Don't Trust Sears at Rushmore Mall!

There are some lessons you learn in life from experience. The one that I've learned....Never trust the Sears Auto Center in Rushmore mall.

The car developed a gradually growing noise as we ventured west this week, and Monday, every bump gained a groan and a clank from the front end of the car. So, needing a quick mechanic, I figured that a name like Sears would provide trustworthy service. Wow was I wrong. We took the car there just after 4pm on Monday afternoon. We went and told them to take a look at it, and I was promptly told that suspension was shot. Not a major surprise, as the car did have over 160,000 miles on it already. So, after agreeing to have that replaced, the mechanic and the auto center employee decided that it would take about 2.5 hours. So, Heather and I went on to the mall to check it out. Not long into our shopping, the phone rings, and it's Sears telling me that they found too many cracks than what they call a safe serpentine belt. So, after I agreed to have them do that also, we were on the way shopping. Knowing what the problem was, the next call from the Sears Auto Center kind of surprised me. It was the tech saying that he'd found that one of the mufflers on the car was not being supported by the bracket that the other one was, and this was more than likely where the noises were coming from. I already knew the front suspension was done, so I said that I was planning on taking care of that myself. They continued working on the car until I return at 7:30pm, to find out that the car still wasn't done. At 8pm, I was told that I would have to come back tomorrow as they didn't have enough time to finish. I asked the guy who was in charge at this point what I was supposed to do, and he seemed to not even care about the fact that they'd failed to finish the job in about double the time they'd told me it would take. And, to top it all off, I had to tell them to leave the serpentine belt in the car and I would do it myself as they had failed at getting that installed because they couldn't figure out how it went on.

So, the next day, we had to return the car for them to finish working on the balancing of the rear tires. Now, I'm not automotive genius, but I'm pretty sure I could have handled the situation better. Heather and I had to waste an additional 4 hours for them to finish aligning just the rear of the car. Anger was flowing freely at this point, but Heather and I walked out without saying much of anything.

I've since filed complaints with the store and have been contacted by the store general manager regarding my complaints and poor service. Sears may make amends to this yet, and for their sake, I hope they do, because I'll find other ways to get my tools if I must!

Curse of the Clocks

I know we only crossed one time zone, but there are some issues we're having with Mountain Time. When we checked into the lodge we're staying at, we were given a very nice room. We came in and started unpacking things, and didn't pay much attention to our cell phones or the computer we brought along. When Heather got up in the middle of the night, and went to the sink for a drink of water, she noticed walking by the microwave that it only said 11:30. She couldn't believe that it felt like we'd been asleep for a few hours, and yet, it had only been one. When I woke up, we decided to go outside and look for the sunrise since the alarm clock said it was quite early. We looked it up and it looked like we had close to 2 hours before the sun came up, so we were just going to go for a drive. We went outside, and found it really getting quite light for it being 2 hours before sunrise. When we got in the car and started moving, we found that there were ZERO clocks that were correct in our room. When we returned, we found the microwave clock was 4 hours and 20 minutes off, and the alarm clock was 1 hour and 8 minutes off. Heather said when she looked at the computer it said the correct time for Central, but she hadn't made the time change properly when trying to figure it out. Flash back to yesterday when we crossed the time zone line, she had bumped the clock the wrong way in the car. We reset it so we knew we were on the same time as the local population. So, needless to say, we've been having some serious time telling issue between both of us. I hope this gets better, or we might be a few days getting home....

My last harrah!

Well, this past week has been not only busy, but my final single big bash, and it was a good time. Where did this happen? At work, in Chattanooga, TN. Yup, week before the wedding, and I had to be on the road. I negotiated a shorter time period, so that was a good thing, but the stories of there are quite interesting.

I got on the plane at 6:45 Sunday morning, and started the journey over. When going to Atlanta from Minneapolis, we hit some rough weather about half way there, and proceeded to have turblence all the way to Atlanta. They tried to change elevations, but nothing helped. So, we kept on going, and finally arrived, and I wasn't feeling too hot. It must be bad if it makes me a bit sick, but even this flight did a little. However, after a little food, I was on to my last leg of the journey. I got to Tennessee and went to rent my car, and the lady takes all my info down, and then looks at me and says, "Boy do I have a deal for you." Normally this would scare me, but I listened. Turns out, a guy had called and asked Hertz to get a Corvette in for him, but then had to call and say he wasn't going to make it. Apparently, the deal is that those cars get rented out before the others, so because I qualified, instead of getting an Impala, I got a Corvette at no extra cost! How about that!!

Now, on to the Hotel. It's on the historic places registry, and is amazing. I got there, and the lady proceeded to upgrade me to a suite, and knock $60 a night off the price! Ohh yeah! This made the trip alot more bearable, and cruising around in a Corvette the whole time didn't break my heart. It was a good way to go out!

