MARYVILLE — Mitch Brakebill, 58, manager of Pate’s Tire & Alignment on Lamar Alexander Parkway, has been trying for four school years to take down the Back-to-School Special banner over the service bays.
The banner is ten-foot vinyl, red letters on white, and it carries a lifetime warranty against fading and tearing, which Brakebill did not read until the first one went pink in January. He sent it back figuring the company would refund the shop. What came back was the same banner, new, with a bag of zip ties and a note thanking him for his business.
“I wasn’t trying to be difficult with them,” Brakebill said. “You have to send a picture, so I laid it out by the Coke machine and took one, and the new one was on the dock that Thursday. I called and told the lady school started in August, and she was real nice about it.”
The last box came with a second note, saying his feedback had been logged, and another bag of zip ties.
Brakebill honors the price all year. “There’s a woman comes in every March, a Tuesday usually, and she looks up and asks is the special still on, and it is, it’s on the banner, so what am I going to say, she’s already pulled in.”
The old banners are rolled up behind the used-oil drums, three of them, each with its note stapled on. The special is $49.95 for an alignment on a car or light truck.