frustating VW service

Another frustrating experience with the local VW service departments. First, the local dealer (just 5 miles away) misdiagnosis’ the problem. I bring it back to my purchasing dealer (20 miles away) who ironically got the car from my local dealer. I schedule the service call hoping it’s be one trip but I conceded it’d have to be two trips. The first to see what needed to be done and the second to install. I bring the car in and the service advisor, Craig, looks to think I’m crazy. I show him the photos that the flange that the oil filler cap locks onto is loose and spins. The local dealer thought it was the cap. We go out to the car to take a look and verifies that seems odd. Some validation for me and jokes that he’s never seen that before. I leave the car and come back an hour later. Their mechanic verifies the problem and the parts are ordered. Craig schedules the install a week later. I push it back another week because of MacWorld. So this morning I drive down to get the parts installed and by the way decided to tack on the 15K service. I get there and Craig helps me again. I joke to him about that he said he never seen that the problem but he brushed it off. “I see 20 cars a day”. He asked me if I got a call from the parts department. I said no… he calls them and they said they don’t have it and there are none in the country. So, I asked him why he schedules me to have the parts put in IF I was suppose to wait for the call from parts. No good answer. He then asked if I still wanted to do the 15K service and I said no. The reason I scheduled them together was to same time and not money ($70 more) but after that, I decided to take it back to my independent guy who originally noticed the problem to begin with. So, I prefer to give them my money dispite wasting another 1/2 day. The next day I recived a call from the service department stating the part had come-in and asked when I’d like to come in a waste another 1/2 day. I’m still fuming alittle so I’m not sure when I’ll do it. They’ll “kindly” hold the part for about a month.

a few days of Apple

With MacWorld this week and the release of the iPhone 1.1.3 update, I’ve spendt alittle more time “thinking different (an old Apple slogan).”

My iPhone update went smoothly. About 10mins and I like the addition of being able to move the Home screen icons and had bookmarks to it. Hiding would be even better but hey, it’s a start.

My wife’s Touch on the other hand didn’t go so smoothly. One, it cost $19.99 but it does had “standard” iPhone feature like mail, maps, weather and her request-Notes. Two, her Touch crashed during the update and was no longer recognized by the Win box (probably wouldn’t happen if it were a Mac, right?) and had to be restored to original factory specs. At this point of course, she’s thinking all her contacts and calendar appoints are gone. It does back up every synce but I don’t see where it restores your data. So, without an option, we restore it. After about gosh, 30mins, the update took and all her stuff was there too.  So, she got all worked up for nothing. Well, sorta.

MacWorld was not great, especially since I went to the “dark side” years ago. The cool thing was the new MacBook Air and a tablet running the Mac OS from Axiotron. I got a tip from a friend that the InvisibleShield booth was trading their skins for your old case. Should brought my silicone skin to trade since it doesn’t work that well. I did get my long sought after iPod 30pin extension cable so I can use it with my car’s iPod adapter (the iPhone is too wide to be used directly).

New Year’s in Vegas

This year we decided to go to Las Vegas for new years. In the past, we’ve spendt new years in Paris and Newport Beach. We got a pretty good deal considering it was kinda last minute. We stayed at the Mirage and got a room with a nice view of the Treasue Island, Wynn and the Venetian hotels. It would have been quite suitable if the weather got too cold (it was in the high 30s). I took a video clip of the fireworks to share (see below).

video clip:

taken for a ride again in Vegas

This is the 2nd time I’ve been taken while being driven from the Las Vegas airport to the strip. The 1st time the driver suggest that traffic could be bad and the freeeway would be quicker. Well, I don’t THINK so. The 2nd (this past one), we were on the freeway before I knew and I saw it coming. Even if the trafic was bad on the strip, I think it would be about the same anyway. I’m really going to have to get a receipt so I could report the driver later. Below are maps showing the routes. When leaving, I always get the short route to the airport.