I SURE MISS VERNE McLAIN...
When I was a young man, and it came time to take our car for routine lubrication and oil change at a SOHIO service station at the Southeast corner of Broad and King Streets in Lancaster, I was never disappointed or ill advised as to anything about our car and the service it needed by Verne McLain..
Verne McClain had a one-man filling station for Standard Oil products - his SOHIO filling station was one of several in our town and each one was nearly as reliable as this one which was a favorite of mine during our years of owning several cars.
Customarily when winter was approaching it was routine for Verne to tell me, when I picked up the car, "Bill, I checked your thermostat and replaced it." (A pan of water on top of a gas heater was his "testing equipment".) This proficient filling station owner did not have any helpers, unless you could call a Scotsman who stopped by occasionally to help Verne pump gas when he was real busy. He never charged extra for such service--just for the part (thermostat) and as I look back to such service, the following experience bounces around in my head with near disgust.
Recently I took my car to one of the so-called FAST service places where they sell tires and lubrication services. Divulging their name is unnecessary and unwise in our litigious society. I will have to admit though, even though I have been disappointed with their service sometimes, once there was such a delay in getting my car serviced they did not charge for that lube job.
I'm a "coupon person" and in hopes of saving a buck when I tendered my $19.95 coupon. The first reaction I received was, "Good, Better or Best?" That's all, no other words, like, "Glad to see you again Mr. Venrick, just "Good, Better or Best?"" Of course Verne McClain, my old SOHIO guy would have called me by name but this guy has to ask me my phone number before he has any idea who I am or when I was there last. Not only have I been there many times, there have also been many employees come and go in the few years I have patronized this place so its for sure if I didn't remember them, they wouldn't remember me!.
I asked, "How much is the GOOD?" After poking a few keys on the computer he announced, "$30 'out the door'." Not sure how I could leave unless I went "out the door" but just the same I said, "Let's just use my $19.95 BASIC discount card. (Funny, in their sales pitch, the word "basic" was absent. So I just decided that card was just a ploy to get me IN the store.) Even with the "basic" price of $19.95 I was charged an additional fee of $3.00 to "get rid of my old oil" plus State Sales Tax of course. After I asked him if I brought a container to put my old oil in, if they would exempt that charge, he said he would so next time I will "take my old oil and give it to a filling station that uses old oil in their heater". I'm sure he will say, "Thanks, Mr. Venrick." yeah, but at least I will know who benefits from my tired oil.
So far this story isn't too far out but when the attendant announced the service was finished there was a "by the way" comment coming -- "Your transmission fluid is brown so you might want us to change that for you." Fortunately my memory was working that morning and I remarked that they had done such a service the last time we had the car serviced there. After pulling up my file on the computer sure enough, they had put a new filter and new fluid in my transmission last time. Then the clerk told me the service technician had only seen my mileage and NOT really checked the dip stick! I considered that a serious misuse of words and genuine mis-information. Yes, I miss first hand--one-man-shop simplicity.
If you haven't picked up the point in this tale, it is simply to say SERVICE and INTEGRITY were words with meaning in years past. Not only did the service station attendant pump the gas into the car, he ("she's" were not in any station I catered to then) would check the oil, radiator, power steering, windshield washer container, wash both front and back windshields as well as giving the side windows a quick swipe and he might even have noticed a low tire and without prodding, "aired it up" and told me so. After the gasoline purchase he would take my credit card, run it through the machine by the gas pumps and bring the slip to me to sign. And I never had to get out of the car. I always bought SOHIO Cushionaire brand tires and any SOHIO station I drove into would immediately recognize me as a SOHIO customer by the tires alone.
I will have to admit this 3-initials place I wrote about earlier has a great "repair deal on tires"-- when tires bought there had a leak, any tire patch service is FREE, no questions or arguments. And they will rotate my tires for FREE too. I guess that's worth more than a few bucks!
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Do you miss anything like this? THE WORDWRIGHT