I was just wondering how you might deal with health problems and conversations you have with your Doctor. When you have something wrong with your body, do you just go into your Doctors office and tell the Doctor that there is something wrong and wait for the Doctor to find out what it is that's wrong? Or, do you try and spend some time trying to explain to the Doctor exactly what it is that is causing you problems. (E.g. pain in the side but only when you lay down.) Or do you tell the Doctor that you need a cast put on your arm but don't tell the Doctor why you think you need a cast. Would you call a Plumber and tell them that there was a problem with your pipes and then go off to work and leave the plumber to decide what pipes you are talking about?

Oh I know, this sounds a little ridiculous doesn't it. But, you would be surprised at how many times people will drop off a vehicle at a repair shop and leave a very vague description of what they want fixed and then not even leave a phone number where they can be reached. Then about 30 minutes before they expect the vehicle to be ready, they will phone up and want to know if the vehicle is fixed yet.

One time I had a fellow drop off his car with a note that says he wanted his brakes fixed and didn't leave me any way of getting ahold of him. When we brought in his car and pulled off the wheels to check the brakes, we couldn't find ANYTHING wrong. So, we put it all back together and took it for a test drive thinking that maybe there was some noise he was hearing or maybe they were pulling one way or the other. But we couldn't find any problem. Oh I know, by some business's stand points, we should of just put all new brakes in his car because that is what he had asked for but I don't work that way.

Late in the afternoon I got a phone call from this guy and he wanted to know how much his bill was for the brake job, so he could stop at the Bank and pick up some money and he really came UNGLUED when I told him that we hadn't put new brakes in his car. He told me how incompetent we were and how he had always worked on his own vehicles up to know, and how he KNEW when a vehicle needed brakes. So, he was going to come right down and show us what a bunch of IDIOTS we were. By the time he arrived at the shop, we had brought his car back onto a hoist and had it sitting there with all of the wheels off and he just came storming in the door using language that would take the paint off the walls.

When I took him over to his car and he walked around looking at each wheels braking system in order, he cooled down as he could see that the brakes looked fine. He scratched his head and said rather softly, "Gee, I could have swore it needed brakes." At which time I reminded him that he had in fact swore an awful lot. This guy could of saved himself a lot of time, money and embarrassment, if he would of just told us what problems he was having and let US find out what was wrong.

Check next week for what was really wrong with his car.

"TOOT" Rick "The Wrench" - May 14,1999
Copyright of Rick The Wrench, 1999