I have finally sent out the letter, shown below.


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Poste Restante, Main GPO
Queen Street, Brisbane 4000

email: holdenshuttle@mail.com

26th June 2003

S Parker Mechanical Repairs
Kununurra

cc: Kununurra Tourist Information Bureau
Town Caravan Park
Ivanhoe Village Caravan Resort
Hidden Valley Holiday Park
Lakeside Resort Caravan Park
Nomad’s Big Boab Backpackers
Kununurra Backpackers
Desert Inn International Backpackers
Duncan House B&B
Kununurra Country Club Hotel
The Kimberley Echo (Editor)
The Broome Advertiser (Editor & Two Local Affairs Journalists)
The Lonely Planet Guide to Australia
The Rough Guide to Australia
www.gapyear.com


Dear Mr Parker

Recently I brought my Holden Shuttle to your workshop in Kununurra and asked you to diagnose and repair a loud whirring sound coming from the rear of the vehicle. I told you that the Holden dealership had already diagnosed the problem to be a worn differential bearing.

I explained that, as a traveller, I could not afford any work not related to the noise. I also told you that the van was my home and that I would not be able to leave it in your workshop overnight.

After a test-drive, you insisted “it ain’t the facking diff”. Instead, you told me that the noise was coming from the rear wheel bearings and the tailshaft universal joints. You charged me $73 for this alternative diagnosis.

Because of your confusion over public holidays and a “problem with the universal joints” you kept my van in your workshop overnight. No one apologised for this. Your wife, Sherie, threatened to increase the hourly labour rate if I complained.

After you had completed the work, for which you charged me a further $900, the loud whirring sound was still there. You said this wasn’t your fault and you didn’t offer me an apology. I was shocked by the aggressive way in which you and Sherie spoke to me.

The new universal joints fell out and the tailshaft dropped off my van 40km later. I was stranded for more than two hours before a passing motorist was kind enough to stop and tow me back to Kununurra.

I came straight to your workshop to let you know what had happened. It was 2pm on a Sunday afternoon. You sent your son out to tell me that you were still asleep. When I telephoned back at 4pm, someone hung up on me.

I took my van to an independent mechanic and he showed me what you had done. You had ordered the wrong universal joints, then enlarged the holes in the tailshaft with a grinder and attempted to weld the universal joints in place. The holes you made were too big, not round and not central. The independent mechanic said that you had left my vehicle in a dangerous and unroadworthy condition. He described your work as “irresponsible” and “totally incompetent”.

You had damaged the original tailshaft beyond repair and I had to buy a replacement. Understandably, I had this fitted elsewhere.

When I came to see you to ask for a refund you told me to piss off. I said I would make a claim for the money through the courts. Sherie threatened to bill me retrospectively for a higher labour rate if I did so. Unfortunately, the court procedures are too lengthy for travellers (or “facking tourists” as you described them) to pursue. Perhaps you should remember that Kununurra has a thriving tourist industry and that much of your work comes from people like me. Your appalling behaviour reflects on the town and community.

I am extremely unhappy with the service you provided. I am therefore writing this letter in the hope that other travellers will be able to avoid the poor treatment that I received. I will continue to send these letters until I receive a response from you.

(clop)

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So far I have received two replies to emailed copies - one from the editor of the Kimberley Echo who is contemplating publishing the story as part of an expose, and another from the editor of www.gapyear.com who is going to discuss the situation with the directors of the website.


Yesterday, clip and I and David och Anna hired a 4.35m boat with a 30hp outboard engine, just about launched it at 8am from the boat ramp near Mindil Beach, then spent nine hours zipping across the tropical surf in Darwin Bay and cruising along narrow steamy mangrove-lined inlets. We anchored over some sandy reefs and fished for pink and yellow reef fish. We saw a sea turtle and some long green fishes that ran across the surface of the water using their tail fins as legs. We saw a big Saltwater Crocodile basking on a beach in the sunshine and a crocodile trap baited with a whole chicken. We decided not to go swimming in the sea, not just because of the risk of a crocodile or shark attack, but because of the very real possibility of encountering a member of the Chironex Fleckeri species - also known as the Box Jellyfish, Sea Wasp, or Stinger.

Box Jellyfish are found all around the north Australian coastline, most commonly from October to May but there have been serious stings reported in all months of the year. Symptoms include 'immediate and increasing savage pain'. During 'Stinger Season' you are advised to stay out of the water. From June to September you are advised to 'take care'.

