My radiator fan went out Wednesday. I took it to Sears Auto. They said it would take an hour to fix today, so I brought it in after work and had my coworker take me to a business dinner. Four hours later Sears had done nothing but discover a way to charge me an extra $20. But they didn't do the work because they needed my authorization for anything over the original bid. "An hour, " they said. So I spent an hour watching Sears' demo TVs. At closing time (9 PM) I returned for my car. They had done nothing but discover they have the wrong part and some song and dance about a stuck screw. Sears auto mechanics can't release a frozen screw in an hour!!! They the insisted they had to replace the broken motor in my car before I could take it home. (It drives without the fan, so long as the car is moving.) Now they want it for an entire day tomorrow to replace the motor once they get the right part (one hour) and to loosen the frozen screw (the rest of the day). Of course I will have to find a ride to work. They also made me pay the full price of the repair before I could have the car, because they didn't trust me to return, which means they would have to eat the cost of the part. Is Sears that desperate for $170? And don't tell me they couldn't return it to the parts store. I am to phone the "manager" tomorrow; they really didn't know why. But my plan is to take the car in at 8AM, have them remove the broken motor (again) so they have the entire day to release the frozen screw, then return after work for the hour it will take to install the right part, presuming they have succeeded in acquiring it by then. I accomplished my morning goal of having them take the part out so they could work on it all day. But this evening I went back for the installation. I waited half an hour… nothing was done. It seems they lost some parts from that morning. Another 20 minutes were spent looking quite desultorily for them in all the wrong places. Finally I followed the mechanic around to ask him why he hadn't ordered the parts 45 minutes ago. We ran into the "manager, " who had been there all the time but in a different part of the garage. She smiled and said, "Oh, I have them. I forgot." Another half-an-hour later I was finally able to drive home. I used to like Sears auto.
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