From years of traveling and living other places as an independent contractor and from being on the road to races, I've run across places I recommend and places I recommend you stay far away from. I'm also including places based on the publicly posted recommendations of others. These I do not know whether they are good or bad, but I have listed that person's name and email in case you would like more information on their comments.
Jimmy Bryant Toyota - SR 436, Orlando, FL. 1997 The service department has always been most helpful and has performed excellent work.
Delray Toyota - US 1, Delray Beach, FL 1994. The service department has always been most helpful and has performed excellent work.
Chase Chevrolet - Stockton, CA 1998 John Price JDP5@PGE.COM says "Since I am very vocal when it comes to receiving poor automotive service, I feel it is necessary to point it out when I receive good service. My local Chevy Dealer, gave me some very good news yesterday." He goes on how they helped him with warranty work.
Parkway Machine - Pompano Beach, FL. 1994 This shop has worked with me on numerous occasions from 1992 and has always done good work at a very good price. Tell him I sent you.
Bob's Speed - Fort Lauderdale, FL. 1988 - 1996 Bob has been in business since 1968 and still going strong. He is one of the old-timers who has seen it all and is helpful at passing it on to others. He is reasonable on his prices and more than fair on any problem that may arise. He also rents race cars at the lowest price around. Tell him I sent you.
Dolphin Motorsports - West Palm Beach, FL. 1997 Jim builds and rents F500 Dolphins and does an excellent job of providing very fast cars. Tell him I sent you.
Bob's Speed - Fort Lauderdale, FL 1988 - 1996 Bob has been in business since 1968 and still going strong. Bob rents IT cars for the cheapest price around. They aren't the fastest but they run. Good school cars and region races. And he is very fair on price, like adjusting it things go wrong during a weekend. Tell him I sent you.
Drury Inn - I-24 & US 60, Paducah, KY 2001. Good place to stay, with the indoor pool open to 11 pm. Thick pillows, nice rooms, and good free breakfast. Everything is at this exit. Wal-Mart, mall, Hobby Lobby, gas, food, etc.
Countryside Inn & Suites - I-75 exit 5, Chattanooga, TN 2001. Nice place to stay. Has a few drawbacks, but has a great free breakfast with waffles, biscuits & gravy, bagels, cereal, and so on. Pillows are terrible, toilet paper can sand the paint off your car, and the rooms are noisy due to paper-thin walls.
Restaurants are a service group, so I am critical on service when at one. So if I say it is good, then it is good. And I tip accordingly, usually at 20 percent. Their job is to provide good food and service. Don't accept less. When I get less, they see it in the tip. Anyone remember what a penny means?
My key points on how good a tip is:
- Was order right?
- Do I have to ask for more bread ?
- Do I have to ask for drinks to be refilled?
- Did I have to sit waiting for someone to finally come over?
- Do I have a hard time getting my waiter back during the meal?
Bo-Bo's - Dundee Road, Palatine, IL. 1994- 1996 A cross of a '50s/'60s hamburger joint and a Greek sandwich shop, this has some great ribs along with other good sandwiches. A definite stop for lunch.
Clock Restaurant - Congress Ave., Boynton Beach, FL. 1994 The service was always good and the food was a good value.
Shells Casual Seafood - Rt 200, Ocala, FL. 2000-2002 Most of the Shells restaurants in Florida are well worth a trip in, but this one in 1998 was slow service and we got sick. However, the manager Shannon turned the place around. Service and the food has improved at this store. We eat there a lot now. Good food, good service. Many other restaurants could take a lesson from this one.
Red Lobster - Bus. I-4 (Old US Route 66), Bloomington, IL 2001 Great service even though the place was packed with the crowds from Bloomington Gold and other events. The server brought out a sample of the soup special when I inquired about how it taste. He was always back to refill the glasses without asking. He served without being in the way and never ignored us. A lot of restaurants could learn from this.
Burger King - Outside Wal-Mart, Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, FL August
2001 The guy in the window was polite and even apologized for
the wait due to the previous customer changing her order. This is unbelievable, especially at Burger King, so I had to include it.
Ibico - 2000 - We bought one of their office laminators in 1997 and had lots of problems with it and the company. The company has been bought out and the new company is doing a lot to correct the products and the bad service. Worth going to again. They called several times to apologize, to make sure a new unit was sent out, and to check that the new unit was performing as it should.
