Drivers beware: 60,000 in Blaine for sports events

(I live in Blaine, right by these events. )

This post will be filled in soon unless the place figures out how to add customer service to their game plan for servicing vehicles. 

It is almost like this place sat down and thunk up how to run the worst service department in the auto biz, then decided it seemed like a good idea. 

Stay tuned. 

Update:

Walser Pontiac Buick & GMC in Roseville. 

I had to bring my truck in for a recall today. There was an update to the PCM (powertrain control module) that would prevent my truck from possibly just plain not starting. No problem I thought. 

So I made an appointment for 8:30 AM this morning. I dropped it off about 8:15 AM and got it checked in. The guy behind the counter asked me when I needed it back. I said by 3:30. He wrote down 2:30 on the paper in huge red letters with a marker. Then we went over what numbers I could be reached at to let me know when it was down. My cell and work numbers were correct. 

So then I went about my hot, sticky, and sweaty day at work. I figured sometime around 3PM I should get a call saying she’s all done and ready to go, based on my years of experience with service departments from scores of different dealers.

Well, about 4PM, I started to wonder if they were going to do it again. It being not call, and them being Walser Pontiac Buick & GMC. You see, Walser offers a free oil change for life on new cars bought from them. So I had some experience with their service department. 

First, everybody should realize there is a catch the the “free”. You have to pay for all the meaningless interval services. Yes, those ones where they perform the factory recommended 32 point check of the rotate the wipers, lube the door hinges, and change the washer fluid filter. (Note: if any of my readers have paid for the previously mentioned services, call a lawyer, I made them up in order to explain the basic uselessness of those interval services.) 

Most of those things are a joke, but the dealer service department gets to charge you a few hundred bucks to do it, and when it is all over, you have no proof they did one single thing. They can’t (and won’t) hand you a box of bad parts they replaced. Sure there is some merit to do these the more miles you get on, because then they do something, but at 7500 miles, I better not have anything wrong with it yet. 

Anyways, so yeah, I did the first few oil changes there, but it cost me a couple hundred bucks. You see, while the oil changes were free, the interval service fees were not. Regardless, each and every time, I had dropped the truck off rather than wait. 

I’m not a jerk who demands that they get it done with in 30 minutes. I know mechanics and understand that sometimes things come up with new car deals and such and it is nice to have some slack. I work nearby and can usually beg an fellow employee to drop me off and pick me up. 

But each and every time I have taken my truck to Walser Pontiac Buick and GMC in Roseville, they have been terrible on the customer service. 

One time when I took it in for an oil change, I got it back leaking oil. Other times when I asked questions about the factory remote starter, I got some very “interesting” answers and points about glow plugs from the service manager/write up dude, that I am sure General Motors would not agree with. Defying the laws of physics and design of the motor in my truck. 

Anyways, I am a guy who has been wrenching on my own trucks for years. I grew up around people working on cars, trucks, and machinery so I really hated paying people to do stuff I could. And on those one out of every other one, free trips, I hated having to take the time off and bugging someone to go drop me off when i could have just done the same thing myself in less time then it took to get the truck and me there and back. 

Oh and then there was the time I tried to change the fuel filter. I called the Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC and they wanted $120 to change the fuel filter. I decided to do it myself. The one for my truck is a bit weird. It has an o-ring rather than a regular gasket you’d see on the canister style filters. I went and popped the $30 bucks for one at Rosedale Chev. (Why Chev and not GMC? Same parts, but for some reason I get a discount at Rosedale Chev. It is more than that retail, or if I got it at Walser GMC.)

Anyways, I couldn’t get the first filter not to leak and tried to wrench it on thinking I had weak hands. Well, I pierced the side  and had to get a second one. No luck and she still leaked and I had a heck of a time keeping pressure in the line so she would start up. That’s $60 down the drain so far. So, I broke down and called Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC’s service department thinking that since I bought the truck there, maybe they’d be the best place to go for some advice.

All I got was a bring it in and we’ll take a look. $300 or so later, I got a truck with a new fuel filter that ran great and didn’t leak. Unfortunately, the yackoff decided he needed to charge me a diagnotic fee on top of the filter change.

Now I am sorry, I know they did have to look and see why, but once they realized I didn’t know what ever the secret tip to the o-ring was, they could have just said, hey we need to throw a new filter on there, and call it a day. Service one of “their” customers, and keep everybody happy.

