Sunday, January 27, 2008

at the car wash

The salt from the city's winter clean-up is killing my car and I've been trying to run through a car wash. Every time I try, something goes horribly wrong.

In the latest attempt, I pulled up to the pump, filled up with gas and chose to pay for a car wash at the pump. When I finished filling the tank, no receipt came out with the code for the wash. I went into the kiosk.

Me: Hi, I bought a car wash at the pump and no receipt came out, so I don't have a code. Can you please give me one?

Employee: Well, it didn't give you a receipt because the car wash is broken.

Me: Oh, OK. But I paid for a car wash. You should probably disable that function.

Employee [completely disinterested]: Yeah.

Me: OK, well, can you refund me the cost of the car wash?

Employee: No, I can't, but I can give you a code. [Jots something down on a piece of paper and hands it over.]

Me: This doesn't even look like a code, and I will definitely lose it. Can I please just have a refund?

Employee: Well, you bought it on your credit card and I can't refund to your credit card.

Me: Ummm... why not?

Employee: I don't know how and there's nobody else here.

Me [laughing]: OK, well, can you just give me the amount back in cash then?

Employee: I'm not supposed to.

Me: OK, but now I'm getting no car wash and I'm not getting any money back. That seems a tad unfair. I suggest you refund my money in cash.

Employee [big sigh, counting cash laboriously]: Oh, OK.

Is it really this hard?

RainyBow

5 comments:

The CDM said...

I've been trying to give my car a good washing for 2 months now. Everytime I get some time to do this and do it right, something comes up or rain is in the forecast in the next 2 days or less. I feel your frustration, that attendent needs some serious C.S. training.

complain away said...

Well, I try to be understanding, since I've managed to dodge ever working retail (besides a couple of volunteer shifts). I imagine it must be trying. But still.

Emory Mayne said...

Car crud. Now see, if you owned a male you could train him to do things like removing car crud.

But hey, if you want to get all picky about a life mate; car crud is the price you have to pay.

complain away said...

Rainy, why didn't we think of this before. Boys could keep our cars clean. Must ponder. Oooh oooh oooh...SuperBowl is this Sunday. There will be plenty of boys in bars all over town. Let's come up with a plan.

Sunny

complain away said...

Well, Emory, Sunny knows where it's at. Use the boys to rid our cars of crud, without using the pesky words "life mate."

And, just for the record, every guy I date is more interested in orchestrating great "romantic" (read: cheesy) gestures than he is with cleaning my car. I'm still not sure how I manage that. I would much prefer the car crud removal.