Arlington Toyota - Dundee Road, Arlington Heights, IL. 1995-1996 I wouldn't send an enemy here. The car often came out running worse than when it went in and they often charged for work that was not performed.
Phoenix Industries - Oklahoma. 1996 I bought one of their rebuilt 350 Chevy engines. The valves were all misadjusted, even though their instructions said they were pre-adjusted and to leave alone. One lifter collapsed and a couple of push rods hammered the ball end into the tube. Their 24 month/24,000 mile warranty was worthless as they did not stand behind the repairs. This was sold through Trax Auto Parts in Chicago.
Exact Performance - Pompano Beach, FL. 1993 I took a set of small block Chevy heads to them to be angle milled 0 - .120 inches. I told them not to disassemble and to cut as is as it had a balanced valve train. When I got them back, they had done a .060 inch flat cut and mixed up all valve parts, ruining the heads, which had many, many hours of porting done.
JET Performance Products - Huntington Beach CA 1998 Both Tom Wong TWong29770@AOL.COM and Ronnie Woods RWooster2@AOL.COM had bad things to say about JET.
N.J. Currin - Sanford, FL. 1997 Jay rents F500 for a much higher price than many others and arrived with a car that needed front wheels and bearings replaced. During the weekend, he lowered the performance of the car, which fouled a cylinder and provided a DNS for the second race.
Zephyr Hills Bottled Water, Zephyr Hills, FL - 2001 We were getting strings of black scummy looking stuff in the 2.5 gallon bottle. I've had this in some bottles before and threw out the bottle, but this time, I decided to complain instead of wasting the money. They sent a water testing kit to collect water samples and I mailed it in. The results came back that there was nothing wrong or harmful. The water just had mold in it. Oh yeah, I always buy bottled water to get some mold in it. If you see junk floating in your bottled water, don't drink it, save the bottle and water, and call 1-800-695-4446 and complain. After all, it is your health and your money.
Shell Gas, I-24 & US 60 West, Paducah, KY 2001. West of the Mall and Wal-Mart. We pulled in with two cars at noon, and grab a couple of pumps. The attendant locked the transactions and announced for all of us (several cars in there) to return the hoses to the pumps to reset the machines. When we did, they jumped the price up 8 cents.
Countryside Inn & Suites - I-75 exit 5, Chattanooga, TN 2001. Pillows are terrible, toilet paper can sand the paint off your car, and the rooms are noisy due to paper-thin walls. Priced too high for that kind of amenities.
Restaurants are a service group, so I am critical on service when at one. If the bathrooms are dirty, if they have to be asked to fill your coffee or ice tea, if you don't see a waiter or waitress other than when they first take your order, you can bet I consider that bad service. And I tip accordingly. In parties of 8 when they automatically charge you for the tip, I complain if service is bad. And I have been known to challenge the bill through Visa. Their job is to provide good food and service. Don't accept less.
Arby's - Fort Lauderdale, FL 1999 Near Powerline and
Cypress Creek Road, the Arby's messed up my order and gave me
cold food. My brocolli and cheese potato and Beef and Cheddar
came out as a warm Beef and Cheddar and a cold sour cream potato.
No fork or knive. Of course, I didn't know this as I was in the
car until I was back at the office two blocks away. I couldn't
reach them by phone to complain. I tried their website and sent
off email. I still haven't heard back from them. Arby's is making
a big deal out of how they are a special restaurant and give you
what you deserve. Obviously, they don't read their own
advertising.
Burger King - Fort Lauderdale, FL 1999 Near Powerline
and Cypress Creek Road. I stopped in to get breakfast. First they
advertise the French Toast sticks and drink as a breakfast
special at $1.99. They give me the bill for $2.69. It seems
orange juice is not a breakfast drink. I called the manager with
the number on their receipt. No answer and after many attempts, I
gave up and went to their web page.
What a shock, Burger King has lots of window dressing but no 800
number and requests you do not call corporate. Call the store
manager, even though as in my case, there is no answer.
Bob Evans - almost anywhere 1997 - 2001. It seems like every Bob Evans I have been in has filthy bathrooms. While I have enjoyed the food, I can't help thinking about why no one cares enough to clean the bathrooms. In a BRAND NEW store in Ocala, FL, the bathroom was filthy three days after it opened.
