complaint

General Motors' Pontiac division received a complaint from a customer with the following content: “This is the second time I've written to you and I have no complaints that you didn't respond the first time, because it's stupid in my opinion too!”

 Anyway, the thing is, according to an old custom, our family has a habit of eating ice cream as dessert every night after dinner.  For many years, we vote after dinner, and based on the majority of votes, the type of ice cream is selected and purchased.  I must also say that I just bought a new Chevrolet Pontiac car and with the purchase of this car, going to the store to get ice cream has become a problem.

  Please be careful!  Every time to buy vanilla ice cream…

 I go to the store and return to the car, the car will not start.  But any other ice cream I buy, I will not have such a problem.  Please understand that this issue is very serious and troubling for me and I never intend to joke with you.  I want to ask how come my Pontiac won't start when I buy vanilla ice cream, but every other ice cream I buy, it starts easily?

 The manager of the company was suspicious of the strange letter he received, but out of duty and commitment, he assigned an engineer to investigate the problem.  The expert engineer of the company made a date with the customer after dinner, the two of them went to the ice cream shop together, that night it was the turn of vanilla ice cream.  After buying the ice cream, the car did not start as described in the letter!  The young and curious engineer went to the store with the car owner 3 nights in a row.  One night it was time for chocolate ice cream, the car started.  The next night, strawberry ice cream, and the car started easily.  But on the third night, it was the turn of vanilla ice cream again, the car did not turn on again!

  Instead of trying to figure out why the car is allergic to vanilla ice cream, the company representative tried to deal with the issue logically and thoughtfully.  He recorded his technical observations from the moment of leaving the customer's house to buying ice cream and returning to the car and starting for all kinds of ice cream.  This observation and recording of events and their duration showed him an interesting point: vanilla ice cream is popular and best-selling and is arranged on the shelves near the door of the shop, but other ice creams are placed inside the shop and further away from the door.  So, the time from getting out of the car to buying ice cream and returning and starting for vanilla ice cream is less than other ice creams.  This period of time guided the engineer to the scientific analysis of the issue and he found a phenomenon called Lock Vapor that causes this problem.  Starting the car too soon after shutting down, due to steam condensation in the engine and pistons, was the main problem for Pontiac and the customer.