Jiffy Lube Scamming

MacLeod

http://www.nbc4.tv/video/9152183/detail.html

Makes ya wonder.

dorokusai

Jiffy Lube has always been THE toilet for regular maintenance...nothing new here.

MacLeod

When I lived in Texas a couple years ago they had a similar scam with Just Brakes. They advertised 4 wheel brake job for $100.

In came Dateline or some such show and ripped em a new one.

shack

I wouldn't let Jiffy Lube put air in my tires. My wife went there once, and they practically wanted to rebuild a 8 month old car. When she requested that they "only" do the oil change they treated her like dirt. I will never take one of my cars to JL!

1996blackmax

My friend had to go back to them after they left his car a full quart of oil short. Pretty sad to think that so many people have been taken by them.

faster100

It happens everywhere though, I brought my pathfinder to Nissan for oil change and the belt was defective.. I told one guy i tried silicone spray and he said.. Ya might of made it worse.. then later another guy said i got it changed under warranty.. and just sprayed silicone spray on the other one for now.. what the hell!! the other guy just said it was bad for it and when i got home.. I'll be damm if they ever touched that belt.. we have rear access to our house which is dirt road and my engine is covered with dust.. BUT yet not one finger print on the motor, radiator guard.. nothing and the belt looked dirty... freakin dirt bags.. I started taking it to another dealer

1996blackmax

That happend to me at one of the Nissan dealers here in town. They told me I needed a new PCV valve, and I said ok to replacing it. A couple weeks later I saw that I still had my old PCV valve in there. Not a huge thing price wise, but still very dirty. I have never gone back to them, and I make sure to tell people about them.

StopherJJ1980

Jiffy Lube always marks that they wiped the windows, checked air pressure in the tires, checked fluid levels, etc. etc. In my vehicle, the past few times I have gone, they have just overlooked anything that they couldnt try to sell me a replacement part for and said they checked it. Their service really has gone down over the past year or so, at least the one I usually go to.

Beekyman

If I cant get to changing the oil myself, I prefer taking my vehicles to Valvoline Instant Oil Change. So far I have not witnessed any shenanigans at these establishments. I like the way Valvoline has a seperate person that goes over the work of the primary technician and they show you the oil level on the dipstick and its all done in front of you!
I must agree that Jiffy Lube is the worst place ever to get your car serviced...
I personally know one person that had JL replace the engine in his Ford Tempo after the nitwits working there did not put the oil back in!

Spawndn72

Valvoline wanted to change the automatic transmission fluid in my 1986 Ford mustang with a 4 speed manual once.

Willow

I take mine to the dealer, they Eff it up I've got the paper work to show it. I don't trust those 10 mins lube places. I have every single pice of paper work since we signed the dotted line.

unc2701

I stopped taking mine to jiffy lube awhile ago... I got my oil changed and was driving down the road. I think I hear a new rattle that wasn't there before, but I'm not quite sure, so I'm driving kinda slow trying to figure out what I'm hearing. All of a sudden, I hear "ca chingk, thunk, thunk" and something is bouncing down the road in my rearview.

They left a **** wrench sitting on my engine. Lucky for me, it didn't catch any belts on the way out... musta come close, though- that first clink probably was it hitting one of the pullys.

PolkThug

Spawndn72 wrote:

Valvoline wanted to change the automatic transmission fluid in my 1986 Ford mustang with a 4 speed manual once.

lmao! I never take cars I care about to those kinds of places.

faster100

speaking of manual trans... Ive worked at a few small shops. and luckily it was a ex employee.. But a couple guys tried to change this guys man trans fluid on his mustang and mistakenly removed the shaft retaining nut or what ever it was instead of the fill plug and it wouldn't go into reverse any longer..:D He used to work there and was getting it done for free so he dealt with it himself.. Never did fix that old mustang trans

ohskigod

my new cars I bring to the dealer. I must say though that I have never had any problems with a Jiffy Lube. I took my Jeep there, and still bring my Pick Up to a fast lube place. but it is easy for me to see what they are doing. and its hard to miss me staring at you while your working on my vehicle.

only prob I had was one time with my jeep, they changed the oil and whatnot, and when I went to drive away, the oil pres guage was pinned to the right. I immedialty shut the engine down and went back in like a lunatic (I'm a little anal about my vehicles)

anyway, the supervisor immediatly knew it was the sensor. He said that in my particular jee, it is very close to the oil filter and he knew right off the back the tech must have tapped it while changing it. took a couple of secs to fix, and I was on my merry way.

