Complain; complain; complain!!!!! - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

buffa98 · #46 12-08-2009, 09:09 PM

Same thing. I have a 32 mile drive to and from work every day.( Part of the reason I got the benz.) On a sunday morning on my way home at 715. Saw a car pulled over 4-ways on with flat. Not a whole lot of traffic so WTH she will be sitting here for a couple of hours so I stop. Ask the women 2 age mid 60's can i help? Well driver on phone with aaa. Talking to passenger who happen to be owner i would really appreciate it etc etc.
She opens trunk i pull out her spare lay it by flat Get my bottle jack start jacking car up. I have the other lugs broken lose a cop comes screaminh up behind us light and all tells me that I can not change tire because I am not an authorized Turnpike repairer.

After a few choice words from the owner(remember now mid 60's woman) followed by the best tongue lashing I have heard since I got out of boot camp the PA state trooper told me it ok to finish the job.

It was all i could do to keep from peeing myself laughing as i finished up.
She tryed to pay me but i told her no the as reaming you gave that trooper was payment enough....

LUVMBDiesels · #47 12-08-2009, 09:15 PM

I have a couple stories to share... Two are car related and one was very rewarding

I was driving my Subaru wagon from NYC to NJ on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge when I noticed a car stuck in the right lane. Other cars were trying to get past it and I thought this is NOT GOOD. I pulled ahead into a turn off and walked back to the stuck car. The woman inside was near tears. She had been trying to get back to NJ before running out of gas and well she did cross the state line, but that did not count for much. I told her to put the car in "N" and then I pushed her from the traffic lane about 500 feet to the turn off. I grabbed a gas can from my car and went to the nearest station and got her 2 gallons -- and her phone number! We dated for almost a year and are still friends.

Here is another...

I was driving up I-81 two years ago out near Wilkes Barre in the mountains in a rainstorm when I saw a car stuck on the side of the road. I pulled over in front of the car in the 300 SD and went to see what was wrong.

The guy told me that the car had died and hew could not get it started again. I looked at it and one of the battery connections was loose. It was a newer Toyota or something like that and I guess the computers needed the battery to operate the car. I reconnected it and he tried to start te car but the battery was pretty dead. There was no room for me to get the 300SD close enough to jump him with the short jumper cables I had I then had a great idea. I took my tools and opened my hood. In two minutes I had my battery out and on the ground by his car. I connected the cabled and his car started right up.I bet the MB battery laughed at the load the little gasser put on it to spin the starter! It did take some doing to make him understand that I was not GIVING him my battery, that I needed it back!

he did thank me at least...

Last story...

I was at Cabelas (big sporting goods store) in Hamburg, Pa. I was walking in when I saw a teenage boy pushing a shopping car full of stuff across the driveway in front of the store. The store has a lawn and plaza directly in front of the store with a loading zone driveway running past the doors. Anyway, this kid's mother calls him to go a different way and he jerks the cart around loosing a box with a pair of boots in it. He did not stop to pick up the box, but took off. I picked it up and chased him across the plaza, finally catching him at the other end. I said you dropped this and handed it to him. His mother yelled at him and he looked at me with a sullen expression. Neither of then bothered to thank me...
At least I felt good about saving that kid's hide...

my83300cd · #48 12-08-2009, 09:24 PM

Driving to Florence Italy in a friend's 190D he stops on the autostrada because he needs a new diesel filter- he explained to me that in Italy the fuel needed an extra fuel filter. Three mechanics come out, take a look, come back with a variety of tools and with lots of hand gestures and arm waving try to remove said filter. This goes on for about 15 minutes.

I'm watching this Three Stooges/Marx Brothers moment and when they start taking random bits out to get to the filter I start laughing. An old guy strolls out of the garage with a filter wrench and the new filter, cuffs them all out of the way with a few curses and applies the filter wrench.

A minute later, he's got all the bits back in place with the new filter. Massimo takes him around to the trunk while they discuss the bill, and a couple bottles of wine from the trunk vanish into the guy's overalls. The lire that changed hands covered the cost of the filter.

As we all piled back into the car he tells me he never travels by car without a case of wine in the trunk, because it solves so many little problems.

