Thursday morning… we’ve made good time with the jobs. I’m packed and ready to go…and waving my son off for a ride. I’ll be making an early exit and heading north. With time on my hands and the weather glorious, I pass the first hour or so pleasantly pondering where I will stop off to explore this time. Cruising at around seventy, I am glad I chose the ‘A’ roads rather than the motorway. The quiet roads are just as fast, if a little longer and the land is beautiful, dressed in the fresh green of spring and garlanded with blossom. I might even have time for Lichfield Cathedral…
…till an almighty crunch and screech from the rear end of the car grabs all my attention and the vehicle careens across the road out of control.
I wrench the wheel back, avoid the central barrier and turn down a side road to find a safe place to stop. Even crawling at twenty miles an hour, I am struggling to keep control of the car. The noise is appalling. I stop, safe or not, shaking and unwilling to risk a yard further. I phone the RAC… it is times like this that the bill for breakdown cover becomes a blessing rather than a burden.
“It’ll be about two hours…” says the woman on the end of the phone. I sigh… it will be a long and nervous wait with lorries screaming past at full pelt along the narrow lane. It had taken a while to establish my location without street signs or anyone to ask but the sheep. I settle down to wait.
Not for long though. A little while later, the phone rings and the RAC patrol man assures me he’s on his way. Sure enough, twenty minutes later he arrives and pulls up behind me. He asks what the problem is… I explain… tell him the car was MOT’d three days previously and had the rear wheel bearing changed. That’ll be it then, the wheel nuts will just be loose. He gets the wrench… I am hopeful, though I’d checked them before leaving…
No, not loose at all. The wheel needs to come off… but not where the lorries are flying by. He gives me directions to a car-park where he can work on the vehicle and tells me to keep an eye on my mirror. If he flashes, I should stop immediately.
I drive a few yards… the lights behind me are flashing frantically. I stop…. the wheel looks about to fall off. We inch the car down a farm track and he gets to work.
The newly installed wheel bearing has disintegrated, welding part of itself to the axle, chewing up the axle stub and leaving much of its substance in fragments. I am no mechanic, but even I can see this is not good…precision engineering shouldn’t look like that… and I am miles from either home or destination and practically penniless.
The fact that my garage had changed the bearing in order to make the car safe and roadworthy for its MOT is just rubbing salt into the wound here… The patrolman exhausts all options for roadside assistance, prepared to go above and beyond to get me mobile again. We discuss the options and he gets on the phone, finding a local garage that might be able to help.
My poor little car was strapped and bound, her wheels lifted off the floor and dragged with care but without dignity to a small village nearby… where the staff were amazing and agreed to do the job immediately and get me on my way.
Except that when they looked closer, the brake drum had been chewed up and scored away by the disintegrating metal and they couldn’t get hold of one till the next day. With no fuss, they lent me a car for the weekend and waved me off, relieved and grateful.
I made my destination somewhat later than intended and without the kind of adventure I had planned. The one I had could have made me permanently ‘late’ so I consider myself fortunate. I was lucky too with the patrolman who was prepared to go more than the extra mile to get me back on the road and the garage who dealt with me so efficiently and sympathetically.
I am often frustrated by the lack of customer service in many businesses today. There is seldom a day goes by without having to wait for a shop assistant to finish a private conversation before being attended to, or being served while they talk on the phone as if you are simply nonexistent. I had begun to wonder if the whole notion of service was a dying art. This weekend, I was reassured… there are still those who offer service with not just a smile, but with the kind of professional attitude that can take a disaster and leave you smiling and grateful.
And that meant that on Friday morning, we would be heading for the moors…
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
omg Sue that`s awful, I hope the garage you took the car to for mot, is going to give you at least your money back. Thank God for the RAC and the little garage. What an awful thing to happen.
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The original garage has done just as it should…the owner as little pleaded as I, I think.
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See… its not only the AA who have very nice men who work for them! Well done Mr RAC! Customer service is not dead!
Glad you were safe Sue!
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He was brilliant, Ritu 🙂
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😀 sounds it!
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🙂
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I believe in the goodness of people like these folks!
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So do I..we are not as bad as we sometimes think.
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You are safe, car sorted and you have a post to be proud of… not forgetting a faith in mankind machanic’s and MOT’s. 😇
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They went a long way towards redeeming the two latter 🙂
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Glad YOU are OK Sue…
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I was sort of relieved about that too, Chris 😉
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I’ll bet…
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😀
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Sorry, Sue that’s a pain the proverbial.
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It was, Richard… and the air was blue for a while…
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Not surprised 😁
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😀
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Goodness, what a close shave. I’m pleased it all got sorted and your RAC man and the local garage people showed thee is still much good to be found in people.
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Both good and good sense… it made all the difference in a hairy situation.
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Ah the kindness of strangers! I’ve met some kind people myself on my travels. Sorry this happened to you, Sue. It’s terrifying to have something like that happen – I once broke down – alone – on a French motorway, after having picked up some mess that chewed through my tyre; along came a helpful Frenchman who put on my spare wheel for me!
I hope you are compensated from the MOT garage. I’ve noticed quite a few so called garages are not always professional. 😦
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Such kindness makes all the difference in a crisis, doesn’t it? I give the original garage their due though, they were immediately responsive when I told the boss what had happened.
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It certainly does. Good for you. 🙂
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🙂
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When I read the title of your post I thought – of course it does, just turn around and go back! But of course, that wasn’t the sort of south you were referring to: clever title.
I’m pleased you are okay, Sue, and were able to make the best of a potentially tragic situation. Your story warms my heart – your calm acceptance as well as the generosity of those who helped you out. I hope it is all fixed and you are now prepared for safe motoring ahead.
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I can’t say I was calm all the way through, Norah. There was a moment when the verbal wringing of a mechanic’s neck came to mind…Just as well I was miles away from home by then! 🙂 But I was so lucky with the people who sorted out the problem for me!
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They restore our faith in humankind. 🙂
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That’s one thing I have never lost, Norah. 🙂
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Wow, pretty nasty. Glad you’re safe! Being a little late is much preferred to that other meaning of late…
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My granny always said it was better to be late than dead on time 😉
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Oh goodness, you always have adventures (a nice way of putting it in this case 😉 Glad you are on the road again! xo
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So am I, Alethea 🙂
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That could have been far worse, Sue. Glad you are safe and seeing the bright side of your near disaster. It seems there are caring people everywhere when it counts. 🙂
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There always are and that was a good reminder 🙂
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Phew! You got lucky on that one. It could have been much much worse! Our auto club will generally bump women traveling alone to the top of the list these days. We are so vulnerable alone by the roadside. I’m glad you weren’t injured. I think you’ve gone through plenty recently and you are definitely due for some R & R!!
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R&R will not be forthcoming for another few weeks… looks like the house move is on …and soon!
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Glad you are safe!
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Thanks, Maniparna. It was an unpleasant moment or two!
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Glad the angels were on duty that day. So fortunate you maintained control of the car, count yourself among the heroes of the hour!
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Biceps have their uses, Eliza 😉
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🙂 A testimonial for staying in shape!
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Even inadverently 😉
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You literally hurtle from one adventure to another, and I use that term loosely. So glad you escaped damage to yourself, as the possibility was definitely there…
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It was a hairy few moments, and I’m glad it didn’t cause any accident involving others too
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Thank goodness for your charmed existence, blessed you most definitely are!
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Something was certainly looking after me that day.
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
GRATEFULLY…THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WILLING TO GIVE “MOOR”…! 😀
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😀
Thank you for reblogging 🙂
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My pleasure and obviously, yours! 😀
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