ptrbs

Our family car has been having problems for a little while. It used to be a robust little machine that we would use to travel with our son to appointments, or to drive back to my parents in Netherlands every once in a while. Recently, it has been having constant issues with both the battery and the engine. I did not own a car before, since with the Berlin public transport system it is generally not really needed. This also meant that this was the first time I was trying to get a car repair done here in Berlin.

I don't like calling places, and I definitely don't like calling places in German. It is not that I don't speak German on a good enough level, but still some confidence here is lacking to easily pick up the phone and make calls. So, I did try to find an alternative and see if there are any online places where I can book a car repair. It turns out there are, but a very select few with mostly bigger branches.

No need to name and shame here which one I did make an appointment with in the end, but I did eventually make an online appointment after some searching. My first appointment was a simple “what is this error code that is showing up on my dashboard” appointment. They read it out, said the battery was probably done, and that was it. Oh, you want to replace the battery? New appointment needed. I went online to check for a new appointment, and the first available one is only in 3 weeks. Great.

I probably should have taken that as a hint and find another garage, and god forbid even call one. However, I did book the new appointment in 3 weeks time to replace the battery, and showed up for it. Same procedure of dropping off the car, keys and hoping for the best. They did change the battery, which was in a bad state, and simply mentioned “Ah by the way that yellow engine light is still on”. I asked if the new battery could have fixed it, and he said “No”. “Well, I have a long drive coming up soon, what should I do?”, I asked. He responded “Ah well, you can book a new appointment online and we can take a look at it”.

When I book an appointment to fix a car, is it really asking too much for “fix the car” to include the obvious thing still broken in it? I'd expect a hands-on attitude: “Ah, this looks wrong, should we look into that?” Or at least call me first if it costs extra. Returning a still-broken car is a weird concept to me.

So what did I do in the end? Picked up the phone and called a nearby small garage with good reviews. Appointment on Monday, fingers crossed...