Chic Fil A - Rt. 200, Ocala, FL 2002 Whille getting a sandwich here, the window lady dropped my change all over the ground. Instead of saying she was sorry, she said that there had been a lot of clumsy customers in that day. WAKE UP LADY, maybe you are the clumsy one! She didn't give me any replacement change. If I wanted it, I had to get it off the ground from under the car.
Denny's Restaurant - Rt. 40, Silver Springs, FL 2001 I don't even consider it anymore. The service has been so lousy, it makes Flapjacks look good. And this is after writing Denny's on their website. -- Update: We broke down and ate there again. A Denny's inspector was there, cleaning house. He was very interested to hear our comments. I guess it pays to complain after all. Service has improved.
Denny's Restaurant - in general. I really can't think of a Denny's I've had good service in. Most are slow, orders wrong, you lose your waitress and have to flag down another. And I have eaten in a lot of them.
FlapJacks - Palatine, IL. 1994 On the corner of Rand Road (US 12) and Dundee Road, this was incredibly bad service. Very slow, order not all brought out, had to ask for some of it several times. When the manager ask what was wrong, I told him. Instead of offering to pay for this meal or the next, he offered me a free small orange juice on my next visit.
McDonald's - Rand Road, Palatine, IL. 1995 If you like ordering your cereal dry and paying extra for milk on your cereal, this is the place.
McDonald's - I-24 and US62, near Kentucky Dam Village - June 2001 The restrooms would gag you and the counter service was like they didn't want you in their store.
McDonald's - Ocala, FL 2002 These McDonald's have run a special buying card called the McBreak Card since 1998. However, for the last 6 months or more, they have had their machines down.. They claim you will get all the points and discounts we are entitled to, but don't hold your breath. Why can't they just admit they have cancelled the program and we lost out?
Perkins - Rt. 200, Ocala, FL 2000-2001 Service here has been iffy at best. But the last time we went, the waitress lost the order, kept insisting the food was coming each time we asked her to check on it, and finally after 45 minutes admitted they didn't have the order in the kitchen. We were told we wouldn't be charged for the coffee we had waiting for the order that never came, and offered a single muffin to the group to make up for our inconvenience. This is as insulting as Flapjacks. Maybe Shannon from Shells need to stop here and teach a seminar.
Shells Casual Seafood - Rt 200, Ocala, FL. 1997-1998 Most of the Shells restaurants in Florida are well worth a trip in, but this one is slow service and we got sick. I found out many others have had the same experience with this one restaurant. 2001 Update - Service and the food has improved at this store. We eat there a lot now. See the Good Guy list.
Scrambles Cafe - Maricamp Road, Ocala, FL 2002 From their menu "Our Philosophy ..... Offer the most enjoyable daytime dining experience possible. ...". The last 6 times I have stopped in to pick up breakfast to go I have been treated rudely, having my order interrupted while they wait on someone else, and having the order wrong. It isn't any use talking to the manager, she is one of those that has treated us this way. My recommendation is to pass on this one. Run around the corner to SE 36th Ave. to the bistro on the end of the Winn Dixie plaza, which has much better service and friendlier people.
Father and Son - Orlando, FL. 1998 These guys took four hours to travel a one hour trip. They then charged this time and their lunch time so that they had overtime charges. They missed their estimated charges by 50%. Better Business Bureau has the complaint.
NEW! United Parcel Service - UPS 2002 Here is a joke. These guys are an official delivery service of NASCAR, a automotive racing organization.
But if you check their rates, you find they surcharge you $5 per tire to send a tire unless it is in a box. Now who boxes tires? They are usually sent bare or in a heavy plastic bag. The reason? Boxing a tire increases the size and weight, such that if you have combined tires they may exceed the allowable limits and not be able to go. Shame on you, UPS. No wonder we see all those tire trucks in the infield and no UPS trucks.
Ibico 1998 - We bought on of their office laminators in 1997. It has jammed several times and warranty work has been very poor. The first time they lost it and after fighting for over a month, they sent another to us, which we believed to be refurbished. When this one jammed, we could not get through on the warranty lines and the letters written to Ibico have been unanswered. However, see Ibico in the Good Guys section now.
Well, remember to call, call, and call. Here are some numbers to call places we all want to complain about sometimes. Store them in your cell phone.
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Updated 5/13/2002
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