I Hate People...Especially Mountain View Tire Company

I Hate People.  Especially the guys at Mountain View Tire in Los Angeles, Ca.  I'm sure the family (or "family") that owns the umbrella company are perfectly fine people.  But as for the folks at their mechanic shop on Colorado Blvd in Los Angeles, Ca., well, they're in a league of their own.

The Story, in a nutshell:

Mountain View Tire is running an advertisement on a radio station here in perpetually sunny (@!#%*&!) southern California: "$9.99 for an oil change,
just text us for the coupon!"  The economy sucks, as we all know, so I take them
up on their offer, text for my code, and show up for my cheap oil change.

Upon entering the lobby, I am immediately greeted by a blast of heated,
putrid, tire-scented air, and a fella standing behind a counter who immediately asks if I would like their highest-priced maitenance service (I found this out by
reading the service chart placed on the counter).  After convincing the employee
that no, I-have-a-coupon-here-on-my-phone-that's-all-I'm-here-for-no,-I-only-want-an-oil-change-thanks, he takes my keys and walks out.  My brother helps himself to
coffee, and I lament that the "cold" water they provide is actually lukewarm because
the heat is on AND the afternoon sun is burning its way through the windows, creating a toxic-tire-fume-sauna (free admission with any automotive service!).

Fifteen minutes later, when the service counter employee returns to the lobby, I ask how long the oil change will take (when I phoned earlier I had been told that an oil change takes 30 minutes), the employee says, "There's one person ahead of you, so it is going to be a while."  He cannot give me a quote for how long "a while" is, nor does he offer me a ride home (or to the mall located across the deadly-to-cross 6-lane major street) when I tell him that I'm tired and want to get going so I can finish my Christmas shopping and get home to rest.  Five minutes later the guy who was getting an oil change before me leaves, and I move my chair so I won't have to keep looking into the sun while I sit, and the counter employee glares at me.  I ask for cold water, he offers more coffee.  Gee, thanks.

Half an hour later there is no update on how much longer the oil change will
take.  I move my chair out of the sun's rays because I'm tired of baking like a
potato, and I collect another glare from my favorite employee.  I take to reading
the little flyers they have out that tell me how Mountain View Tire has incredible customer service and their goal is to treat me like family.   Right.  My family will at least offer me a ride somewhere when they take my car away from me, and my family has a realistic grip of time management, and would rather wait for me than cause me to wait for them.

I tell the employee that I am exhausted, and would really like to go home. He says, "Me too."  More time passes, and no update on my car.  I begin to worry.  I
ask if everything is okay.  I am told that there was one person ahead of me. (WHAT?  Ahead of me where?  The last guy left a long time ago!)  I begin to pace in the lobby.  The only magazines to read here are girly shopping magazines and auto parts magazines.  I'm a girl -- I already know how to shop, thank you very much, I hate shopping magazines, I have no need for auto parts since I don't know how to build a car, and the battery on my phone is dying, so I can't distract myself with games or text messaging any longer.

More time passes, and the guy comes and tells me in big words everything that is
wrong with my car, and asks if I want to take care of all of that right now,
and doesn't want to take no for an answer, so I tell him God-damn-it-I-only-want-an-oil-change-because-that's-all-I-have-a-coupon-for-may-I-have-my-car-back-please, and after agreeing to accept a quote but not have any more services done today, he agrees to get me going out the door.  Ten minutes later, he comes back into the room and begins to ring me up.  I ask for a *quote* *only* for the other work, and ask what one, count it, *ONE* thing in particular means (the flyer says that Mountain View Tire wants me to feel safe and happy, and there are no such things as stupid questions), but no, the guy just repeats what he said earlier with no further description, and he can't/won't tell me how urgent the trouble is.

One hour and fourty-five minutes later, with a heat headache and a tire-fume contact high, my car's oil has been changed and I finally have my keys back.  They left the greasy paper foot mat in my car, so I placed it on a stack of their tires before I left.  I thought the point of the $9.99 oil change coupon was to get me to WANT to come back for more services at Mountain View Tire, but really what I learned was that when it comes to oil changes at Mountain View Tire, you get what you pay for: crap for crap.  I'm not going to complain the next time I pay $25 or even $35 for an oil change, because those places never take more than half an hour of my life away from me, and I can usually find better magazines to read while I wait, or, at the very least, cold drinking water to quench my thirst.

Mountain View Tire on Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, I hate you.  Yes, you
left the remote to the TV in the lobby out so I could turn off the idiot box
when I started to get the sun-and-tire-fumes headache.  Yes, you had a
lovely fake Christmas Tree in your lobby.  But you made me wait an ungodly
amount of time for an everyday oil change, you didn't make me feel like
family, and your service guy lacked personality and the ability to explain
clearly why I "should" have spent more money with you that day.  Overall, it
was a ridiculous waste of my time to have my car's oil changed at your
facility, and whether or not I have a radio/text-message-coupon in the
future, I won't be spending my time or my hard-earned money with you in the
future.  Thanks for making Pep Boys look like a great idea.