When my children were small, we were living in North Charleston. My husband was pastoring a church and of course, we had very little money. I will never understand why some churches expect their pastors to live on starvation rations. I actually heard someone once say that pastors should be doing the Lord’s work for nothing. If their true calling was to Jesus, money shouldn’t be important. My answer to that was always, “Well why don’t you try it.”
At that time, we desperately needed another car. Our old one was leaking oil like a sieve, and we had to have something fast. It would be cheaper to finance a used car than to try to have the old one repaired. That’s when my husband noticed in the newspaper an advertisement. The ad was for a local car dealership that stated that their used cars were in such good condition that they could guarantee satisfaction for one full year of the life of the used car, and if not satisfied, the buyer could come and get another car of equal or same value at no extra charge. It was almost too good to be true.
So the next day we set out to go to the used car lot of this major auto dealer to talk business. We found a good car and my husband showed the salesman the advertisement he had cut out of paper. The salesman agreed that was the deal and handed us a certificate stating what was in the advertisement. We purchased the car and drove it off the lot.
Almost one full year later the car started acting up. We began having mechanical problems. My husband quickly went through the desk drawer, found the advertisement and certificate guaranteeing us another vehicle, and off he went to the dealership. But when he got there the salesman was no longer working there, so we had to speak with another salesman. He said he knew nothing about the advertisement, and he would have to talk to his boss. The manager came out and said that was a deal we had made with the old salesman who was no longer there; therefore, they refused to honor the certificate.
My husband was furious. He contacted the owner of the company who also refused to honor the certificate. Frustrated, my husband began wondering who he could turn to for help. That’s when he discovered the joy of the media.
A new segment had recently begun on a Charleston television station in which a television personality would try to right the wrongs done to consumers throughout the low country. She reported on cases where companies would not follow through with promises or where people were cheated. She would investigate, air the story, and then give the companies and their spokesman a chance to make things right.
And that’s when I unhappily found myself on TV.
My husband had contacted the television station, told them our story, shown the evidence of the cut out advertisement and certificate, and explained our situation. The newscaster was very excited and immediately interviewed him about what had happened.
Two days later, we get a call from the station that told us to go to the dealership. Thinking that everything was already fixed, and in place, instead we found ourselves standing there on the pavement at the dealership facing several salespeople, the manager, and the owner of the company. The newscaster looked at the camera and explained our situation, then she stuck the camera in my husband’s face and asked him how he felt about the company not honoring the certificate. Of course, he said he was not happy that the dealership was cheating him and that it wasn’t right.
Next she stuck the microphone in the face of the owner of the company and asked him what he was going to do about it. Was he going to leave things just as they were with us being cheated and the entire low country knowing about it or was he going to make things right.
That’s when he said he was certainly going to make things right and that he had misunderstood the entire situation.
I snickered over to the side which drew the attention of the TV personality who immediately stuck the microphone in my face and asked me how I felt about getting a better car and the dealer making things right for us. I was horrified to be on camera but forced myself to be gracious and say I thought it was just wonderful, that we really appreciated it, and were grateful for the station’s help with the entire situation. And that’s when my baby, my youngest son, reached out and grabbed the microphone and took a huge bite out of the foam covering the metal microphone.
Mortified, I pulled back and tried to yank my baby away from the microphone, but at 18 months old, he had a tight grip on it, and the poor reporter was also trying to yank it back her way. There was an on the air tug of war between my baby and the journalist. I managed to pry my baby’s hands off the microphone which then shot back and hit the journalist in the head with a loud “clunk”. If I had not wanted to crawl in a hole before, I certainly did then.
But in the end, we got another car and the situation was settled.
But people at the church certainly had a few things to say, and none of it was complimentary. And that’s when I said, “Well, it would have been nice to not have to resort to those tactics to get a car, but if you expect the pastor to visit you all in the hospital and in your homes, he has to have a car, and that’s the only way we could get one.”
No one said anything after that, and we enjoyed our car for a few more years.
But I often wonder if the journalist still has a knot on her head.
