A random act of kindness

[chriskleeman]

A small Christmas Miracle...

I just wanted to share this, in case anyone needs to know there is still a little bit of good left in this world. The short story:

We drove our daughter to the Airport yesterday, normally a two hour trip from Vermont to Bradley north of Hartford. It was snowy and slick, and we were taking our time down the interstate. Shortly after we got on, the tire pressure warning light came on in my wife's RAV4. We stopped in Brattleboro, grabbed a couple of bagels, and filled all the tires with air, not realizing that there was a real problem with the right front tire. The light came on again in about 20 miles, and we pulled off the interstate to find the right front tire with about 20 lbs of air. Filled it up, and Danielle found a slight cut in the sidewall which was leaking air. So, we kept driving, had to pull off one more time before we got to the airport for more air. We got there in plenty of time, and turned around and headed back. We had to stop again in Enfield CT to fill the tire again. Once we left the airport, my wife called AAA to find a tire place in Northampton MA, a place I'm very familiar with. We went to where AAA recommended, and were told it would be an hour wait and $20 to swap the spare with the right front tire. Now, call me lazy, but the last thing I really wanted to do was to get out the jack and fool around for 45 minutes changing a tire in the slush.

So, we pulled across the street to Town Fair Tire. I went to the service desk, and a very nice young man came out to inspect the damage. They were quite busy, lots of folks in the waiting area. He didn't have a replacement tire in stock, but immediately printed up a service order to change over to the spare tire. He informed us we were next in line, and I took our copy of the bill, a whopping $10.95. As I brought out the service order to the car, I was met with a smiling technician who quipped, "You didn't want to be here all day with this, did you?" We were probably in there for no more than 10 minutes once we were seated in the waiting area, and the car was ready to go. I went to pay the bill and he waved us off, no charge. I looked more carefully at the invoice, and he had indeed totaled it to $0. We asked again if we could pay them, and were told with a big smile, again, no charge. They did know we were traveling through on our way home to Vermont, as they had taken down our address for the invoice.

We couldn't believe it! It was so kind of them to take us in almost immediately in the first place, and then to send us on our way like that was, well, just wonderful! And I didn't have fool around with the jack in the slush!   We were smiling from ear to ear for quite a while after we left!  
So if you ever need a tire near Northampton...

Chris K  

[RNKIII]

Great story, Chris.  Thanks for sharing it.
The dealership where I "work" / hangout or whatever, has a bullitinboard where they post the cards and letters of "thanks" they get from the people they've helped out.  I'm sure the tire shop would appreciate a quick note from you. I know that quite often the techs are pulled from what they are doing to assist in these "quick turnaround" jobs.
Glad to hear that the trip was otherwise uneventful.

Bob K.   Rnkiii

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(RNKIII @ Jan 9 2011, 10:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sure the tire shop would appreciate a quick note from you.

Bob K.   Rnkiii

Oh yeah, you can bet on that! Probably both an email and a letter!

Chris  

[Jack W]

Super Story!

Thanks Chris!

[kimmer]

Heartwarming story, Chris; and glad you to and from the airport okay!

[jwboyd]

Great story, Chris!

I could (but I won't) cite one occasion when a tire shop was less than helpful when I was 800 miles from home.

Based only on my own experience, I have concluded that most of the stories you read/hear about tourists being gouged by repairmen are overblown.

[gunug]

Years ago I was on the New Jersey turnpike (I was driving a 67 Mustang, wish I still had that) and had a similar "fast leaking" type situation and had a guy with effectively one arm (a veteran) who took off and fixed my tire which had some weird piece of metal jammed into it.  He liked my car and its custom paint job and wouldn't even ring it up.  I gassed up and went on my way with thanks.  I did make note of the place and the proprietor at the time and did thank him with a post card from where I was going but I don't remember after all of these years exactly where I was!

[krissel]

 Ah, that makes me warm inside.  And it's not the hot tea.  

[jcarter]

I had an odd one, years ago I was coming home from taking my brother and husband to meet a sailboat in Maine, and coming south thru Brunswick, when suddenly I heard the tire start to thump. Stopped and got out and there was a HUGE aneurism in the side of the tire.  So the dog and I drove really slowly to a Ford agency there, and went to the desk to see if one of the guys would help me change the tire. Our car was a huge old station wagon and it was chock full of stuff, sails, boxes of food, and lots of heavy stuff.
They said I would have to wait at least an hour, they would have to write up a work order. As I was waiting, they were hanging out and goofing off. I asked once again, they acted uninterested.
So I went out, pulled the car right into the CENTER of their parking lot right in front of the main doors, and changed it myself. They came out and apologized, and I ignored them. Evidently the shop boss had gone out for coffee and the guys were just goofing off.
Thats the only time we had that happen.  
Then our fuel pump died half way from here to Maine, and we had a totally loaded truck(dog too of course). Was a Sunday morning, we found a garage and they went out of their way to take care of us, and we wrote a thank you letter to the Shell oil co. as that was the brand of the station where they were so nice. They got some kind of an award and wrote back to us, sending us a flower vase in the shape of a shell.
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

I went out, pulled the car right into the CENTER of their parking lot right in front of the main doors, and changed it myself.

You might have got quicker service if you hadn't been so subtle!!!

Most know it's more difficult to even find a real 'service station.' We found one almost 35 years ago and they always get 'dibs' on any mechanical problem. If they can't handle it, they'll recommend a specialist, always been equally proficient and helpful, as well as economical. Even if they attempt a repair themselves, if they can't find the problem, they never charge for the time spent! Only problem, of course, is that they are always very busy! Like looking for good food by following truckers, finding a good mechanic by following satisfied customers never fails. Maybe even better than finding good food...

[Johanbgoot]

I'm sure many of you will remember the ice storm we had up here 12 years ago.  Working for a municipality I was part of the emergency response team. Most of the province was without electricity, so we often went and got people and brought them to a shelter, or hospital appointments, delivered firewood, etc.

I arrived at city hall one morning and hit some ice and began to hear noise under my car. I called my garage (I have used them for 20+ years), explained my problem and asked for an appointment. Renald the owner asked where was the car, he would come and pick it up. When I had finished for the day and went to hand in the city car keys, the receptionist handed me my car keys and told me where my car was.  I called my garage and said I would be by to pay tomorrow and Renald told me there was no charge, he only needed to change a bracket and 2 bolts; and then he proceeded to ask me to thank everyone at city hall for the timely response to the ice storm emergency.  He sure made my day.