I can't take it any more
 

Well yeah. The car didn't pass inspection, and it was due to two leaky rear brake cylinders. Pep Boys wanted $475 to replace them and finish the inspection, which included about $60 for the sticker and $50 to replace a burnt out fog light. I told them to go fuck themselves and that I would pick up the car and drive it out uninspected.

So J's kid wrenches at a nearby tire place, so he offered to sticker the car for free and fix the cylinders later at next opportunity.

Next opportunity was Monday night, but yesterday, while leaving work, I hear a scraping noise from the rear wheel whenever I hit the brakes.

The kid lied about how the work was done. Instead of going to his buddies' garage, he did the work on the side of the road, at night, using my scissor jack to lift the car.

And I figured this out last night, in the parking lot at work, finding out that two of my lug bolts are stripped.

Yeah. I tighted up the remaining three bolts and limp the car home trying not to hit the brakes.

Well, money fixes everything right? Why not just go back to Pep Boys, apologize for not understanding that it costs $300 in labor because you have real tools in a real garage and don't do the work with a scissor jack, and get them to replace the stripped threads? It's too far to tow the car to glatt and have him do it.

At this time I have no money, because you see, the other day I attempted to buy some supplies from Amazon using my bosses' credit card. I have his card saved in my account, because we need to buy things about once a week.

But this time the transaction didn't go through, and when I changed the shipping address to see if maybe that was the problem, Amazon inadvertently changed the payment method to my default payment type - my debit card.

This time of course the transaction went through. And I looked at the confirmation, *immediately* realized they had charged my card, and I cancelled the order. Like within 60 seconds.

But the following day I found that the full amount for that order was missing from my bank account. I emailed Amazon and asked WTF? and they said that this was an authorization charge and it would take up to 10 days for my bank to turn that around.

Holy Fucking Shit

They gave me a couple of transaction numbers and told me to give these to my bank and ask them to remove the charge.

I gave them to my bank and my bank has now replied:

Dear Mr. Toad,

Thank you for contacting us in regards to a pending transaction.

To have these funds released, the vendor may fax a letter to us on their letterhead to the attention of Fulfillment at 1-856-533-1138. They need to include the following:

1. Date of authorization
2. Your full debit card number
3. The exact amount debited
4. A brief statement from a representative expressing that they authorize the hold to be released.

If you have any further questions, please contact us via email or call 1-888-751-9000 to speak with a Customer Service Representative, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Regards,

Delan

TD Bank On-Line
E-mail Specialist

So J will lend me some money to work this out; but here I am, forgot to eat dinner yesterday in all this. Woke up at 4am, still dead tired tired tired, couldn't go back to sleep. I'm trying to figure out whether I should just drive to work in the morning and settle this out later; but I need to drive into the ghetto Saturday, because now, goes without saying, I actually need the money from that gig.

Dead tired, can't sleep, angry, frustrated, panicky, it's not just all this crap it's everything. I wonder if I should go back on the anti-depressants.

Wow. That's a crappy morning.

I hope everything goes better as the day progresses.

Damn, that sucks. Kick your bank in the cunt for me.

one thing at a time. these are just situations. railing against the reality won't do anything but feed the frustration. breathe.

So sorry to hear this, Tony.

I can tell you that from the merchant side of a debit refund, it's brutal. It's not like a credit card transaction, for some reason. I had to jump through hoops for folks, and the bank, card company, and merchant services were unhelpful.

I would say it's the goddamn TD Bank but it's pretty much all the banks isn't it? I feel certain that their goal here is to get the $35 overdraft fee. They may wind up charging me because my account doesn't have the money I haven't spent.

Because you never know. I may wind up finally pulling the trigger on those Windows 8.1 purchases in 9 days. Man I am unpredictable like that. I need the bank to reserve that money in case I change my mind again.

Hope it all works out Tony. I know it's very frustrating.

I deleted my post from early morning because I was sort of hijacking though I was trying to commiserate. I'll tell my dumb story elsewhere. ;)

Is it just the bad lugs? Surely the kid has fucked up the brakes too. We're about to go see. Here we go.

This is the Forrester?

It is

So far four lugs and nuts, and they say the drum was adjusted wrong and was 'glazing'. Its at two fiddy, but they say I have no brake lights at all and they are gonna have to look at that.

Kid managed to break something in an entirely different system.

Yikes.

Hopefully yours isn't the Great Mystery of the Lights like mine was. You gonna go find that kid and beat him up? I'm not working right now, so...hey, I can be tough. Sort of. Well, no. ;)

No apparently it is my fault. I forced him to do the work in the wrong way. I feel like it's my fault because I tried to trust him again. Memo to myself, he's a dangerous liar moron and incompetent and always will be...

AHA!

Stop being me, will you? No good will come of it. :)

Same kid that fucked up the maxima?

Yeah yeah

Total is currently $440, brake light switch intermittent. Kid told me he floored the pedal at one point because one of the cylinders was faulty. Well switches do get old.

