Adventures of a yellow car (I)
A few weeks back, me and Ju went for our weekly Sunday evening blading session at ECP. After picking her up from Yishun, we headed off… I got distracted whilst talking to her and missed the turn into TPE. In the end, I went by Paya Lebar. Lots of construction going on along the roads… suddenly the car started vibrating violently… I had no idea what was going on. Ju suggested it was a punctured tyre, and she was probably right as we could smell a strong stench of burnt rubber, so I rolled into the nearest petrol station. She was right; when we got out to check, my left rear tyre was totally flat.
Spoke to the petrol station cashier, and he suggested driving to the next Shell station where they had an Autoserv center which does repairs. Went over, darn, it was close (as expected at an evening on a Sunday). Ju called Ah Leen, who got us AA’s number. We waited 45 minutes before the mechanic arrived.
This old guy in his 40’s, with an unfriendly disposition, got out of the tow truck. Scowling, he looked at my car and asked where my tools were. Tools? I had no idea, just bought the car, and I totally didn’t bother about any tools, as I wouldn’t know what to do with them either. I told him I didn’t have any, and he went back to his tow truck to get some. On further inspection, after removing the cap in the middle of the wheel, he told me he didn’t have the right tools. Allegedly, my wheels were “special” and required “special” tools to unscrew them. He claimed that there was no reason why I shouldn’t have them, and no one could remove them without these tools.
I told him that my front tyres were recently changed and required no “special” tools from me by my mechanic. He told me he had no idea how they changed my tyres… I was getting pretty annoyed by this old fart who seemed to be a con job. He said there was nothing else he could do for me except tow my car to the nearest workshop. I was incredulous, it was 8 plus in the evening on a Sunday, where the hell would we find a auto repair shop still open?
I questioned him, how much would it cost? These asshole mechanics just want to bully you into paying for unneeded services… He said $60 for towing (the guy had quoted me $35 over the phone for changing the tyre). He stopped there. So I pressed on, how about the changing of the tyre? He said that would depend on the shop we find, since he has no tools to change the tyre for me. I was aghast, I was quoted $35, now it’s $60 and whatever a mystery shop (if we could find one) would charge us. Alas, I had run out of ideas, so I just resigned myself to fate and asked him to hurry up.
He brought the tow truck over and tried to lift my car from the back with some forklift-like device. Except that it was threatening to totally lay waste to my back bumper body kit. Stop, I hurriedly told him, as it had already cracked a bit of the body kit. This was turning into some car repair nightmare.
The old geezer told me that he can’t tow my car without damaging my car, so he can’t do anything for me anymore. Then he proceeded to ask me for $35 for his fee. I was flabbergasted! I shouted, but you didn’t do anything!
He said it wasn’t his fault that I didn’t have the right tools, nor was it his fault that my car couldn’t be towed, he had still supplied his services. I was so pissed off, I started ranting about how ridiculous it was that he wanted me to pay for zero service, and which mechanic turns up without tools… etc
People were beginning to stare as I kept raising my voice. He refused to budge, I was getting so sick of his idiotic face, I gave him the money and asked him to go.
In the end, I left my car overnight at the petrol station and got the tyres replaced by the Autoserv Center in the morning.
