GREENSBORO, N.C. — When you’ve been to five continents and more than 30 states, I think you can be considered world travelers? Joe and Sandra Wood aren’t ones to sit still for too long. The couple is either traveling or planning for their next adventure, “We love it,” said Sandra Wood.
The next big trip for the couple appears to be Australia, “We’ve always wanted to go,” said Joe Wood. That trip still in the planning stages while their recent visit to New Hampshire is in the rear-view mirror, “We went up for Sandy’s 50-year high school reunion,” said Joe Wood.
The trip was great but getting there was a bit after their GPS was apparently stolen out of their SUV. Joe had just finished updating it and putting in the route when he took the SUV in to get new tires. The next day the couple was preparing to leave when Joe noticed the GPS was missing from the middle console, “It was right here when I took it to the shop,” said Joe Wood.
The couple had to navigate the long trip from Greensboro to New Hampshire with their GPS, “We did best could do,” said Joe Wood. “It would have been easier with my GPS.”
Joe reached out to the tire shop before leaving to explain the situation and again called when they returned from the reunion, “I told him the GPS was missing from the vehicle and it had not been anywhere else. We want to get their help locating it and find out whole stole it,” said Joe Wood.
The manager at the store told Joe and Sandra he would investigate it and told them they have cameras to watch employees, I said we need to take care of this, and he had that I don’t care attitude,” said Joe Wood.
The couple waited several days for a call back that never came, “They brushed us off,” said Sandra Wood. After a couple more days Joe decided to do something about it.
A longtime viewer of News 2 and 2 Wants to Know Joe and Sandra were very familiar with how to handle situations like this. Joe crafted a letter explaining the situation and mailed the certified letter to the corporate office, “We had the tracking number, so we knew when it arrived,” said Joe Wood.
In cases like this when sending a letter or a complaint it’s always best to send it certified so there’s a receipt of arrival, About three days after (we sent it) the phone rang and (the corporate office) wanted to find out more about what happened,” said Joe Wood.
The local manager at the tire shop in Greensboro reached out to Joe and Sandra a couple days later and had them come into the store. The manager would not say what they discovered in the investigation but he did want to help them, “His words were you came to us for service and we did not do right by you, well now we will do right by you,” said Joe Wood.
The manager would not say if someone did steal the GPS from the SUV, but he did offer to replace it with a new one, “I’m satisfied they replaced the product,” said Joe Wood.
In most of our cases our volunteers will spend lots of time talking with both parties in hopes of coming up with a resolution. In this situation Joe and Sandra had it figured out and solved before we even got involved, “We watch 2 Wants to Know all the time, we pick up tips and tidbits so we know who to contact, thank you so much for that,” said Joe Wood.
The couple picked out a new GPS and since Sandra bought it for Joe as a gift last time the manager of the store had Sandra give it to Joe, “It meant a lot that I go to give it to him,” said Sandra Wood.
The GPS has been used a few times since on short trips to a store or whatever, but it won’t get a lot of use real soon, remember the next big trip is Australia and they won’t be needing it for that.