Last week I had the misfortune of

having to take my car in to be fixed. The back right brakes were

grinding, and I assumed that I had to have my brake pads replaced.

Unfortunately my dad lives two and a half hours away, so I began

the hunt on where to go in Ames to get it fixed.

At the first place they took my

wheel off and showed me that my brake pad was completely worn down

and the rotor was cracked. It looked pretty bad but when they gave

me the price (which included a flush of my brake fluid) I knew I

was going to have to wait and beg my parents for some funding. When

I called my dad though, he questioned their assessment and blamed

it on “those stupid chain stores, they’ll charge you for anything

they can.”

So I called the Ford dealership;

they had a special going on so my Dad recommended that I try

there.

Right away they also questioned the

first store’s assessment. Their guess was the same as my dad’s so I

figured it was a pretty safe bet. I got an estimate, made an

appointment, and dropped off my car.

Later that day I got a phone call

from the dealer. They had the full assessment done and gave me the

price … which was a full $150.00 more than the estimate.

Apparently, my estimate hadn’t included labor on one of the parts.

Convenient that they decided to leave that out as I was deciding

where to have my car fixed.

Now I understand that an estimate is

nothing more than that, an estimate. But $150.00 off? That seemed a

little ridiculous to me. After calling me “hun” and “sweetie” all

morning, the guy on the phone wasn’t dropping any of those names as

I yelled and tried to haggle down the price.

After refusing to budge on their

estimate, I angrily told them to fix my car and that I would pick

it up when it was done with no intention of ever coming

back.

Miraculously enough, a couple of

hours later they called me back telling me that my car was ready to

be picked up and that my new total was $63.00 less than their final

cost. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

As a girl who has had very limited

experience with cars, this is not the first time I’ve been taken

advantage of when going to an auto shop. However, this is the first

time I’ve come out having been able to do something about

it.

Its disappointing to me that a

business has no qualms about charging customers for services they

don’t need or misleading them about the price. Maybe it’s the small

town girl in me realizing the “big city.” But are small town values

in this instance so bad?

At home a friend of the family does

the things my dad can’t do or doesn’t have the time to do. We drop

our vehicle off and let him have free reign. By knowing that he

doesn’t take advantage of us, he receives our business time after

time. It’s a simple concept and living in small town Iowa or Ames

shouldn’t make a difference.

At what point should businesses draw

the line between making money and simply taking what they can

because they can? My dad could have fixed my car for about $120.00.

I understand the concept of mark ups and paying for convenience.

But what sort of business practice is it to mislead a customer?

What benefit comes from that? I have no intention of going back to

that dealer despite the discount they eventually gave

me.

Overall, it’s sad that we have to

pay attention to things like this. I hope that I made them feel

guilty enough about misleading me that it won’t happen again to

someone else, but who knows?

If you read my column last week I

made the statement, “When I’m choosing a mechanic, I’d rather he’s

worked on a few other cars before I hand mine over to him.” Turns

out even if they’ve been in business for over 30 years, the work

may be fine while the practice is not. So for now, stand up for

yourself, and enjoy the small victories.