How Many Times Must it Happen?

How many times must it happen?

I went to a buffet breakfast today with some friends and decided to have my truck washed after we ate. After all its been 3 years since I washed it, and that's no joke. When you live in the mountains and on a dirt roads, you don't really care how often your car or truck gets washed. The snow and rain will do a decent job if you don't mind the small partials of dirt that gathers in the rain drops and left on your vehicle, after the storm.

After eating, I drove my truck over to the car wash 200 yards from the buffet. I drove up and waited for the gal with the ticket to tell me the different prices the car wash offered. She was pretty friendly and started telling me the different prices she had to offer. In my mind, all I wanted was a quick car wash and a dusting job on the inside and the dog hairs vacuumed from all the seats in the truck. She said, "I have a screaming deal on a wash and wax job, for $20 bucks". I'll take that one, I said! She handed me a ticket and I got out of the truck and headed inside to pay for my car wash and waxing job. I waited in line and was kinda happy that I was finally getting the truck taken care of after three years.

My turn came to pay, the gal behind the cash register took my ticket, and rang up my bill. She said, "that would be $119 dollars and 50 cents!"
I looked at her and said, "what????, A 119 dollars and 50 cents??" I said to the checker, you better get the gal back who wrote up my ticket for the car wash, that's not what she told me! She called over the intercom and asked for my ticket gal to come and talk with one of her customers.

I waited and she finally showed up, as I walked towards her with my bill in hand, I said, the checker said you must have made a mistake on my bill. She started talking and tried to convince me that I needed the entire wash and wax job. I said not today, then she dropped the price down to 90 bucks. I looked at her and said, "really all I want is a simple wash and clean the inside of my truck, nothing more then that, What do you have for 25 dollars?" She told me, and I went and paid the cashier for that job.

I watched as the truck went through the car wash, as it came out, there were several people who were hand drying the truck. I was walking towards the truck, when a supervisor walked around my truck, and sent it off to be washed again. Well, I guess it was pretty dirty, good thing they noticed how bad it was, I thought. I waited and the truck went through the cycle again, parked just about in the same spot. The guys were hand drying the truck again, when another supervisor looked it over, he sent it to be washed again.

I wondered what was going on. I walked up to observation window at the car wash and watched my truck go through the car wash again for the third time. I watched as the suds were sprayed again, the rinse applied for the third time, and the guys hand drying my truck again. I finally started towards my truck, when another supervisor walked up to the truck and flagged it to be washed again. I didn't even get close to my truck this time. Off it went through the car wash again for the 4th time. After it came out of the car wash, they took it over to the detail shop, part of the 119 dollar package deal. I went over and told the guy that I didn't want the detailing job, and may I please have my truck back. He took it over to the wipe down bay area.

I was thinking that I upset the gal for not taking the $119 special, and she was paying me back for not agreeing for the high end service and would make me wait. A few years back, I would have said fine, just because, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I would have payed the $119. Not anymore. I thought about that when I waited for the gal to come back and straighten out our miscommunication about $119 car wash. I was glad that I was confronting her. Was I being taken advantage of? I don't know, but I was not going to hand over money for that expensive car wash, for a 1999 F-150 pick-up truck.

I tipped the guys who wiped down my truck, got in and drove away. I noticed they didn't dust all that well, and didn't get many dog hairs vacuumed up. When I got home, I did the dusting that it needed, it smells nice, no dog hairs to worry about. maybe next year, I will get the truck washed and not wait three years again.

What did I learn about today's experience? If something needs to be done, get it done! Don't wait, cause if your supposed to get an errand done and someone is depending on you, take care of it. How does this apply to you. If you having marriage problems, don't expect the marriage to improve by doing nothing. Get counseling, marriage coaching, make sure it happens and soon. If you have health issues and think your problem will get better on it's own, don't wait to see if it does, cause sometimes it doesn't. Don't put off the things that matter, if you own someone an apology and it will fix a relationship, go say your sorry. Life is to short, not deal with the issues you face in life today. They don't always go away, and why not make life simple for you and all those around you!

Do you have a difficult time in taking control of your life, events control you, you don't control them? Have you been afraid to plan for a upcoming event, like a divorce, or medical condition? Do you want and need help in planning for a future event that frightens you and you know its going to happen? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I can help you plan on how to deal with problems that effect your life. I will help you put a working plan together that will help you deal with life's issues.

You can go to Mike's blog and comment on today's article at http://www.applicablecoaching.com/blog.php

I took my car to the wash --- and asked for the $10 job.....

When the car rolled out - they said it wasn't clean - and they took it through again.... and again... and again...... and again.....

When the job was done - I asked the cashier how much I owed --- "nothing, sir" What's that? "Nothing..."

Why'd you clean it so many times for free?

That's what it took...... Today's a free wash day.

Cleaning up a mess is not a high profit endeavor.

I don't need to be in control --- that's how my car got so dirty.

I just want a clean car - and will wait as long as it takes.

(dr. mike --- if I'm rude for cutting in like this - let me know)

Not at all, thanks for sharing!