So today’s update has both good and bad news.
As you know, we started having problems right after we fueled up at the Love’s truckstop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and that this whole area has been under tremendous flooding this year. As it turns out, we did in fact get some very bad fuel that contaminated the truck resulting in the fuel pump and filters and every fuel injector to be replaced as well as the fuel system dumped of 200 gallons of fuel and the need to be flushed out of all contaminants. The good news is that the truck is scheduled to be ready for us to pick up by 4pm on Saturday. Yes, the company will pay for the four nights in the hotel in addition to a small breakdown fee each day.
As you know, I cook about a month’s supply of food – steaks, pork chops, chicken, potpies, everything – on the grill at home then vacuum seal and freeze so I can reheat in the truck saving tons of money from eating out at the truckstops all the time. The first day the truck was in the shop, we managed to keep the freezer plugged in to an external power source at the wall. When the truck was moved to another part of the shop, it was not plugged in anymore thus allowing all of the contents to be ruined. I had called everyday and reminded folks to make sure it was plugged in but the service manager told me that the shop and dealership is not responsible for any valuables in the truck, and that included plugging in anything. While the actual service techs were understanding and tried to accommodate me, the service manager had zero understanding and only kept repeating he would not allow me to plug the freezer in their plugs to stay operational. es, it is true that dealerships are not responsible for any valuables or contents of any vehicles they work on, but then they could have used common sense and helped me out. The service manager simply chose not to.
Because my last time off was during the Labor Day grocery store sales, I managed to get an extra large amount of meats on sale and cooked everything for the truck. Because I still had so much left this week, I was strongly considering not even shopping or cooking anything for next month! In the end, I have lost about $300+ worth of meats and groceries in a freezer all because the service manager would not allow me to keep the freezer plugged in. Can I hold them responsible? Nope. Could I have taken all the meat out brought back to the hotel? Perhaps some, but very little would fit in this baby refrigerator here. Guess we will have to just start all over with he food supply. Not happy. All it would have taken was some compassion and reality here. Oh well. Let’s hope we don’t have any more truck problems…… This can’t really be the fault of the truck since it was all a direct result of bad fuel at the truckstop.
