An Interesting Two Weeks

The past two weeks have been a rather rough time for me. While it was the Jewish high holidays and that offered days of introspection and I had battled a rather pesky virus that is still reeking it's havoc on me and my immune system, it was the battle with PepBoys that has really made me stop and think. Basically the short story is that I took it there almost exactly two weeks ago as the check engine light came on. What happened while trying to move the car in it was smashed into the car in front of it. What should have been a very open shut case of we-smashed-your-car-therefore-we-will-pay-for-it, has turned into a two week fight that has resulted in horrible customer service which included an anti-semetic conversations. While I could go on and on about the problems that I have had with PepBoys, I think what is most interesting is how I have handled the entire situation.

I am a very non-confrontational person. I can't yell at people. Even as a coach I couldn't take myself serious when yelling was justifiable. I guess it comes from all my years in customer service industries. A person would simply not work harder to help someone who was yelling. However, you are kind and understanding about the mix up people tend to want to help. So, even though about 10 things where mishandled, I kept my cool. The car was already broken and me yelling wouldn't fix it at all. I needed everyone to want to work with me to get this all taken care of. Well a few days passed and no one responded to me. No phone calls, no emails, no help what-so-ever. I have gone on for almost two weeks now talking to supervisors and supervisors of supervisors. No change, no help, still no response.

The silver lining of all of this is that we are talking about a car not my health or even my dog. This is something that can be replaced. I understand that. I am just so sad that this whole situation is making me feel so upset and helpless. I am trying to find the awesome lesson here for what to learn from this and am coming up short at the moment. What can you do? Sometimes life gives you lemons and you don't end up with lemonade.