![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Car Wars: Day 14
Jul. 19th, 2022 08:37 pmKimberly got upset today when talking with a friend about our car problems, and then decided to immediately call Mercedes-Benz afterward. She was able to successfully channel her upset, because she got someone to call back for the first time in 14 days (and 5 calls). And then after said employee went and talked to his manager he called back a second time with a date for our car fix. Go Kimberly.
Said employee apparently asked if we'd been driving our car when Kimberly talked with him. Kimberly said no. He said it was no big deal, that they just had to issue a "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and it wasn't really a problem. Except said-employee clearly is young enough (or naive enough) not to understand how the world works. Because as soon as they entered into legalese, we had to respond with legalese. (We often had the same problems on internet sites I've run, where people didn't understand that when they invoked the specter of legal action, we had to respond in kind, which meant that friendly discussions were out the window.) To put it another way, yes, they had to issue the "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and in doing so, they transferred the liability to us if we drive. So we have to respond as if it's meaningful, and not just CYA garbage.
In any case, we're going to have a mechanic on island on August 4. Interestingly, they said he's going to be at Destination Autoworks, which is the mechanic on island that deals with Mercedes Benzes. And which is 12 miles over in Lihue. So are they expecting us to drive there? If so, we're going to get a very clear statement that they are _telling us_ to do so. (The safety-recall order we got said they'd be towing cars to the shop, but we shall see.) We should get more info as we get nearer.
And yeah, that's a long ways away. Another 16 days on top of the 14 to date. But that I can accept as a price of living on a little island. What I wasn't willing to accept was a business that wasn't even willing to return a call, especially after they *told* us they would (and especially when they're deal with *their* problem). That wasn't about living on a little island. That was about basic human courtesy and/or a really badly managed business.
And thanks to everyone who was kind enough to LIKE and RETWEET my Twitter thread from yesterday. It garnered somewhere over 3,000 impressions, which was the sort of thing I'd been hoping for, to give it attention. And MercedesBenz on Twitter totally ignored it, despite being tagged. Good thing Kimberly managed another solution today. But thanks anyways for the support, it's appreciated! (We just had to keep throwing things at the wall until *something* stuck.)
Said employee apparently asked if we'd been driving our car when Kimberly talked with him. Kimberly said no. He said it was no big deal, that they just had to issue a "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and it wasn't really a problem. Except said-employee clearly is young enough (or naive enough) not to understand how the world works. Because as soon as they entered into legalese, we had to respond with legalese. (We often had the same problems on internet sites I've run, where people didn't understand that when they invoked the specter of legal action, we had to respond in kind, which meant that friendly discussions were out the window.) To put it another way, yes, they had to issue the "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and in doing so, they transferred the liability to us if we drive. So we have to respond as if it's meaningful, and not just CYA garbage.
In any case, we're going to have a mechanic on island on August 4. Interestingly, they said he's going to be at Destination Autoworks, which is the mechanic on island that deals with Mercedes Benzes. And which is 12 miles over in Lihue. So are they expecting us to drive there? If so, we're going to get a very clear statement that they are _telling us_ to do so. (The safety-recall order we got said they'd be towing cars to the shop, but we shall see.) We should get more info as we get nearer.
And yeah, that's a long ways away. Another 16 days on top of the 14 to date. But that I can accept as a price of living on a little island. What I wasn't willing to accept was a business that wasn't even willing to return a call, especially after they *told* us they would (and especially when they're deal with *their* problem). That wasn't about living on a little island. That was about basic human courtesy and/or a really badly managed business.
And thanks to everyone who was kind enough to LIKE and RETWEET my Twitter thread from yesterday. It garnered somewhere over 3,000 impressions, which was the sort of thing I'd been hoping for, to give it attention. And MercedesBenz on Twitter totally ignored it, despite being tagged. Good thing Kimberly managed another solution today. But thanks anyways for the support, it's appreciated! (We just had to keep throwing things at the wall until *something* stuck.)