ode to stansfield tire

It's not every day I'm happy about customer service - just thinking about my experiences with Verizon and Bank of America gives me tiny little heart attacks. It's even less often I'm satisfied with the experience of getting my car fixed. But the dudes at Stansfield Tire have made my heart grow three sizes today.

I happened upon Stansfield Tire about two years ago when I moved into the neighborhood. I had previously been having my car serviced at the Source of All Worldly Evil, so I was pretty psyched the first time I went to Stansfield Tire and discovered that I don't have to pay $600 to find out that nothing's wrong with my car (or that every single solitary thing that has ever been wrong with me car is in fact, my own fault/"due to wear and tear"/not covered by my warranty. EFF YOU, IRA!)

So, back to the story here... Today I had driven to work in four-wheel drive, and on the ride home I put the car back into two-wheel drive. When I took my first left-hand turn of the trip, I heard a really loud, really disturbing pop/thud coming from my back driver's side wheel. I drove out of my way to make sure I had to take both a sharp right and a sharp left, and the noise happened only when I made a left. Plus the car had started to make a sinister groaning sound when I was going straight. I've always had some issues getting my car to switch between four- and two-wheel drive, but this time, none of my old standby tricks were working.

So I pulled into a gas station and called my friends at Stansfield Tire to see if they could take a quick look at my car before the end of the day. The guy who answered the phone proceeded to ask me a series of questions, analyze my problem over the phone and talk me through fixing it. In the time it took him to do this (quite a while), he could have told me to come in and made me pay an hour's labor. I also have to mention that he had no idea who I was, that I was a regular customer, or any of that. He was just being nice. Un. be. lievable.

In the end, what he told me to do (put it in reverse and back up 30 feet, some other crap I don't remember) worked like a charm and I didn't have to take the car in. On its own, this episode probably isn't that exciting or groundbreaking. But I've been this satisfied every single time I've dealt with these guys, with the exception of one kind of fatherly lecture ("It's an oil change every THREE thousand miles, young lady. Not eight thousand miles, not nine thousand miles.") Their nice service and lack of desire to rob me blind are just so refreshing I feel like shouting it from the rooftops. And whatnot.

So in the immortal words of Ice Cube, go to Stansfield Tire for all your tire and car repair needs.