REPAIRMEN MAY GYP YOU-1951
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune, "the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with 1,700 calls on repair shops." "And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass this book with indifference Whatever your experience with repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here. You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say: 'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't think of any subject for research that touches more people. Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and over, in amounts saved through your wisdom." "There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were "the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing machines used by some shops to impress customers." "The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting," remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests, is alarmingly convincing."
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune,
"the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a
nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the
American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished
make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked
more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with
1,700 calls on repair shops."
"And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass
this book with indifference Whatever your experience with
repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here.
You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say:
'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And
you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't
think of any subject for research that touches more people.
Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and
over, in amounts saved through your wisdom."
"There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore
Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were
"the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing
machines used by some shops to impress customers."
"The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting,"
remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room
for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost
laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests,
is alarmingly convincing."
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INTRODUCTION 5<br />
charged that the whole affair had been "conceived in<br />
iniquity and born in sin"), such was not the case.<br />
While it was true that acts of servicemen themselves<br />
are responsible for this book by making us<br />
wonder what the percentage of honesty would be,<br />
none of us at any time foresaw the way our survey<br />
would turn out.<br />
We were interested only in a journalistically foolproof<br />
job, and nothing more.<br />
Obviously, as we often remarked, it would make<br />
a good story whatever we found. If the repairmen<br />
proved to be virtually 1 00 % honest, that would make<br />
fine, heartwarming reading for their fellow Americans.<br />
If, on the other hand, they proved to be nearly<br />
100% crooked, that also would be an interesting<br />
if<br />
alarming story. And any intermediate percentage<br />
would be equally good.<br />
Wallace and Riis believed that Patric should<br />
cover at least "seven or eight states<br />
enough to get a<br />
good cross-section." But Patric had other ideas. Without<br />
discussing his plans in detail with either his colleague<br />
or his editor lest they be vetoed he hoped<br />
to include in his survey every state in the Union, and<br />
Mexico and Canada. Editorial deadlines didn't allow<br />
a Canadian check, but a great Canadian newspaper<br />
made one for us, with results identical to ours.<br />
Too, Patric wanted to spot-check mechanics in<br />
the largest possible number of towns and cities. Ten<br />
different checks in five different towns would be more<br />
interesting, he reasoned, than ten in one town.<br />
Riis suspected that if we were to find gyppery
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