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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AUTOMOBILES 63<br />
factory we found were the big garages<br />
that cater<br />
to hotel guests. Almost always beautiful places<br />
with lots of plate glass, neon signs, uniformed<br />
attendants, and pretty cashiers, they were usually<br />
the places where the repairman's ethics<br />
hit bottom. You never see the mechanic who is<br />
said to have worked on your car.<br />
Many tourists<br />
are likely to deal only with the porter at the hotel<br />
door. He takes your car around to the garage,<br />
and during the night someone may or may not<br />
work on it. That man in turn sends in to his office<br />
a work sheet and never sees customer, accountant,<br />
or cashier. There is<br />
too wide a gap in responsibility<br />
between the man who does the work and<br />
the man who sees the customer. Here's a case in<br />
point we encountered in Sarasota, Florida :<br />
CASE 131. This garage, large and imposing,<br />
is in<br />
the hotel district of Sarasota. The night attendant<br />
said : "We have no mechanic on duty now.<br />
The dayman will get on it first thing in the morning."<br />
But when I got there in the morning the<br />
day mechanic told me : "The nightman fixed this.<br />
He had to reset the timing." No mention of the<br />
dangling wire, of course. The bill was $2.00.
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