So, Denise and I had yet another adventure on Sunday night that continued on through Monday, and is yet to be resolved! On my way home from a wedding in Malibu, the car problems began. When I arrived in Malibu for the festivities, a bright red indicator light was glaring at me. Hopeful that it was merely a result of the treacherous drive to the wedding location, my suspicions of a greater issue were confirmed when I started my journey home. Since my car is getting a little older, I’m use to seeing indicator lights lit up on my dash, but something about a bright red light is a little unnerving. On the way home, my headlights seemed a bit dim, but I was hoping for enough power to make it back to Sherman Oaks. By the time I got to Woodland Hills, the dash lights were getting dim. I had Denise on the phone, so I let her know that if I lost my gauges, I was in trouble. The White Oak exit was in sight, and by then, all the gauges were flat. Puttering through the intersection, I was able to pull over onto Ventura Blvd where I asked Denise to come rescue me from.

We waited for the tow guy for about half an hour and found out AAA had alerted the wrong location. After another half hour or so, the tow truck guy showed up. He didn't seem to be too interested in speaking to us, just started loading up my car. We were both like, uhhh...okay. Once he had my car on the truck, he followed us to my mechanic in Sherman Oaks, dropped the car off there, and left us without much of an acknowledgement. We were cracking up and were like, that's sweet. Leave two girls alone in a dark alley, in the Valley...how nice of him.

Next day, we both got up and went back to the mechanic to figure out the car situation. I had to take it back to Sears in order to get the job done for free since it was under their warranty plan. On the first try of driving it to Sears, my car died within 1.5 blocks of the mechanic. So, my mechanic, Kirk (he's the best, by the way) came and got me, helped me get back to his shop and charged up my battery again, for 1/2 hour. I think I hit every single red light on the grueling 4 mile drive to Sears, praying the ENTIRE way. We got there, signed the paper work and were assured it would be done in a couple hours. Easy enough!

At 3:00, I get a call from the "technician." I'm not sure what he's a technician of...I am thinking most likely his naval! He informed me he wouldn't be able to fix my car. No alternatves, nothing, just that he couldn't fix it. So, I said, "you can't fix an alternator!?" He proceeds to explain that he doesn't have the right tool to get mine out and that they've been trying for the past few hours and didn't have any success. I told him he needed to go find the right tool if that meant buying one or borrowing one from someone. He said he couldn't do that, but that I could drive it to Northridge. Under no circumstances was I going to drive that car! I told him he could tow it there if he liked, but I wasn't driving it there. So then, he said it would take 2 days for them to fix it if it was left at that shop. It went back and forth like this for the next 2 hours.

Now I realize it's Sears. But what kind of customer service is this? Really? They managed to get it to Northridge to be worked on at that Sears location and it was suppose to be done by noon today at the very latest. I decided considering yesterday's blessings, I'd better follow up to make sure it would be done. Oh, they were thrilled to hear from me when I called! North Hollywood failed to give them ANY of my original receipts, phone numbers or anything. They still had my old number in the system and they needed to call the original location to assure the original purchase of the car.
I called again around 2pm today to hear more of the hum drum "it's a very difficult alternator to get out of your car, it's going to take some time." I still am waiting to hear if it's finished yet.

.....to be continued.....

p.s. ultimate moral of the story. don't ever get your car fixed at Sears!