#1

When I called to set up the ser­vice appoint­ment for the Pur­ple Whale I had to empha­size that I wanted just the manufacturer’s rec­om­mended ser­vice. The dealer has its own “rec­om­men­da­tions” which include every­thing Hyundai calls for plus, bal­anc­ing all 4 wheels, lube hinges and steer­ing stops, multi-point inspec­tion OEM rec­om­mended and some­things called BG Bat­tery Ser­vice, BG Oil & Fuel Ser­vice Addi­tives and BG Trans­mis­sion Fluid Exchange Syn­thetic, that are mostly snake oil and jack up the cost con­sid­er­ably. I ask the ser­vice adviser how much my 30k ser­vice is going to cost me and he replies, “$237,” and he pro­ceeds to read me back what I’m going to get for my money. I almost stop him because I’m look­ing at the dealer’s web site and he is read­ing the same thing I’m look­ing at, but I’m glad I don’t. As he gets to the bot­tom of the list he adds, “Because we are see­ing a lot of prob­lems from ethanol in the gas we put in…” I stop him there and say, “I don’t want that. How much is the ser­vice with­out it?” After a brief pause, “$206.”

So when we get to the Ser­vice Desk at Tay­lor Hyundai over in Augusta yes­ter­day to pick up the car I am fully expect­ing to have to bat­tle to get that extra $31 worth of worth­less addi­tive off the bill. The key and my invoice are right on top and I can see the total right there — $174.83. WTF?

#2

When I got home from work there was an email from Crutch­field, the Emperor’s New Radio that was sup­posed to ship on June 15th, shipped today.