We’ve got a problem here, folks,” our mechanic said over the phone.
“What is it?” I asked. My husband, Matthew, and I had dropped off our truck for an oil change a couple hours earlier. We’d made an appointment with our usual mechanic, Randy, and decided on using synthetic oil, which requires a change every 5,000 miles, as opposed to 3,000 miles for regular oil. Though synthetic oil was the more expensive option, it seemed like a good investment considering how much we traveled.
“One of my guys put in the wrong oil,” Randy explained. He’d been out of the garage for a test drive and left our oil change to one of his employees. The other mechanic had put in the usual oil—the standard blend. “Now you have a choice,” Randy said. “We can drain the engine and put in the synthetic blend. Or you can leave it as is. You won’t be charged since it was our mistake.”
Matthew and I decided to leave things alone. Draining the engine seemed like a waste. We could always get the synthetic oil blend the next time around. But we did insist on paying for the work—it had been an honest mistake after all.
Matthew and I didn’t think about the oil change until a few months later. We were making plans to drive from South Carolina, up through the mountains of West Virginia, to visit my uncle in Maryland. It was a long trip, and we’d already put 2,650 miles on the truck since our last oil change, so we wanted Randy to change the oil early.
We dropped off the truck before lunch and asked Randy to check things over for us, just to make sure we were good to go on our trip.
We’d barely sat down to eat when my phone rang. It was Randy. “Your brakes are completely shot,” he said. “I’m surprised they lasted the drive over here. You’ll need to replace them immediately.” Luckily, he had the parts on hand. We gave him the go-ahead and hung up.
Matthew and I stared at each other in disbelief. If the correct oil had been put in a few months ago, we wouldn’t have gone back to the mechanic so soon. We wouldn’t have known the brakes were bad. Who knows what could have happened, especially on those mountain roads? Well, someone did. Someone who was looking out for us.
