Mercedes Dimmer
My life with cars is always been a win/lose proposition. Sometimes you win an sometimes you lose.
The old theory that the customer is always right is a really hard one to swallow.
Take the case of this lady.
A regular customer that I have done work for many, many times in the past had a particular dislike
of domestic cars. Why, I don’t know, but she had her favorites... mainly Mercedes Benz. As long as it was silver, 4 doors, and was dent free. Over the years she would trade one off for a newer model year. Never buying a new one … just a couple of years newer than the one she already had. She decided it was time to trade up on her latest one. I couldn’t blame her, it had a lot of miles on it and the problems were starting to get more and more prevalent.
The last straw was when they were going to a very swanky party at the local opera house which had curb service valet parking. While sitting in line and waiting their turn for the valet the right front ball joint suddenly popped with a large bang that must have sounded like a gun shot. Now they were blocking the opera house entrance while waiting for the tow truck. I can only imagine her frustration and what she was thinking at the time. (I'm glad I wasn't there)
I hadn’t seen this car for some time so it was no surprise that she had put so many miles on it. (again, periodic maintain would be the best thing for any car) I made the repair and sent her back on the road. Later that week she showed up to the shop with what looked like the exact same car. Same color, same style. But, it wasn’t the same car. She had driven all the way to Texas for this one. There was only one problem with this one. The headlights wouldn’t work on high beam. At least that was what she told me.
When I got in the car I tried them out, they worked fine. I called her up and told her the good news. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear. A few hours later she came down to show me what was going on. Oh they weren’t going into high beam, just flash to pass (high beam). This newer Benz worked slightly different than her old one. She wasn't expecting a difference in the operating functions of her new ride.
I don’t know who was more surprised, myself or my opera house attendee. This lady is very intelligent and quite the business person… I highly respect her abilities and how she conducts herself. Never raises her voice, always the perfect lady.
With a great deal of composure and in a diplomatic way she admitted to me that she needed to study her owner’s manual more carefully and not bother me with such trivial problems.
I had to laugh (to myself), she did it again...... still impressing me with her tact and professionalism
