back i paid for the phone off of eBay and then gave me a new phone that would work. To sum things up, I was such a pain in the ass that I was able to lose my phone (totally my fault) and have cingular replace it for free with a newer better phone and I didn't pay a cent for it. If this repair thing doesn't go easy today...I'm gonna be a code red this time. I figure one should always have goals in mind. Patrick OUT!