Good neighbor … bad neighbor

To the editor:

Thank you Frontiersman, for being a good neighbor! A cousin who drifted back east and I haven't heard from in 50 years tried to find my family and contacted our local paper. The message was forwarded to me and we've been getting reacquainted.

On the other hand, my 1996 Ford Aspire's "check engine" light came on. I took it to a shop near the fairgrounds and they ran a test for $50-plus and said two O2 sensors needed to be replaced, but it wasn't critical. It would just heat up a bit more and get a little better gas mileage. For the more than $400 price, I opted to wait. Then the heater quit working altogether and that light came on again. I called the shop and one of the guys told me lots of four-cylinder cars don't get very warm. It probably needed a flush and that would help.

So I took it down for a flush on Friday morning, supposed to be an hour-and-a-half job. But they found a crack in some part and couldn't find a replacement for the obsolete thing, so they located someone who could weld it so fluid wouldn't leak anymore. It took all day and I picked the car up at 4:30 p.m., paid them more than $250 and headed to Anchorage. There was still no heat and I was freezing. The shop was closed on the weekend, so I bought a man's pair of insulated gloves and wrapped up in a quilt for my drive to Anchorage on Saturday.

Monday morning I called to let them know there was still no heat. They took it in again. I told them something squealed when I started it up, so they changed the alternator belt. I don't know what else they did, but once again, they thought the heater was working. I dropped another $150-plus and drove to Wasilla.

Still no heat. Their work is supposedly guaranteed, but what good is that if it doesn't even fix the problem?

When I called the owner to let him know, he tried to convince me that they had done everything they could and the work they did needed to happen. I couldn't get him to understand I took it to them so I would have heat in my car. Their next guess was to install a heater core to the tune of $400. As if! What does one do in a case like this? If I would have known I'd have to sink that much money and still have no heat, I would have probably traded it in.

Patricia Wade

Palmer