Signs on beaches explain the emergency treatment necessary to save someone's life after they have been stung:

Minor Sting

1) Douse tentacles liberally with vinegar
2) Use ice packs for pain

Major Sting

1) Retrieve victim from water
2) Begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation
3) Transport to hospital

Don't they sound delightful.

Posted by clip

I'm back! It's very odd being back. My head is all over the place at the minute, it's very confusing and it is affecting my emotions. No surprise there then. It's nice being back with clop, although it's taking him a while to get used to having 24/7 company again. We'll sort it out eventually... I hope. I am missing my Grandma a lot though... I used to text her and my Grandpa every few days before I went home. And now it's just not the same. My Grandpa however is now on email! Bless him, he gave me his email address and told me he isn't just a pretty face, so now I'll be able to email him instead, which will be great and less upsetting for me.

I collected clip from Darwin airport on Friday at 4:45am. I gave her a hug and asked if she was pleased to be back. There was a pause, then she said "a little bit" and started crying.

We spent a lazy day in Darwin, shopping (after one hundred and fifty consecutive days of wear, my original shorts are falling apart, so I've bought myself a pair of eye-wateringly-short stiff blue 'untearable' Australian work shorts) and going to the cinema (Matrix: Reloaded - not bad at all). Then we got straight back into the swing of things by driving into the middle of Litchfield National Park and spending a couple of nights at a campsite with no lights, no running water, and composting pit toilets. Each morning, as a substitute to showering, we went for a swim in the deserted crystal clear waters of Buley Rockholes. In the evenings we were inundated with tropical birds, including some fairly rare blue Northern Rosellas and some Blue-winged Kookaburras which nibbled the handle of our washing-up brush.

We saw a field of Magnetic Termite mounds (these termites cleverly align their narrow mounds with the solar meridian for effective temperature regulation), Tolmer Falls, Tabletop Swamp, Wangi Falls (where we saw a black snake with a red nose), Florence Falls and the Lost City (a cluster of curiously-weathered sandstone formations resembling the ruins of an ancient civilisation at the end of a 4WD-only cul-de-sac that we hitchhiked along with Ingo and Dani).

We spent a couple of nights at Tumbling Waters campsite near Berry Springs. The facilities were pretty basic but we saw lots of freshwater crocodiles and wallabies in the grounds, and a bandicoot! We visited the Territory Wildlife Park and marvelled at the animals of the Top End. One good thing about Australia is that you only have to drive for a few hours and the wildlife changes completely - different birds, different mammals, different reptiles. I was particularly taken with the hypervenomous Mulga Snake, also known as the King Brown Snake; it was a monster brown version of my gentle little Satan - rippling with muscle, no neck, and twitchy beyond belief. clip hated it.

Now we are back in Darwin doing some stuff and waiting for the Swedes to catch up with us before we venture east into Kakadu National Park. Once there, we plan to take the Yellow River Crocodile Tour and let clip experience the bowel-emptying horrors of close-proximity Saltwater Crocodiles from what might as well be a rowing boat.

I earned $350 doing the internet cafe.

The Canadian backpacker dropped out so I gave a Keswickian lad called Jason a lift instead. It halved the petrol cost and gave me some company on the way. Bertha managed the trip with no problems at all. We spent a night in Katherine, (re)walked the Nitmiluk Leliyn Loop in the morning, then made our way up to Darwin in the afternoon. The temperature increased steadily as we got closer to Darwin. It seems much hotter here than it was a month ago. It's almost impossible to be outside in direct sunlight for more than a few minutes. It's like being in a tumble drier where the clothes have already been left in too long.

After some severe last-minute nerves, clip successfully managed to board her plane in Manchester yesterday; she will arrive at Darwin Airport twelve hours from now. She'll have nine hour jetlag - I'm hoping this means she'll be asleep all day, and awake all night, for the next few days :o)

Yesterday, a local took David, Anna and me in a 4WD along a 100km dirt track to go fishing in the Keep River. As we arrived, a huge saltwater crocodile slithered down the bank and disappeared under the water. A while later, at dusk, we heard it killing a cow on the opposite bank. Then an hour of it eating the cow. Chomp chomp chomp.

