Jesus Sold Separately

The night before my family celebrated Christmas, my sister and I were assisting Santa Claus and setting out some toys for the next morning. Amanda had gotten the Little People manger scene for both of our girls. As we opened the boxes and set out all the pieces I noticed that baby Jesus was missing. Shocked, I asked Amanda to look through her package. To our surprise we had only purchased half of the manger scene. Apparently, you have to buy the actual scene (i.e. stable, animals, palm trees, inn keeper, etc.) but the characters are sold separately! Can you believe it? I mean, who cares about the stable- without the baby Jesus you're pretty much stuck with a barn. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, those are the principal players. That's what we were really after...Right? Merry Christmas girls, have fun playing with the palm trees...Seriously?

I believe that this Little People stuff is dirty business. How tricky can you be? They're just preying upon sincere, albeit slightly distracted, mamas trying to get all of their Christmas shopping done. If we had actually paid attention to the set, we might have noticed the lack of key figures and believe-you-me we would have paid a pretty penny for the other half. (Still will when they get it back in stock!) The toy makers know this, so they split up the stuff you really want. That way, you pay double- they make double!

Now, the Little People drama is little business in the grand scheme of things, but I have recently encountered a scheme of a much larger magnitude. Steve and I purchased our used Passat station wagon about a year and a half ago. Since that time, we have had multiple problems with it, but I love driving it...when it works! About a week before Christmas, (and a day before we were leaving to go out of town), Steve took our car to be looked at because the check engine light came on. After running some diagnostic tests, the mechanic told us that we most likely had an oil sludge problem that was particular to our make and model of Passat wagon. The recommendation was to take the car to the Volkswagon dealership in order to be serviced.

To make a VERY LONG story short, we spent the majority of our two-week Christmas break haggling with the local Volkswagon dealership as well as VW customer service regarding work and payment. Apparently, there was a class action settlement regarding our make and model of car due to the oil sludge problem, BUT the settlement did not cover our year! According to the company, the 2005 model of the car did not exhibit the same issues as the previous years. Now, the earlier repairs on the car we have paid out of pocket without much fuss, but these recent repairs have cost us $2000 plus the $500 dollars we paid out of pocket to rent a car to get home for the holidays- Not to mention that the repairs took almost 3 weeks to complete! AND would you believe that today I took the car back in for more work! Yes, my car needs another $500 worth of work!

Now, I have tried to be polite about this whole thing (I am from Mississippi after all, and we have standards.), but enough is enough. Steve and I have both asked Volkswagon corporate to make this right. We have expressed our love for our car and our desire to remain loyal customers in the future if this problem is resolved. Unfortunately, phone call after phone call leads to more frustration and disappointment. Up until now not one employee has taken any responsibility or offered consolation. However, we did get an offer for $1000 off a new car- yeah right! I am posting this today as a warning for all the consumers out there. Be careful-Sometimes we don't get exactly what we paid for. Sometimes, Jesus is sold separately!