I don’t care how you look at it, this man is just sad. Granted a lot of what I know about him comes from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it sounds like they really didn’t have to do much to make him look like a total douchebag. I find it extremely ironic that if you begin a Google search for Albert Gonzales and look at the suggested searches, “Alberto Gonzales Resignation” has 1,230,000 results, “Alberto Gonzales should resign” has 837,000, and “Alberto Gonzales should be fired” has 731,000 results. His Wikipedia article has an entire section devoted to Calls for resignation or firing. It’s obvious to pretty much everybody that the guy is lying through his teeth. How does he still have job? An even better question, how can the president still be supporting him?

President Bush said today that the Congressional testimony of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales last week, roundly panned by members of both parties, “in a way increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.”

Oh. Dear. God.

We’re finally here in Jamaica, but the trip here wasn’t exactly smooth. After waking up at 3:30 to head to the airport, our flight finally left Chicago around 7AM. So in just over 3 hours we should have been landing in Montego Bay.

Now it’s Tuesday morning, and we’ve slept for 11 hours and just finished our room service breakfast. We’re about to head down to orientation and figure out what to do with the rest of our day.

Maybe it’s just because I’m not in school anymore, but I notice people doing stupid stuff in public a lot more than I ever used to (and I always have to a certain extent).

Look, the world is not your personal playground. Do not share with us your musical tastes; do not share with us your latest wheelings and dealings. In public places, you have an obligation to hold up your end of the implied social contract by not imposing yourself on those around you. This is crucial to a civilized society and just because technology allows you to act like a braying ass in public doesn’t mean you should do it.

Just today I was in Arby’s for lunch and someone behind the counter started singing along with the song playing in the restaurant. Was she in tune? Was she in synch? No. Did anyone want to hear it? No. I’m sick of going bowling (non-league) and having the alley overrun by stupid kids with no parents around doing whatever they want. So read this article on how to squelch your inner jackass and pay attention. And the next time you’re in a public place, ask yourself, “Does someone else think I’m a jackass?”

• Don’t misspeak when giving the customer an estimate of the work to be done to his car leaving him to speculate if the estimate was even for the correct vehicle or price.
• Don’t continue to give estimates of when the work will be done when it becomes clear that you will be wrong.
• Don’t get “too busy” to call the customer and tell him why his car isn’t ready.
• Don’t believe you shouldn’t call the customer to tell him about his car because if he wants a status update he will call and ask.
• Don’t run around all over the city for a day and half looking for a part that no one carries and not tell your customer it’s a big cause of the delay.
• Don’t tell your customer it is OK for him to be angry if you don’t mean it.
• Don’t imply that you don’t care if your customer is angry because your shop is already busier than it can handle. You’re not helping your case.
• Don’t assume your customer will be satisfied when the total price tag comes in under the estimate when you have given him absolutely no details along the way about why the work is taking so long.
• And for God’s sake, DON’T get angry and start cussing when the customer still isn’t happy just because you came in under the estimate (which was already in question) and then start a debate about what is considered cussing. (For the record, I would not consider “going to hell and back” to be cussing, however dropping the F-Bomb in front of a customer is never appropriate no matter how angry you or he may be.)

I’d like to clarify a few things without getting too lengthy. All of these guidelines were broken by McDermott’s Service and Repair when I took my car to them to replace my head gasket and fix an oil leak. Once I was finally able to talk to the mechanic actually doing the work (Troy), I was given most of the answers I was looking for and I felt mildly better. He told me that once he opened up my engine he found a lot of little oddities from previous work that required a lot of tweaking and extra parts to fix. One rubber fitting was mashed back into place and horribly deformed, etc. While unfortunate, those things are not unreasonable. I understand that these things happen. I realize it takes time to get parts from other vendors. These things are all acceptable to me.

However, the lack of information from Debbie who answers the phones and makes the estimates was maddening. I finally went to pick up my car this evening. When I started to convey my dissatisfaction to Paul, another guy who works there, he was mildly sympathetic, but tones quickly changed and he proceeded to piss me off even more. I was told that they had been spending a lot of time looking for a part that no one seemed to carry. They were finally able to find one and got the work done fairly quickly from there. Still, Paul didn’t seem to mind that I was pissed off and even got angry with me when I wasn’t overjoyed when the price was less than the estimate.

It’s probably too early to tell, but I believe they probably did some very fine work. Troy seemed very knowledgeable in the 10 minutes or so that I talked to him and this place was recommended by someone at Epic. I’m not even mad about the price, I think it was probably very fair for all the extra work they had to do but weren’t expecting. However, the complete lack of customer service gives me a great reason to never go back. You can get quality automotive work done at lots of places; the things that set one apart from others are the customer service and a fair deal. Paul getting angry enough to cuss in front of me is just ridiculous and Debbie’s apologies and assurances that she really does know what she’s doing are not enough to salvage this experience for me. I believe it was an honest mistake on her part, but her apologies just weren’t worth much when stacked up with all the rest. I won’t be back, and I assured them I would be sharing my story (both good parts and bad) with the rest of Epic (at 2,000+ strong with lots of friends and family) before the week is over.