Her car was totaled in an oil change

Alice White hasn't had the use of her once-reliable 1994 Buick Century Custom since Jan. 22, when she dropped it off in the morning at Expert Tire on Truman Street in New London.

She asked them to change the oil and check for the source of a small oil leak.

Not too much later she got a call from the tire shop, saying the car wouldn't be ready at noon after all, but they would get her a rental car.

It wasn't until White went down to get some things out of the car that she discovered it was a wreck, the door on the driver's side crushed in.

It turns out, they finally told her, the car fell of the lift, because the right piston supporting one side of the car got stuck, while the lift's left piston kept going down, letting the car slide off.

And so began White's descent into what might best be described as consumer hell.

Expert Tire, part of the national retail chain owned by the Japanese tire giant Bridgestone Corp., the world's largest tire manufacturer, has so far offered White only $1,100 for the loss of the Century.

They did give her a rental car, but earlier this week they told her to return it, presumably because she has refused to give up the title to her car, accept the $1,100 and go away.

I first heard about White's problem a few days after the incident happened, and I honestly thought they were going to eventually do right by her, especially when things started going up the corporate chain of command.

When I first spoke to the Expert manager in New London about White's predicament, he said he told White she should accept the $1,100 offer because it might be better than what she would be offered if the matter went through the company's claims department.

The manager declined to spell his name for me, though, and quickly got off the phone.

The next call I got on the matter was from someone in public relations with Bridgestone Retail Operations in Illinois, who promised to get back to me.

I then got a three-paragraph statement by e-mail saying that the claims department would have an independent appraiser inspect the vehicle.

Bridgestone, the statement went on to say, values the loyalty of its customers. White, who is 58, has actually been a customer for 15 years.

"Our brand promise is a 'promise to care,'" the statement from Bridgestone finished up.

In the end, after the appraiser examined the wrecked Buick, the company never raised its offer beyond $1,100.

White eventually hired a lawyer, and she told me Thursday he told her to tell the company to fix her car. He also told her to keep the rental. It looks like they're heading toward court.

White admitted her old cranberry-colored Century was not in perfect shape and also had some existing body damage.

But she says she maintained it, and it ran well and got her reliably back and forth from her home in New London to East Lyme, where she has one full-time and one part-time job working in school kitchens.

There's no way she can replace the Buick for $1,100 she told me.

"What am I going to get for that, a bicycle?" she said.

She did have a co-worker tell her about someone selling a 2003 Century for $3,900, when the incident first occurred, but the local Expert manager told her that was much more than they would pay.

As for the Bridgestone brand promise to care, White said she doesn't think they care about her at all, not how she is going to replace her car, not about how she is going to get back and forth to work, not how all of this has caused so much stress.

I looked around at some price guides and found that a 1994 high-mileage Buck Century in excellent condition might retail for $2,200. Granted, the condition of White's car was probably not excellent, but it shows that valuing the car is still as much art as science

More important, it seems White is due more consideration than the strict value of the wrecked Century, at least enough to replace it with something comparable.

The car wasn't totaled in a random accident. She turned it over to them, and they accepted the keys and responsibility.

If the folks at Bridgestone really cared about their brand image of caring, you would think they would try to care a little more about their customers, especially when they wreck their cars.

This is the opinion of David Collins.