Fiya$tone Blues Part II

So...
In the previous post, I talked about my car being stuck at a Fiya$tone TWO states away.

And Fiya$tone is NOT my friend.

It is as if they like to say... "Let's mess with LadyLee today!!"

Anyway, I got home on Saturday night, took my meds, and went straight to bed. Hopefully, they would kick in while I was asleep, and I would wake up feeling better. So I got up the next morning, and called the Charlotte Fiya$tone around 10:00 a.m. I told them that I wasn't leaving until they got the part. It would take me 3-4 hours to get back up there, and my car better be ready. I called a few more times, and they said they had the part, and to come on up... My sister Kentucky was supposed to ride with me, but I told her to just stay home. It was her day off, and it would be silly for her to be on the road with me for damn 8 hours.

So I left at 11:30 a.m. and get there around 3:30 in the afternoon. I was gonna return the car at the airport, catch a cab, and get my car... I thought I could at least be back by eight that night.
So I called beloved Fiya$tone.

"Is my car ready?"
"Uh, no."

I went off on them. They explained the situation. The part didn't fit, and they ordered another, blah, blah, blah.

I hung out in some cell phone parking lot at the airport. I don't remember what I did (that's just how pissed off I was). It's weird when you lose track of time and space like that. I think I fooled around with my checkbook a little more, trying to move some money around, etc... I called them back again. They said they had the wrong part AGAIN.

I said a few choice words that I won't repeat here.

I thought that this was some mean joke, and that they just HAD to be messing with me. So I decided to go up there and have another stare down with them.

By the time I got up there, they had the new part on the way.

One wise guy mechanic said, "So you drove back to Georgia last night, and you drove BACK up here."

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I need my car."

"You're CRAZY!" he yelled.

It took every bit of restraint I had not to just haul off and smack him. I thought about it though, because being arrested would not be a good look.


I stared at duded, and thought about how I probably make 3-4 times more money than he did. That calmed me down.

"I need my car," I said, real slow like.


"Another part is on the way," dude said. He pointed to some boxes on the floor. "There are the other 2 parts that didn't fit, right over there."

I didn't even look to where he was pointing. I just walked out. I went and sat in the rental car, and listened to a football game on the radio. They called me on my cell phone some 30 minutes later, letting me know my car was ready. They even gave me a discount, which was a good thing, at least.

I got my key, paid for everything, and left in the rental car. I returned the rental car, and caught a cab back to Fiya$tone.

The cab ride... That was a trip.

Ya know... 9/11 sure did a number on my brain. I have to work REAL hard not to stereotype folks. But there is always that initial "Uh-oh" moment. I gotta work on that!

But I was riding with a dude name Abdullah, and he was on his cell phone the whole time talking to someone in Arabic, or whatever language it was. And he sounded all angry, too. I didn't know WHAT was going on. He and I were having a HARD stare down in the rear view mirror.

I wanted to ask him SO bad "Just who are you talking to??! What the heck are ya'll talking about??!"

I wiped my fingerprints from the door handle with my t-shirt, just to make myself feel better.

I gave him a credit card for payment of the cab fare. He had the nerve to go off. "They charge me 10% for credit card transactions, blah, blah BLAAAAAH!"

Man... I didn't have any more fight in me.

"Well, they said you take credit cards. That's all I got."

He keeps snapping. I'd been fighting and arguing for the past couple of days, and I was SPENT. I just let him trip out. He was gonna have to take that credit card, or let me go free of charge.


"They said you take credit cards, man," I repeated.

He charged my card and threw it back at me. I took it and got the heck on.

I got my car and left. I think I got back to Atlanta in less than 3 hours. I am REAL suprised that I didn't get several speeding tickets.

Not sure what I learned from my ordeal. I can't say that I won't drive my car out of town anymore. I've had 2 other road trips within the past year, and there was no problem whatsoever. I do know that I need to keep large sums of emergency cash on hand. It is a very rare thing for me to use credit cards, and they came in handy for covering some of the stuff, but I have to keep the emergency fund fully funded if I plan on doing any traveling.

But LadyTee talked to me that morning, before I left for Charlotte. She was worried because she hadn't heard from me. She called and noticed that I sounded a bit sickly, which I was. She listened as I coughed and whined and whined... and whined some more.

She let me know that overall, just be thankful, because things could always be worse. I'd been thinking about that before she called, when I had first awaken, and everything was quiet and calm.

I am glad she reiterated such a thing.

All in all, my Fiya$tone ordeal is over, over, over. I am SURE if I hadn't given them such a hard time, my car would STILL be sitting there. It is going to take a minute to get back squared away financially from it, because the Oldgirl took a HIT! But that's cool.

And hopefully... I can avoid fooling with Fiya$tone again in 6 years!

LOL!!