It's Wednesday July 3rd, and you're on your inaugural trip to Crater Lake NP, driving 270 miles…read morefrom Portland to Medford for the long July 4th weekend. Your wife is in the truck with you, you're towing your camper, and your daughter has taken a break from her Pacific Crest Trail hike to join you for the weekend.
Then the fuel pump in your 94 Chevy pickup decides to crap out on you, with 230 miles left to go to Medford. The situation is looking grim, but somehow you nurse the truck through the mountain passes all the way to Medford, as your wife tries to find a rental vehicle to replace your dying truck for the weekend.
You barely limp into Medford, set up camp in the Winco parking lot, and finalize the details of the Uhaul box truck you're picking up the next morning to continue your Crater Lake adventure.
Next morning, you barely manage to coax your truck the 2 miles from Winco to Uhaul, and park across the street. You pick up your box truck, head back to "Lake Winco," hook up your camper, and resume your adventure. But you've still got a dead truck to deal with, parked on a public street near the Uhaul...
So you start searching the web for a mechanic to diagnose and repair your truck. You choose Ken Scales Automotive because they have good Yelp reviews and seem like qualified, experienced mechanics.
I'm telling you, you have made the right choice. Why? Because:
1) Ken Scales is open on Friday July 5th, so they can take your calls;
2) Ben, the unsuspecting mechanic who is assigned to fix your truck, has a heart of gold, and agrees to GO TO UHAUL, FIND YOUR SPARE KEYS HIDDEN IN THE TRUCK, AND NURSE THE DAMN THING BACK TO THE SHOP FOR DIAGNOSIS AND REPAIR, while you're busy adventuring around Crater Lake, in and out of cell service.
3) The shop leaves messages for you on your phone describing the fuel pump failure and estimated cost of repair, so you can decide what to do; and,
4) When you approve the repairs, Ken Scales Automotive gets the necessary parts and completes the repairs by Monday July 8th at 11 a.m., so you can use your truck to get yourself and your camper safely back to Portlandia.
Bottom line: if you're looking for experienced, highly skilled mechanics with an outstanding customer service ethic, you can't do better than Ken Scales Automotive in Medford.
They salvaged our Crater Lake weekend and got my truck humming again so I could get home safely.
Sincere thanks to Ken Scales, especially Ben and shop manager Mike, maestro of customer communications. You guys pulled my butt out of the fire and made it possible for us to thoroughly enjoy our first-ever visit to Crater Lake.
We'll be back, and I know exactly who to call if I have any mechanical problems.