The lost car key: Episode 1

In the course of an outing to London yesterday, involving parking at Sutton on account of engineering works on the Waterloo side, we managed to lose the key fob for our Ford. Luckily I still had an old-speak key on my key ring so we were not immobilised.

First action, following the success with a hearing aid noted at reference 1, we went over the ground at Sutton Station, on this occasion without success.

Second action, this morning, was to visit the flashy new showroom of the people who call themselves Trust Ford, in Blenheim Road, not far from the tip. The successor showroom of the one we bought the car from - a Ford C-Max - in East Street, around ten years ago. A greeter at the door directs me to the service desk, a place with maybe half a dozen stations and one attendant. After a while, I get attended to. Yes we can provide and activate a fob like that snapped above. Yes we can try to fix the problem with the hatchback, not working with my old-speak key. No we can't give you a price until we have gone through the paperwork - which seems to be terribly complicated because it involves both the spares department and the service department. 

While I was waiting, I was able to admire a shiny new Ford Focus, in a handsome shade of red. I wondered whether the lighting had been tweaked to suit it. I was also able to admire what seemed like quite a large number of Ford people drifting about, seemingly with not too much to do. A slow Monday morning I suppose.

Eventually I am invited to hand over my log book and driving licenses - with BH's being needed as the car is in her name. Getting on for half an hour after arrival, I get my documents back, but fearing for the condition of the luncheon fish if I leave it any longer, I leave. I tell them I will be back in the afternoon. I was quite cross by this point, almost to the point of asking them to drive me home, otherwise a fifteen minute walk, but I managed to stay polite. After all, it was not the attendant's fault that she had not been properly prepped for this particular job.

Back this afternoon on my bicycle, which I locked to a rail outside their front door, to find all the paperwork has been done and that all I had to do is wait for their call. Not that I recall giving them my number. Perhaps they have both that and the number of the relevant key. No money has changed hands. But they can now tell me that the bill will be in excess of £300 - roughly double the figure that BH has acquired when passing Timpsons in Epsom town centre on some other business earlier in the day. And fifteen times the price of the actual spare part. So I tell them to put the order on hold while I look into the matter. The young lady looks a bit doleful, but says the price is the price. No room for manoeuvre. So I leave once again.

Back home, Bing turns up the Car Key People. They appear to be more in the emergency business, sending their vans out to stranded vehicles. Not yet rung me back, so probably not for us.

So fourth action is to ring up Timpsons. Where the chap at Tesco's Brookwood, whom BH had been put onto, tells me that the chap at Sainsbury's Kiln Lane, where I had, as it happens, been through that very morning, could do the business. Fob and all. So they are clearly my next stop.

PS: along the way I remembered reading that Timpsons are very progressive about drawing on marginal groups for their workforce, in particular offenders. Ironic that I might be relying on an ex-offender to sort out our key problems! While Simenon offers a different line, with former employees of safe manufacturers going in for a spot of private enterprise. Not the same thing at all. A remembering, confirmed on this occasions, at reference 4.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-stroll-in-cambridge.html.

Reference 2: https://www.trustford.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.timpson.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://www.timpson-group.co.uk/timpson-foundation/ex-offenders/.

Reference 5: http://carkeypeople.co.uk/.