##  One goal of this trip was to get rid of Mom's car.  While it was hard for
##  her to let go of that major component of independence as it is for anyone, it
##  was time.  Our last trip to the grocery store that she drove was terrifying.
##  You cannot drive competently with a dead right foot, trying to perform all
##  the control motion from the knee and thigh with no ankle movement.  It was
##  clear that it was too dangerous, for others as well as her, and also a huge
##  liability -- if she hit someone and it turned out she was driving with
##  drop-foot, she would be vulnerable to getting sued for everything she had.
##
##  I did want her to receive some nominal value back for the car, even if it
##  was fairly old; it was still in absolutely pristine shape with low miles.
##  On various colleagues' advice I poked around some of the online car buy/sell
##  sites, settling on Carmax as the one which showed the highest valuation
##  based on year and mileage, *and* they had a nearby-ish facility right up
##  in Bradenton.  The website let me work through a bunch of specifics and
##  came up with an "offer", good for a week or so, and I figured this was the
##  simplest way to take care of it instead of trying to mess with private
##  sale.  I couldn't act on that yet, because I was still up north, but did
##  the journey down right afterward.  Whereupon I looked at the actual car and
##  realized that I'd overestimated its mileage, and as the first offer was
##  about to expire anyway, worked up a more accurate quote.
##
##  Next, it was time to make the actual appointment, at the Bradenton shop.
##  Because I was doing all this on the owner's behalf, they wanted a power-
##  of-attorney form filled out, which was entirely reasonable, and a person
##  I talked to on the phone mailed me a PDF of the form.  I also needed
##  some help from Mom's acquaintances to get a ride back from there.


Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2022 16:31:28 -0700
From: "Carmax Copier Store " <copiers_meterreads@carmax.com>
Subject: Power of Attorney

Hello, please have her sign on the line labeled "signature of owner "grantor"" 
I have also have marked the line with a dot. Please do not fill out anything
other than the signature as we will fill the rest out in store.
Thank you

[attachment; filename="[Untitled].pdf"]


##  This yields a couple of hints as to Carmax's IT competence.  Why should
##  customer correspondence come from an address that looks like it's supposed
##  to relate to automated billing or stats on their printing facilities??  And
##  clearly they didn't have their PoA form stored in an accessible location
##  with a common and obvious name; whoever sent this was probably copying and
##  pasting raw graphics into a new Word doc or something.  Really, people...


Date: On 7/30/22, 6:40 AM
Subject: carmax etc
To: [Mom's next-door neighbor who offered a ride]

I've put in for a revised Carmax offer, and now it wants me to make an
appointment.  Which I won't do until we agree on a good time ... how would
Monday sometime do?  I don't know if the shops are open on weekends.  I want
to not interfere with your schedule, of course, so I won't book anything
until I know a good time/day...

I had the wrong mileage in the first time, and the original offer had expired
already, so the re-do was needed.  Weighed in $200 higher, too...  I'll call
them to confirm process beforehand as well.

thanx!

_H*

##


Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2022 12:57:55 -0400
Subject: Re: carmax etc
From: [Mom's next-door neighbor]

Sorry I hadn't checked my email..

Since Judy has offered to go as well, I checked with her to see when she
is available.

Monday is not good for either of us. She has a doctor's appointment and I
also have an appointment that day.

Tuesday is good for us anytime after 10:30. Will that work for you?

##


Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 06:22:56 -0500
To: [next-door neighbor and another local friend/backup]
Subject: carmax

My appointment is set for 1:30 pm on Tuesday, and it probably takes a bit over
half an hour to get up there.  The webpage said "please allow 30 - 90 minutes
to complete the transaction", I certainly hope it doesn't take on the longer
end of that.  I have all the documentation they said I need to bring, including
their POA form that authorizes me to sell the car on Mom's behalf...

Thanks so much!  This might be a fun little adventure; I hope the weather
cools off a bit by then.

_H*


##  My "experiece" with Carmax turned into a horror show pretty quickly,
##  over utterly irrelevant trifles, but I did manage to get it done without
##  a wasted trip and returned home to hand Mom a healthyish check.  Then I
##  ranted loud and long about this into a new webpage in my growing collection
##  of barefoot (mis)adventures, and fired a pointer off to my mailing-list of
##  fellow unshod enthusiasts.  The referenced page has more detail about the
##  whole thing.


Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 13:02:11 -0500
To: [barefooters list, hosted by the folks behind barefooters.org]
Subject: Carmax FAIL (developing situation)

I'm already starting to build a page about this miserable experience,

and have yet to pursue the incident ticket today.  But the background and
events of yesterday are already laid out.  TL;dr: the manager at a local
Carmax store gave me a super-hard time about feet, and is in serious need
of attitude adjustment if not a completely different career.

_H*


##  I also lodged a formal complaint with the regional Carmax management,
##  whose customer-care division seemed completely sympathetic and on my
##  side and said they'd escalate to high levels, but after a week they still
##  hadn't made any attempt to call me back.  Fucking bigoted liars.


Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2022 10:03:27 -0500
Subject: Re: Carmax FAIL (developing situation)
To: [barefooters list]

Well, after the second failed promised callback, I poked Carmax again today.
Different customer-relations rep, but he found the case details.  This guy
actually tried to start down the "well, with covid and monkeypox, we have
to ..." path.  I interrupted him right there and said "*Nobody* in that shop
was wearing a mask.  We don't transmit diseases like that through our *feet*.
Don't even *go* there."

I asserted that whether or not there's some "policy" or dress code, which I
doubt exists, it would be a matter of five minutes for senior management to
blast a bulk email out to all regional/local managers with a directive that
customer appearance is no excuse for treating anyone like a second-class
citizen, and how my own last car *buying* experience in the front room of a
dealership elicited zero comments about my feet, etc etc.  In other words,
to have them lay down reinforcement of their commitment to D&I, "put people
first", and all that rhetoric on their website.  I think the guy didn't even
know how to respond, other than a sort of generalized "I understand", and
once again I have a promise of "followup" over a nonspecific timeframe.

What's hilarious is how he also mentioned "oh, I used to run around barefoot
all the time as a kid!"  To which I answered "...and you stopped ONLY because
of social pressure."  He didn't deny it.

_H*


##  The situation trailed off into one or two more phone calls and me still
##  asserting that this sort of thing should never have happened and should
##  never happen again, but the end results were sort of left inconclusive
##  and of course they never made any followup effort.  Whatever, I had other
##  things to chase down anyway.