I Hate When That Happens

If you have been around this good old earth for a few years you know that you win some, you lose some. Hence, life can be a gamble. For example, when we know we need to make an important decision, we do our research, ask advice and then make the best decision we can. Then afterwards, we realize that things did not work out as we planned. That can happen in choosing a college to attend, buying a car, and even choosing someone to marry.

A few years ago I began having a lot of problems with one of our tow trucks. It was getting up in miles so I decided to replace it. I did my research, got bids from a couple different places and ordered the truck. Ordering a new tow truck takes about 6-8 weeks. We continued to have problems with our old one and eagerly anticipated the arrival of the new one. The day finally came; we did the paperwork (ouch) and took delivery of a brand new tow truck. We thought our troubles were over. It just so happened that the new truck came on the Friday of a long holiday week-end. We offer 24 hour service and the night driver picked up the truck all shinny and new. Well the next day (Saturday) the driver called me saying that the truck was going fine and then the check engine light came on and now it will not go over 20 mph. I met him and the shop and we did some investigation and decided that it would have to go back to the dealer to be repaired. Well being Saturday and a holiday week-end, of course the dealer was not open. I called the manufactures 24 hour “Help Line” and they set me up to have our new tow truck towed back to the dealer in the cities to get it repaired. Not what I really wanted to happen, but there was nothing I could do about it. Fortunately I was able to get in contact with the place we could rent a tow truck until ours was repaired. I Hate When That Happens, but that’s life.

This is especially true when it comes to mechanical things. A case in point, we have a great customer who has a car that his daughter drives. It has a lot of miles on it and consequently needed to have the engine replaced. We gave him the option of both a new re-manufactured engine and a used engine from a salvage yard. The new engine came with a 3 year 1000,000 mile parts and labor warranty. The used engine was very hard to find, and the salvage yard that had one only offered a 90 day, 3,000 mile warranty. We gave the customer the option; he considered the age of the vehicle and his own finances and decided to go with the used engine. We installed it and he picked it up. Well a few months went by and he called, the car stalled and would not start. We towed it in and inspected it. We found that the timing chain had failed and it would be a bit costly to repair. The car had a little over 11,000 miles on it since we installed the used engine, so it was over the warranty. Of course the customer was very frustrated because now he was looking at another costly repair. We did repair the car and it turned out fine. If the customer would have put in the new engine he most likely would not have had this problem, but he would have spent more money on the initial repair. They say that hindsight is 20/20 and I guess that is true. Then again, we have installed used engine in many vehicles and they have lasted another 60-80k miles. You never know, life can be a gamble. I Hate When That Happens!