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To get to my voice-over school in Sausalito, I cross the Golden Gate Bridge. It's free on the northbound trip but on the way home there's a toll. I've got a device in my car to pay my bridge toll automatically because I got tired of having to find the cash to pay it all the time. For a while I bought booklets of toll tickets which they discount so I paid less. Then they came up with the whole electronic toll process. It started at a discount but I think it's up the the regular toll price now. The convenience of not having to have cash all the time is great! After the first year of having the thing stuck to my windshield behind the rear-view mirror, the sticky stuff aged and it fell off. They didn't have replacement tape for it, so I've been holding it up against the glass when I go through the booth.
Last Monday when I headed home after working in the office, the sign that usually says "VALID FASTRAK" said "CALL FASTRAK" instead. Hmm... I know I recently updated my credit card with them. With my finances being what they are, I worried that maybe my credit card payment had bounced and they'd stopped my card, but then I KNEW I had the money to pay my payment so that couldn't be it. It's an hour drive to get home and I forgot all about it by the time I walked in the front door.
Thursday I was scheduled to work in the office again, stuffing envelopes and finishing the big registration mailing. Wednesday, the fluttery sound in my car's transmission suddenly turned into an ominous grinding growl. I took my car to the dealership for the supposed "warranty" repair and got a rental. I put the toll transponder in my purse and drove to Sausalito. It was only as I crossed the bridge that I remembered that message from Monday. When I got to the office I called them. The transponder has a battery inside and they said it had reached the age where they fail. I'm supposed to mail it to them with a request for a new battery. I asked about paying my toll on the way home. She said it would capture my license number and charge my account. I told her I was driving a rental and she said I'd need to pay cash. So I made sure I had the cash and went through a booth with a person instead of the express lane I usually use. I handed him five dollars and started to go and he called out "WAIT! WAIT!" The transponder had apparently found a little bit of life in that battery and had paid my toll from inside my purse on the seat of the car! Weird! I got my money back.
The car guy hadn't called by 6pm to tell me what was going on with my car so I called them. The service guy who checked me in said he wasn't feeling well and was thinking he'd go home. The lady at the desk put me through to his voicemail and I left a message. By noon yesterday, I still hadn't had a call back and I checked my cell voicemail just in case it missed signalling me about a missed call. Nothing. I called the again. This time she said he was off that day and she'd give me to someone else. She put me into the original guy's voicemail. I hung up and redialed. I told her what had happened. She apologized and put me through to the manager instead. He said another guy named Jeff had taken my account over and had tried to call me at 4pm the previous day. He claimed to have left a message. When I said I had my cell phone with me ALL DAY and hadn't received a call and that there was no message at all on my voicemail, he asked for my number to confirm they had the right one. They did. I think Jeff either misdialed or lied. In any case, he should have tried again before NOON THE NEXT DAY! Plus I HAD called two hours after he called me and the receptionist didn't know to pass me to Jeff instead of my original guy! Something is WRONG there.
They needed to get my approval for $1,500 to tear down the transmission so the warranty people could inspect it and decide whether to cover the repair or not. WTF??? He said there would be clutch parts they'd have to replace that probably wouldn't be covered by the warranty. Then he said the Toyota warranties were much nicer. They'd just take their word for it and approve the repair. He assured me that they'd tested it and determined the same thing Eric said was wrong with it just from the sound. I've got a bearing going out. I asked him how much it would cost just to yank the transmission and replace it. That would be $2,500. Ugh. I have to have my car in running order. I approved the tear-down. If the warranty company doesn't cover it, I'm taking them to small-claims court to recover the money. If they require something, they need to pay for it.
Then came the news I really didn't want to hear. Because it would take a while to do the whole process, they aren't starting it until Monday. They don't want to leave it in pieces over the weekend. That left me stuck with a $30 per day rental car over the weekend and then some. Now I know that's cheap, but we just don't have that kind of money to throw around. I decided to see if we could manage with only one car for the weekend and next week, since I'm leaving Thursday morning for Disneyland. We discussed it. Eric is low on work right now and was thinking of taking part of Thursday and all of Friday off to enjoy some alone time. Maybe he could take part of Wednesday and both Thursday and Friday? That way I could take him to work and pick him up and still get to class on time Wednesday night. He didn't want to do that. The other possibility was to trade the Corolla I had for a Daewoo that was half the price. I'd almost taken it on Thursday but I hadn't noticed it was available until the paperwork was already done on the Corolla. When I thought I'd have it two days, it wasn't a big deal. But five or six days and that $30 starts to add up. I called them this morning and they were very happy to trade with me. I'm now driving a tiny, underpowered Daewoo. The gas mileage should be great!
