Saturday, August 23, 2008

it's the power of the pen y'all

So...'member when my car broke down a coupla weeks ago? I rant about it here. And that was that.

Until yesterday.

I got this comment:

Reese,
Hello, my name is Dan and I am the field manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California's Contract Stations Relations office in Burbank. After reading your blog, I'm more than troubled. None of our contracted service providers are to advise or encourage any Autoclub member to any specific auto repair facility. The only time a service provider can give repair location advice is when it is requested of him/her by an Autoclub served member. As indicated in your blog, you clearly knew where you wanted your vehicle to be taken to and serviced by. And you clealy conveyed your directions to the service provider. No repair advice should have been forthcoming from him/her. I would be very appreciative if you would give me a call at (phone number removed by me) so I can gather more details to your circumstances and address with the applicable contracted service provider.
Regards,
Dan


Hmm. Interesting.

Of course, I googled the dude and the phone number (seriously, God bless Google!). The number is a legit one connected with AAA. So, I call. Did not know it is illegal to 'advise or encourage' Auto Club members to use a particular mechanic. He asked me to repeat my experience, asked a few questions and said he'd get back to me. We hung up.

Crap! I forgot to ask how he found my blog. Called him back. He said it came down from the top, from an SVP who had been told about my blog post. The SVP passed it to someone, who passed it to someone who passed it to Dan to handle.

Damn. Power of the pen, y'all.

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