bad luck phil...

well i've named my bad luck, such as the hurricanes that have been hitting the gulf coast. my bad luck is named phil. so every time something bad happens, it just phil again. why phil? i was debating with either phil, gary, or ace, but phil got lucky.

so far phil has been coming in fast and hard. and phil doesn't quit. the results of phil are the following...

friday...
i called the shop in the morning to talk about my options. the manager said he could have the valve stem holes drill larger (which earlier was not recommended) to a normal size. he was going to call the machinist to see if it could be done on the same day and he would call me back with the info. i waited till around 4 pm and did not recieve a call back. so i called and the manager had already left for the day. the 'desk guy' said that the manager would pay for one wheel to be drilled ($50 a wheel) and i would have to pay for the other 3 to be drilled. this made no sense as only one wheel needed to be drilled but the machinist would only do the set of 4. and i was told that the machinist is closed on the weekend so there's no option to drill them this weekend. thanks for not calling me back earlier and giving me nothing to work with. the manager will be in at 7am tomorrow morning so i'll call then and chew him out.

saturday...
i called early in the morning to talk to the manager. he asked if anyone had 'called me back' and i said no (cuz it was i who did the calling). he went on how all 4 wheels will need to be drilled and how i would have to pay for 3 of them. i went off saying THEY were the ones who made this situation and i gave them my options on how to close this. the final solution was that i would buy a rim and they would reimburse me (up to $150), switch tires, and put on the new rim. i saw the same design wheel at the place where i first bought the rims (when i went in to ask about the valve stem), so i figured it was going to be easy.

after work, i went over to the store where i bought the wheels and saw my rim there. it seems that rim is only a display model and it doesn't have a valve stem either. then i asked if he could sell me the cheapest 17" rim he has so i can get my car back, but he didn't have any in stock. so i went to visit a few other places but found out that rims are usually sold in sets of 4 (not just one), and they often don't have them in stock (they'll have to order them). so after visiting 4 stores, i found one that would sell me just one.


so the first thing i asked was 'can you sell me just one rim?'. then i went through my whole story (which i told at all the stores because they don't understand why someone would need just one rim). and the guy said he would sell me the floor model and the best price he could give me was $175 (cuz they would have to special order one rim to replace the one i bought). after deciding that i might have to eat the $25 difference for the reimbursement, i agreed cuz i just want to get my car back. then the salesguy said 'you paying in cash?' and i said 'credit card'. he said if i paid in cash, he wouldn't charge me sales tax. so luckly there was a ATM across the street and i paid him in cash. the guy was cool and the new rim actually looked better than my old ones, so i told the guy that i might come back later to grab the other 3 when i have more money. he said he could get me a better deal when i come back to get the other 3. at least i'm a step closer to ending this whole crisis.


so i went home, ate lunch, showered up, packed, and left with my wife to san jo. we took highway 101 (which takes a bit longer than highway 5) and got dinner and gas half way through. when we got into south san jo, there was a truck that was doing over 90 mph in the car pool lane. i said 'man, where are the cops when you need them'. just then, a cop comes off an on-ramp, and sneaks through traffic towards the car pool lane. i figured the truck was going to get away since it took the cop a while to get through the traffic and into the car pool lane (and he didn't have his flashing lights on). later, in the distance, the cops lights came on but it was so far away that i lost sight of him. i wanted to see if the cop could catch up with the truck since the truck was so far away. about a few minutes later, we saw the cop and the truck on the side of the road, giving the driver a ticket. i wanted to stop and thank the cop for his good work but i didn't want to get shot.

we got into san jo around 11 pm, and luckly i had a spare key to rick's place. i have a keyring with tons of keys on it, where i don't know where they go to. we showered up and went to bed early.

sunday...
woke up early cuz i need all the time i can get to deal with up coming problems as they arrise. we were supposed to go pick up kenny and then drop off my new rim, but we left the house a bit late so i decided to drop off the new rim first, have breakfast with the so's, then pick up my car. when i got into the shop, i was waiting for the desk guy to get off the phone and noticed a wall full of rims. and what did i see...

THE SAME EXACT RIM STYLE AS MY OLD ONE!!! (but a different manufacture). my jaw just dropped as they could have just ordered this one and replaced my old broken one, and i would have had my car in a week. i stood there and told the guy that this is the same design as my old one. when i asked him how much it was, he said the company that they order from doesn't open during the weekends (just my luck). man was i pissed. so i dropped off my new rim and they said it would be ready in 30 minutes. we left to go pick up some McBreakfast and eat with the so's.

we got to the so's a bit late cuz i wanted to buy more oil for the so's CRX, wash the car, and pick up breakfast. we got to the so's, ate breakfast, and talked. by now, my car should have been finished and ready to be picked up. so after an hour and half, we all went to the shop.

my old rim
(isn't it the same one as the one above)

my new rim

we all poured in to the shop and i showed kenny the rim on the wall. i pretty made sure that i could be heard through out the shop cuz i wanted all the shop guys to hear it. i went on about how easy it would have been to just order that rim and replace mine, instead of running through LA looking for someone to sell me just one rim. i think when i left earlier, the desk guy must have called the manager and told him about the same rim on the wall. making him feel stoopid (which probably an easy task), he offered to pay for the full amount of the new rim.

then bad luck phil hits again. it seems while changing the tire, they ripped my old tire and had to replace it with one of their own. the shop guy tries to make me feel better telling me that they're giving me a free 'fuzion' tire, which i have no idea what that means. all i'm thinking is that they're such idiots to rip my tire in the first place. if you broke it, you bought it. so i ended coming out with a free new tire, a free new rim, and mixed matched wheels. i even had to go back into the store to ask for my old rim and broken valve stem back cuz i have an order for another valve stem coming in LA. of course, they lost my old broken valve stem. while we were leaving, i still wasn't feeling fully safe cuz you never know when phil will stike again.


previously we made plans to go to the gilroy outlets, meet with vince, and do some shopping. the guys walked around and played with spencer, while the girls did their shopping. then after a few hours we made our way back to LA.

no troubles coming back to LA. we got in safely around 11 pm, showered up, then hit the bed.

i'm debating on calling the shop manager and chewing him out about the rim on the wall, but i'll wait till they credit my credit card with the reimbursement payment cuz i want the money first. now i'll just wait until my other order of the valve stem comes in and see if its the right one. if it is, then i'll have a spare 17" wheel i can use if phil ever strikes my wheels again.

till later...peace out.
comment below if you like. =P