MercFan · #49 12-08-2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CSchmidt

I think you have to be self rewarded knowing you made the world a better place these days.

This is so true... good work.

strelnik · #50 12-08-2009, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angel

Where were these girls when I was 16 ? (I'm 28 and married now...) -John

She was 4 at that time.....

strelnik · #51 12-08-2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whunter

Walking out, I heard the kid on his cell to the buddy, (incredulous voice) "the car is fixed and the old man wouldn't take her money". whunter

Say Roy, will that work if I drive my 240D over to your house?

Just kidding, I know better lol.

retmil46 · #52 12-08-2009, 11:11 PM

My previous job for 12 years was at a Freightliner truck manufacturing plant building Class 8 semi's. I learned quickly to keep an air compressor, a can of fix-a-flat, and a tire plug kit in whatever vehicle I was driving to and from work. A lot of the workers, particularly those involved in installing cab interiors, would often forget and walk out to the parking lot at the end of shift with upholestry or sheet metal screws still in their pockets - and of course some of them, without any regard for their coworkers, would just throw these screws down on the pavement before getting into their own vehicles. One parking lot in particular was very bad - I had 4 flats in as many months, and learned the hard way to avoid that lot altogether.

My shift ended at 12:30 AM, and oft times I was still in that parking lot at close to 2 AM helping some other poor soul reinflate a tire or change out a spare because they'd had the misfortune to run over one of those screws

One thing that struck me as amazing was how many of them, considering that their job was building trucks - and which hopefully included installing the wheels onto the truck and making sure they were torqued on and properly inflated before rolling it off the line - had absolutely no clue as how to change a tire on their own vehicle - a couple couldn't even figure how to get the hubcab off - and in 95% of these cases the "Y' factor was not involved.

Only one time that I helped someone change a flat tire at that plant, that it didn't involve running over a screw. A young gent who was either remarkably in debt, remarkably cheap, or remarkably stupid had picked up a set of "used" tires a few days before. Calling these tires used would be like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch - both an obvious understatement. Looked more like he'd fished them out of the dumpster behind a garage or pulled them out of a junkyard. All of them bald as Yul Brenner, one even showing cord at the edges. Not surprisingly, one of them had blown out a 4 inch gash in the sidewall just as he pulled into the parking space earlier that day.

After showing him how to rig up and operate the jack (yes, he was one of the 95% I mentioned), he fished the temporary spare out of the trunk. Thankfully it was in like-new condition, as if it had never been used - and once he handed it to me it was also obvious it had never been inflated.

Once we had the spare inflated and installed, all said and done, the young man thanked me for my help. He then commented that it looked like he'd have to break down and buy some good tires after all, and that instead of trying to drive the 30 miles home on the remaining tires, he was going to park the vehicle at a service station just down the road from the plant, where he could obtain new tires in the morning, and call one of his relatives to come give him a ride home. I almost had to bite my tongue to keep from commenting that this was the first sign of intelligence he'd displayed the entire time.

I could well imagine the exchange between this young gent and said relative that ended up getting that 2 AM phone call, once said relative learned the full story behind this zero-dark-thirty rescue mission.

NY300SD · #53 12-09-2009, 12:09 AM

I was walking down Chambers street in NYC, near the west side and I see a middle aged man struggling with a wheel. He had jacked up the car and removed the lugs but couldn't pop the wheel off. It was in the middle of a summer day and hot as hell, and he was sweating and anxious and visibly ticked off. I decided I could give him some tips I had recently learned on how remove stubborn wheels, so as I walked up to him I said something to the effect of "Hi, so do you have a flat?" He barked back to me "WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?!" while barely glancing at me. I quickly decided that he had the wrong attitude and I kept walking.

Was that wrong?

layback40 · #54 12-09-2009, 07:46 AM

most of us with a few gray hairs have a story or 2. When I was about 28, over 25 years ago. I had a jeep, Great toy! One afternoon I was up a track, very wet, and many deep holes. The local young new police man drove past down a side road & decided to come & investigate. First decent puddle up the track & he was stuck good & proper. I decided to go back & say hi. I opened the window, asked how he was & asked if he wanted a hand. He was so grateful. After I pulled him out, he explained that it was the first time the Sargent had let him go out by himself & if he found out he would be in all sorts of trouble. Even though the Sargent was a member of the same Rotary club as me, I never put the young cop in. I figured that one day he might stop me for something.

