Spent the morning at the garage (famous three-letter national tyre specialists) yesterday. Quite a saga! Windscreen wiper fitted. Tyres checked. Battery pronounced terminal (pun intended). Two tyres recommended because slow leak one had 2 tiny punctures too close together to repair and I knew there was another one cracked and needing replacing soon. The guy told me he'd have to order in the battery and I'd have to come back tomorrow. Already wound up by the extra cost, I lost my patience with him, in front of other customers, because they'd told me they'd order in the battery when I phoned, on Thursday, and I booked the appointment because it would be there!! He agreed to order it in from a nearby place, quoted me £151 for it (I was told it would be £160 over the phone so I was happy with that!) and it would be there by the time the tyres were done. It was. 2 hours later, I pay the - painful - bill, (being informed the battery actually cost them £210 but they only charged me the amount they quoted because I was already annoyed! ☺) and drove off, happy that there'd be no more warnings beeping at me. Impressive 3 year warranty on all my tyres, including roadside recovery and free repair or substantial discount on new ones. Yeh! Money begrudgingly but well spent. I didn't even get home before the "reduced tyre pressure" warning pinged at me. Grrrrrr! Turned straight round and drove back to garage. They checked all the pressures: all OK and recalibrated the computer. At this point, this guy (manager) told me I'd actually had THREE new tyres but only paid for two. This confused me because they replaced one a few months ago but, no, I had 3 yesterday so they're ALL new!! Apparently, it is company policy to stab old/damaged tyres so they don't accidentally reuse them. They took 3 tyres off my car to swap them around and the technician stabbed them ALL even though he'd been told one was going back on!! Numpty! (Not sure he'll be there for long: I gather it's not the first time he's done it!!) So. All in all, my visit cost the garage almost as much as it cost me!! Already fed up with the scaffolding. It's such a faff to get into the garden via the front door, negotiating all the scaffolding poles and other obstacles en route. Also, we can't open any of the upstairs windows more than an inch. Ah well. Should only be for a few days. Time for tea and lemon sponge cake with homemade blackcurrant jam.
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