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The Tow Files: Blast From The Past
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Quoth Argabarga View Post
Because he wasn't the one driving it last night.
His mechanic was.
Quoth Argabarga View PostAnyone remember this guy? - http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...d.php?t=107350"If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM
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Quoth sirwired View PostAs a fellow "Computer Guy", I, too, have learned the limits of what I will agree to fix. My checklist:
I have this issue with certain members of my family. I even got to the point where I bought a t-shirt that reads, "No, I will not fix your computer". I'm a software engineer, which apparently to some people translates to "knows everything about computers". I've tried to explain it to some members of my family, and they seem to think that "works with computers" is the same thing.
A couple of stories of my own:
1. My mother's computer was giving her some kind of error once. She was getting a "non system disk..." error, IIRC. So she decides to call me. When I don't immediately call her back, she tries (in vain) to fix it herself, and basically wipes her hard drive (with no backup of the OS). Then she proceeds to blame me, because I didn't call her back quickly enough.
2. My mother's 3rd ex-husband kept messing with their home network, and she kept trying to get it back where it was (he'd unplug things, etc). I told her many, many times to label both ends of the cables, that way when things got unplugged, she'd know where things went. Did she listen? No.
3. My wife and I had gone to a HS football game. Well, my mother calls and asks if we'd like to meet her after the game at a nearby burger joint (I forget the reason). Anyway, as we're getting ready to leave said burger joint, she calls me over to her car, and shows me a computer in the trunk. She had volunteered me (without asking) if I could fix that computer. It wasn't even her computer. It belonged to a lady she worked with. My wife intervened there. She said we didn't have a place to plug it in. I think it needed an OS or something installed on it.
I told my wife later on that we should have installed Linux on it and sent it back to her. But my wife said that would have been more trouble than it would have been amusing.Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.
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Quoth Crossbow View PostMechanic took the car from the shop, got drunk, and rammed a tree.
Nice job on that formerly collectable car, Skippy.
I have heard tales of another guy who was at a car club convention, got s**tfaced and got into another member's historic race car (purpose-built endurance racer from the 60s) and wrecked it, injuring himself. And sued the club and the owner of the car...“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers
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Quoth Nunavut Pants View PostI have heard tales of another guy who was at a car club convention, got s**tfaced and got into another member's historic race car (purpose-built endurance racer from the 60s) and wrecked it, injuring himself. And sued the club and the owner of the car..."For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
"The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
"Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
"There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
"Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
"Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
"Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me
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At least once a year, someone makes the news for taking their souped-up classic for it's yearly inspection, and the mechanic decides to "test drive" it and wraps it around a utility pole.
Last year's victim was a 69' Camaro Z28
That's among the reasons why, I'd wager, that you can get "Antique" plates for your classic car in this state, can't drive it at night, and can only drive "X" miles a year (excluding mileage to and from shows) but it's permanently emissions/safety exempt, so nobody but you gets to touch it.- They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.
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Quoth Valentinian View PostI've seen stuff on YouTube (and once on the news!) from people who took their shiny sports car in to be serviced, and later found dashcam footage from when a mechanic took it out for a 'test drive' which turned out to involve picking up their friends and hooning around at speed.
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Quoth Argabarga View PostThat's among the reasons why, I'd wager, that you can get "Antique" plates for your classic car in this state, can't drive it at night, and can only drive "X" miles a year (excluding mileage to and from shows) but it's permanently emissions/safety exempt, so nobody but you gets to touch it.
Even though the paperwork was all in order--despite the Triple-A people not seeing a 1981-issued A title--I was told that there might be some trouble putting the car in my name. Why? Because in the photos I supplied...the windows were down Of course they were *bleeping* down, it was 100-plus-F when I took the photos! After I threatened to get my local representative involved, the paperwork was duly sent to Harrisburg
Uh, where was I going with this? Oh yes. The car has classic plates on it. Unlike antique tags that carry a 1,500 annual mileage cap, classic plates raise it to 3,500. The other difference, is that I'm subject to getting the car inspected every year. I don't have to get it through emissions testing, because it's exempt. While I could probably get it registered as an "antique" and enjoy not having to get it inspected, I've chosen not to. I'd rather have the car gone over before I lay it up for the winter.Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari
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Quoth protege View PostThe other reasons are probably that your local chain garage isn't going to have the tools or skills necessary to rebuild a carb for a 1920s Model T,
We sicced our state rep on them, they gave us our plate
And 20's car nothing, I'm finding it hard to find a place that will work on the Camaro, if it doesn't have OBDII, an increasing number of places either don't or won't give you the time of day, they want an instant answer from the computer or they're not interested...- They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.
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They want an instant answer from the computer, but the computer may not be telling the whole story. For a long time, my truck was giving an "EGR not responding" code. Much money spent on EGR and sensor replacement. Turned out it was a leak in the air to air charge air cooler.
It takes a GOOD mechanic, not a parts-changer, to translate the diagnostic code into what's up at the root of the problem.Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.
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My mechanic (very good) has classic cars and motorcycles. Last time I was at the shop he had a red and white late 50s Chevy parked in the lot. Looked just like the one my family had in the early 1960s when we lived in Japan, and my mother learned to swear in Japanese by driving on the Tokyo freeway.
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Quoth sirwired View PostI have a Universal Remote, will you talk me through programming it over the phone? (Answer: Hell No. Every person I’ve tried to do this with has turned into a blithering idiot for the remainder of that call. I’m never doing it again. Example Actual Conversation with my Mom: “Okay, your TV is on the wrong input, which button do you push on the TV remote to watch a DVD?” “Hey! It’s working now!” “Which button did you push?” “Okay, how do I change the TV channel?” “I need to finish fixing the DVD; which button did you push?” “The one I always push.” Arrrrgggghhh!!!!)If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.
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Quoth sirwired View PostI have a Universal Remote, will you talk me through programming it over the phone?
Oh, and the actual problem was that the TV had forgotten that it was supposed to be on channel 3, and its short list of channels had been programmed years earlier based on just broadcast channels.
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my Honda was having issues wile it was stopped its not an old Honda its a 2011 I took it to the dealer for this 3 times before I finally went in and was a bit demanding and advised I think its a fan can u check them sure enough one of my a/c fans were out on it so not only did I have to get tires the fan had to be done the spark plugs and the gas line was cleaned, I just put more work in it as the last time I told them you know a computers doesn't know everything magic how now my Struts were leaking and yes they were I had them done somewhere else who showed them to me, and my rotors need to be machined hubbys just going to replace them and my breaks together, oh and the fluids need to be exchanged so I have a love hate relationship with the computers in the car.
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