Honda - love the card, HATE the dealer

Been a long time since I have been here, but sometimes you need to say something loud for the world to hear:

Honda of Joliet is the worst dealership on the face of the earth.

Took my wife's CR-V to the dealer because it wouldn't start. My daughter was using the car. Tried to back out of a parking spot and the car died. When I got over to look at it, it was similar to an issue that happened less that 2 years ago. Timing chain. I spent a grand back then. Not 50k miles later and the problem is back. Had it towed to the dealer to see what was wrong, I was hoping it was under warranty, but 12 months or 12k miles on a part that should never fail. Hmmm.....

Anyway, the dealer calls be back. Timing jumped 6 teeth. Yeah, I figured. Also the camshaft is worn. And maybe the valves are bent. To be safe, you need to replace the engine.

WHAT?

First of - the car has 202k miles on it. The camshaft SHOULD be worn a little. Second, you are just guessing the valves are bent. No proof? Third - seven grand for a new engine? Are you frigging joking with me? Needless to say, I was not happy, and I expressed it as such. No thanks - I'd don't think it's as bad as you claim. I'll just take it to someone that wants to fix my car. Sure, I wasn't very nice, but would you be happy with being told you needed a new engine?

I guess saying no to Honda of Joliet is akin to saying no to the mafia, because you are pretty much a pile of crap to them at this point. I was working overtime, so my wife went to pay their $120 for a diagnostic. My daughter went with, and the service center was nothing but rude to her. Hey - if you are pissed at me, fine. But you show my wife respect. They have her pay the fine, and then disappear. Um.....keys? Ya know - we need those things to start the car when a good mechanic fixes the timing? It took 20 minutes until my daughter walks up to the guy and tells him to give us the keys. So nice, Roger.

I head out there Friday to get it towed to my local car repair shop that had just fixed my daughter's car. Ironically, her issue was also timing. Anyway, I get to the dealer to find my car so I can help the tow truck, and boy, do I find it. First, it's jammed in this corner of the lot. Second, the car is in pieces. Some of the engine parts are on the passenger seat. Other parts, like screws, oil dipstick and the spark plus, are sitting on the wiper blades in the weather. I pop the hood and there is the engine cover just laying there. It was nice to be able to see the "worn" camshaft. Yeah - it looked like it had 200k miles of use on it. The car started find just before the timing jump, Honda - there are no performance issues.

So I paid $120 to basically be told "screw you". I guess if you don't just open your pocket book to Honda of Joliet and let them take what they want for crappy work, you are treated like dog crap.

Here's the comment I sent them. I am sure I will get little response except some half-assed "sorry you were upset" non-apology. No - I am sorry I ever set foot in your business - I won't ever again.

I am done with your dealership. Whether or not I am kind or considerate, you do NOT treat a customer's car they way you treated mine. Because I don't bend over and just accept to spend 7 grand to replace an engine that is not that badly damaged doesn't mean you leave my car in pieces, push it out the door and treat myself and my wife like crap. I guess the adage of the customer being right doesn't apply with Honda of Joliet. With your company, it's just accept what we say and open up our wallets, or we'll treat you like dirt and not complete to work I paid for. I paid $120 for a diagnostic, and since I didn't want to drop in a new engine, you leave my car in pieces by the fence? Head cover off -  screws, dipstick and plugs sitting outside by the wiper blades - coils sitting on the passenger seat. How the hell is that "good customer service"? Maybe that's just "Honda of Joliet you didn't bow down to our greatness so f*ck you" customer service. Didn't even do the common courtesy of putting the engine cover back on and the plugs back in. You did half a diagnostic - you owe me $60.

I will never, EVER come to your dealership for anything. I will let everyone of my friends that own Hondas to get their service and parts done at other dealers. I will purchase my next Honda from another dealership.

You could have been helpful, but you have been so much more.

YouTube-sday™: Shock and awe you kidding me!

