18 Jan 06, 01:27 pm
Long story, worth the read if customer service makes any difference at all.
My carb sprung a leak at Sourdough fuel in North Pole - rendering my vehicle dead (yet with no BBQ custom to most of my vehicles - so that was good!)
With a little help from Jay (Ryanâs friend) I pulled it into the parking lot between Sourdough and Schmucks.
The next day I replaced the Carb and pushed the truck up to the curb about 75 feet from Schmucks front door, 50 feet from their employees plugged in vehicles) It had been -31 for almost 24 hours, so I knew it needed to warm up before I tried to re-start it.
According to the manager at Schmucks, she could not authorize me to plug in my vehicle (even in their store outlets) for a few hours. I would have to contact the owner of the mall. Went to the mall office, which was closed, and called the number on the door which rang at.... Schmucks! Figured Iâd simply plug in to the outlet by the empty store front where the truck was - but no power. So I went back and explained again my plight to the store manager of Schmucks. The corporation pays the electric bill, not the store itself, so IF she let me plug in with my cord and IF someone called the corporation and turned her in, she could get in trouble. So she couldn't authorize me to use her store outlet. Even though I offered to pay for the electricity used. She could call the mall owners though and see what she could do. Her call went to a secretary that said the owners wouldnât OK that, and that I should probably move my truck that night or it would most likely be towed. Theyâd like to help, but they canât.
But wait - the sun started shining and it warmed up to -28!
NAPA to the rescue. Literally. I am not making this up. On hearing what Schmucks said, the manager of NAPA allowed one of her workers to clock out for âlunchâ to help me strap tow it through the back roads to NAPA where they allowed me to plug in my truck. The same employee offered to bring his big heater the next day for my use if plugging it in didnât work. I promptly went to Pizza Hut and ordered 2 pizzas which I took back to NAPA and shared with their employees for a thank-you âlunch.â 3 hours later, being plugged into the NAPA outlet, the truck fired right up and another (former) employee of Napa and friend of mine, Jake, came up and helped me get both my trucks to my house.
Customer service is valuable. There is a reason why I spent over $300 in parts on Monday and Tuesday and Schmucks got a total of $6 of that, and NAPA the rest + Pizza!
My carb sprung a leak at Sourdough fuel in North Pole - rendering my vehicle dead (yet with no BBQ custom to most of my vehicles - so that was good!)
With a little help from Jay (Ryanâs friend) I pulled it into the parking lot between Sourdough and Schmucks.
The next day I replaced the Carb and pushed the truck up to the curb about 75 feet from Schmucks front door, 50 feet from their employees plugged in vehicles) It had been -31 for almost 24 hours, so I knew it needed to warm up before I tried to re-start it.
According to the manager at Schmucks, she could not authorize me to plug in my vehicle (even in their store outlets) for a few hours. I would have to contact the owner of the mall. Went to the mall office, which was closed, and called the number on the door which rang at.... Schmucks! Figured Iâd simply plug in to the outlet by the empty store front where the truck was - but no power. So I went back and explained again my plight to the store manager of Schmucks. The corporation pays the electric bill, not the store itself, so IF she let me plug in with my cord and IF someone called the corporation and turned her in, she could get in trouble. So she couldn't authorize me to use her store outlet. Even though I offered to pay for the electricity used. She could call the mall owners though and see what she could do. Her call went to a secretary that said the owners wouldnât OK that, and that I should probably move my truck that night or it would most likely be towed. Theyâd like to help, but they canât.
But wait - the sun started shining and it warmed up to -28!
NAPA to the rescue. Literally. I am not making this up. On hearing what Schmucks said, the manager of NAPA allowed one of her workers to clock out for âlunchâ to help me strap tow it through the back roads to NAPA where they allowed me to plug in my truck. The same employee offered to bring his big heater the next day for my use if plugging it in didnât work. I promptly went to Pizza Hut and ordered 2 pizzas which I took back to NAPA and shared with their employees for a thank-you âlunch.â 3 hours later, being plugged into the NAPA outlet, the truck fired right up and another (former) employee of Napa and friend of mine, Jake, came up and helped me get both my trucks to my house.
Customer service is valuable. There is a reason why I spent over $300 in parts on Monday and Tuesday and Schmucks got a total of $6 of that, and NAPA the rest + Pizza!
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