The one I went to recently actually showed me the dipstick with the clean oil, cleaned it, reinserted it and showed me the clean oil AGAIN to reasure me the oil was changed. they walked over what they recommended be done in the near future, not pushy at all. It was a new place, and I guess they were trying to get repeat business. they might well have with me.

2+2

Get this....my dad uses my Explorer so as a nice jesture, he takes it to Jiffy to get the oil changed...they say he also needs a new air filter so he says fine...they charge him for air filter....5K miles later, I take the explorer to my regular shop...they tell me the air filter is MISSING!!! Great, been driving around without an air filter! Luckily it is not dusty where I am...

"Never go to Jiffy...their service is IFFY"... I just coined that so pass it around!

joeparaski

Jiffy must hire very "green" servicemen right out of school and pay them low wages, but that still is not a reason to be dishonest....errors and mistakes will happen due to inexperience though, but dishonesty is a different matter altogether.

Among other things I do, I am also a service advisor that greets you when you come in for your car repairs. In my opinion, the problem with the shops that screw people lies with the guy behind the counter. If HE is dishonest, inevitably the shop will operate that way.

When we hire new service people ("service" guys as opposed to "mechanics" are the young guys that do oil changes and tires) I keep a VERY close eye on them and make sure they do things right. I can pretty much judge early on if the person will be a good worker. As for the person being dishonest....well it pretty much can't happen unless I let it happen (the guy behind the counter).

It is my job to know what is happening in my garage. The mechanics need to sell ME the job first before I sell it to the customer, and I go and check the car myself because I like to get a firsthand look at EXACTLY what needs to be changed and why.

Are there opportunities to screw the customer?..of course there are, but it's something that I would NEVER EVER do because I value my good name, I am honest, and have never screwed anyone in my personal life nor in business.

I can see and sense the worry when customers come into the shop and some look me right in the eye trying to see if I'm going to screw them and I fully understand them because I know what's going on in this business.

I wish I could be everyones' service advisor just to show them that there are honest people out there.

So my advice to folks would be to look and judge carefully the guy behind the counter, because if anyone is going to screw you, it will be him. If you can trust the guy behind the counter and he's got a competent team behind him, your car will be fixed right and only what is needed.

Joe Albanese
Canadian Tire #231

faster100

when i was in my 20's... I applied at a tire shop/repair place and the manager kinda showed me around as part of the interview.. what turned me off was when he said, we do alignments here.. sometimes we can get away with selling one with these numbers even though its within spec.. something to that effect.. I was thinking, what if i went there for an alignment.. I left

joeparaski

That's EXACTLY what I mean. The guy was already getting you ready to "cheat". A person of a different character would get in on the game, usually there would be some sort of "bonus" or incentive so he can benefit from the ****. Next thing you know....the whole shop operates that way because they ALL know what's going on. An honest person such as yourself would not even be capable of working is such an environement.

PhantomOG

I imagine most corporate places like Jiffy Lube have quotas or bonuses tied to service types (alignments, air filters, etc.), and are probably not penalized in any way for customer complaints. Being honest won't cut it in that kind of atmosphere, and so you get the bad/dishonest service.

ledhed

It is things like this that make me glad I change my own oil and do all the standard upkeep.

But as for the news report-it was just crap. That reporter seemed determined to to just piss people off. It sickens me to see what the news has gotten to. I wonder if at the other stations he had a white service person who screwed up but tried to interview the other minorities to get better ratings.

