Gas Vent

So--this was fun--I stopped at a gas station to top off my gas tank yesterday. The attendant opened the fuel-filler door, filled the tank, and when he went to close the door . . . it came off the car. He tried to reattach it, but was in too much of a rush (the place was hopping), and couldn't. Meanwhile, I was blocking other cars, so I offered to move my car to the other side of the station. Which may have been a mistake because, while kinder to my fellow drivers, it immediately gave the gas station employees a chance to ignore me. Eventually, another person came over and tried fixing it . . . nope. He handed me the door and disappeared inside the "convenience store," and left me standing there, alone, with my gas tank door in my hand. Hmmm.

About 10 minutes later, the owner comes out, tries for a couple of minutes to replace it . . . and ultimately says, "Sorry. It's not broken; it must have been like this when you got here." Excuse me? I seem to recall it was fully attached to the car when we arrived. Nor did it fall off into the attendant's hand when he opened it (because, yeah, maybe then it wouldn't have been his fault). It didn't actually remove itself from the car until he tried to slam it close. I asked, "So, if I have to take this back to the dealer, I'm going to have to pay for this?" "Oh," he said, "They shouldn't charge you for it. (Hah, Dealerships charge for everything!) But since it's not actually broken, it's not our fault. It must have been like that when you got here. We close hundreds of gas tank lids like that a day." And he turned to go back inside, leaving me, again, standing there with a piece of my car in my hand.

Now, I'll grant you that it doesn't look like anything is actually broken--the door appears to attach via two wires--one which is solid and doesn't move--the pivot--and one which is coiled at end and can be taken off, and presumably adds the spring-like tension. It looks like the pieces I need are all there, and that the hard plastic/rubber-like slits the wire slots into on the car are intact--so it looks like everything just needs to be snapped back into place, but there's obviously a trick to it, because we haven't been able to manage it. Nor do we want to risk breaking anything. I'm going to ask my Dad to bring it over to his friend Frank's tomorrow--Frank has a repair shop and is one of my dad's best friends (not to mention having one of the most reliable, trustworthy car-repair shops around--I highly recommend them), and will not only be more than willing to give it a try (and will have whatever tools may or may not be necessary), but is also right up the street. As opposed to the Volvo dealer, which is about 20 minutes up a busy highway (making it longer than 20 minutes with the traffic) and would require my taking at least several hours off work. If Frank can fix it, great, but if he can't and we need to take it to the dealer--well, at least we'll know that it has to be the dealer.

But, really, I hate things like this, because I am just awful about confrontations and putting my foot down. I can be as stubborn, but have been raised to "be nice, be sweet, don't make waves, be dignified, don't make a scene." Unlike, say, my friend Cindy who is excellent about making good, constructive complaints and getting not only justice, but all sorts of freebies and upgrades as well. (Like the time she complained about an appalling room in a 5-star hotel and got upgraded ("We don't have anything else, so...") to a multi-room suite, like the kind movie stars get. Cindy, let me tell you, is the person you want around when you run into situations like this. She would not have left that gas station with the fuel-filler door sitting on the back seat. And, good friend that she is, she offered to call Getty for me on Monday to see what she can get for me. (I mean, really, you'd think they would have at least offered to pay for the half a tank of gas I got before the fellow broke my car!)

Meanwhile, my Volvo is in the garage, just on the off-chance we have any fuel thieves lurking around our neighborhood. (Hey, with these prices, you never know.)

Which reminds me. Look at this great editorial cartoon I saw at the Time.com "Cartoons of the Week" page. Called, "Evolution."

Comments

[peggy]

Ugh! Sorry about the gas tank/door/thing mishap but had to laugh at the cartoon. We're 106.9 a litre in my city today (and maybe a couple other stations are higher). About $4 a US gallon?? (Rusty math skills!) And I only have a small-ish car (Ford Contour). Sucks for sure. Last time I filled up, I paid around 79 cents a litre; I'm near empty now and am afraid to fill up!

[minnie]

getty, eh? i smell a boycott from all knitting bloggers in the area, and i for one would tell them WHY i wasn't buying my gas there. too bad i don't live there. that really stinks. the jerks. obviously it was your fault, you're just a silly woman, what would you know (don't beat me, lol!)