I got a free transmission service from local dealership. Deciding on should i have the wifes new car [2013] done or my model a pickup. It has a 350 with th350. I wonder what the dealership would think? guess i need to call them. Would you take your hot rod to be worked on at a dealership?
I once got a coupon for a screaming deal on a lube and oil change at a local Chrysler dealership. The only Chrysler I owned is our 1956 New Yorker. I took it in, they stuck it on the lift, drained the oil, put the plug back in, dropped if down and removed the filter canister. "We don't have a filter like this on the shelf, so we'll order one from NAPA. They'll have it here in 45 minutes". NAPA delivery guy shows up with a filter, oops, wrong one. They said they'll get the right one delivered in an hour. The NAPA truck shows up once again, this time with the correct filter. "Mechanic" struggles to get filter, canister and seal all installed and tightened up. Start the car and it's pissing oil from the canister. Loosen canister, dump a bunch of oil, try to reseal, leaking a little less this time. Mechanic figures all it takes to seal it up is tighten it a little more. "Nope" I said, no way it needs to be that tight. I told them to give me an extra three quarts and I'd drive it home and seal it up myself. Took nearly three and a half hours by the time I got out of there. But they didn't charge me anything. Bottom line: I'll use the service giveaways on the O/T stuff, but never on the older ones that the oil change jockey has never seen before.
The 2 best items I remember this AM was a $25 gas card and a $25 gift card, local supper club. Most of the items are OK, keep/use some, give some away and it's appreciated by me and most people I believe as the organizers of events work hard to put shows/cruises on, I have organized a few, tends to be a thankless job at times IMO. I have received coupons for oil changes/car wash and gave them away as I do my own service work, it's been my experience that you get the new kid/trainee for that kind of service work and have had too many bad experience's with warranty work/service on new vehicles, IMO not many MR GoodWrench's out there
I used one once for a wheel balance and alignment at a local non-national business. The alignment guy was an old hot rodder and thought it was his destiny to work on old cars. Nice guy and I've been back. Normally I will buy a lot of the raffle tickets as there are gift cards for local restaurants. Great plan until my last visit to the VA. The drill sergeant lady doctor took my restaurant privileges away from me. Oh, well.............
I once had a mechanic tell me I needed the 216 in my 50 Chevy rebuilt because there was oil leaking up into the air cleaner. I asked him what could've caused that, and he said that some how I had oil coming up through the carb and it really wasn't safe to drive like that. I thanked him and drove away. Sent from my SM-G960U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have ended up with enough bottles of car wash and jugs of windshield washer fluid to last me 50 years. I also get my share of hats, koozies and key chains. On the up side I did win a 50/50 one time for $70.
For the most part I use or let someone use the stuff I get. This past summer received a free pizza, issue of Rodder's Journal, bunch of micro fiber cloths, and a quality pair of sunglasses. Also, some hats and T-shirts that I shared where appropriate.
I'm the emcee / dj at our local cruise-in and have the task of dispensing the donated prizes to the entrants. A local barbershop always donates a few coupons for free haircuts ($20 value). I always have fun telling the folks to come see the dj and I'll give them a haircut! Surprising that a lot of them assume that I'll be the one giving the haircut (instead of a coupon) and won't approach me!
Our local club used to do 2 or 3 big door prizes at the end of their show each year. Made it worth sticking around at the end of the show after awards. I won big prizes 3 years in a row... I won a crate motor (traded for the motor I wanted) I won a trans from the local trans shop (traded that for the trans I wanted) Won a set of tires (needed tires on my daily and worked a deal with the tire shop) Then they stopped doing those big prizes, and now it sucks that I have to buy big ticket items for my toys. No clue how I ever managed the luck to win 3 years in a row!
I have gotten the usual waxes, polishes, cleaning stuff, T shirts that I give to the wife because I don't wear them, pens and pencils, caps, coozeys, note pads, etc. Got some cheap and some nice tool sets, too. But the restaurant coupons usually get unused unless we use them that day or are on a national chain. Not going to drive 50-75 miles just to get a free burger when I can get one around here. I got a coupon for a free haircut one time, I donated it back to the club giving the show. I'm picky as hell about who cuts my hair, been going to the same lady for probably 15 years now. Not going to somebody I don't know, and for sure not driving 50-75 miles to get butchered hair, lol. My wife is the lucky one. She has won several 50/50's, from $25-$30 all the way up to one for $500. I let her buy the tickets for things like that.
Not to hijack this thread, but interesting topic, as a guy who puts on a local show, this year I'm looking for something different instead of give aways. I'm thinking of divying up 1000 dollars into three, selling 50/50 tickets at 5 bucks each for a really big pot, maybe some homemade trophies for hard luck or long distance, something different than the usual. Got suggestions? What would make you bookmark a particular show and want to go to it regardless of distance?
Most door prizes are usually thrown back into the draw. I've only been doing the car show thing for about 6 or 7 years & I truly don't need any more t-shirt or hats. I did win a car detailing gift card once, gave it to the wife. I enjoy detailing my cars.
Most of those "certificates" for services like that are donated to the shows to be given away for one purpose. That purpose is to get you in the door so that they can sell you more services in the form of other mechanical work, or even get you as a future customer for more mechanical work. I don't use them or even want them for that reason. Usually I donate them back to the club or whatever.
This story reminds me of something that happened to a friend of my dad's many years ago. He won a free transmission service on the radio. This was in 1977 and his car was a '76 T-bird, still on warranty but he decided to claim his prize so he dropped the car off in the morning on his way to work. When he returned that afternoon the car was up on the lift with the transmission torn apart on the bench. He was told the trans was bad and it would cost nearly 1,000.00 to get it fixed and back in the car. Since it was still under warranty he had it towed to the local Ford dealer. There was nothing wrong to begin with, so he had to pay Ford to put it back together. He sued to get his money back. I never heard if he won. As for me; If I win something I can't use, I donate it to our car club's charity auction, unless it's a free transmission service. Believe it or not this outfit is still in business.
The freebies at the cruiseins we go to are either gas cards or food cards i use them every time I’m lucky enough to get them.
We went to a big car show/ oldies concert and each car received a ticket for door prizes, we left early and I gave the ticket to a friend and told him I hope it wins him the big prize. He called me Sunday morning and tells me my ticket won a thousand dollars cash, and I told him that's great and ask him did any of our other club members win anything and he said no. He ask was I going to be home this afternoon and I told him sure/ About 3 pm he shows up and hands me the entire thousand bucks and said congratulations, I was shocked and told him I left and if the tickets was still in my pocket they would have drawn another number, he suggested splitting it and I agreed to it, he got 500 bucks and Brenda got the other 500. HRP
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