Comedy of Errors....but I'm not laughing too hard.

We found out a while back that there was some recall/warranty work that needed to be done on our car. So, for some stupid (in hindsight) reason, I scheduled it for today, along with an oil change and tire rotation before we head out on our trip in that car.

So this afternoon the service guy calls...I'm thinking to tell me the car is done. Instead, he informs me that while they were doing the recall work on our car's "Electronic Control Module" (basically the car's on board computer, that controls alot) our car's battery went dead. When that happened, there was a "voltage spike" that, um, went right into the "ECM" and fried it...the car's brain was dead...and they don't have the part to replace it.

OF COURSE NOT!

So he tells me that they've ordered it, and it'll be overnighted and the car will be fixed with new ECM and battery tomorrow....well okay, we'll need a rental...okay they'll arrange that.

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Question 1: Why did the car battery that is less than a year old run dead?
Question 2: How does a dead battery have a voltage spike?
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Ron calls him an hour later when he gets home for the story and to make sure they understand the car must be back to us tomorrow (he'd already told them we were needing it for a road trip.) This is when it became really NOT funny...

The latest update was that the ECM would now not be available until Monday. They claimed they could not pull one out of another car because the '08 part wouldn't fit in our '07.

This is when my husband pretty much ripped the guy a new one through the phone.

So they said they'd figure something out, even said they'd rent us a car to take on our road trip. (Of course the car would be too small to fit our entire family in, and there would be no built in DVD player. Yes, our kids are spoiled, but that is our lifeline to going anywhere in relative peace!)

Later, when we called AGAIN to find out about getting a rental car for tomorrow so I can get my children to school they told us they'd researched it and found that they COULD use an ECM from an '08 in our car, so they were doing that now and we could get the car tomorrow. That's great, but I still need a car to chauffeur my kids around as my husband will be at work tomorrow.

Then we find out that the only car the rental car company had isn't going to fit our family....don't ever try to rent a car in Provo....they have nothing that fits families...so then the car dealership tells us they'll stay an hour late and finish our car for tonight.

So after all that mess, we did get our car back. It is functioning, so I'm assuming the ECM is okay, and we got a new battery....as for the oil change and tire rotation, I'm not all that sure those happened, since the cashier had no charge slip written up for those.

I just hope we don't break down in the middle of the Indian reservation. Then again, our kids might think hanging with Native American kids would be cool...

I'm just glad we got our car back, and I think if we ever get a recall notice again, I'll ignore it!