"Oh yes I can!"

I used to be a parts runner. One time I walked into a dealership to order the whole passenger side of a Firebird - bumper to bumper. The partsman was on the phone placing an order when I walked in. In fact he was on the phone for a very long time placing the order. While I was waiting for him to get off the phone another man came in.

When he got off the phone he waited on the man who came in after me - even though I waited a substantial amount of time before that guy even came in the store. Then another customer came in and the parts guy waited on him too. When you deal with partsmen you have to deal with sexism alot and I continued to wait because I was desperate for those parts.

Finally he came to me and I tell him I want to order the entire passenger side of a Firebird from bumper to bumper and I give him the year. He went through his book and made up my order and it came to over $3000.00. I told him that is fine and when he found out who I worked for he knew it was OK.

Then he told me that it was too late to place my order (even though he placed the two men's orders in front of me) and that I will have to wait a week for him to place the order and it will be another week for the order to come in. I told him that I would like for him to VIP the order. (A VIP order is an overnight order and at that time it only cost $10.00 more - a bargain for what I was doing!) He tells me that he couldn't VIP the order and that I was going to have to wait just like he told me to in the first place!

I looked at him and told him to cancel the order. He said, "you can't do that!"

So I told him to either VIP the order (something I did all the time) or cancel it - that I didn't have time to wait for the parts like he wanted me to. He said to me that he wouldn't do it and I wouldn't have any choice but to wait.

Here is what I told him then. "Oh yes I can! Cancel the order. I am going to drive one hour to the next Pontiac Dealership. I am going to place the order and they WILL VIP the order for me. I WILL have the parts tomorrow and the car WILL be in the sale on Wednesday! A full 2 weeks ahead of what you are telling me you are willing to do!"

Then he told me "OK, I will see what I can do." (he knew he was screwed!)

I told him "don't worry about it. I wanted to go to Logan to see my mom tonight anyway."

I turned around and walked out the door with my $3000.00 order (which he had prepared by the way.) I took it to Logan and ordered the parts. (the parts guy there loved it because he didn't have to look anything up.) I got the parts the next day and the car was sold the next Wednesday just like I told the guy it would be.