I went to the courthouse again this morning. Even though I dropped the summons there last Wednesday dinnertime, for some infuriating reason it was not served until Monday afternoon. So the ten days are not up until Thursday this week. If Mr Parker hasn't paid by then, I will have to pay more money and wait for a Judgement Summons to be served. The subsequent court hearing could be up to eight weeks away. I can't afford to come back to Kununurra for a court hearing and I don't want my adventure disrupted any more, so I have no choice but to let the money go. Don't worry - I have another plan to stuff Steve Parker.

clip arrives back in Darwin this Friday. I am setting off to collect her on Wednesday morning (it's almost 1000km to Darwin from here). I'm giving a Canadian backpacker a lift for some company along the way.

I'm still busy setting up the new internet cafe.

I've been to the courthouse to check on the progress of the summons. The lady who works there thinks the summons was served towards the end of last week but the bailiff (who also happens to be the senior sergeant of the local police force) has been on holiday this week and he didn't give her a certificate of delivery before the weekend. I went back the day he returned to work but nobody knew where he was. Everyone jokes that WA stands for Wait Awhile. I've still heard nothing from Steve Parker.

Meanwhile, I've been busy single-handedly cabling a new internet cafe. I'm unpacking and connecting all the computers up tomorrow. My boss happens to be a Justice of the Peace in Kununurra (I now know three of them). He's going to have a quiet word with the town's magistrate for me :o)

Bertha came back from the Holden dealership this week. The replacement tailshaft cost $209 plus fitting. They also replaced the worn differential bearings and the whirring noise has completely gone.

Last night I went out drinking in Kununurra with a local. There are only three 'pubs' here - we went to two of them. The first one, the Sports Club, was strictly members and guests only; it was really just a betting shop with a bar in it. The second one, the Tavern, was full of drunk backpackers. I seem to have developed an aversion to talking to my fellow countrymen - recently they've all been hyperactive outspoken racist prigs.

A month is a long time to be without a girlfriend.

If you know what I mean.

El Questro was great. We tramped up Emma Gorge and went paddling in the plunge pool at the top.

I am constantly fed up now. It doesn't seem to wear off anymore.

And just like that I've been offered a job for a few days this week, helping to move some business furniture to a new building. Cash in hand. No tax. I won't earn much but at least it's something for me to do.

Then a local invited me to spend the day in El Questro (a brilliant local National Park that you need a 4WD to get into) with his family.

Clearly, not everyone in Kununurra is like Steve Parker.

I've now been in Kununurra, a town much smaller then Yeadon, for three weeks. I have exhausted Kununurra's "tourist opportunities" several times over. It's got to the point where even the loose groups of paralytic Aborigines scattered around the town's pavements and grassy spaces recognise me and say hello.

The Swedes are at work all day every day. I have nothing to do. I haven't been this fed up and lonely since I set off.

Hehehehe...

There is an amusing (and to some people round here, I dare say rather worrying) Urgent Product Recall at the local supermarket for their "Four Seasons Glow In The Dark Condoms (8 Pack)".

Maybe they don't glow.

The Holden people have found a second-hand tailshaft in good condition in Perth for just $250. It's on its way to Kununurra. Bertha should be fixed early next week.

clip has somehow managed to change her flight to the 18th June without having to pay any more money.

Things are looking up a bit.

This morning I went to see Steve Parker to ask him to pay back $400. He told me to piss off.

I have therefore lodged a claim through the Small Disputes Division of Kununurra District Courthouse. Mr Parker will be summonsed to appear in court in ten days time. The forms took a long time to fill in. Here is my "Particulars of Claim" statement:

"I took my vehicle (a Holden Shuttle 1BDP 837) to Mr Parker for some mechanical repairs. He told me that the tailshaft uni-joints were worn and needed to be replaced. He ordered the wrong uni-joints and tried to fit them to my vehicle by enlarging the holes in the tailshaft and welding the uni-joints in place. The new uni-joints and tailshaft fell off my vehicle 40km later. An independent Holden mechanic has now told me that the tailshaft on my vehicle is of an unserviceable design and that the replacement of the uni-joints should never have been attempted. I am now forced to replace the entire tailshaft assembly. I am claiming the cost of the wrong uni-joints that Mr Parker ordered (and ruined) (2x$62.70) plus the cost of the four hours labour that he charged me for the work on the tailshaft (4x$68.97). The quality of Mr Parker's work was so poor that I had the further repairs undertaken elsewhere."

