Dealing with assholes, I need to vent - kinda long. Options

[Queenie]

Hi. My name is Queenie, and I think I'm a pretty conscientious car owner. I tend to my routine maintenance in a timely fashion. I deal with sudden or unexpected maintenance as soon as humanly possible. I check my oil once a week. My tires are in good repair, and they get rotated and balanced on a regular basis. I don't drive my car overly hard, and I don't abuse it even when I do drive it a little bit hard. I take some care with it - always.

I don't drive the nicest car in the world, but I care a lot about the one I have and I do my best to do right by it.

So why am I sitting here at work practically in tears over the damn thing?

Well, it's because when Pancho and I talked to my other mechanic - you know, the one who charges me sixty dollars an hour? - about doing some fine tuning on the 914 to get it back on the road, he was an absolute ass to us because we elected not to do the valve guides while we had the engine out. Not just dismissive or rude, but downright unkind. He is adamant in his opinion that my engine is a piece of shit that isn't going to run another week without the valve guides being done.

Not to mention the fact that he (or his employee) seems to have done an exceptionally crappy job of installing a fuel injector for me several months ago. If that was done poorly, what else has been done poorly? Did I mention this is costing me sixty dollars an hour?

Y'know, I know the guy's overworked. I know what a pain in the ass that can be. And he's been working on Porsches for many years - he may be correct about the need for valve guides. I'm willing to accept that I may not have made the best decision about it. But does that give him any right to treat me, a person who's spent at least a thousand goddamn dollars at his shop in the past year, like an idiot?

I am, in fact, not a idiot.

And my money is just as good as that of any other Porsche owner. He doesn't like 914s and I know it, but I didn't really consider that my problem...until today. It shouldn't matter what kind of Porsche a person drives; a dedicated Porsche shop ought to work on them all and treat them all equally.

I don't need a ration of shit when I take my car in for repair. I don't know where else I can take it; this guy is located directly next door to where I work and the convenience factor is critical because I don't usually have anyone to give me a ride to/from work after dropping the car off, nor can I usually afford to be without it for more than a couple of days at a time. So I'm really not sure what I can do here.

But I'm pretty sure I'm going to think of something, because I'm not going to put up with being treated like a second-class citizen just because my car is on the lower end of the Porsche scale.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

I feel a little better for having articulated my anger...thanks for listening.

[Queenie]

Ok. It's the next day and I feel a little bit less frazzled.

First of all, my deepest thanks to all of you for not only being here to read my little rant, but also for understanding my pain. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I just want my car back on the road. It's been amazingly reliable over the year-plus that I've had it, and I want that feeling of freedom and reliability back again.

I don't normally cry over my car, but I'm beat. I've been without it for two weeks. I work forty hours a week and go to school two nights a week: I need my car. I've been getting by with a combination of walking and using Pancho's 912, but the bottom line is that I need my car. Add some personal-life-type stresses to the mix and you have a girl who's keeping it together but just barely. Getting reamed for not taking someone's advice when all I want is some (supposedly) expert help to get my car back on the road is NOT what I need at this time.

For the record, Pancho is not the problem mechanic. Pancho is the guy who's been working on my car for free. I am reluctant to name the problem shop because I don't want to be nasty, but I am not the only person who's been less than satisfied with the service there. I have a friend who drives a Carrera 2 that has also been a bit miffed with this shop...so maybe the problem isn't just that I drive a 914, although I'm sure that doesn't help matters any. I work with a guy who drives a beater 944 and he asked me just last Thursday who the other Porsche shops in town are - he doesn't want to deal with this shop either. So, there's a bit of a pattern emerging here.

It's funny that so many people mentioned John Larson to me. I bought a door handle from him at last year's German Auto Fest, and I still have his flyer kicking around. I spied it the other day when I was moving some furniture - I'd stuck it in a box and forgot about it as I hadn't really needed any spare parts. I had actually gone and pulled it out of the box before I made my initial post here, thinking that this would be a good alternative shop for me. Sounds like it's the right place to go. I don't care if he's blunt. Blunt doesn't bother me - in fact, I prefer it. Passive-aggressive snarky assholes bother me, but people who don't mess around and just tell you what they think are A-OK in my book. Of course, it helps if what they think is right...I don't happen to agree with this guy that my valve guides are so shot. I definitely want a second opinion on that. It'll suck having to work around the distance, but I'll find a way. I'm nothing if not a creative problem solver.

As far as what it costs me per hour to get my car worked on, I'd pay a hundred bucks an hour if I knew I was dealing with someone who wasn't fucking me over. I don't care about the money. I can't technically afford it, but that's why God gave me credit cards. I can pay for it when I need to, and I won't hesitate to do so because I love my car and I want it to run right. I've been spoiled for many years because I was married to my mechanic - I never had to put my car in the shop. It's made me both accustomed to having the work done right and to not really trusting shops...how do you know the work is being done right when you're not standing there watching and asking questions and handing the mechanic a beer every hour? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Anyhow, I feel better and I've got some semblance of a plan of attack now. I appreciate the sympathy and the advice. This is a wonderful group of people and I'm really grateful to you all. Thanks again!