When we first moved into town my wife, with our seven month old baby in tow, brought our second-hand Dodge minivan to the closest inspection station for its sticker. This was the Longmeadow Garage, one of two Mobil gas stations in town, a few blocks from our new home. She was told that the van could not pass without new windshield wipers. My wife was then asked if she wanted the garage to install the new wipers. My wife said "yes" (and she recognizes her mistake -Caveat Emptor). A few moments later the attendant approached her to with the bill (the replacement wipers had cost $58.60!!) My wife was incredulous and said "No way am I paying $60 for a pair of windshield wipers - take them off."
At this point she was informed that the new inspection sticker had been affixed to the windshield, thus she had no choice as once the sticker is affixed it cannot be removed nor can the windshield wipers be taken off because the vehicle would no longer pass inspection. She was stuck. My wife grudgingly paid the bill and she and the baby went home.in tears of frustration at having been bamboozled because she was an easy target, my wife telephoned me at work. I immediately telephone the Mobil Station and was referred to the person in charge, Lenny. I asked Lenny if he felt it was a reasonable price for a pair of wipers, when I could purchase the same wipers for no more than $15 in any retail store. I was informed that his garage was not a charity and my wife was lying to me - she had never expressed any concern over the price of the wipers.
I tried to reason with Lenny about the short-term gain of this profit versus the long-term disadvantage of loosing substantially more profit from a potential life-long customer, new to town and only a few blocks away. I told Lenny that I recognized and appreciated his need to make a profit but felt $60 for a pair of wipers was excessive and asked if $45 wouldn't be a more reasonable price. Lenny was unmoved and refused to make any concession.
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