The Cost of Truth $1500.00

Over the weekend, I finally got my van back. And thank goodness too! Thankfully I have wonderful people in my life who were very gracious in lending me their cars, which I appreciate greatly. :-) But my husband and I were also faced with a decision in regards to the vehicles, and it has cost us for telling the truth...

My van, though it broke down, wasn't what cost so much. That was my husband's car. Unfortunately, it came to just over $1500. So here's what happened...

After my van began acting up, my husband took his car in to have his brakes tightened. He had gotten new ones a few weeks earlier, and they were not working properly. But when he took the car in, he found out the problem was not the new brakes, but the fact that there was a contaminant in the brake fluid. They quoted us $3000 roughly to fix it. We, of course, were shocked. The last ones to touch the brakes were the guys who put the new brakes on, so we figured they were the culprits...

That night however, we found out that it wasn't the company at all, it was, in fact, our neighbor. Granted, he didn't know that would cause the problem, he said he had done it all the time in his old vehicle. But it did cause a problem, and we were stuck with what to do.

We knew our neighbor had done it without realizing that would happen, and also that he didn't have the money to fix it (though he did not offer to help financially in any way), but we also knew the mechanic didn't do it. They should have caught the problem, and warned us before releasing the car, but they had missed it too.

The problem was power steering fluid, which is petroleum based, had been put in the brake lines and damaged anything rubber. All of which needed to be replaced. So what should we have done?

One family member felt we should just blame the mechanic and demand they pay for it for not catching it, another felt that we should say the mechanic did it themselves, but here was the problem, we KNEW who had done it. Yes, maybe telling a fib would have saved us a lot of money, but it would have been a lie. So we chose to tell the truth.

Amazingly, the mechanic offered to cover half the labor and a third of the parts, while also salvaging some others. Which pretty much cut our cost in half. He said, "I should have caught this, and I'm sorry... But I did not put the wrong fluids in." We told him we knew, and to start the work. He honored his word, and only charged half, and we had our car back in a week.

Looking back, yes, that money had been meant for something else... I am upset at what happened, and that we had to spend so much to fix something that should not have happened in the first place. However, I do not regret telling the truth...

This lesson has been an expensive one, we will not allow any neighbors to work on vehicles for us anymore! LOL :-) But is has also been a good lesson. So often people want to save a buck by being deceitful, in the end though, honesty is so much more important. We may have paid out the money, and I know some of you who feel that was foolish, but I know many more people who feel we made the right choice. Because selling your integrity, at any price, is just not worth it. :-)

So, our cost for telling the truth... $1500.00  A price far worth knowing we did not lie.

Strange Days...

My week has been so incredibly strange that I just have to write about it here...

Thursday - My van began making odd noises. Since I had no idea what was wrong with it, I chose not to drive anywhere until I could have it looked at. All while not stressing over the issue...

Friday - Had a birthday party to go to about an hour away. With my van acting up, we decided to take my husband's car to the party. But before we could go, he wanted to have his brakes tightened.

A few weeks ago, he got new brakes. For about a week now, those brakes have been hardly working and they're grinding. So he took the car in for a quick check, with our six yr. old in tow.

(one hour later) I am ready to go, waiting for them to show up, with my kids' pirate costumes all prepared (costume themed party) when I get a phone call...  Apparently, at some point, whether the shop that did his brakes did it, or someone else, a contaminate got into his brake lines and we were told we couldn't drive it until it got fixed at a hefty price of about $2800.00.  We were like, Holy Crap!!!

Since my husband had my six yr old, and it is way too far for him to walk home, I reluctantly decided to take the van to get them. BAD IDEA! Just as we were up the street from our place, we hear a snap, and my husband suddenly had no power steering! :-o  Thankfully, he was able to make it home. Had I been driving, I would have not been able to turn the wheel...

Needless to say, we didn't get to go to the party... Now, we had no vehicles, all within an hours time. Surprisingly, I still kept the stress under control. I just kept reminding myself not to worry, that things would work out.

Saturday - My son's birthday party roles around. Along with some pretty amazing things.

First, we all had a fabulous time, not letting the cars get to us.

Second, we got overwhelming support from family and friends. The brake company acknowledged they should have caught the problem, and offered to cover about half of parts and labor for us. We also had offers of help on my van, which apparently needs a new water pump, and multiple people loaning us their cars! It was so amazing to have such support. Even my neighbor brought up his keys to his BRAND NEW car, and asks if we need it before he takes it anywhere. Can you believe that? :-)

So now, we have the car under way, the van being fixed this weekend (wish us luck!) and the awareness that when we needed help, many people came forward to assist us. Thank you all so much for your love and support!

L.O.V.E.

Not Gonna Stress...

Why is it that vehicles always decide to act up when there is absolutely NO place to pull over?!? Seriously... 

Anyway, today my van began making some pretty interesting, and kind of scary noises, as I was making my way home from the store. Surprisingly though, I did not panic.

Normally in this situation I would freak a bit, worry about what was happening, if I would have enough money to fix it, as well as 'how am I going to get home?'  Today however, none of the following happened. In fact, I felt no stress at all. Just an mild irritation with the fact that the van is so old and needs a lot of work. This is such a huge leap from how I used to be! :-) I am so proud of myself for just taking things in, accepting that the van needed a serious attitude adjustment, and moving on.

Sure I checked all the fluids, stared blankly at the running engine to see if I could find the problem, then called my husband, but I never once stressed about it.  I have been working very hard to just 'accept' what life brings me and learn from it. Surprisingly, I found that belief helped me even today.

Maybe it is time for a new vehicle, or maybe the mechanic I take it too desperately needs the work.  We truly never know why things happen, or what purpose they are meant to serve (if any), but it really does feel good not to be worried about it.  I have definitely come a long way from where I used to be!