Now, coming home was interesting too. I had to stop in Atlanta, then go on to Detroit to fly to Sioux Falls. We got into Detroit 12 minutes ahead of schedule, to which the pilot came on and let us know very proudly of the success. It was short lived however, as we sat on the plane because there was no one to operate the jet bridge. We sat there for 20 minutes before getting off the plane. Leave it to Delta to get you in early, yet by the time you get off the plane, you're further behind schedule. They always find new ways to amaze me.

Verizon Troubles (Again)

Well, Heather told me today that Verizon retaliated against my last blog post. Heather's entire family's cell phone service was cut off today, and the phones were unusable for a while. If you want a battle Verizon, it's go time!!!

Can you hear me now? Good!

Dumb Verizon. The slogan should read, can you understand me now? On Sunday, Heather and I attempted to start the process of breaking away from a family cell phone plan and for our own little cell phone family. Now, this move will make Verizon approximately $100 per month, because now we're paying for a new plan, and when you add everything on there that needs to be, it is about that much. So, we started this little venture around 4pm. The process was to get Heather off of her family's plan, and get my off of our family's plan and onto our own. Heather started out the session getting to a customer service representative who couldn't for the life of him understand we were trying to turn 2 accounts into 3 accounts. Once he figured out he couldn't do that, he transferred us to a new department who started trying to handle this. It took them a while to get what was going on, but after I jumped in and explained it, it was finally clear. Then, as we were going along, and had been on the phone for over half an hour, the line went dead. I'm not sure if the person got angry at us and hung up, or what, but we got cut off. Well, so much for getting the same person back. I called the number that rep had given us, and it turned out to be the wrong department. After we spent 10 minutes explaining again what we wanted to do and getting the person to understand we'd probably have to be sent to a new department, we finally were transferred, again, but sat on hold for 5 minutes. We got to a new girl, and explained it all again, and then we had some confusion on what was going on. So, finally, we said we'd figure it all out and let them know, thoroughly frustrated at this point. We analyzed our options, and Heather called back in for our 6th Verizon person. The kind person explained to Heather that to do all of this, we'd have to both go on our own individual plans (at more than $50 a month) until the end of the billing cycle when they could be re-formed into a family plan, then, my plan would be pro-rated until the end of my billing cycle when it would officially be joined with Heather's. Also, the rest of her family would then have to approve a new "head" of the family plan, and my dad to re-authorize the release of my number to Heather. We also had to promise to sacrifice one animal per month at our local Verizon store, promise to be in the crowd on an upcoming Verizon commercial, invite no fewer than 10 Verizon staff members to our wedding, and promise at least 2 years of labor of our first born son. Ok, so after dad re-authorizing my release, the rest was optional, but still, all that and we didn't get any thing accomplished. We are still waiting to finish this up. So, if you're thinking that family plan was a good idea, you're right, unless you don't want all the numbers on that family plan anymore. That's where the problems start. So, we spent just shy of two hours on the phone, with 6 different people, and Heather's conversation with the last and only one who knew what they were talking about lasted a grand total of 5 minutes. I've never seen a company quite like Verizon who doesn't care to make more money off of someone. It's like they were scare and confused that they were actually going to have extra income. I guess for the time being then, we won't pay the extra to Verizon, we'll just keep it. I sure do have a way with all these technology providers. I'm getting kinda sick of it.

One Wild Night - Bachelor Party!

**WARNING - SOME CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER READERS UNDER THE AGE OF 43, OR MY PARENTS***

Well, on Saturday, it was the final celebration of my singleness. One comment in the vehicle that was going to the party said, "you've got lots of time yet to be single." After my explanation of the schedule of time leading up to the wedding, the response was, "Yep, this is your last hurrah!"

So, the afternoon began, with a trip to Brookings, a quality college town with plenty of trouble. Of course, the group of guys was 20 minutes late, thanks to my brother. We went on to Brookings where once again my brother proceeded to find trouble in a parking lot. He got his new pickup stuck in about 2.5 inches of snow and slush. Once I came to the rescue and got him out of his predicament, we got to the place where the dancers were. Lots of them, and some more scantily clad than others. They would twirl and jump and dance, and even change outfits. They may or may not have been the cheerleaders at the game we were at, but still, come one, I'm living the dream, and on the edge of rowdy here, so bear with me.

Following the dancers (and basketball game) we went to supper. Wonderful food, and a good time, and alcohol everywhere. Well, maybe that was just because two members of the wait staff spilled entire trays of drinks right across from our table (and none of it came to our table or was ordered by someone at our table), but still, it's my story, so hang in there!

And, what night wouldn't be completed without Debbie. Debbie would be the stripper that was purchased just for me. Click here for the photo of Debbie. (It's safe to go to this photo)