Nice

Just when you thought customer service had gone the way of the Dodo and powdered wigs, along comes this.

You might recall that our car’s navigation system had started acting up occasionally a few months ago. Right now, it works about half the time. Lucky for me, I know where I’m going the other half of the time.

Well, I finally made an appointment to have it looked at again by the dealer, Roush Honda. When I dropped it off yesterday, I asked the service tech if he’d ever seen this problem before. He said that he had, but they had a software update that fixed the issue ‘most of the time’. The cost for the diagnostic and software upload was $84. That seemed fair to me.

So I got my loaner and drove to work, to await The Call.

The call came a little after 4pm. It was the same guy who I’d spoken to that morning. He explained that the software update didn’t do the trick, the unit couldn’t triangulate the car’s location correctly – and it appeared that the drive unit for the system was dying. As our car is long out of warranty (it just had the 75k mile oil change last month), the cost for a new unit would be…wait for it…

$4100.

Wow. I didn’t say anything. Luckily, he did. He explained that they could see that I’ve brought the car in to them for every service interval, and have been a longtime customer. He’d talked it over with the service manager, and they’d agreed to do this as a warranty exchange. They would swap out the unit and my only cost for that would be labor, for a total of $225 plus tax. I said, “So, you’re giving roughly a 95% discount?” He said “Well it’s not like you bought the car 4 years ago, disappeared, and showed up today demanding special treatment. We’re willing to work something out in situations like yours.” I’d say they certainly do.

I had been ready for a fight, and was ready to bring up the fact that I had came to them for service, etc etc. But I didn’t have to. I didn’t have to argue, complain, ask to talk to anyone higher up…none of that.

And as a little extra bonus, they didn’t charge me the $84 for the diagnostic, because the software upload didn’t fix the problem.

The units have to be specially ordered, and one won’t be in until June 1. So only a couple more weeks.

And they’ve just earned a customer for life.

Gardening

We decided to do something about our long neglected front garden We'd planted some hostas and a few perennials a few years ago, but that was about it. None of them really did too well.
So this year, I wanted to do it right. The existing soil is a very heavy clay that apparently kills plants or seriously stunts their growth. I bought some soil conditioners on the advise of Mr. and Mrs. Pickles and a few gardening books (compost and cow poop) and mixed those in with some new topsoil.
Then I added a few perennials - white Daisys, yellow Coreopisis, purple Salvias, and various Lilies. I figured red was covered by the Japanese Maple, which is doing much better this year - maybe due to less saturated soil?
I moved most of the hostas to the front corner of the bed to make room for the new plants.














Not a victory garden yet, but these should start to fill in nicely in a year or two. The Coreopsis is already sending out runners after only a week. I'm going to get a few more plants next week, then we'll mulch the bed and see what happens.

My Favorite Ho

Ding Ho, the local Chinese restaurant that's old enough for an AARP card, is still open.
They had moved abruptly from their previous location on Broad St. during the winter, and I was worried that the bad timing combined with the struggling economy would spell their doom. I'm glad to see I was wrong.
My mom was in town for a brief visit on thursday, and discovered that they were up and running in their new location on Philippi Rd, right next to Kohl's.
We stopped in and ordered some carryout. We also sampled their margaritas to make sure they were up to snuff. While there, I asked the bartender what prompted the sudden move. She explained that a family dispute caused it all...her uncle owned the building of their former location, while her father had the rights to the business. The uncle wanted a controlling interest, and when that was refused, he forced the restaurant out.
Business seemed good for a random thursday evening. The new location is a lot more visible from the road, so that should help bring people in. They're also adding an outdoor patio that looked about ready to open.
The food was just as good as it was at the old location, so the only thing you'll miss is the old dingy restaurant.

My Albatross

This year, my goal is to do something, anything with our landscaping. It’s been more or less neglected since we moved in. Other than removing some ugly bushes and planting a handful of Hostas, we haven’t really got serious about anything yet.

But this year will be different. It’s not going to be an HGTV quality makeover, but we’re making some plans and some improvements that can be handled without stressing ourselves financially to do it.

The basic outline so far…

Front Tree

replant hostas, add phlox ground cover to fill in the raised bed area.

Front bed

Raise and rework soil

Replace red mulch with black

Plant bed with hostas along sidewalk, bed filled with flowering plants and tall grasses behind

Trellis(es) against house with climbing flowering plants

Low trellis wall to frame porch perimeter w/ planting boxes on top

Back Yard

Add small patio behind covered porch

Rose bushes along south fence

Along the back (west) fence…not sure yet. Probably medium evergreens and hydrangeas mixed

Add planting beds around NW corner and by shed for veggies and herbs

That’s a lot to get accomplished in a few months and a small budget. But dirt and plants aren’t that expensive, the main cost is in time and effort. But we’re tired of looking out at patchy grass and neglected flower beds. Time to do something about it!