Angel · #55 12-09-2009, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strelnik

She was 4 at that time.....

I laugh at what I posted 5 years ago.

I'm now 34, happily married and have 2 children.

I still try to keep my eye out for people that need help with their cars, but its tougher if you have 2 little guys in the back seat. I will risk getting beat and robbed by someone pretending to have car trouble, but I will not 'endanger' my children in that way. Maybe this is the closed-minded thinking that created the "screw everyone else' mentality that a lot of people have.

-John

Brian Carlton · #56 12-09-2009, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NY300SD

I was walking down Chambers street in NYC, near the west side and I see a middle aged man struggling with a wheel. He had jacked up the car and removed the lugs but couldn't pop the wheel off. It was in the middle of a summer day and hot as hell, and he was sweating and anxious and visibly ticked off. I decided I could give him some tips I had recently learned on how remove stubborn wheels, so as I walked up to him I said something to the effect of "Hi, so do you have a flat?" He barked back to me "WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?!" while barely glancing at me. I quickly decided that he had the wrong attitude and I kept walking.

Was that wrong?

This kind of reminds me of the comedian Jeff Foxworthy when he goes off on the stupidity in the world............"Where's your sign?"

"A guy drives into a gas station and the operator walks up to him and says 'Tire go flat?'

"Nope.........I was driving down the road and all of a sudden the other three blew up on me."

"Where's your sign?"

No offense to you, but at that moment, being the master of the obvious might have not been the best approach...........especially to a New Yorker.

cscmc1 · #57 12-09-2009, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whunter

Feels great to rescue people during the holidays..

Happy Holidays to all my friends out there..

whunter

You bet it does; nice work! I try to stop when I can, and when I am fairly certain it's safe to do so. If my wife is with me and there's any question concerning her safety, I'll drive on and call the police to report a "motorist in distress."

I like to try to "pay it forward" for all the times kind folks have lent me a hand when times were tough. What a relief it is to be the recipient of a kind, selfless act. The beautiful part is that it feels even better to be the person providing the kind, selfless act!

retmil46 · #58 12-09-2009, 06:35 PM

Know what you mean concerning the safety aspect under questionable circumstances - in these days of cell phones, sometimes the best option is to drive a ways down the road until you can safely pull over and call the authorities.

And notice I said "pull over and call" - I don't use a cell phone when the vehicle is in motion, even if it has a hands-free setup. The greeting on my voicemail in part says "If I didn't answer, I'm either asleep, at work, eating, or driving - leave a message and I'll get back to you".

patbob · #59 12-09-2009, 07:15 PM

Why is it I never seem to find the pretty damsel in distress whever I manage to help someone?

Last time I had to give a jump to somone, it was to a couple of guys in an old diesel Ford. They'd run out of fuel pulling into the filling station and couldn't get it started by jumping from a gasser. Sure looked funny.. a little old 300D trhat didn't even come up to its hood obviously giving the much larger truck a jump. I don't think they thought my little old 300D could do that

Time before that it was a small diesel school bus with matronly teacher and a bunch of High school students that got stuck in the light rail parking lot with a dead battery. Jumpped with the gasser SUV.

Guess I'll keep trying, law of averages and all

NY300SD · #60 12-09-2009, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Carlton

This kind of reminds me of the comedian Jeff Foxworthy when he goes off on the stupidity in the world............"Where's your sign?"

"A guy drives into a gas station and the operator walks up to him and says 'Tire go flat?'

"Nope.........I was driving down the road and all of a sudden the other three blew up on me."

"Where's your sign?"

No offense to you, but at that moment, being the master of the obvious might have not been the best approach...........especially to a New Yorker.

Ha! Don't think that didn't occur to me, I made it quite obvious in my description. But I still think he had the wrong attitude. I wasn't going to just jump in and offer up my advice and services like a sucker or a know it all, I just needed a friendly opener to test the waters. Now if he had said something clever like "the other three blew up on me" it would be a different story.