Found mail and potential fires

My lovely wife found a piece of unopened mail today. Apparently it arrived back in June and somehow never got opened. 9/10 of what comes in the mail is usually junk, so the odds were this wasn't that important.

It wasn't all that important, that is, if I don't mind my van bursting into flames. The letter was a safety recall notice from Ford. The speed controller deactivation switch may catch fire. That can't be good. This is the van that all summer I've been putting a lot of money into. All this time it could have just caught fire and burned up.

So the warning came out in June. Here it is, the middle of September. Better get that taken care of right away, I think. I call the dealership. After negotiating the rather extensive automated phone list a human finally comes on the line. No problem, she says, I'll connect you now.

The phone rings about 15 times. Why did I let it ring so long? I was hoping someone would pick it because no way did I want to start at the beginning of the automated messages. Believe it or not, a human being did pick it up. She was even polite.

. . . but that's not all. The guy who's in charge of the computer that handles recalls is on vacation. Just before he left the guy changed the password on the computer. No one else knows the password and the guy can't be reached.

So at any rate, they scheduled me for next week. Good thing the van is a former ambulance and has two large fire extinguishers on board.

-Sixbears