Reading

Firestone has just made my shitlist.  Tonight, after work, I drove all the way across town away from my house to get my hair cut.  I wanted to look "presentable" for pictures tomorrow since I’m graduating tomorrow night.  After I did that, I drove way back over to the Time-It Lube on Bert Kouns to get my oil changed, but they were closed, even though I thought they were open until 6.  At the suggestion of Courtney, I went to Firestone, since they’re open until 7.

I went in, and there was nobody there, at all.  I waited around, with no bell to ring for service, and no one was there.  Finally, I just peeked my head into the service bay and the guy finally acknowledged I existed and said "Someone will be in there in a minute."  A guy finally came in and I proceeded to give him my car’s info.  I’ve gone there in the past, but not with my new car.  He looked up the 2007 Hyundai Azera Limited with the 3.8L V6.  After finding it and confirming they had the oil filter, he seemed OK to proceed.  I asked if I could get the oil changed without the filter too, and he said no, so I didn’t really care, since it probably needs it anyway.

He then informed me that it would be 45 minutes to 1 hour before they could get to me, since they had only one service person, and he had to put 4 tires each on 2 trucks before he could do my simple oil change.  Again, I hesitated, but I said "OK," since I had my copy of The Amber Spyglass (the third book in the His Dark Materials trilogy).  I also was hungry, so I gave him my cell number and I told him I was going to Taco Bell next door to eat and read until they finished.  I wasn’t delighted about spending an hour waiting, but I figured the time would pass quickly and I’d just be reading at home anyway.

40 minutes later, I get a phone call from the guy telling me they don’t have an oil filter for my car, even though they do for all the other Hyundais, as if that would console me somehow.  I said something like "That’s fine, just do the oil change without the filter and I’ll get it changed when I can get one."  He told me they couldn’t do that because of company policy.  I argued a little bit over the phone, but then I just told him I’d be over there in a minute.  I finished my current chapter, and headed back over there (after talking to Mr. Pedro, how cool was that to see him there?  I then called Josh to tell him about that).

When I got back over there, one of the truck customers was over there, and the guy was nowhere to be found, and I waited around forever again, and he finally made an appearance.  He had left my keys out on the counter too, for anyone to grab, so I got those before he came in.  I guess he didn’t care if someone stole my car or got things out of it.  What an ass!

I asked why they couldn’t just do an oil change, and he proceeded to tell something like:

Him: "If we change your oil and not the filter, something might drip back in there and then it’ll get damaged and you’ll blame us and we don’t want that."

Me: "But you don’t even have the filter for my car!"

Him: "We can’t do an oil change without the filter and we don’t have the filter."

Me: "So you won’t ever do an oil change on my car unless you sell the filter?"

Him: "Nope."

Me: "What if I bought the filter and brought it here from O’Reilly’s?? Would you do it then, or do you have to actually sell it?"

Him: "We have to sell it."

Me: "Why?!? I’ll tell you why, because you just want to upsell filters and it has nothing to do with engine damage."

Him: "We are a business; we’re here to make money."

Me: "I want to pay you money… to change my oil!!!"

Him: "That would be like you buying tires and bringing them in here for install.  We wouldn’t know the quality."

Me: "That’s ridiculous, a filter is a porous material that keeps impurities out of the the oil system and is completely different from a tire."

Him: *hands in air, walks away from me to the back, saying nothing, in front of that other customer*

OK, does that not make him an ass again?  The correct thing to do when a customer accuses you of gouging in front of another customer isn’t to admit that you’re doing it, and that what you said before was just a lie.  What is their problem?  I then asked for the manager’s name, and he gave me the card and told me he wouldn’t be back until Friday.

I really hate Firestone now, and I’ll certainly never bother them again, trying to give them money.  What was I thinking??

I got home from school around 8:15pm and I had some school work to do. Letter to a Christian Nation was sitting on my doorstep, so I said screw it. I started reading it immediately and it’s a very short book, so I finished it shortly before 10pm.

It’s a great book, addressing all of the most common of Christian retorts when confronted with their complete lack of rationality for their beliefs. It doesn’t go deep into issues like The End of Faith did, but then again, it’s a tiny fraction of the size. Excluding the preface, it’s only 91 pages of text to read, and these are tiny pages. It’s a great reader and you can easily read it in under 2 hours.

It’s really cheap and those links I gave give the Rational Response Squad a tiny fraction of your purchase if you buy it from those links. I suggest everyone buy Letter to a Christian Nation, because it’s very accessible. If you’re really interested in much more in depth coverage of how religion hurts America and the rest of the world, grab The End of Faith, too. It’s much longer, the pages are larger, and the issues are deeper. It will take a little longer to read, but it’s well worth it too.

Good job, Sam Harris. I look forward to your next book.