Because I’m worth it

I asked for something off the bill because they made me wait. It worked even better than hoped. Maybe I’m worth more than I thought.

Here’s the background. This morning our other car – not the 16-year-old candidate for ‘scrappage‘ – went to the garage for its annual service and MoT. I didn’t have a good experience there last year, so I had grumbled and obtained a voucher for a free MoT and what looked to be a reasonably-priced service this time. That was enough, just, to tempt me back.

On leaving the car today, I was told when I could collect it. I arrived on time, but it wasn’t ready. “Sorry, sir. Please take a seat”, the receptionist said, rather mechanically. A little later, she informed me the car would be ready in about 30 minutes. Eventually the wait stretched to a tedious 50 minutes, with no free drink and only a TV with a discoloured screen to watch. By then I was feeling ill-used and suspecting that they thought my time was worthless. So when it came to paying, I was in ‘grumpy old man’ mode. I pointed out how long I had been waiting and said, “How about something off the bill?” A brief backroom consultation produced the offer of a £35 reduction. Result! If I’d been asked to suggest a figure, it would have been lower and the minimum I would have accepted was lower still. I said, neutrally, that I thought the offer a fair one, settled up and left feeling quietly pleased. They now have a satisfied customer, one who may return in 12 months.

I’m well aware of my hourly rate at work, but I now have a better idea of the price of my time on a non-work day. On today’s evidence, it’s higher than I thought. This elephant won’t forget, and I hope the one at the garage doesn’t either.

What’s your ‘going rate’ for being kept waiting? Any tips on getting it?

Not-so-desperate days

The UK government’s ‘scrappage’ scheme was set up to help the motor industry which, we were told, was struggling in the recession. Several months on, with unemployment still rising and gloomy predictions of spending cuts and/or tax rises for years ahead, how desperate are the dealers and manufacturers? Not very, if the experience of family and friends is anything to go by.

Our son now has a new Fiat Panda bought through the scrappage scheme, but he had to wait several weeks for it. More than a month after they placed the order, our neighbours still haven’t got their scrappage Toyota.

My wife and I are tempted to take the widely-touted £2,000 bait and trade the 16-year-old Vauxhall Astra for our first-ever new car. We’ve been pleased with the two Astras we’ve had, so the local Vauxhall dealer seemed a sensible place to start looking. Could we try the model which Vauxhall’s website was promoting as a scrappage offer? Nope. Indeed the dealer struggled to find any Astra for us to test drive. We did try a car which was significantly different from the one we had asked about, but the expected ‘switch sell’ didn’t happen. Are car salesmen going soft, I wondered?

Where next? Thirty years ago we had a Skoda, when all the jokes about them being shoddy rustbuckets rang true. But these days Skoda is owned by VW and, I gather, even some police forces are confident enough to buy them. So let’s visit the dealer. Could we have a look at the Octavia featured in the scrappage section of the manufacturer’s website? Definitely not – they are in very short supply and there probably won’t be any available in the next six months. Again the salesman seemed relaxed when we walked away; he made no effort at all to interest us in something else.

I’m surprised that dealers don’t seem to have yards full of new cars they are desperate to unload. I’m amazed that manufacturers are still taking weeks or months to supply cars under the scrappage scheme. What’s going on? Has the car trade conned the government into stumping up cash unnecessarily? Are they – despite bleatings to the press about sharply reduced sales – managing the market just fine, thank you very much?