The Time I got ripped off badly by a car place

 I found out that I might have my car back by Friday.  They are hoping to get the passenger mirror by Thursday and can get it installed.  I'll take that even if it doesn't arrive, I trust that they'll contact the rental company and make sure I can keep the rental car.  Even if I hate the car.  I'll have one.

It's hard to find a place you can trust when it comes to car issues.  Like the vet, I messed up and went somewhere else and paid for it dearly when I got kind of frustrated with the place I dealt with for years.  I went back.  I got my previous Toyota because someone told me that Andrews treated women decently.  I was trying to get a new lease and I had to go at it alone.  My dad normally sat there just as reinforcement when I would talk to the car people and look scary.  I've brought my mom because well she's good at telling people they're full of garbage when they start spewing high numbers.  We all need a back up.  This time I was able to get into a lease and was able to buy the car after my lease was up. I had it paid off in 2 and 1/2 years and you get used to not having a car payment. I should have traded that car in a long time ago.  Time slipped by and I got sick.  I got afraid of trying to have another car payment.  I kept running into repairs and had a few bad moments with a couple of people that made me wonder if I needed a change.

That answer was NO.  Sometimes there's a couple of bad apples.  There's a lot of ripoffs and I found a big one. I won't say the name but it rhymes with Runro auto.  Son of a ugh. I can't say.  I went to the one near the dealership one day when I realized one of my headlights was burnt out after I had a nail appointment. I thought maybe I could get into the dealership but when I saw Runro Auto on my way, I thought I would stop in.  They were friendly and they didn't charge me an arm and a leg which was appealing so I thought maybe I should try them.  I went for a couple of oil changes and after the second one, I found out I needed a big repair.  I don't remember the repair other than it was going to cost me $1200.  I asked if I could make an appointment in about a month and they said I'd be ok if I waited.  I thought I'll get some money in and maybe can pay on the credit card that was going to get abused.  

Then we had a snow storm one day and I had a light come on my car. I wasn't ok about going in so I called Runro and see if we could get everything taken care of that day.  Took me two hours to get there taking city streets by golly, they seemed like nice folks.  $1800 later, I still didn't get it through my head that they sucked.

My first sign was a month and a half later, when I was driving back from the hospital where I took magazines before Covid. It was kind of a nice drive where I could take city streets and this hospital was kind of out in the country.  I could hear this clanging when I was going down one of the roads and thought what the hell is that?  I didn't know what to do. I really didn't want to go back to Runro's location near the dealership.  I went to a Runro Auto near where I lived and something was loose and dragging and they took care of it for free.  I didn't think they totally sucked.  Maybe just the location on Dort Lashington Road.  

A month later, I got a new light that popped up.  I took it to Advance Autos to do a diagnostic test and they gave me a code.  It was some electrical issue.  When I called Runro, they told me that I would have go to their Cudahy location because Cudahy had a smoke machine.  Smoke machine?  Why did the car need a smoke machine?  Was Cher going to do a performance to fix my car?  I was done.  

I called the dealership and I explained what happened.  They seemed confused when I brought up a smoke machine but they made an appointment for me that following Monday.  Runro thought that I would need to leave my car with them.  And drive what?  A bicycle?  

I took my car to the dealership and I thought it would take some time to get it fixed.  It took less than 2 hours and when the service guy, it sounded like the person who worked on my car at Runro screwed it up.  I never went back to Runro.

People may think I'm stupid that I go to the dealership. I thought I was stupid for not being loyal to them for that short period of time.  I have been there since 2003 and after Rurno Auto, no danger of me straying. 

A smoke machine?  What do you use a smoke machine for?  That still baffles me.

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