Above and Beyond

I have had the worst experiences with car dealerships/repair shops. I pretty much always think I am going to get screwed one way or another . . . and I usually do. So, when I have a good experience with a car place, I feel the need to sing their praises as loudly as possible.

My car recently needed some body work and it was taken to Peoria Auto Body. After about a week, they called to say the work was done and I could come pick up my car. I was dreading it, but I had a friend drive me down there. The damage to my car involved broken glass - glass that had shattered into tiny little pieces and sprinkled all over the front seats in my car. I was dreading having to vacuum up all of the tiny pieces of glass out of my car.

When I got to Peoria Auto Body, I peered into the front seat of the car. Completely glass-free. It was spotless - it looked almost as good as it did the day I bought it. I was so happy, I ran inside to pay them and get the keys. I was giggling with excitement. They probably thought I was insane.

It was not until I was transferring car seats into the back seat that I noticed Peoria Auto Body had made all of my dreams come true. Not only had they vacuumed the glass out of the front seat and cleaned out all of the flotsam and jetsam and other random crap, they had vacuumed all of the dog hair out of the back seat!!!

Now anyone who has a large dog, particularly a large yellow Labrador retriever, knows how prolific their dog hair shedding capacity is. My dog seems to lose 75% of her hair on a weekly basis and most of it ends up on me or my furniture. She sheds even more in the car because she is excited and nervous about being in the car. So, under normal circumstances, the back seat of my car looks like it is wearing a dog hair sweater. I have learned to pretend it doesn’t exist, which is really the best way to deal with some things.

Dog hair is one of the most insidious substances to vacuum. It has an amazing capacity to stick into cloth and fibers and never let go. The last time I cleaned the dog hair out of my car, it took me more than an hour to completely rid the back seat of dog hair. I don’t know what kind of vacuum they used at Peoria Auto Body or how long it took them, but they got every single piece of dog hair out of my car. And for that, they will always have a special place in my heart.

Above and beyond the call of duty, Peoria Auto Body. Above and beyond.

And they gave me a free key chain with a light on it. I’m a sucker for freebies.