A few weeks ago, I wrote about a Milwaukee area woman named Makayla Starks. Starks had taken her car to a dealership for an oil change but when she got her car back, she found that the mechanic had written the n-word on the oil change sticker and that some safety device controls on her steering console had been damaged. To make matters worse, the dealership did not handle the situation as well as they could have by trying to cover it up.
But then life once again proved that not all heroes wear capes.
The story reached all the way to Family Nissan in Inwood, New York. There, things escalated quickly, but in a good way:
“The team here got kind of fired up to add more support and add more voice to her voice and to her narrative and to push her message forward that this should’ve never happened,” he said.
At a Saturday morning meeting, a manager brought up the story and an idea to gift Starks a car formed, which Rizk said "erupted the whole meeting."
It wasn’t about processes or sales numbers; he said it was about doing what was right.
“We did it together as a family, you know, Family Nissan,” Rizk said.
The dealership decided to give Starks a brand new Nissan Leaf, an electric car with a $38,000 MSRP, according to Rizk. The idea of an electric car was so Starks didn’t need to get oil changes anymore.
But that's not all. Someone at the dealership learned that Starks was an author and self-published a book last year. They took it upon themselves to buy several copies of her book, and when Starks arrived to get her car, it turned into a book signing event.
Now, the cynical person might think that the dealership did it just for the PR. I'll admit that that might have played a role in the course of events.
But, I chose to prefer to believe that sometimes good people can make good things happen for other good people. Especially in these days, most of us need to believe that, and whenever possible, be part of making those good things happen. As a dear friend of mine has taught me, you gotta look for the happy in the crappy.