Tricky spot. He wants to help, but is incompetent. Which you already knew, but the price was too tempting. The part where you're taking the car to Pep Boys says you don't have a good, reasonable mechanic that you trust. Pep Boys is a training grounds. You're rolling the dice there. On the other hand, Dealers are too expensive.

Subarus are one of the easiest cars I've ever worked on. Everything is 10mm. And easy to access. You should find a local guy that charges less than $80/hr labor.... You might try calling local domestic dealers, asking to speak to the used car manager, and then ask him who he trusts in the area if he has to send an import out for cheap recon.

You need a relationship like Shaw has.

Oh! Huge pro tip here : ask to meet the tech that will be we working on your car. Slip that tech $10 or $20 before he works. Tell him lunch is on you. Important that you get to him before the job, otherwise the tip may be forgotten by the time you return, or the tech may be off. If they say they wont know who it will be, then tip the writer $20. Tell him it's for him and the tech. But be slick. Wrap it around the key and don't let anyone overhear. insist if he refuses, it's just lunch on me.... If he still wont take it, you might want to go to a different place

Yeah I blew it, my great mechanic is too far away now that I've moved

Thanks for the pro tip but it's too late to tip the tech. This Pep Boys is actually a different one than the previous. But it seems to have its act more together. I was out of options this morning. The whole thing will now have caused me to pay $100 more than the original inspection estimate. I gotta find another good local person, but I'm probably just going to move again....

Find a good female mechanic so you can offer sex in exchange for car repair.

Good female mechanics don't need men for sex, they use Snap-on tools.

I know this doesn't help you, but I highly recommend this mechanic:

John's Car Care
1400 Brace Rd
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

(856) 429-2289


I know John personally and he is a good guy as well as a competent wrench-turner.

Car is back. Part came locally. Crisis averted. New calmness setting in.

Remember this:
The very nice lady I spoke with at Amazon support told me that they do not, ever, do conference calls and that is their policy. Her advice was to take my Authorization Hold up with a local branch manager.

Is it possible at this point to get a check from your boss to cover the amount and un-reverse the charge? Or tell him you'll pay for the next order once your money is free? Or is the guy that can do that in England?

You guessed it, the home office manages expenses, and it is really difficult. That's why this program of buying supplies with the company credit card started. It's a loophole I guess.

And at first, I kind of liked that all this stuff was running through my Amazon account. Maybe Amazon will like me better, I thought. Maybe it will give me Prime for free, I thought. And if Amazon likes me, other big companies might like me too. You know how they can be snooty, but if you're boning one of them, the others suddenly want a piece of that action? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

I don't know what I'm talking about.

Mechanical vehicles also seem to be the bane of my existence lately....:neutral: I hope we can both share good news soon...

I did not take this matter up with my local branch manager. The Authorization Hold is still on. Brakes are working, that's the important part.

ETA O If I had a level and paved driveway these days, that one was allowed to do work on. I am inspired by Mr glatt's works and would like to do more of that sort of thing. I imagine doing this stuff, but not where if I mess up, the car has to be winched up the driveway before it can be towed.

Just caught up with this thread, feel the pain.

The key to me being confident doing this stuff is that we have two cars and if I fuck one up for a couple days, it's no big deal for it to sit there un-drivable while we use the other one and I figure out how to fix the broken one.

I never did work on our car when it was the only one and we needed to use it in a few hours. Too much pressure.

Edit: I'm probably as bad as the kid who screwed yours up. I just learn from my mistakes and eventually get it right. And I have the time to get it right.

Money's back. One week after the original transaction.

I was super-proud when I diagnosed and swapped out the fuel injector in the Cellar Car. That was a banner day. Where's my proud-of thread?

And it feels like brakes are easy to work on, because they kind of have to be. I would have taken this one on if I was still in the house. I would have done a better job than the kid.

Let's go back to post #1

I was gonna asterisk that bit, but never got around to it. $50 to replace a burnt out fog light, well fine. The part's $17 online. In this case Subaru has made the lamp moderately difficult to replace, because you have to bend your hand around stiff plastic and remove catches that you can't see, and they're plastic and break and stuff. I have bad tendinitis and can't do this procedure myself. And it's one of those bulbs you can't touch with your bare hand. So, fine, $50.

The thing is, it would have failed inspection with one fog light out. WTF Pennsylvania! Most cars don't have fog lights, so why does it fail inspection with just one?

I looked it up and the law says you can remove the wiring for the lights and pass inspection. This is why people just fake their inspection if they can get away with it.

Yeah, after my last inspection experience with a failed engine mount, I've had a bad taste in my mouth. So much of it is arbitrary.

Kinda like when I got the bigger bucket truck. A friend of a friend was a KYDOT enforcement officer, and let me come to his house for a pre-inspection inspection.

There were several (non-essential) lights on the chip box that didn't work. He told me to get 'em working, or take 'em off.

If they're there, they have to be in operating condition.