Gettin’ Ripped Off
29. Oct, 2011 
4 Comments
“Getting ripped off is just a part of life, son.” -Me, to my son, circa 2017
Monday, the car wouldn’t start. I was at work and my wife and kids were across town with the car, that wouldn’t start. This was a “crisis” of sorts. We only have one car and that car was across town and wouldn’t start. So, after much calling around town to friends who were mostly at work, I was able to interrupt Mark from his painting to offer assistance. Mark picked me up, drove me across town, and I traded places with my wife and kids. Mark took them home, and I waited with the car.
Our Car (as it appears in my mind)
An hour later, a surly tow man named Buck dropped me at a mechanic. The particular mechanic was referred to me by a professor I know. Being not from this town and generally trusting his judgment, I took his word for it. The mechanic shop was staffed by a real life “Mom and Pop” and had won several small business awards. So, I was extremely encouraged, being a man who enjoys small business and Mom and Pop stores of every kind. Well, the “Pop” tinkered around with the car for about 3-4 hours. Finally he came back and said the car was starting normally again. I asked him what he did. “Oh, just altered the cords going to the battery, cleaned it off, and replaced a small connector piece on the battery wire.”
The bill: 180 dollars. 180 dollars for a battery cleaning and a small connector priced at about 20 dollars. Mom and Pop ripped me off! I was shocked, and frankly a bit angry. I said, “180 dollars?… for a battery cleaning?” They both just kind of shrugged and smiled. I paid the bill and left (which I probably shouldn’t have). I then proceeded to decry the shop to everyone I know, as is consistent with my art of complaining.
Mechanics; you just can not find an honest one. Why is this? Probably, we non-mechanics don’t know anything about cars, and the grease monkeys know it. “Oh, you need a new connecting bracket on the so-and-so panel….” Sounds reasonable to me, take my money kind sir…. what do I know?
I suppose this kind of financial situation is a common one, and one reflective of our disjointed, modern society. As a result of moving to Missouri, a place native to neither myself nor my wife, knowing few and having very little connection to the community here, we consequently have no knowledge of who is honest or who is not. We have no knowledge of who does good work, who will tell it like it is, and who is likely to give you the benefit of the doubt. For this kind of knowledge is reserved for those who have a community, a place. Our place is on and near my wife’s farm, a place we would very much like to head back to some day, hopefully some day soon. One of the many benefits of “place” is the knowledge of your own neighbors, your own fields, your own roads. I likely would not have been ripped off on the farm because my father in law or someone from the parish would’ve subtly said, “oh, you don’t want to go there…”
The mechanic who rips you off is the symbol of modern society; disjointed from a sense of decency, opportunistic, disconnected from his larger role in that place … capitalizing on happenstance, really. It’s not enough to trust a Mom and Pop. You’re much better off trusting Jerry’s Mom and Pop or Hank’s Mom and Pop down on 5th street near the place where we bought those pumpkins last month.
Anyway, I try to seek an idea of place. So far we have failed, clearly. But, it’s a wonderful ideal to aspire to.
I hate to say it but you didn’t get ripped off. It’s pretty much close to what I was aiming for ($150). What you are paying for is labor and it is expensive!
I just got my trans flushed, engine belt changed & had them replace a rusted screw on my heat shield. That screw replacement alone, 1 screw I will remind you, cost me $4 in parts & $40 in labor. Thankfully, I bought the belt beforehand but the final total was just under $250.
Labor is expensive. And for an car shop, labor factors into the cost of running the place (bills, workers, benefits, etc.) Parts markup are minimal at most. Want to get your car fix, pay for their survival.
Tis true, labor is so huge when it comes to bills. But, in this case, the “labor” consisted of the Pop looking on the internet for at least an hour and then pouring some cleaning solution on the battery…..
Yet another reason I do all I can myself.
A mechanic stripped the oil pan plug bolt TWICE on a car my wife used to own before we were married. We found out the first time when I noticed oil on the ground. She took the car back and they casually said, “oh yeah. One of the guys stripped it out.” SO they commence to “fixing” it by stripping it out again and putting a plug bolt in that had a toggle bolt on one end and a big head and washer on the other.
It did give me an opportunity to use some of that advanced shadetree inginuity to fix it, though.
“I know a guy who can…..”–Daniel Ocean, Ocean’s Eleven
Yep, always good to “know a guy”!