Odes & Rhymes of Life & Times is a book of poetry that even the non-poetry reader can enjoy.  With poems written fro the heart about things that everyone can relate to, this book does what it says on the cover.  I guarantee it will make you laugh, make you cry and make you think.

Click Paperback to go directly to Amazon.co.uk to purchase your hard copy version for just £5.50 plus p&p

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For those who live outside the UK click Amazon.com to purchase your hard copy of version for just $9.60 plus p&p

 For all of you who would like to enjoy my book on your PC instead of your mobiles or tablets here is a link that was found by Ian the Drummer from Verbal Warning.  Thanks Ian

Free Kindle App for PC

While looking I also found you can get free Kindle Apps for a lot of machines check out the link below:

Other Free Kindle Apps

What's annoying AJ this week:

Well, this week it is the turn of the Car Dealership Service and Repair charges.  I am putting this up as I feel that it needs to be highlighted with both charges and customer service being an issue and if it saves my readers some agro and some money then it will be worthwhile.

I recently took my car in for its annual Service and MOT.  I always take it in first thing in the morning and get a courtesy car to drive around in while it's in there.  This time I got a nice 61 plate A1 to drive around for the day, usually it's only in for a day but not this time.  

I told the dealership that I thought the coolant sensor needed replacing and to ring me up and let me know the cost.  They asked me if there were any other issues and I said, no problems other than that.  At 3.30pm I got a call about the coolant sensor cost - I was expecting this and let them know it was ok to do it but they had also called me to ask if I wouldn’t mind having the A1 over the weekend while they fixed it and I said yes.  Usually at 3.30pm they normally call me to say it’s having it’s clean and I can stop by to pick it up in half an hour, so naturally assumed that the service and MOT had been done.  

Anyway, I was relaxing in bed on Monday morning planning out what I was going to do for the day when they called me to say it had failed it’s MOT on Friday.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and said ‘excuse me’ twice.  I said nothing had been said when they called me on Friday.  They then said it had failed after she'd rung me with the coolant sensor charges.  I asked that as I had brought it in an 8.30am and she had called me at 3.30pm when I would normally be told to collect it, how come the MOT hadn't been done by then as I was led to believe by previous experiences that it would be.  I also asked why they hadn't called me back when they had found out it had failed.  After some lengthy discussion as why they hadn't which only led me to believe it was pure laziness I then asked what it had failed on and they told me that I needed new anti-roll bar bushes and pins and that some of the rear lights hadn’t been working so that had to have new bulbs.  I had only changed one of the bulbs a couple of weeks back so this immediately sent warning sensors off in my head to something not being quite right.  I said to them that I hoped they weren’t going to charge me for the bulbs as there was a pack in the back of my car.  I then added that I couldn't believe that it had failed on the bushes because I hadn’t heard any knocking (usual noise that determines they need replacing) while driving over the speed bumps around where I live.  I asked how much it would cost and they said £546.  So, now feeling very angry and knowing that I could get these parts replaced for about £100 at my local garage, I told them to fix the coolant sensor as I had asked (they still had to do that) leave the rest and that I would be in to pick it up at 11am and would take it to my local garage.  Also I said I wanted to see the Customer Services Manager while I was there.   I knew that despite it failing it's MOT there it still had until the next day before they MOT certificate would go out of date and I was well within my rights to take it elsewhere for a second opinion.

I got there and had to wait nearly 20 minutes to see him.  Then the lady I was dealing with and the Customer Services Manager firstly tried to persuade me nicely to get it fixed there, then they ganged up on me and tried scare tactics to get me to have my car fixed with them.  I couldn't believe the two of them were saying things like, if you drive away and have an accident then we won't be responsible.  They clearly thought that I had no idea about how a car works and, if they had chosen any other problem to fail the MOT on then I probably wouldn't have known, but experience luckily dealt me the higher hand in this case.  I stood my ground and told them that I was totally un-satisfied with the service they had given me.  Eventually after ¾’s of an hour they agreed to take all labour charges off.  I then paid, took time checking my car over and took it to my local garage.  While driving there I heard no knocking and from previous experience of having them replaced when I first bought the car, I was still shocked that I had been told they had said they would need replacing.  

My local garage, which I wasn't using because I wanted to maintain the dealership service stamp in the log, couldn’t look at it until the next day but when they looked at it, apparently, it seemed that the repairs that needed to be done to get it through its MOT were fixed over night (must have been those helpful elves) and it passed its MOT without needing any work doing first.   

I know this is a longwinded description of what happened folks but I would like you to be aware of how I was treated and not just me, a couple of friends that I spoke to about this have had similar experiences with dealerships (see Gripes and Groans - Dodgy Dealerships article for more).  Even if I had of needed them replacing after-all it would have cost me just under £100 plus VAT, which is a lot cheaper than £546.  Let's just say I will not be using the dealership anymore.  

NOW THERE'S AN IDEA!

Isn't it about time that someone started to produce a teleportation device.  Frankly this week I am fed up with being stuck in traffic jams.  I have wasted 3 hours and 45 minutes of my time stuck in jams over 2 nights this week and it's cost me nearly half a tank of fuel because of the shunting.  Not only would the teleportation device save people time it would also help the environment and stop us wasting resources.  It would also help when it came to going abroad too.  Just jump in and you'd be there in a minute.  Would then mean it was true when you say to someone, "I'll be there in a minute.".

Recommendation reading on my site:

Short story of the Month - One Drunken Night

Novel extract - By Any Other Name (Under review for release on Kindle late Autumn - watch this site)

Poem of the Month - Breaking up is hard to do

New Gripes:  Beer or Veggies

New items added 

Movie Review:  Insidious

Book Review:  Peter Connolly - The Book of Lost Things

Album Review:  Verbal Warning - Red Star Radio

TV Program Review:  Don't Get Done Get Dom