It's the little things that help me remember why I am a progressive and a liberal. Things like this:



I can't even begin with the level of lies in that 61 seconds. For the bajillionith time, it is NOT "ground zero". It is two blocks away, the same distance from the WTC footprint as a strip club and an OTB. Second, it's a 13 story community center, not a domed mosque as you depict. The worship area is one floor. Also, among the 3000 "Americans" that died were 310 "non-Americans", as well as unknown deaths of people that worshiped Islam. And lastly, you are going to use the video of someone leaping to their death to raise money in an attempt to violate the Constitution.

I'm done typing. I have to go be sick now.

Now that's much better.

How it should have sounded from the get-go:

Maybe you didn't think this through.

An innerwebs user posted this picture of a bumper sticker he found at his parent's home:



Ok - besides the obvious scariness involving veiled threats of violence, let's delve into this just a little more.

Legion. For teabaggers, it's pretty weird they would refer to a demon from the Bible this way. Legion was a possessed man that Jesus came across. This guy spent his days roaming a cemetery near Gerasenes, scaring the living crap out of people. Then big JC shows up, Legion freaks out from being in his presence and asks for mercy. Jesus then casts the demons into a herd of pigs, who proceed to do their best lemming impersonation, swan diving off the cliff into the water below.

Note is does NOT say "We are a legion". The lack of the first letter of the alphabet and the lower case "l" means they are not referring to their group as some 4500 strong Roman army. The only other explanation is that they lack the ability to properly proofread. But I still believe they made that statement with the direct intent of placing the name "Legion" upon themselves.

Here's my question: why would a bunch of people that like to boast of their Christian values and their desire to return this country to an earlier way of life compare themselves with a demon possessed man? Discuss.

Beating the heat...

So the whole train wreck that was the self promoting, self serving crap called the 2010 NBA free agency is almost over. It's pretty evident the interviews and presentations made by NBA teams to that hack Lebron were all for show. One would have to be a newborn to not see the weeks of vying for the "talents" of Lebron, Duane and Bosh were simply some pseudo-sexual game played by those three.

Now, supposedly the Heat is the team to defeat (even though it should be fun to watch Wade and James fight to see who will be the star and who will be the supporting player, ala Jordan & Pippen).

I thought I would offer a few potential free agents the Bulls, Cavs, Knicks and other teams could sign to assist in keeping the new Heat in check. Click the name to see the potential basketball talent each option could bring to their new club:

Tony Tanti
John Scott
Nolan Ryan
Dan Carcillo
Vince Young
Nigel De Jong
Mike Tyson
Chun Li
this one cat

Or they could trade for:
Ron Artest

YouTube-sday™: Sears goes retro

So to promote there new premium DieHard batteries, Sears hit up a 80's one hit wonder:



Awwwww yeah! Gotta like that Numan was up for something like that. Maybe he just needed the cash. But seeing that made me long for the video. Enjoy:



And in searching for that, I found this:



BMG FTW!

YouTube-sday™: 2010 movie releases

With the 2010 summer releases in full blown assault, none of them really have me excited. I was geared up for the Clash Of The Titans remake, and that disappointed me a bit (no Bubo?!?). Other than that, I am waiting for the end of the year releases - November and December to be exact. Here's what is on my radar in no particular order:




Chronicles Of Narnia 3



Let's go!

PSYCHED!!!

First trailer for the 3rd installment of Narnia.

Dr. StanleyCup (or how I stopped missing the winning shot and love that I have seen all the championships I care about)

It's been over 40 years for me personally waiting for the above picture. I've been a Hawks fan as long as I can recall. I remember watching weekend games on NBC with Peter Puck and catching games on the radio. It was great fun to watch, but boy - I saw a LOT of mediocre teams over the years on NBC, then SportsChannel, Hawkvision and finally Comcast (road games only, of course). I sat through teams with the unforgettable names on the jersey like Ken Yaremchuk, Rick Vaive, Sergei Krivokrasov, Bernie Nicholls, Christian LaFlamme, Steve Poapst..... and let's just stop there. Blunt talk: we sucked bad.

