Anti-Climacus

Alright, so, bit of an unintended adventure yesterday:

I was returning home after Thanksgiving, and making remarkable time. Because I was making such good time, I kept on putting off lunch (first rule of long-distance driving: make the first stop as late as you possibly can). Unfortunately, this meant that when my car started overheating in Wytheville, VA, it happened at 3:00. Given that the average wait for a tow truck from AAA is about an hour, this did not give me much time to get it to a mechanic, and very little hope that my car would actually be fixed the same day. Worse, I've had this problem with the car before, and it was quite expensive. So I had visions of huge bills and trying to get from the mechanic to a hotel without a car in a town without cabs dancing in my head.

AAA did their usual bang-up job placing me on hold (they have an 800 number, but because my cell phone is from Michigan, they send me to the Michigan AAA first. Since my member number is from North Carolina, they usually then send me to that one. This is of no use when you are in Virginia, because they're the ones I'd need to talk to. This also happened last year in New Jersey, which necessitated no fewer than six transfers. Insanity.), but added a new twist by hanging up on me after ten minutes. I contemplating calling them back, but decided that, with time a factor, it'd be easier to just call a mechanic and get them to tow me, expense be damned. (and, really, if you think you're going to be spending $400 for a repair and who knows how much for a hotel, $45 for a tow seems reasonable) As I had the good fortune of landing at a gas station, I went in and asked if they could recommend a garage, which they did. I called the tow truck and spoke with a well-dispositioned gentleman with an accent like Larry the Cable Guy and the enunciation of Boomhauer from King of the Hill; communication miraculously ensued.

I made it to the mechanic, where I was informed by the man who ran it that he could get me back on the road that night, but since they shop technically closed at 5:00, labor might "cost extra." Obviously, he was in a position to set the terms of our negotiation, so I graciously accepted. And, really, I was quite glad he was willing to do it: he could've very easily and reasonably told me it couldn't be done until tomorrow. Unusually for a mechanic, he had me wait in the garage. I made conversation (one of the other mechanics lived in south Jersey for a couple years, so we talked about that. He had no idea where I had lived, which confirms my suspicion that "30 minutes east of Trenton" corresponds to no known location even for people who lived in New Jersey) and did my best to be polite given that, again, they were working overtime to get me back on the road.

The problem, as it turns out, was pretty simple, and required a $10 part (marked up to $30) to fix. This does make me wonder what a ride I was taken for the last time this problem occurred. As for labor, I was told that the overtime hour was double and the mechanic could therefore charge me for up to three hours of labor for 90 minutes work. He declined to do so and instead only charged me for one hour (at a rate which was approximately half of what it is in NC or NJ). As they were running my credit card for approximately 25% of what I thought the whole thing would cost I saw a sign that read "YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES HOW MUCH YOU PAY." Which, seriously, is an excellent policy, and one from which it appears I unintentionally benefited.

Lesson:
1. It's really amazing to me how much more smoothly customer-service interactions run when you are not actively hostile and perhaps even minimally friendly towards the people whose job it is to help you. I have my limits: no point in being nice to the TSA people, or the AAA woman who asks you to spell your name three times even though it's on her computer and will just hang up on you anyway. But you really do catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.