Have a Little Help, From My Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen of the blogosphere:

I will not bore you with details that are better left to be told by those involved. Some folks need help. Details here.

These people are not standing with their hands out. They have exhausted every possible resource, and are still shy of being able to secure a safe future for two lovely children. Let's help them out, before it's too late.

These are good people, and they've got some damn good recipes in there. I'm definitely buying. You should, too. Or there will be guilt.

Rally the troops. One of ours is in trouble.



tweaker

Shameless

Yep, that's right. I am a man quite nearly devoid of shame. There's a tiny little bit in there, mind you. There's just enough shame to keep me out of a Speedo in public (or in private, for that matter...*shudders*), but not enough to keep me away from a little self-promotion in the hopes of getting a Metric Butt-ton of "Yay, Me" action.

And of course, in true Tweaker fashion, I'm even late for this.

So here goes.

Yesterday, May 26, 2009, was my 30th Birthday.

Please feel free to dote on me with your loving comments:)



tweaker

WTF, Gunmakers?

An ad that my brother posted ultimately led me to a page on Ruger's website that covers the product recall on Ruger's LCP. There, I read:

We want to remind gun users that, for maximum safety when carrying any pistol with a loaded magazine in place, the chamber should be empty, and the slide should be closed. Any gun may fire if dropped or struck.

Reading that made me crazy. To me, it says that Ruger feels like they need to recall their LCP because of a positively identified problem that could lead to an unintentional discharge of the weapon if it was dropped, but it can happen to any gun.

Really? Then why is it an issue? Why waste the money to recall so many pistols and give away so many dollars worth of magazines to fix a problem that isn't really a problem, since it can happen to any gun?

*sigh*

Brandon's comment after mine on the linked post probably says what many of you are thinking. It's probably true, what with everyone and their brother being lawsuit-happy these days. But to be a major firearms manufacturer that is recalling a pistol specifically meant to be used for self-defense and say that the chamber needs to be empty is clearly and outwardly more interested in protecting their bottom line than the lives of the people that would carry those firearms to protect themselves.

I'm sure that ol' Billy "...no honest man needs more than 10 rounds in any gun..." Ruger would have been proud.



tweaker



P.S. - Directly from the manual for the Px4 Storm (which I carry every day for defense, loaded 17+1):

Unload a firearm before putting it in a vehicle (chamber empty, magazine empty). Hunters and target shooters should load their firearm only at their destination, and only when they are ready to shoot. If you carry a firearm for self-protection, leaving the chamber unloaded can reduce the chance of an unintentional discharge.

Maybe I need to switch to decaf...

*sad*

There's a few guys I look up to in the Gunnie corner of the blogosphere. One of those guys is George Hill of MadOgre.com.

George and his wife were expecting a little girl to round out a group of boys.

Sadly, the little gem didn't make it full term.

That's a crushing sadness that no family should ever have to endure. Please stop by and let George know that you're thinking about them. If'n you're the praying type, go ahead and drop one in for the Hill Family.



tweaker

@#*!% Car Dealers (pt. 2)

So Saturday morning finally arrives, and we get ourselves up early enough to get fed and get to the dealership at a decent hour. We grudgingly make our trip east to New Braunfels.

Upon arrival, everyone's all smiles again, and I hand off the keys to the Journey to Douchebag Salesman. He takes them off to someone else, and shows us to our temporary transport: a "dealer demo" (you remember, that thing they don't offer anymore? Lies=2) in the form of a Dodge Caliber.

As a sidenote, the Dodge Caliber is what Dodge replaced the Neon with. It's effectively a compact station wagon - no coupe or sedan - and it is Officially Made Of Fail. This car embodies everything that's wrong in Detroit. I hope they all sink.

Anyhoo, despite my request for a Not Econobox, we got in the econobox and headed up to San Marcos for some shopping. We had The Little Girl with us, so we needed to keep entertainment in mind, too. Unfortunately all that came to a grinding halt when, after less than two hours, I get a call from Douchebag Salesman. There's more bad news.

Seems that what the make-ready guys could not do, the detail guys could not do either. The garbage that's stuck to the car is stuck there pretty good, and the detail guys don't feel they can remove it without damaging the finished surface, so they are deferring to the body shop. Of course, I know damn well that no body shops are open on weekends, so I ask DBS (DoucheBag Salesman) when that's gonna be. Monday is the answer, and they'll probably keep it until Tuesday.

Son Of A Bitch.

So we abandon shopping in San Marcos to head back to the dealership. I politely tell DBS that I appreciate them trying to take care of the paint on the car, but that I am becoming increasingly displeased with the way this process is going so far. You see, I forgot to mention something in the earlier post. You remember that check that I dropped off earlier that they were supposed to hold? Well, they ran it two days after I dropped it off, and because the checks draw against an account we keep low, it bounced. We weren't even notified; we saw it on our account. We called the dealership understandably upset, and the most we got out of anyone was, "Oh, sorry about that. Did your bank charge a fee or somethin?"

So, after returning to hash out the next steps of the plan, I headed home in the piece of shit Caliber with the number for the General Manager of the dealership. Monday morning, he got a call from me. I was very polite with him as I explained the situation up to this point. He was noticably distraught, particularly with the fact that I was clearly being lied to by DBS. He said that he would personally oversee the condition of my Journey from here on in, and he would be having a conversation with DBS as soon as he could find him.

