Thursday, October 25, 2007

Chevron

I went to the gas station to fill up before picking up Ivy from work. It's from a Chevron that I've filled up at a hundred times before. One mile down the road, my car starts to vibrate and I get this feeling that it's about to die on me. I'm at a stop light with no where to go and of course the car dies shortly after. I'm in my Toyota Sienna that is less than a year old, so I'm thinking what the fuck? Right away, I call the tow company to get me to a Toyota dealership. When I get there, I'm all yelling at them thinking they sold me a piece of shit. This is right at 5pm when the guys get off work, so he's only half listening to me which really pisses me off more. I've already had to take my car in before for a problem with the front grill, so I'm just letting this guy have it.

Next day, Toyota calls me back and says that I've either got water or diesel gas in my tank. I'm thinking, there's no way it's water and I sure as hell would know if I put diesel in my tank. The guys says that it'll cost me around $1200 to get everything fixed. I have no choice, so I tell him to go ahead and get it done.

At this point I'm thinking it's gotta be Chevron, they must've filled their supreme gas with diesel and fucked up my car. When I get there, I'm ready to go off like I did at Toyota, but once I got into my story, the manager says that they've had some complaints already and that they'd take care of everything. I'm thinking, Wow, not only did he admit they were wrong, but they're going to take care of everything. We exchanged contact info and by the time I got back to my office, the manager had already called Toyota to take care of everything. So what happened was that there was some water in the batch of gas that was delivered that got into Chevron's underground tanks. I guess it doensn't take much to fuck up your car and stall it. Everyone I've told the story to has told me to sue Chevron and get a piece of their pie. I'd love to do that, but they've already admited guilt and will take care of the problem. Do I still have a case at this point? Can I sue for suffering? I'll have to look into this a little more.

Side note #1: They gave me a Highlander for a loaner. Great car,rides well, awesome power, steering and brakes. Downside is that it chugs gas faster than a frat boy on spring break.

Side note #2: My technician's name at Toyota is JR. I called him a few times and always got his voicemail. Not sure if he did it as a joke (remember the Seinfield episode of Jimmy?), but he left his outgoing message in 3rd person. If you want a good laugh, call 425-455-9500 and press the service option and press#3 for JR.