So I had a day from H-E-L-L

At least that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.. Here’s how it went today…  WARNING: This is long as hell, just sayin’… it was truly a bad day…

I got an email a little while back.. like a week ago or so.. saying my car may be due for it’s 40K mile service… I’m at like 38K and change.. sure I’ll take it in.. I always take it in a little early just in case. I called Tuesday and set up an appointment for Friday, today, at 9am at the Honda Dealership here in Jacksonville (Lejeune Honda). Fast Forward to today.. We get up to LH (Lejeune Honda) at around 850am.. I turn in the van, and the girls and I wait inside. I knew I had to pay about $95 for the oil change, but when they came to me about the van needing the filters changed, and all of the fluids replaced… something to the tune of nearly $700, I just about passed out. Just about 8K miles ago, when we were in CA, we had taken our van in to Autowest Honda in Roseville, where we purchased the van, to have the 30K mile service done. That was March 30th. I paid nearly $700 that day..(but I was prepared for that)… Sound Familiar? Well, it should… Every fluid that I had replaced, and every filter that I changed out is on the list once again… Mind you, it took 30K miles for it to need to be changed the first time… How did it only take 8K miles this time? I don’t know, and I can’t get a straight answer from LH. They keep telling me that they don’t have the records showing what the other dealership (AH) did or did not do on the van, so they don’t know why it’s already that bad. I told LH that I know for a fact that AH did this same stuff at the 30K mile service, so I don’t understand how it needs it all over again.. Then the service gal starts rambling off a bunch of mechanical stuff, and believe me, I understood what she was talking about (I used to work on cars when I was younger with my dad).. it just didn’t make any sense.. She said there was nothing mechanically wrong with my car… Well, then why was my transmission fluid black as night when it’s supposed to be clear and pink??
oh.. and here are the vials she showed me:

The first large vial is “my” transmission fluid, and it should look like the far left tiny vial. The second tall vial is “my” brake fluid, and it should look like the second clearish tiny vial. The third large vial is “my” power steering fluid, which should look like the third yellowish tiny vial. The last one on the far right is my coolant.. and that one isn’t much different.  Anyhow… I called back to AH, and confirmed that they did indeed change out all of my fluids last time I was in there, and asked the technician if I could send him the photo.. He said he’d take a look at it and give me a call back. Well, out of fear of my car dying on me somewhere in the middle of NC, I agreed to let them change just the transmission fluid, since it seemed to be the worst, and a super important part of my car just working. There was no way I could get all of them done… seriously… Honda trying to take away all of my Christmas money.. not nice. Oh, and did I mention one of my girls was having a meltdown while all this was going on… because she wanted my iPhone, and I said no… really… both of my girls brought in their Leapsters and a huge bag full of books… no she wanted my iPhone. That was all slightly embarassing.

We had to run to Sears after this to go pick up my jewelry box that I had put on layaway.. no it wasn’t full of jewelry.. it’s a standing one that I have always wanted so I could hang my necklaces instead of them getting all tangled in the bottom of my table top box… more on this later… Anyway, we stopped at the automotive section just so I could ask them about their fluid service. They told me they could do everything but my transmission fluid since Honda kinda has the monopoly on that. I guess it’s some special Honda fluid or something… He did tell me that they could change the fluids for $250 rather than Honda’s outrageous estimate. When I told him the situation, he told me that since it wasn’t at the recommended time, Honda should warranty it. I explained that it was 2 different dealerships in two different states, so I didn’t think there was a warranty here. Then he told me I should call Honda corporate and see what they said. So. I did.

I spoke to a wonderful CS agent at Honda Corporate. She listened to my dilemma and told me that she thought something sounded funny too. Long story short, she created a case, and is getting the Regional Liaison involved. I’ll know more by next Tuesday. Phone call back from AH in Cali, he thought the vials were very interesting and told me the only way my Transmission fluid would’ve been that dark, this soon, was if something was mechanically wrong with my transmission and they’ve already said there wasn’t. Sooooo… we’ll see about all this.

Ok, so on to the jewelry armoire.. yes.. so we went to Sears to pick that up. The girls know the mall very well. They know there’s a cookie store and a pretzel store… and today, they wanted a pretzel. I already told them no, because there was no way I was going to treat them after the scene at the dealership. Oh goodness, that just caused a huge scene in Sears. I picked up the armoire and went straight to the car.. Crying, more fits… I was ready to go home. Ah, but it wasn’t time yet…

We stopped at our new Ashley Furniture home store.. A few weeks ago, we bought a  new sectional. Well, delivery day came, and they brought the chaise for the wrong side. I was so sad… Anyway, they said they’d order a new one, the correct one, and it would be here by the 7th… ok, so a little over a week.. no big deal Well, I got a call on Monday asking how the delivery went, and the lady I spoke to said she was going to call someone who was in charge of orders and make sure it was ordered… Apparently she didn’t see the order in the computer. She said she’d call back and let me know the details. I never got a call back. I waited 2 days, and called back on Wednesday, spoke to someone else who promised me the manager would call me back as soon as she got off her phone call… Nothing. So today, I went in. I found out that the chaise was ordered on Saturday, but it now wouldn’t be in till the 11th, and then delivered sometime during the week after that.. Um.No. I didn’t pay that much money to be without my couch. I was promised it would be rushed and here by the 7th. It is explained to me that their “rush” is asking the manufacturer “We need it asap.. pretty please” and then they do it in the order it was received.. UGH! I’m so upset. I think we might be taking our money elsewhere to buy the girls’ new beds….

So we did have to go back to LH for a bit so they could reset my oil life gauge. It still said 20%… ummm really?

Ok.. you’d think I was done.. but no. When we got home, I got the girls some lunch, and told them they needed to take a nap. All this fighting and fussing today… they had to be tired.. Once I got them upstairs, I started to unpack my Jewelry Armoire. I was livid. The corners were splintered. The front doors were totally off. The tops of the doors touched it was almost impossible to close, and the bottoms of the doors had a gap almost a 1/4 ” wide. No lie.. I wanted to cry. I called Sears back and they told me to just bring it back.. of course

Hubby got home around 530p and we took off down to Sears. I turned in the jewelry armoire, and went back to that section to look for another one. It was between getting another of the same one, or one that had a totally different look to it, but more hanging space for necklaces. I chose the second one because I was afraid that the doors on the new one would have problems too. Guess what.. They were all out of the one I wanted. It truly wasn’t my day. Hubby knew I wasn’t up for cooking dinner… so we opted to go out that night. I needed it. Everyone was happy, and we had some good laughs…

I’ll have to update as the week goes on to let you know what comes of the van, and the couch situation… We’re going to be shopping around for the girls’ beds this weekend too…