Free Advice

Yesterday my mother called me at work. She does that sometimes and I don't mind. She was all upset. Earlier this week she found out the repairs for a leak in her upstairs bathroom won't be covered by insurance. Yesterday she found out from her mechanic that a problem with her car would cost over $1000 to fix. She was frustrated that all these things were going wrong all at once and my father - who died a little more than a year ago - wasn't around to handle things like before. She lives in Michigan, my brother and I live in Maryland, and she gets tired of having to handle everything.

So I said, "One thing at a time. What's wrong with the car?"
"Well the temperture light on the dashboard comes on occasionally. It stays on for a while, then it'll go out. It doesn't always do it. It's kind of intermitent. It shouldn't do that and I want to get it fixed."
"Is the car overheating?"
"No."
"Does it run OK?"
"Yes."
"Does it sound OK?"
"Yes, there aren't any strange noises coming from the engine."
"Did the mechanic say the car is safe to drive?"
"I asked him that. He said it was OK to drive."
"Well what does he want to do to fix the problem?"

She then proceeded to rattle off this huge list of things that needed to be done: disconnecting water pumps, replacing gaskets and sensors, flushing coolant, renewing all sorts of parts, a whole host of things. The total for the repair was almost $1100.

I said, "So basically he wants you to pay over $1000 to have the light go out?"
A pause. "Well, yes, I guess so."
"I think you need another data point. The car is safe to drive and it's not overheating. Why don't you take the car to the dealer and have him look at it? Who knows? Maybe they've seen this problem before and can fix it right away."

I had a voicemail from her this afternoon when I got back from lunch. "I took the car to the dealer, they fixed the problem, the total cost is $138."

It's nice to know that sometimes your advice is worth taking. I wish I could fix the bathroom leak as easily.
K-