Today's adventure....

Why is it that when ever I need a damn part for one of MY cars I get the royal %$#@#$% run-around! Here's today's exchange with a local parts store that goes by the sub-title "The Parts Authority"....

John: Good morning! This is John from Star Nissan. I have a `74 Dodge Dart that needs a few things. Can you help?

Parts Counterman: Of course we can! What do you need?

John: <feeling confident because the parts guy speaks English...> I have a `74 Dodge Dart with a 225 / auto. I need pads & shoes. I have 10" drums in the rear, single piston calipers in the front. While your in the books, let me get a pair of universal joints and a left side engine mount.

Parts Counterman: <after a few moments while checking his inventory> No good on the mount, everything else is a go. I have 1 joint & the rear shoes, my other store has the front pads & the other joint.

John: Send `em....

<<TWO hours later....which leaves me 1 1/2 hours before my shop closes to bang all this out>>

Parts Driver: Here you shoe....

John: Huh?

Parts driver: <whom barely speaks...never mind he has no grasp of the English laungage> Here shoe... and he's holding an oxygen sensor.

Annoyed John: I think you made a mistake. I ordered brakes and universal joints.

Parts Driver < a.k.a. Plant Life...> Here shoe....

MORE annoyed John: Let me see the ticket. It reads universal joint & brake shoes. I point this out to him and suggest he looks in his truck for the right parts.

Plant Life: No shoe?

I finally find someone in the shop that was born on the same lump of sand as the Plant Life and we establish commincation. He grabbed the wrong parts off the truck. Fast forward to the end of the day, after being visited by the Plant Life's cousin...Stupid Mother ^%$#@#$, my other joint arrives and the front pads. I get the car on the lift & pull it apart. WRONG brake pads....WRONG brake shoes..... I don't DARE pull apart the driveshaft.

I call the parts store again. I get the person whom helped me this morning.

John: Hi, I ordered brakes & universal joints for a `74 Dodge. Everything is wrong! I read him part numbers off the boxes and he assures me these are the correct numbers. I suggest maybe they were returns that were mis-boxed or whatever. Now he's giving me the " are you SURE it's a `74 Dodge, not a Plymouth <like it would make a difference....>

Long story short, I have $110 tied up in incorrect parts, I lost 2 hours of MY time on a beautiful day, and now I have to crank out these jobs after work during the week, which I hate doing because by the end of the day I'm shot to hell. And I'm STILL at the mercy of the counterman and his mutant drivers. Needless to say, now I have to deal with getting my money back and going to Auto Zone or Pep Boys where I can hold the parts in my hands before turing my dead presidents loose.

I swear... I'm selling everything and I'm gonna buy a Mule. If the friggen Mule gives me trouble, I can shoot it and eat it. Now THERE'S satisfaction!