I have taken journalism classes and that report was not journalism.

Sorry for the de-rail but those kinds of "news" shows just piss me off. Reminds me of yellow journalism

Drumingman

ledhed wrote:

It is things like this that make me glad I change my own oil and do all the standard upkeep.

But as for the news report-it was just crap. That reporter seemed determined to to just piss people off. It sickens me to see what the news has gotten to. I wonder if at the other stations he had a white service person who screwed up but tried to interview the other minorities to get better ratings.

I have taken journalism classes and that report was not journalism.

Sorry for the de-rail but those kinds of "news" shows just piss me off. Reminds me of yellow journalism

Yeah Yeah, Yeah. Throw Racism into the mix. It was a good report. Will you take your car to those shops mentioned and let them Give you the Lube Service?

ledhed

Drumingman wrote:

Yeah Yeah, Yeah. Throw Racism into the mix. It was a good report. Will you take your car to those shops mentioned and let them Give you the Lube Service?

No, I am just saying that this guy went about it wrong. He may be new and excited but that just was not news

Drumingman

Then why don't you enlighten us with the facts. It's a story about a Very Large company that wants you to trust them with maintaining the Vital fluids in your Automobile, the second largest investment people most people make outside of home ownership. Maybe others have been taken and reported this company to the TV station in order to get help and then again maybe not.
But the corruption in the this report was clear from the area manager down.
After all, he did deny his identity, what's he hiding?

I thought it was a good story, and you not the only one here that has taken
journalism classes or been involved in it. I could give reporters stories but I don't want to be sleeping with the fishes. (if ya know what I mean)

I bet if it was Your story, You would have went with it.

Wadda ya say?

szhleppy

ledhed wrote:

I wonder if at the other stations he had a white service person who screwed up but tried to interview the other minorities to get better ratings.

I have taken journalism classes and that report was not journalism.

I'm going to assume you didn't get a chance to watch the entire clip. The district manager was not a member of a minority group, and the interviewer didn't seem to let him off the hook because of it.

Athough you are right in identifying this, and most news, as sensationalism rather than journalism, I think it's great to see things like this. It helps to keep others honest for fear of being exposed.

ledhed

I agree they need to be exposed. I'm not one of those people always throwing around stuff about race, it just seems odd don't you think? This was just a sort of "Breaking Point" for me-I am not used to seeing this kind of behavior in a local news program. Dateline, 60 Minutes, yea not the locals though.

faster100

It's the same thing we have around here.. it's called Dirt dining, they go around checking restaurants for cleanliness... alot of them fail.. and are filthy.. I for one am glad to have people check up on business's like these.. be it lube shops, Restaurants or anywhere i spend money for a service.

MacLeod

ledhed wrote:

I wonder if at the other stations he had a white service person who screwed up but tried to interview the other minorities to get better ratings.

Spare me the race card. :rolleyes:

Did you happen to notice that the DM was white? He sure humiliated him pretty good.

disneyjoe7

The Average Joe in any line of work being Car repair / House repair / Appliance repair is laying there waiting to be F'd. You must know something about what you need in advance because people will be looking for your type waking in the door. There are honest people out there, but many are under the all mighty dollar affluence.

Sad to say, but it's how I feel.

joeparaski

You havent' seen the other side of the coin have you? There are plenty of customers trying to screw the repair shop too. Things like "that ding wasn't there when I brought the car"..."the check engine light wasn't on when I left you the car"...."you didn't repair the noise I wanted repaired, you repaired the other noise"...."it's your fault if the window doesn't roll up, you're the one that rolled it down"...."what do you mean the stud broke off, your guy was the one who unscrewed it"......and I can go on and on, but you get the drift.

faster100

Yep, have heard plenty of those one liners from customers as well... and you have to suck it up and make them happy. Still no excuse to charge and not repair, It's one thing if a service is pushed maybe earlier then it should be.. but once they agree to the service, atleast deliver the service you pushed..