I sure hope I don't have to fight a huge battle with the warranty company. Woe is them if I do! They're dealing with a peri-menopause monster! I don't take sh*t from anyone anymore. Grrr!
Last Monday when I headed home after working in the office, the sign that usually says "VALID FASTRAK" said "CALL FASTRAK" instead. Hmm... I know I recently updated my credit card with them. With my finances being what they are, I worried that maybe my credit card payment had bounced and they'd stopped my card, but then I KNEW I had the money to pay my payment so that couldn't be it. It's an hour drive to get home and I forgot all about it by the time I walked in the front door.
Thursday I was scheduled to work in the office again, stuffing envelopes and finishing the big registration mailing. Wednesday, the fluttery sound in my car's transmission suddenly turned into an ominous grinding growl. I took my car to the dealership for the supposed "warranty" repair and got a rental. I put the toll transponder in my purse and drove to Sausalito. It was only as I crossed the bridge that I remembered that message from Monday. When I got to the office I called them. The transponder has a battery inside and they said it had reached the age where they fail. I'm supposed to mail it to them with a request for a new battery. I asked about paying my toll on the way home. She said it would capture my license number and charge my account. I told her I was driving a rental and she said I'd need to pay cash. So I made sure I had the cash and went through a booth with a person instead of the express lane I usually use. I handed him five dollars and started to go and he called out "WAIT! WAIT!" The transponder had apparently found a little bit of life in that battery and had paid my toll from inside my purse on the seat of the car! Weird! I got my money back.
The car guy hadn't called by 6pm to tell me what was going on with my car so I called them. The service guy who checked me in said he wasn't feeling well and was thinking he'd go home. The lady at the desk put me through to his voicemail and I left a message. By noon yesterday, I still hadn't had a call back and I checked my cell voicemail just in case it missed signalling me about a missed call. Nothing. I called the again. This time she said he was off that day and she'd give me to someone else. She put me into the original guy's voicemail. I hung up and redialed. I told her what had happened. She apologized and put me through to the manager instead. He said another guy named Jeff had taken my account over and had tried to call me at 4pm the previous day. He claimed to have left a message. When I said I had my cell phone with me ALL DAY and hadn't received a call and that there was no message at all on my voicemail, he asked for my number to confirm they had the right one. They did. I think Jeff either misdialed or lied. In any case, he should have tried again before NOON THE NEXT DAY! Plus I HAD called two hours after he called me and the receptionist didn't know to pass me to Jeff instead of my original guy! Something is WRONG there.
They needed to get my approval for $1,500 to tear down the transmission so the warranty people could inspect it and decide whether to cover the repair or not. WTF??? He said there would be clutch parts they'd have to replace that probably wouldn't be covered by the warranty. Then he said the Toyota warranties were much nicer. They'd just take their word for it and approve the repair. He assured me that they'd tested it and determined the same thing Eric said was wrong with it just from the sound. I've got a bearing going out. I asked him how much it would cost just to yank the transmission and replace it. That would be $2,500. Ugh. I have to have my car in running order. I approved the tear-down. If the warranty company doesn't cover it, I'm taking them to small-claims court to recover the money. If they require something, they need to pay for it.
Then came the news I really didn't want to hear. Because it would take a while to do the whole process, they aren't starting it until Monday. They don't want to leave it in pieces over the weekend. That left me stuck with a $30 per day rental car over the weekend and then some. Now I know that's cheap, but we just don't have that kind of money to throw around. I decided to see if we could manage with only one car for the weekend and next week, since I'm leaving Thursday morning for Disneyland. We discussed it. Eric is low on work right now and was thinking of taking part of Thursday and all of Friday off to enjoy some alone time. Maybe he could take part of Wednesday and both Thursday and Friday? That way I could take him to work and pick him up and still get to class on time Wednesday night. He didn't want to do that. The other possibility was to trade the Corolla I had for a Daewoo that was half the price. I'd almost taken it on Thursday but I hadn't noticed it was available until the paperwork was already done on the Corolla. When I thought I'd have it two days, it wasn't a big deal. But five or six days and that $30 starts to add up. I called them this morning and they were very happy to trade with me. I'm now driving a tiny, underpowered Daewoo. The gas mileage should be great!
I sure hope I don't have to fight a huge battle with the warranty company. Woe is them if I do! They're dealing with a peri-menopause monster! I don't take sh*t from anyone anymore. Grrr!
