Monday, July 26, 2010

Almost a Ripoff

You would have been prouda me. At the Blank Blank in Eureka there was a sign, and here it is, plain as day, oil change for $24.99. I needed one, asked that it be added to my tire invoice, and when I gave the invoice the necessary once-over I see the price is $32.99. I piped up and said, in effect, Excuse me, wtf, and they said "surcharges" and "environmental something or other" and I asserted my Bunbun self and said, "But your sign outside says..." and they gave in, had "forgot" they'd put the sign out, so they said, and then they tapped a few keys and discounted the oil change at the "senior" rate. I did not say, "I am not a senior," because I'd figured out by then that they lived entirely in a fantasy world in which oil-change signs magically appear and disappear and a 53-year-old is a senior. Then they tried to sell me an alignment. I said you have my service record right there, it shows that you aligned me in May. They said, oh, so we did.

In these days it is so crucial to be on guard and assertive at car places; ladies, they think you have the brain of a dodo bird. This isn't the only place I had to make an effort to hold people to their advertised prices. I plan on getting a ring that looks like a wedding band so these guys in their fantasy world can fantasize that I have a husband who will come and beat them senseless.

3 comments:

Buford Nature said...

GOOD for you!!! We should always stand up against false advertising, bait-and-switch, etc. I recently went to a grocery store that had a Sale on Chickens sign by the highway, they rung it up higher, and when I challenged them they superciliously stated that the so-called sale was only for customers with their keychain plastic membership card. I stood my ground - after all, an ad is a contract - and they caved in. Amazingly, the customers behind me got impatient too, but with ME!!! I tell ya, PT Barnum underestimated the number and rate of suckers born. Illigitimi non carborundum.

willyouwontyou said...

Ms. Bunbun, I am proud of you! By the way, I am reading your blog from out in Yarmouth on Cape Cod--back in STL second week of Aug. Hope I might beat some of the worst heat

Beau said...

Good example of being aware these days. Nice going!