My son just returned from serving our country overseas. He is in Oregon to visit his family before reporting to his next duty station and has limited time to accomplish repairs to his vehicle before reporting to his next duty station. His Jeep needed a muffler installed. After calling "The Car Shop" and explaining his situation we were told to come on down and they would get it done. After dropping off the Jeep, I received a call from them stating that since it did not have a catalytic converter they could not install the muffler. The Jeep is registered in Kansas (his last duty station state side), and never had the converter installed. It was pretty obvious that they did not want to tackle the job, as now it was about an hour from closing time, and there was a vehicle in front of us that we had to wait on.
We had to get this muffler installed, so I called a couple other shops. I was informed by both shops that the catalytic converter had NO bearing on whether they could install a muffler, or not. They said that they could not remove one for us, but there is NO reason the muffler could not have been installed. If an automotive repair shop does not want our business, I understand that, but why come up with some erroneous excuse, because you don't want to take the time to do the job. They didn't want to install the muffler because it was too close to quitting time and the converter was their way out. I wonder what would have happened if my son would have quit in Afghanistan because he would have surpassed an 8 hour day. There were many days he went without sleeping, eating and was scared out of his mind not knowing what would come next. He didn't know for sure that he would even make it back home to get that stupid muffler installed.
I usually don't resort to using the veteran card, as I am a combat veteran myself. I NEVER wanted, or expected any type of special favors. This is my son who fought for our country and YES, I think he had something coming in this situation, as would anyone else For that matter. What we expected was for The Car Shop to install his muffler. If it would have gone beyond quitting time, I myself would have offered a tip to all who were involved, followed by a very positive report here on Yelp.
Next time, have the common courtesy to give your customer a call and tell them that there just isn't enough time to complete the job. You won't ever have to worry about anyone in my family becoming a customer, nor will I recommend your shop to anyone who asks. Luckily we found an exhaust shop that works on Saturdays and we will be able to get him back on the road, so he can report to his next duty station. read more