So Monday came and went, and Tuesday afternoon I get another call from DBS. He says that the Journey had been worked on, but the General Manager didn't feel it was up to standard, so he sent it back to the body shop for more TLC. It would be ready Wednesday. I was pissed, but I felt better when DBS told me that the General Manager tore him a new one:)

I finally get a call Wednesday, and we once again head to the dealer to hopefully drive our car home. It took me less that 30 seconds to climb onto a back tire, look at the roof, and immediately know that no one is working on the top of the car. Maybe they think I don't care about the roof because I can't see it; who knows. What I do know is that now I was outwardlhy pissed. I told DBS that the car was still not finished, and asked him if anyone ever bothered to check the roof. He was backpedalling and at the same time trying desparately to minimize the situation, which only fueled the ass-chewing that was now my turn to deliver. I asked him straight up if we would even be having this conversation if the car in question was a $90,000 Viper or a $50,000 Challenger SRT. I asked him if this level of quality (which I clearly pointed out to him on the roof of the Journey) would be acceptable on one of those cars. He said no. So I immediately asked why he was trying to pawn off shitty quality on a $20,000 Journey. He then tried to tell me that it didn't matter how much a customer spends.

Indeed.

He told me that he just didn't think he was going to be able to make me happy. I almost lost it on him. I asked if that was his answer at this point. I was done with DBS. Naturally, the General Manager was nowhere to be found, even though I had specifically requested audience with him earlier on the phone, so I wanted the highest guy on the food chain front and center. I got the friggin used car manager. Go figure.

He wanted to see what I was so upset about, so I took him to the car to show him. I explained the situation yet again, and he said that it should be taken care of. He said he'd keep it and make it right. He told me that it just didn't make good business sense not to. I almost felt a little bit better. So out comes DBS, and they wanted me to point out just what was wrong. I got pissed again. I told them that if I was going to have to point out every flaw in the body of the car for them to fix, that they were going to have to pay me a consultation fee. I told them that I wanted the paint to look like the paint on a brand new car, since I was buying a brand new car. I wanted it perfect, and that's what I expected to receive. Keep in mind, they'd already received payment in full; partially from our down payment, and the rest from our financial institution. I really felt like they were doing as little as possible to get by at this point. I also told them that I was totally unsatisfied with the Caliber, so I left Wednesday night in a rather well-equipped Grand Caravan.

As a sidenote, the Dodge Grand Caravan is made of win. This thing is huge inside, very comfortable, rides on air, has more than enough power, and is still small enough outside for even the most mechanically-challenged soccer mom to park in any parking spot. This car represents everything good about Detroit.

I called the General Manager again on Thursday to express my feelings, and before I even got into it, he told me that he was drawing up the paperwork to return my trade-in to me and call the whole thing off. I told him that was not what I wanted, and that furthermore the trade-in was no longer mine. The Journey was mine, and I wanted that. I just wanted what the hell I paid for. He said that, while he hated going through this, that at this point he felt like I was punishing the dealership for what he admitted was giving me horrible service. After all, I had caught DBS lying to me on three different occasions. He said he'd do anything to get the car right at this point, including paying someone else to do it if I wanted that.

I quickly made my move. See, there's a body shop very close to here that has a fantastic reputation because they do amazing work. They've worked on two of my vehicles, and on both occasions the cars came out looking literally brand new.

I told the General Manager to put it in writing that he'd pay for someone else to properly detail the car, and I would come pick it up and never grace the doors of his dealership again. He said that he would (provided that he didn't get hit with some $2,000 invoice, which I told him I wouldn't do). I told him that if my guys found the paint to be damaged beyond repair he'd be taking the car back, otherwise this fiasco was finally going to close. He said he'd have a letter drawn up and ready for me when I arrived that evening.

I dropped off the Caravan, got my letter, and got ready to leave. DBS came out to apologize again, and I told him that, after looking the car over myself, that it looked to me like they may have finally gotten it right. If they had done that in the first place, none of this would have happened, and if I hadn't been lied to, I would have never gotten this irate.

So here goes. Bluebonnet Chrysler-Dodge in New Braunfels, Texas gave me what is hands-down the single worst car buying experience I have ever had. I recommend travelling miles out of your way to any other dealer on Earth before I would even hint at stopping by Bluebonnet. I would not contribute a cup of warm piss were the place on fire. The arrogance that was once so prevalent in Detroit still lives on at some dealers, and this place seems to have gotten the lion's share of that attitude. So to hell with that dealer, and I look forward to being there when they are forced to close up shop to help them know exactly why they have no business. Just as Detroit ceased to listen to the voices of the those who bought the most cars and ignored every principle of customer service, Bluebonnet assumes that it doesn't matter what I think, because plenty of folks are still buying cars. Well, rest assured this, Bluebonnet. I will do everything in my power to prevent you from receiving so much as an inch of business from every single person who will listen to me.

I won't even have to lie to do it.

*********************************

What an experience. I've taken every online, telephone, and snail-mail survey that has approached me about the issue, and I've told each and every one just what it was like. Fortunately, my body shop reported to me that after very careful inspection, the car was fine other than the brand new rock chip just above the windshield (dammit!!!). They recommended factory touch-up paint for the repair as it contained the dealer's proprietary clear-coat already mixed it.

I bought it from the Dodge dealer down the street from my house:)



tweaker