Last week started with great prospects. After a super Saturday where we were fortunate to be part of 3 Great Montgomery events including  Alabama Farmers Market Day, Sicklecell Fund Bowlathon  and ASF Beehive performance, came a trip on Sunday to Sams club for 4 new tires.  I could see way above Lincolns head when using this Nascar.com trick to estimate tire tread remaining so a new set was needed  big time.

UP- 4 new tires ready to go in less than an hour

Down

Genius Service techs  at Sams club who ignored the obvious fact that my window regulator wasn’t working and decided that since my window was already open about 2 inches that it was a good idea to JAM the window down into the door, making it impossible to retrieve without removing the entire door panel.  Didnt you hear a loud thud when the glass fell into the crack?, did you think there could have been a problem then?

What killed me is that the 2 workers involved  acted like OH WELL should have told us,

“We roll down both front windows for any service”

Why would most people  imagine that rolling down all  windows was a prerequisite to a TIRE CHANGE.  If anything they should have stated their unusual procedure upon check in not after the fact. They had real serious attitude issues and completely refused to even accept responsibility for their actions.

Luckily the manager Jeff happened to walk in and try and help. He and another worker did spend at least 15 minutes trying to remedy problem to no avail and offered to reimburse mechanic cost. We will report if he did indeed honor that commitment.

In the meantime I have been driving and parking with no window for over a week.

Tuesday morning  July 14 the Jeep headed to Bham to get artwork. Found an artist to recreate a conceptual Montgomery skyline reflecting our perspective of Montgomery past ,present and future. The landmarks include Dexter Ave Baptist Church, ASF (Alabama Shakespeare Festival),State Capitol, Renaissance hotel,Riverwalk Stadium and the Ampitheater.

This is what it looked like at 2am Wed morning. Click picture for closeups

UP

We were really excited to show this around Montgomery on the Watermelon Express Tour.

Down-As good an artist as Erica B  is vehicle paint preparation  is not her forte. Poor application and preparation technique was used and even after one light rain this was the result. Hideous prep job lead to hideous outcome.

This is the Jeep by Thursday afternoon.

The vehicle remains under construction for now as we reevaluate the artwork options.

We did learn from 3 different professional how the vehicle should have been done. Maybe Erica can do some research before airbrushing someone else’s vehicle.

If you are a reputable painter or vehicle artist and would like to use our Jeep to advertise why people should ONLY deal with experts when it comes to something this important contact editor@greatnewsmontgomery.com.  We can put together a video presentation and promote your business on our homepage, it would be one great way to make something good come out of this fiasco.

The week did close on a positive note as the editor had a one on one meeting with “Reality Show Ruthie” over the weekend.  She is a wonderful writer, a super admin person, and hopefully will be a permanent part of our team in the near future. She is helping GNM with an investment opportunity and we met to view and tour some potential properties.

Hopefully the guy shows up tomorrow to fix the window.