They didn’t. Oh sure. My fault. I know I could have just brought it in, but they didn’t need to make $118 dollars for having someone go and look at my truck, then another $100 to have him change the filter. At some point someone needs to say, if we charge for this and at these rates, these people won’t come back.

And I will be one who won’t. Tonight was the last time I brought my truck to Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC in Roseville for service.

I even emailed the guy I bought it from asking him to go down and see if my truck was ready cause they wouldn’t answer my phone. It also included a little commentary on their service department, much briefer than in this post. 

It just so happened that today they were being auditted by the Walser corporate for their service. I found that out because after trying to call to find out WTF?! was up with my truck at 4PM, and getting caught up in the phone maze of pressing the correct combination of numbers to leave a messages, “because they’re too busy to get to me” ……

Anyways, I had to call back a few times trying to get to the right voicemail option and left a message. It was a general number for all of Walser. It went to corporate, and said their average return time was 10 minutes.

Around that many minutes later, maybe a few more, I did get a call from someone. It was the auditor who just happened to be at Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC today. I was pretty nice on the phone and just wanted my stinking truck back.  

Well, when I got there finally tonight, I saw my sales guy and told him the email I sent was not a shot at him and to pass it along to the proper channels. He asked what was wrong, I told him. And he tried to talk to me but the more I went over how terrible I felt things were, the madder I got. I said that maybe I was spoiled from dealing with Polar Chev and the guy I knew there, but if I had sat down and thunk up how to come up with the worst Service Department ever, it would be this one here at Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC. 

Eventually the corporate guy who called me came over and I was pretty worked up. I gave him a real brief rundown and finished by saying that I didn’t spend a shitload of money on a truck to be treated like shit and thaty I would never be coming here again. 

Walser Roseville Buick Pontiac & GMC’s service department is a place you shall and must avoid unless they completely clean house and restaff. I strongly urge every single person to avoid going there at any and all costs. Do not take your vehicle to Walser Buick Pontiac & GMC in Roseville for service!!!!!!!  

I give them a big fat F on any and all scales for their service department. 

(Note: My girlfriend bought her FJ Cruiser from Walser’s Toyota in Bloomington and likes the people down there. Seems to me to be just a Roseville branch problem, not a corporate wide one. )

My water heater went out last night. She’d been servicing this home for around 28 years and gave up last night in the middle of my shower. I had to shower at work this morning.

I had one heck of a crazy day at work and never got a lunch break. We had a meeting with the city about inconsistencies and our building official that chewed up most of my morning. I came back from that and helped our electrician with some street lights that went out this weekend and had to dig to try to find the break. No luck but we got a temporary line run and the lights are back on. Unfortunately I missed another blogger call with Congresswoman Bachmann while head deep in a hole this afternoon. 

On the way home I picked up a new water heater and got her installed this evening. The girlfriend was nice enough to come back over to a house with out working hot water and made dinner while I was in the basement cursing up a storm. We had dinner while the baby was heating up her first of many tanks of hot water. 

I got the chance to take a fantabulous hot shower and now we’re chilling on the deck with citronella candles, 3 dogs, a million mosquitos, and a couple of Jacks. 

Frankly I have been in a run of bad luck and I’m hoping things start turning the corner. 

Yeah I know it is Wednesday, not Friday, but I have a very busy and early starting weekend this week.

My sister from Chicago and her family are coming to the cabin on Friday. Her ETA is Friday afternoon. I’ve been so dang busy that the boat is still not there. She just came out of the moth balls in the garage this weekend and is sitting in the driveway waiting. 

I’m planning on taking tomorrow afternoon and Friday off in preparation. 

Tomorrow I will button up some loose ends at work in the morning and then run the boat up in the afternoon. I have a 3:30 “thing” ( more details on that later) that I have to be home for so it is up and back. Thankfully I saw Diesel was down to $4.51 on the way home (in Blaine, it is cheaper here!!!!!!) so I will top off both tanks in the morning.

I have to be back in the cities by 3:30 for the “thing”, so I will not have much time to blog.I will be blogging on the “thing” tomorrow afternoon. I have an SD51 meeting tomorrow night, then it is back home to finish packing and loading up. I have a trailer to haul up with more cabin fun stuff plus 2 desks and some chairs which will make the return trip back to the Windy City.

Friday morning I will be getting up early to hit the road for the cabin to get the grass cut, boat lift set up, and boat launched before my sister and her fam get there.

