Last week I was in Albuquerque and I sold my yellow sedan. Part of the sales agreement was to replace the A/C evaporator (in an apartment complex parking lot, that's another story). Anyway, I went to the local stealer to get the seals which they did not have. They offered to get them to me in 2 days for a $65 fee ( WTF??? ), NO THANKS!!! They actually sent me to this independent Volvo shop to check to see if they had the part. Thought that was a little strange. Maybe they did it because they knew I was passing through.

So, I needed the part the next day so I remembered reading a post from a Volvo stealer in Pheonix AZ. I called them and they said they were shipping the part and I would have the seals the next day. They claimed the seals were part of a kit which I argued they were not but they insisted. I went forward with the order, $33.74 kit, $3.14 kit (why tax an out of state order?), plus $32.00 shipping, $68.88 damage. Whatever, I need the seals.

So I decided to swing by this independent Volvo shop and check them out and wow this place was awsome. First of all, I have never seen so many different Volvo's in one place, ever. The 1st thing I seen was a 1800 ES that was restored, nice. Then I went into the parts area and that guy was very nice. Seemed like I knew him 15 years. The parts guy sent me to the front office to check out and the people in there were friendly as well. I told them what I was about to do and they offered to "bail me out" if I needed their help. It was actually more like, "we'll see you tomorrow for use to finish your job" but it was not a bad tone at all, very friendly offer.

The next morning I took my car there to have the freon vaced and preped for me to do the evaporator. They knew the system was leaking but they still confessed that the system was FULL and they would give me full credit on the recharge. Didn't even ask me to fill out any paperwork. A couple of days later I went to get my freon back and I was a little low on coolant (I didn't mention it to them). Well, they serviced my A/C, topped off the coolant and had me out of there pretty quick. I was such a pleasant experience that I got one of their work t-shirts. I also purchased some OEM parts from them while I was there. The crazy thing about it was while there the local stealer sent someone to the independent shop to pick up some parts. It's a shame when the local inde shop does a better job stocking parts than the local stealer.

Well, I got the parts from AZ the next day and when I went to install the seals they were heater core seals instead of A/C evaporator seals. Probably don't need to go into how pissed off I was about that. I'm still waiting for my refund.

The local independent shop is called IVS. They service Volvo's, Audi's, VW's and a few others.