Skip ahead to Dollar Bill getting old, and while still the owner, I am pretty sure he didn't have much say in what the front office was going to look like, much less what the team makeup was going to be from them. So, after scoring a couple great draft picks, as we as excellent scouting, a few steals over the trade fax - we have the above picture, and the end of years of pain felt by millions that love the Indian Head sweater. And for one of the few times in my life, I actually saw it happen. Not in person, per se, as I have only seen one championship in person. But live on television. My life is now complete, as all the teams I care about have reached the pinnacle of their respective leagues (even if I didn't see it)

1981 Chicago Sting - I was 15, and had just dropped baseball for soccer as my sport of choice. I remember being in a trailer in a campground in Indiana listening to the game on the radio. The game was going to be televised on tape delay, so myself, and others, we forced to listen to it on the radio. For those that don't like watching soccer, I can tell you listening to it stinks! But I heard Rudy Glenn score the winning goal in a shootout (after Ingo Peter missed a wide open header) and I jumped up and down, rocking the trailer in excitement. I would join the team a year later in "public relations" and see them win a 2nd in Toronto in 1984. And by see, I mean hear. Strange - I find out days later if I could have gotten transportation to Toronto, I could have crashed on someone's hotel floor and seen the game in person. Oh well.

1985 Chicago Bears - I'm 29 and still a soccer player. So much a player, in fact, that on Super Bowl Sunday, I have a game to play. While others are watching the Bears kick the ever loving snot out of the Pats, I am running around on Astroturf with a bunch of other guys. I can't recall if we won the soccer match that night. But after a shower and heading home, I watched what really was an afterthought. The game was well out of reach when I tuned in.

1991 Chicago Bulls - The first of 3 for Jordan, Pippen and the Bulls finds me living in Ft. Myers with my soon to be wife. Life was too busy that we didn't catch a lot of the games. I don't remember seeing the final game at all. I think I watched it. But again, I really don't remember seeing the first celebration at half court.

1992 Chicago Bulls - Back home in Chicago, but this was a forgettable series. Good championship, but a forgettable series to say the least. Why? Cuz the Blackhawks were in the Stanley Cup final against the Penguins. And getting swept in 4. Brutal.

1993 Chicago Bulls - This is the game with the infamous Paxson 3 pointer with under 4 seconds to play. And where was I? I was on the other side of a wall. See, we were watching the game at my in-law's house with many of the people I married into. My few months old son got very fussy, and I didn't want to bother everyone. So I got up with him and left, only to hear the huge pop from the room from Paxson's shot. Bulls win. I miss.

1996/1997/1998 Chicago Bulls - I remember watching the 3-peat repeat on television. I think we actually scored some tickets to a regular season Bulls game during on of the championship run years. I remember the flu game, Jud Buechler's 3-pointer, 72-10 and all of Rodman's bad hair decisions - all from my couch.

1998 Chicago Wolves - Here is one of the rare times I actually saw a championship in person. I still don't recall how a bunch of us from my job at the time scored decent tickets at face value, but we sat through a couple periods of hard fought 0-0 score until the Wolves popped in 3 quick ones to put the game away. I remember the players throwing gloves and sticks into the crowd from the bench in the last few seconds, then watching the Turner Cup raised high over Steve Maltais' head.

1998 Chicago Fire - I really don't remember why I was not following the Fire as closer as I should. Something in my life, I am sure, had me away from where I should have been. But the Fire pulled out a win in their first season and held the MLS trophy high.

2005 Chicago White Sox - Here was one of the two last championships I needed to happen during my life. I grew up in the south burbs of Chicago. By birth, you picked your side of town baseball-wise. The Sox were (and somehow, still are) 2nd in the Second City. But in 2005, we went wire to wire and dominated MLB. I had returned to my love of baseball (still love soccer) in the mid 90's, so I watched every game I could, including the dang near all-nighter game 3. When the Sox are one out away, I get called out of the room to help my daughter with a quick math problem. From the other room, I hear my son hooting the game is over. Thank goodness for replay. Again...

