I’ve had an ongoing issue with my truck that took me a while to diagnose. Once I figured out what was wrong, I felt bad that I didn’t get it fixed sooner. Some time ago it started leaking power steering fluid. I didn’t know this was happening until the power steering pump started making an awful racket.

I topped it up, but that didn’t help for long.

Last week I took my truck to Victoria Car Clinic. I’d used them before and wasn’t that impressed.

My first time to them, and they didn’t even do the things I asked. That day when I dropped it off I parked my truck on the street. Out of sight, out of mind. They did the oil change after I called them wondering about my truck. Not impressed.

This time it was booked in for an afternoon appointment on Thursday and when I dropped it off, I parked it in their lot, then rode to work. Around 3:30 I called to get the status update and was met with a strange reaction. The guy I talked to sounded sheepish on the phone. Turns out they hadn’t started any work on it but were just about to. Strike 2.

I called around 4:15 and learned they finished the servicing, had a quote for the power steering, and were just getting my truck put back together. At 4:30 I left work to cycle down there. Once I was there I learned of a problem. Two of the studs on the driver side rear had broken off when they took the wheel off to check the brakes. They were having problems getting the right size studs.

While I waited another delivery was made, and another incorect size. At this point I left the truck with them for the weekend. I also told them to go ahead and fix the pump. I picked up my truck yesterday and it runs good again, and in their testing it didn’t leak any more. Hopefully it stays that way.

Finding a good, trustworthy mechanic is hard. These guys haven’t earned my trust yet. With these two experiences, I don’t know if I will go back. The strange thing is that several of my friends use this shop, and they have nothing but good things to say. Then why do I keep getting the bad luck?