Laughter Is the Best Medicine

Hi, this is Marsha, the receptionist at Wareing Sturgis Ford. I’ve been a receptionist here for a year, and this is my first year working in a car dealership. My learning curve has been a little like Needles Highway and, since laughter is the best medicine, I thought I would share a few of my speed bumps.

Part of my job is taking pictures of our new and used vehicles. Once a vehicle has been delivered or traded in, it goes through a delivery inspection by our Service Department. After it passes inspection, it heads to our Detail Department. Once it’s clean and ready, it goes out on the lot, and that’s when I take all the pictures for our website.

For me, this task has been the most educational by far—and full of speed bumps.

The first time I hopped into an F-150 Lightning, I pressed the brake pedal and then the start button.

Nothing happened.

I repeated those steps, and still nothing happened. I think I did it a third time before a sales consultant standing nearby said, “It’s electric. You’re turning it off and on.”

He came over and explained that there is no engine sound when the Lightning is running. The driver simply sees a Ready indication on the instrument panel.

My external response was, “Thank you.”

My internal response was, “Now go away.”

From that point on, everything electric was fine until I hopped into a Ford Maverick last week.

I needed to take pictures of the instrument panel. I pressed the brake, pushed the start button, and nothing happened. Of course, I looked for the Ready indicator where I had seen it before, but instead I found the fuel gauge. I knew it wasn’t electric, so I told the sales manager the battery was too weak to start the Maverick.

Then Jaclyn, one of our sales consultants, marched me right back out into the parking lot and introduced me to the Ford Maverick Hybrid.

The battery was just fine.

On another occasion, I was taking pictures of a Super Duty. By then I was very familiar with the infotainment touchscreen. I take pictures of the navigation display, connected device display, rear camera display, comfort controls, and radio display.

When I started this truck, the radio was blasting!

I immediately went to the radio screen and searched everywhere for the volume control. One of our sales consultants, Reynold, came over and I asked, “How do I turn the volume down?”

He simply reached in and slowly rotated the volume knob to the left.

My external response was, “Thank you.”

My internal response was, “Now go away.”

One day I was safely inside, just minding my desk, when Tim, my boss, walked up and asked, “Have you taken pictures of the Expedition Tremor parked in the ‘on point’ position at the entrance?”

I was proud to say, “Yes, and they are all uploaded.”

Then he said, “Well, the UPS driver just let him know the sunroof is wide open.”

Oops.

Speaking of oops…

On a couple of occasions—seriously, just two—I uploaded pictures of a vehicle to the wrong vehicle number. Now, the sales consultants around here seem to have issues with that. They’ll say things like, “Marsha, that vehicle doesn’t have four doors,” or, “Marsha, that pickup is a dually.”

They really are so picky.

So there you have it. Laughter—especially at yourself—is the best medicine, and there’s plenty of laughter around here.

Thanks for reading, and stop by for a dose anytime.

— Marsha