2010 Chicago Blackhawks - And the circle is complete. Last night, the final team I followed for years ended their drought. I, like everyone else, had no dang clue where that puck went. But Kaner knew, and that's all that matters now. My wife was on the computer. My son was watching from his friend's house. My daughter just walked into the room when we were all trying to figure out where the puck went. I was just hoping they were not celebrating early. And they weren't.

So that's it, sports-wise. All the teams that matter to me have won the ultimate prize. They are all welcome to win it again, but no other Chicago team matters in my life. Yeah....I'm talking about you losers.

YouTube-sday™: Be the best

If you are going to be the best with an iron, then you must practice often:

Gratuity included?

Time to start paying for this...

Would you want to be in her head?

It must be nice being Quitter Sarah Palin, saying all she says and actually BELIEVING she is right. Some how she sleeps at night and thinks up death panels, foreign policy osmosis and reading all them newspapers. First she chanted "Drill, baby, drill", then denyied saying it. Now Ms. moron Palin has decided to blame the Deep Water disaster in the Gulf on environmentalists. Since people have fought to protect fragile Alaska land from more destructive activities, dingbat Palin claims those battles force companies to takes risks to get the oil we need to feed our addiction and opening ANWR will solve all our problems.

Except once again, Sarah nut is full of it. Drilling in ANWR will do nothing to help out our use of fossil fuels. There are not billions and billions of oil available. There's just a few billion. Barely 2 years worth. Not worth the effort when we'd be better off investing in better, cleaner, safer forms of energy. Cuz when it comes down to it, what looks better:

This, this and this? Or that, that and that?



(quick side question - how many high ranking former state officials use Facebook? I didn't know you could be elected governor up there at 13. )

YouTube-sday: Stanley Cup Game 3 edition

HA!!!! Eat it, Carcillo.

What's on your list?

As I type, my wife and daughter are on a little cruise in Miami. Before leaving, my daughter commented that swimming with dolphins (a plan on the trip) is something on her bucket list. Cool - she'll cross that off.

Now, there are the standard items that people put on their lists, from vacations to certain locales, owning this or this, meeting so-and-so.... tons of items on thousands of lists. Allow me to suggest a couple that may seem out of the normal, but something everyone should experience.

1) The National Anthem at a Chicago Backhawks game. If you are watching any of the Cup playoffs this year, you are seeing Frank Pellico and Jim Cornelison performing the National Anthem prior to the puck drop. And to put it simply....the crowd goes crazy. Trust me - what you see on the small screen in NOTHING compared to being there and experiencing it from a seat in the UC. YouTube has plenty of user uploads of the anthem. It a tradition for greater than 25 years. And if you are not pumped for hockey at the end, you must be dead.

2) The organ before a flick at the Tivoli. I remember finding the Tivoli years ago. When I took my wife and kids to a show there, I can still recall the looks on their faces when they walked in to a theater unlike anything they build nowadays. And if the theater isn't enough of a reason to catch a movie at the Tivoli, we happened to go on a night with the organ playing. You really should make sure you arrive 30 minutes or so prior to a show on any Friday or Saturday night and listen to the music while watching the standard pre-movie slide show. The organ is played with the fine musical stylings of a member of the CATOE. It's always a pleasure to hear some older songs in an area with nice acoustics. The movie previews always begin with with a rousing version of a fine patriot song, and the crowd shows their appreciation of the organist. While no United Center, it's always a great time.

WTFriday: special environmental edition

So just how bad can it get for the Gulf (and the world as a whole). Well, as expected, the vultures have come out of the woodwork concerning the disaster off the Louisiana coast. I have seen a fair share of spam telling me how I can get my share of financial relief from the damages. Cuz Chicago is right on the coast, of course. Then there are the door to door scams selling "miracle chemicals" to protect the beaches.

