Surfing the 'Lube
Category: Kitchen Sink... Local...
Posted Wednesday, August 08, 2007 at 08:22 AM [GMT-6]

I hauled the laptop to AvisLube (Wadley and Loop 250) in order to get some real work done while waiting for the Durango to be serviced (3,000 mile checkup, inspection sticker, etc.). What I didn't anticipate was that after a couple of years of leaving comments on its feedback form, I find that the company has installed a wireless network – and I can't resist the urge to post something. I mean, it would be hypocritical of me, wouldn't it, to rant about having access only to a wired network for the usual twenty minutes it takes to change the oil and filter (oh, the humanity!), and then not to actually use the wireless version now that it's available.

[By the way, it doesn't instill confidence when the service tech comes out, tells you that the transmission fluid is past due for a change, and when you agree to letting them handle it, hands you a waiver form to sign agreeing that they're not liable for any problems caused by the performance of that service.]

OK...I've gotten this out of my system. It's off to work I go.

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Comments

I have to go there this morning. Yum.

Posted by: Janie at August 8, 2007 09:14 AM

Yum?

Speaking of confidence shattering forms, I remember when the nurse handed me a hospital form during the delivery of our first child. It was an authorization and waiver for the administration of an epidural and since my wife had already been given demerol, she was not allowed to sign it.

It said, "Your loved one will die. It is not our fault. Sign below." Or something along those lines.

Posted by: Jim at August 8, 2007 09:42 AM

Janie, sorry I missed you! (I *really* wouldn't have gotten any work done if you'd been there to visit with... ;-)

Jim, the other similarity is that automotive transmissions are just as mysterious and unfathomable as childbirth.

Posted by: Eric at August 8, 2007 09:57 AM

True, that.

Posted by: Jim at August 8, 2007 01:17 PM

There is one school of mechanical thought that says never, never, change your transmission fluid.

Posted by: Wallace at August 8, 2007 08:31 PM

Well, even the owner's manual calls for it only every 60,000 miles.

Posted by: Eric at August 8, 2007 09:22 PM

Jim - I was being facetious when I said "yum." I hate going in there, they've got those techs so sales savvy it's hard to tell them no.

They make me feel like my truck's about to bite the dirt and I know it's not...still, it's hard to say no to them.

Posted by: Janie at August 8, 2007 09:49 PM

Janie, I find that it's helpful to decide before I go in what I'm willing to consider and what's off the table. For instance, they're always going to show me the air filter with an unspoken implication that I'm the world's worst car owner if I don't change it even though it's pristine enough to use as a surgical sponge. I know that it's not time to change it, so I just say, "maybe next time."

I do think they're getting better. The guy today actually told me that while I could have 'em change the transmission fluid filter (I didn't even know I had one), if it was his car, he wouldn't. [I hope I didn't just get him fired!]

Posted by: Eric at August 8, 2007 10:30 PM

Eric, I do the same thing, except I say "Get out my face! NOW!"

Janie, I wasn't criticizing you at all. I thought maybe Avis Lube (since they probably try harder and all that) had started giving out ice cream to waiting customers, which would be yet another reason for me to move to Texas.

Posted by: Jim at August 9, 2007 06:16 AM

I just want them to upsize those little tiny styrofoam cups they give you for free soda (not that bad a problem in the self-contained Midland shop on N. Midkiff, but a real pain over at 42nd and Grandview in Odessa, where you've got to navigate the C-store to get to the soda machine).

Posted by: John at August 10, 2007 09:15 AM
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