I‘ve got to get something out of today (last Thursday) because it’s been pretty woeful. And that’s all thanks to Halfords. What a bunch of tossers. You may think this a little harsh but let me tell you about my day and if you still feel that way then I will retract.
The day started for us when we stepped out into the street and found our driver’s side mirror in bits on the ground. Whether by accident or pure vandalism we will never know although, had I known what was to follow, I might not have been so sanguine about the cause.
We get back from the dog walk and, while Mrs Summerhouse was getting breakfast ready, I make a phone call to the tossers (Halfords in case you missed the point) and see if we could buy a replacement driver’s side mirror. I checked on Google for our nearest store and rang them up. You get to listen to a tosser telling you how helpful they are going to be. This is the first of a number of lies they will offer up.
Is this the Kirkstall store I ask? Yes it is (it isn’t but I did not know that then). Good, do you have a replacement driver’s side wing mirror, I ask? She checks her system. Yes we do (the second lie but again I did not recognise it as such at this stage. I arrange to come over to the store and have them fit it for me for an additional £2. I should have said and I will pay an additional £5 if you don’t lie to me but I didn’t.
Mrs Summerhouse whose car the Piccanto is offers to go and pick it up and have it fitted. We make one tiny mistake that will prove very costly. She forgets to take with her the part that attaches the glass (which we can buy separately) to the wing mirror itself. Oh and she had gone to the wrong store. Misdirected by them of course.
She arrives home after an hour or so and greets me with, I bet you expect it to be all sorted don’t you? Just how inaccurate these words will prove to be only the day will reveal. They haven’t fitted it but then they couldn’t without the additional part. But I’ve got the part (the mirror) and they say it’s easy to fit. This from a different store.
Which might have been true if it had been the correct mirror. But it wasn’t, it was the passenger side mirror not the driver’s side mirror. I call up the right store and explain they have given us the wrong part. Can they exchange it? No, they say, we haven’t got this part. This is apparently true. She says I will contact the other store and see if they have the right mirror. I will call you back. This is a lie.
Eventually, sick of waiting, I call the second store. I say, is this the Meadowside store? Yes they say, this is yet another lie. According to the man in the shop when I get there to pick up the mirror which they say they have but don’t, it is actually South Africa where their call centre is now located but they said it was the store I wanted and that they did have the part and I could collect it and have it fitted any time that afternoon. All lies.
You following all this? Still in blissful ignorance we drive to the store and I say, well, everything you’d expect me to say about having come to get the mirror and have it fitted. His (the man behind the counter) reply is not what I expected. No, we don’t have that part I’ll have to order it, he says, cool as a cucumber.
Sadly I am not as cool as a cucumber. That would mean another trip to this store and that would make 3 just for one f—ing part. And, remembering, I just spoke to your colleague on the phone and he told me that this store had the part I wanted. That wasn’t here, he says, that’s the call centre and it’s in South Africa. That stopped me for a moment, whatever excuse I’d expected for their ineptitude this was not it.
So, again, they weren’t telling the truth when, they (the man on the phone), said they were in this shop and that they had the part. Quote from man behind the counter, they’ll tell you anything, and then I have to deal with the pissed off customer. Six a day, he may have been exaggerating but at this point I doubt it if this is how they (the wankers inc.) run their business
Well I’m sorry about that but frankly that doesn’t help me one little bit. No it doesn’t does it. He has obviously been given training in dealing with pissed off customers, but this ‘reflecting back what the customer says’ simply makes me even more pissed off, if that were possible.
I have said plenty to him about the crapness of the wankers inc. and their efficiency but I’ve run out of words. He seems to feel the same way and moves on to the next customer who has had the pleasure of listening to my tirade.
When I’m out of the store and in the car – the one without the wing mirror I reflect on what just happened. Yes, I said plenty and that was good but there’s that feeling that I’ve (to use a sporting analogy) still left a few points ‘out there’ as in ‘on the field’. But that’s usually said by the winning captain after they’ve won a game by a decent margin, so that doesn’t apply here – at all. We drive home defeated. I call the main dealer who accepts my order but says he doesn’t have one in stock and will have to order it. I tell him to go ahead, weary to the bone.
Of course this whole experience gives me a blog and I realise, reading it through, that it’s a complete jumble and as such an indication of just how furious I was at the time of writing – the same day. At least I get something for my pain (this blog) but a retirement blog only works as writing as therapy if I not only write it but put it out there as well, so here it is.