Now, a UK betting site allows you to bet on what will be the first species wiped off the earth because of the oil damage. No - seriously. Look here.

Have we become so callous about life, whether human or other, that the most important thing is to make some cash in every possible situation, positive or negative? It seems the Kemp's Ridley turtle is the favorite. Let's hope this is not the only way we get to see them in the near future:

New on the side bar ---->

Just added the PBS widget showing both the BP live video feed of their continued destruction of the planet, as well as the best guesstimate of the amount of that destruction. Horrible to watch, but we all need to know.

Jumping on the response bandwagon

If you have been under a rock, this email has started circulating around Wall Street a couple weeks back, purportedly written by some trader. Some responses have been written, and dangit if I don't want to get in on the smackdown:

******

Dear Mr. Wall Street trader,

One question up front: are you guys really that unaware of the real world the other 99.9% of us reside in? Because a few things you have said give me the impression you get all your information about us "common folk" from Telemundo comedy shows, the History Channel and back issues of Field and Stream. Let me see if I can help you out a bit.

I don't make $85K a year. Oh, I wish I do, but I don't. In fact, I know of only one person that makes at least that, and he is a tech director for a company and pretty much works 24/7, what with being on call all the time and on weekends. I used to take an hour for lunch - UNPAID. Now, so I can get home, I work with a 20min paid lunch. I am working to train my body to do it's natural waste discharge during one of my breaks. My wife works in a school. There are days she never gets a lunch, with the extra workload caused by the financial crisis you created. And she doesn't get 4 months off, she gets just under 3.

I am not sure how you think you are better for my job or my wife's job. Just because you manage the buying of selling of "stuff" doesn't magically make you more capable of being a teacher. For starters - you need a license. In Illinois, it's called a Type 10. Just saying "I sold 2 billion is assets last year" doesn't gain you the license. One must attend certain college courses. Don't even think about my wife's job. That's a Type 75. You need a Master's specializing in speech and audiology. Now my job? If you think you can handle networking, VPNs, deep troubleshooting and other technical issues, come apply. But expect that salary to be a couple 10k's less, and enjoy your 15 days off a year. That's right.....fifteen. Trust me pal, when the time comes for you to get a job in the real world, say bagging groceries at Jewel, and the manager needs to choose between a 17 year old kid and your pathetic butt, who do you think will get that job? (Let me give you a hint: not you).

Now you threaten to not buy your $80k car, leave a big tip and manage your own home improvements. What was that car - a Benz? Infinity? BMW? Volvo? Those aren't made in the USA, dumb*ss. So you weren't helping the economy then, and you won't be helping it now, unless you decide to buy a vehicle actually produced within our borders. And a 35% tip? Yeah.....right. You left a 35% tip the day I won my first Stanley Cup.

Spare us the righteousness you claim to have. You work in an industry that is self serving. You do nothing to produce money. You simply manage it. You do not manufacture a good, and you do not really provide a service. You simply work in a closed industry that pats itself on the back and thinks it controls the world. Here's the truth - your job is to make money for yourself, no matter what happens to the other person. You make money even when the other person loses money. I can think of two industries off the top of my head that are like that: real estate and casinos. I think Agent Smith said it best.

Neo isn't coming to save you. And no matter how hot Trinity is (and boy, is she hot), she doesn't believe a word you say. Your days are numbered.

My Name Is....

Am I the only person that, when I hear the media talk about the Times Square bomber doofus Faisal Shahzad, thinks of this little guy?


Poor Fivel.

YouTube-sday™: It only weighs about 50 pounds.

I think the screen on my Motorola cell phone is larger that that sucker.

Spill, baby....spill

Ever wonder how an oil spill totally destroys an environment? Just watch this animation to see how the recent BP oil rig explosion has completely wrecked the Gulf.



I was thinking - why are we not surprised by BP's mistakes?. BP hosed Alaska with a leak in 2006, and now this. Maybe we need to reexamine why they are in business.