The Complaint Lodgement Fee ($44.20), Bailiff's Service Fee ($17.25) and the Bailiff's Travelling Expenses Fee ($2), which I have had to pay up front, get added to the amount I am claiming from him. I am therefore claiming a total of $464.73.

At least a dozen locals are following the progress of my claim with great interest.

Further entry below...

I spent the afternoon fishing on the Ord River and went back to the Holden dealership for an update at 4pm. Apparently there have been three different tailshafts for the Holden Shuttles but nobody knows which one Bertha needs. Her tailshaft is being reassembled on a bench in the workshop and measured so that we can find out which tailshaft to get. Only two of the three are in stock - guess which one we're sure to need. The mechanic dealing with me, John, seems to be a polite knowledgable intelligent person, very similar to Sam from the Mobil garage in Melbourne

clip has tried to change her flight to next Wednesday but there is no availability with her ticket until at least July. We can recoup the cancellation fee through our travel insurance but she would have to buy another, more expensive ticket to fly here in June.

Things do not seem to be going well for either of us at the moment.

The Holden dealership have completed their examination of Bertha's tailshaft. It turns out that the uni-joints on our 1985 model Holden Shuttle cannot be replaced by a mechanic. The tailshaft was designed to be unserviceable. The only way to replace the uni-joints is to remove the tailshaft and send it away to be reconditioned.

Steve Parker obviously didn't know this because he ordered uni-joints intended for the 1986- model Shuttle, which has a serviceable tailshaft. When he'd (somehow) removed the old uni-joints he must have realised he'd made a mistake and tried to cover it up. He ground the yoke holes bigger to make the new uni-joints fit. The Holden people say that the tolerance around these holes is two thousandths of an inch but the holes he ground are so big that you can actually wiggle the uni-joints in them. Then he spot-welded (badly) around the uni-joint caps to try and keep them in place.

The entire tailshaft is now well and truly stuffed. The Holden people don't think that the 1986- Shuttle (serviceable) tailshaft can be fitted to the 1985 Shuttle. If it can't, we will need to either find a good secondhand 1985 tailshaft from somewhere, or send my tailshaft away to have the ends chopped off and replaced with good yokes again. What a disaster.

Further entry below...

Sadly, clip's grandma died on Sunday evening. clip is therefore staying in England for a while.

Bertha is being examined by the Holden dealership. They were shocked that Steve Parker simply ground the holes in the tailshaft bigger to accommodate the uni-joints he had ordered. They weren't shocked that the uni-joints subsequently fell out.

Before I go to see him I am trying to establish my rights. I have spoken to the Ministry of Fair Trading, the Motor Association of Western Australia, and I've been to Kununurra Courthouse for legal forms and information on initiating a claim through a Small Claims Tribunal. I hope I won't need any of this. In the first instance I am going to ask him to return the cost of the uni-joints and the labour he charged me for fitting them. It remains to be seen whether the shafts fore and aft of the tailshaft were damaged when the uni-joints came out.

Further entry below...

I haven't posted the letters yet.

The Swedish couples had spotted some crocodiles down at the river so, after sunset, we took some beer and went "crocodile hunting". This is probably a bit of an exaggeration. Basically, our "crocodile hunting" consisted of Edde repeatedly lobbing a large plastic bottle of pebbles as far across the river as he could and then jerking it back with a piece of string, attempting to emulate the nervous splish splash of a small vulnerable animal, whilst David used a torch to watch for crocodiles sneaking up the riverbank around us, and I captured the 'action' on film and tried to keep my footing on the rocks in the dark. For some reason the crocodiles (assuming there were even any there) consistently failed to mistake the large plastic pebble-filled bottle for a wallaby.

On Sunday morning I started the long journey back to Darwin to meet clip. Forty kilometres out of Kununurra the new uni-joints fell out and the tailshaft dropped off. I was stranded for two hours before someone was kind enough to stop and tow me back to Kununurra.

I went to see Steve Parker at 1pm. He sent his son out to tell me (through their tall padlocked fence) that he was still asleep and that I should come back on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday). I said I would telephone him at 3pm instead. When I did they hung up on me. It's at times like this that I wish I had Bill here with me. I've spoken to many other people, all locals, who have been ripped off by Mr Parker. We are now taking advice from the Ministry of Fair Trading.

Whatever happens, I won't be able to reach Darwin in time to meet clip on Friday. In addition, her grandma has been taken seriously ill and she'd like to stay longer. She is going to postpone her flight.