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Amazing Customer Review

Good Morning, Ms. Laura –

My name is Mark J. and I have been a customer of Levin’s for the past 25 years. For the most part I am a do-it-yourselfer, but when things exceed the scope of my capabilities, I turn to the experts.

This past February, as I was performing maintenance on my mom’s car, I noticed that one of the boots that covers a ball joint had deteriorated from age. I was in the process of changing oil, lubing the front end, and rotating tires when it became apparent that I needed some help. The tires on mom’s car, a 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis (53,000 original miles!) were purchased at the Levin’s in Hammond . . . over 10 years ago! Knowing that customers of Levin’s receive a free rotation, I called Chip at your Highland location. At this point I wanted Chip to assess the repair and, since the car would be on the lift, rotate the tires. Being that the car is over 20 years old, Chip had the mechanic give a very thorough assessment. When all was said and done, mom’s car had many issues. So many, that we wondered if it was worth purchasing a new vehicle. My mom is 88 years old and still drives! She is very hard to please and doesn’t like anything new. After speaking with Chip and after discussions with my mom, we decided that it would be money well spent to repair her car. It was a costly bill, in excess of $3,000.00, but when you break that down over the 20 plus years that she’s had the car, it was well worth the repair.

Now you might be wondering why I am sending this to you – and here is the reason;

My mom, and I, were treated like royalty by Chip, Doug, Mike and Nick the mechanic . . . I hope that I have all of their names right! Chip explained everything in a very easy fashion to my mom. When the repairs were completed and when we arrived to pick up her car, Chip walked me into the service bay where I was introduced to Nick, and then we went over every nut, bolt, caliper, rotor, ball joint, and on and on and on. I wasn’t treated like someone that just walked in off of the street, but a relationship was built.

I first met Chip at the Crown Point location in December of 2012. I was treated very fairly and was extremely pleased with the outcome of the repairs of my car. Chip then moved out to the Winfield location, where a co-worker of mine and I, tracked him down to perform other repairs to our vehicles.

Please, allow me to say, this is how customers want to be treated and this is the proper way to manage a business. I have no affiliation with Chip or any of the gentlemen outside of the business – I am merely just one customer. But I can tell you, because of the way that my mom and my co-worker and I were treated, we’ll keep coming back to Chip to have him take care of us.

I am currently trying to steer another co-worker of mine in his direction for tires -- I have given Chip’s card to him and I hope there is an opportunity for the two of them.

Ms. Laura,

I work in the pre-press area for a local commercial printer -- I can assure you that it is a thankless job. Out of 100 jobs, we may hear a “thank you” on one of them. I am writing to thank Levin for Chip, as well as those around him. Our needs were met, our expectations were exceeded and we are very grateful.

I mentioned earlier that my mom was hard to please; when she got out of the car after driving it home from Levin’s she said, and I quote, “Man, this car hasn’t felt this good in a long time!”

Thank you for your time, Ms. Laura and thanks to Chip and the staff at Levin’s . . . they deserve a standing ovation.

Have a blessed day and a Happy Easter,

Mark J.

St. John, Indiana

Meet the Merrillville Manager!

Jayme has been with Levin Tire & Service Center since April of 2009. He started at the Southlake store before being promoted to manager at the Broadway location in Merrillville. He grew up helping his Dad work on cars and worked for a few years part time in a small gas station back home in Campbellsburg, IN. doing tires and oil changes.

Would it Kill People to be Nice?

It amazes me that in this day and age that there are still crappy customer service agents out there! I find it hard to believe that there aren't nice people out there who need a job and would love to get paid to talk to people.

A couple months ago my daughter had been to the doctor because she had a cough she couldn't shake and they sent her in for a chest x-ray. My insurance didn't cover a whole whopping $32 of it. When the accounts receivable department called to tell me about it, I asked them to send me out a bill so that I could pay for it. Mind you, it took six weeks from the appointment date to bring this to my attention to start with. That being said, I didn't get the bill until about 2 days ago finally.

I called this afternoon to pay the balance and encounted a lady who clearly HATES her job. When I didn't have an account number to spare her the trouble of changing her client search field she made sure to ask for my phone number with a long drawn out sigh, as if this little click had just required her to sprint a 10 mile marathon without being able to stop for water along the way. (Sorry lady, all I wrote down this morning was the number to pay it, shame on me).  She went straight into getting my debit information without even so much as a "I'll be glad to take care of that for you today" or a "Thank you for taking care of this." I knew roughly what I owed, but wanted to verify the charge amount for my records. Again, I offended this woman by wanting to know what I was being charged and not having the bill directly in front of me so that I didn't have to take up her precious time with a silly question like, "What will the final charge be?"

