Broken stuff

The recovery truck came and took away our stricken little car.  It has a crack in an underside part and is losing all its vital fluids.  Hopefully, it will be whole when we see it again.  Our mechanic has been very good.    Aside from the car, the new motorhome threw up a few leaky snags as we started preparing for our big trip. This necessitated some long, sometimes heated, exchanges on the phone to the dealer. It is so difficult to deal with people when all they want to tell you about is how they are so busy and times are so difficult, and all you want is a resolution to your problem.  Get some training on customer focus!  In the end I had to take it down to them (30 mile trip through the evening rush hour) so that they could have a look at the problem.  They (3 and eventually 4 of them) were superficially pleasant and expressed willingness to help, short of actually replacing the part that was faulty, lots of nodding and smiling but not much action.  I stood my ground.  They argued between themselves and gave me a curious mixture of passive aggression and pleasantry.  I gave the same right back.  We stood around in uncomfortable silences, interspersed with each of us, each time the tension got too much, throwing ourselves to the ground to peer up underneath at the leak.  They mixed their "we want you to be a satisfied customer" with "H...mmms and ha...s" and more head scratching.  I resolutely stood my ground and told them I would be satisfied only if they replaced the part and replaced it now.  They looked at me and looked at each other and stared at the ground. I practised the art of silence until I got a response. The moment of their capitulation wasn't really discernible, but toolkits appeared and pipes got undone and a new valve appeared and was fitted and still it was pleasantry but not very pleasant.  It was all a bit bizzare, why didn't they just fix the blinking thing straight away without all the brouhaha?  Anyway, I got what I wanted in the end and drove back home with a non-dripping water system in the motorhome.   N had dinner ready and red wine uncorked.  In other news, all things electrical still seem to spark and die if I go near them.