I will be toting 3 dogs so it will be a gong show. I’ve been watching my girlfriend’s dog Mike this week as she got sent to the DC area for work. What she’s doing, only CPA’s and accounting nerds would understand. (She told me but, well, it didn’t have to do with politics or guy stuff, so ….. SHHHHHHH don’t tell her I think she sounds like the teacher in Charlie Brown. ) :D 

She will be back in the Twin Cities and head up to the cabin to help coral the K9’s some time, hopefully Friday night. My sister’s dog is a nut case. No seriously, Ruby makes Al Gore look sane. Its a Wheaten (sp) Terrier and plum full of psychoticness. Seriously, the thing is insane. Hopefully spuringirl3 will be able to make it before Saturday night. We have tacos on the menu or Friday night. (plus well, my sister’s dog is psycho!)

The rest of the weekend, AAA will be on vacation and Uncle Andy will be on the job. Since AT&T’s coverage is about as reliable as the UN, I doubt I will be able to post here. (except for the “thing” tomorrow)

Have a good weekend. Oh and mark your calendars for this. Olive branches extended but with raised eye brow, I will try to be there and find a corner to stand in. RF readers know I don’t play well with others and have sharp elbows, I am partisan, and……….. so this should be interesting. But hopefully the invite I got via email today was sincere. 

Have a good weekend. 

AAA out! Except for the “thing” tomorrow. 

PS: I turned down a fill in job this weekend on KTLK.

The pooches are tired. 

I went up and opened up the cabin this weekend. Got the dock all set, the pontoon launched, and moved a few tons of dirt around. The dirt is from the well and septic replacement last season. We also spent quite a few hours raking up rocks. That’s one of the huge downsides of the area. The ground is clay with incredible amounts of rocks in it. 

But there was some fun had between the rain showers and a lot of work has been done. I forget to take before and after shots, but once the black dirt and seed is done, I’ll get some taken. The place is really coming along. 

I am now going to grab a nice shower then kick those boys off my couch. I need a rest myself. 

It has been a while since I did any self-gradulating truck posting, so here goes. (i’m doing so cuz I said I’d post a pic of my latest bumper sticker addition earlier today.)

That’s the new GlobalClimateScam.com sticker.

Here you can see my Fred ‘08, Bachmann, and Taxpayer’s League (Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. )

Here’s the profile.

Here’s the front. That’s a Warn Trans4mer grille guard Rhino lined with the front receiver tube and holding some Hella Black Magic lights. I have an RDS auxilary fuel tank/tool box on order that should be here in a few weeks.

The new RF One is a bit more technical to care for with the Duramax diesel engine, and the factory tank at 21 gallons is pretty much a pain in the spare. The dash rattles beyond tollerance at times, but with 365 HP & 620 foot pounds of torque…….. roh roh roh!

Mileage is not what I had hoped due to the new Federal emissions BS (down 25ish percent from engine models before the new standards), but it is still better than the old RF’s 8.1L gas engine.

I do love her and so do the dogs.

Well, I didn’t get to the Windy City to see my family, but I did spend the weekend hanging with something pretty special. Thank you!!

Got this one tonight in my email.

http://lionheartuk.blogspot.com/

Click the above link to see the threat of Al Qaeda in Britain.

Here’s a CNN clip on that site all must see.

I’m a Catholic who is finding his way back toward his Church, and may even get to meet someone very high up in my religion in the near future.Still, I feel no reason to go be violent and confrontational in front of another denomination’s venue of faith.

Crossposted at TrueNoth

Sue Jeffers and I will be on FM100.3 KTLK tomorrow from 9 to 11 AM. We’ll be filling in for Dan Conry. Sue and I will be discussing Precinct Caucuses and the importance of fiscal conservatives showing up. We’ll go over some of the process as well as discus the Republican Party Platform and some resolutions to change it.

Tune in TOMORROW morning, 9 to 11 AM on FM100.3 in the Twin Cities area, or listen online.

And feel free to call in 651-989-KTLK.

Sue Jeffers and I will be on FM100.3 KTLK this Friday February 1 from 9 to 11 AM. We’ll be filling in for Dan Conry. Sue and I will be discussing Precinct Caucuses and the importance of fiscal conservatives showing up. We’ll go over some of the process as well as discus the Republican Party Platform and some resolutions to change it.

Tune in Friday 9 to 11 AM on FM100.3 in the Twin Cities area, or listen online. And feel free to call in 651-989-KTLK.