I admit that I'm most likely the worst customer ever, because here at Levin Tire it's my job to teach people like her to be nice to people! I'm also the customer who writes a letter to complain. In my personal/professional opinion, I'd much rather have the opportunity to correct the situation than have our customers go elsewhere because of one bad apple.

I concluded my phone call and ran really quick to get some lunch. The woman behind the counter was probably in her mid to late 40's. My guess... She had not planned on growing up to serve cheeseburgers and french fries, but I'm glad to say that she did greet me kindly, ask how I was doing, and tell me to enjoy my weekend. Please tell me why the woman who makes more money can't be as kind as the lady who handed me my grilled chicken sandwich?

Customer service is essential in today's world and we pride ourselves on having some of the friendliest and geniune employees around. Thank goodness that lady from the doctor's office does not work for our organization or we'd be having a serious sit down right about now.

~Laura Stephenson

Quality Assurance Coordiantor

Replacing Your Fuel Filter

Picture from: Melton

You would never like to drink a glass of mud, right? Well, your car feels the same way. It needs a steady supply of clean fuel in order to run well and deliver good fuel economy. The fuel filter's job is to clean dirt and rust out of the fuel before it gets to your engine. A clogged fuel filter can actually choke off the engine so that it won't start or run. Some fuel filters have a bypass valve that allows fuel to go around the clogged filter so your car will still run. But, then the contaminated fuel can plug your fuel injectors and allow damaging particles into your engine.

A car with a partially clogged fuel filter might run well around town, but sputter and strain on the highway because it's starving for gas. There are two things that affect how often you need to replace the filter. They are: where you drive and the gas you buy. If you drive a lot on dirt or gravel roads in rural , your fuel filterwill have a harder time keeping the fuel clean.

And, we hate to say it, but buying the cheapest gas from cut-rate area stations sometimes means dirtier fuel that'll clog the filter sooner. Major brands tend to be cleaner and certainly have higher levels of detergent additives.

Of course, your manufacturer recommends intervals for changing the fuel filter. But, it's a little more complicated than that. Some manufacturers stopped listing recommended intervals for fuel filter replacement or have very long intervals like every five years or eighty thousand miles. So you may need to look to other sources for recommendations. Cars older than six or seven years are especially at risk because they have had time for dirt and rust to build up in the fuel tank. A clean fuel filter keeps the gas flowing. Even a partially clogged filter puts added strain on the fuel pump. That can shorten its life and result in a costly repair.

As is often the case, spending a little money now on something as inexpensive as a fuel filter can save money down the road. At Levin Tire & Service Center in , we can check your fuel filter. It is better than fixing a burned out fuel pump or ruined fuel injectors.

Want to see the video? Click here!

Can *112 Save Your Life?

We recently saw a post with the following content come up on our Facebook news feed that caught our attention. The story goes as follows:

An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on. Lauren's parents have always told her to never pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather to wait until they get to a gas station, etc.

Lauren had actually listened to her parents advice, and promptly called, 112 on her cell phone to tell the police dispatcher that she would not pull over right away. She proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing red light on his rooftop behind her. The dispatcher checked to see if there were police cars where she was and there weren't, and he told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back up already on the way.

Ten minutes later 4 cop cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground. The man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

I never knew about the 112 Cell Phone feature. I tried it on my AT&T phone & it said, "Dialing Emergency Number."

Especially for a woman alone in a car, you should not pull over for an unmarked car. Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going on to a safe place.

*Speaking to a service representative at Bell Mobility confirmed that 112 was a direct link to State trooper info. So, now it's your turn to let your friends know about "Dialing, 112"

You may want to send this to every Man, Woman & Youngster you know; it may well save a life.
 
At first we thought this would be a great bit of information to share with people in case they didn't know. However, after looking into a little bit further (we're big on checking our facts) we discovered that this is just another piece of chain mail with no actual value. THERE IS NO SINGLE EMERGENCY NUMER IN USE WORLDWIDE!

There have been several variations of this email. The main character has been both Lisa and Laura. There is even a variation that takes place in Australia. If you'd like to read more "versions" of this story click here.

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