One of those days.

My car, a Fiat Siena, has been in the garage for servicing, painting etc, for close to a week now. As expected, Sundaram Motors did not keep up their promise of delivering on Friday. In that way, they haven’t been very different from the dealer that actually sold the car – Manx Auto – who really know how to wreck someone’s happiness on getting a new car.

Yesterday (Monday) it took Sundaram Motors three hours to figure out how much the bill was, which they then duely told us on the phone – too late to pick up the car yesterday.

IAC, went this morning, paid the bill, only to be told “oops, we forgot to tell you that there is another 3000 tobe paid”. Fuming, I paid that as well, and went to pick up the car.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

There it stood, bonnet open, cast in a corner, not even in a shed, no battery, grimy as hell. I screamed bloody murder, which motivated them enough to put the battery back in (after a 15 minute search for the key) and put the car through a wash.

Once the car was clean, I could see the results of their “efficient” work – the left side had been de-dented, painted beautifully, good as new.

The right side was dented, scratched, peeled and otherwise mutilated.

Their excuse? “But you never told us to fix both sides!”.

In addition, they hadn’t fixed the streaking wipers, the defective interior lamps, the squealing fan belt and the hanging wires. And they had lost the cable that connected my CD player to the car stereo.

I went and got the manager, and he sheepishly admitted that the service may not have been quite up to standard. Promised to fix it all for another 5000 bucks, and door deliver the car to my office on Wednesday evening.

Seeing is believing.

Fiat makes great cars, but the dealers ****SUCK***! They may know something about cars, but they sure don’t know anything about the value of their customers’ time.

Went back to the office. We have a tradition in the office – for a whole month, someone in the office is the one whom we point a finger at saying “it’s all his fault”. Last month, it was Shanu. Problem is, this month it is Jessie’s turn, and since she is new at Exocore, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Luckily, Biju manfully stood in for her – so it was all Biju’s fault.

There, I felt much better. Dunno about Biju….

Phase One of The Secret Project experienced starting problems today as I failed to get all the main actors to one place at the same time. Trying again in tomorrow.

Got home, watched some TV. Snuck into basement and sang a bit to cool off. Simon and Garfunkel, some Beatles, some Denver, some Pink Floyd. I suspect I had an audience, but I could have been wrong.

BTW – some people have been complaining about the lack of a comment mechanism for my diary. Well, I can only say – use email (you know my address) and read this.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

–”Time”, Pink Floyd