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Jiffy Lube caught on tape...

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That sucks.

It amazes me about how many people trust someone because they are at their mercy. All that work was for maintenance items that should help keep the vehicle on the road longer, why wouldn't someone want to do it?
 
klrv6 said:
That sucks.

It amazes me about how many people trust someone because they are at their mercy. All that work was for maintenance items that should help keep the vehicle on the road longer, why wouldn't someone want to do it?
Click to expand...

I really don't know why people have to be that way... So much greed and they wonder why things are the way they are nowadays. Maybe being honest and doing the right thing is a little too much to ask from someone... It's just plain sad.:frown:
 
I had a bad experience at a local JL about 10 years ago. Went in there for an oil change for the wifes car as it was the dead of winter and I don't do oil changes in the COLD! Well anyways, the 'tech' came into the waiting room to tell me that I needed new filters ie; air, air cleaner, and even the GAS filter. Now here's the good part, I just did a tune up not 2 months before and REPLACED all those filters!! I told the tech this, and then he says 'ok' not a problem and walks away. I'm thinking, ok I know how they operate........NOT 5 minutes later he comes back to tell me that the REAR END gear oil looks old and should he replace it? At that point I told him just do the oil change and NOTHING else. 10 minutes later, I pay and go on my way. About 4000 miles later I go to do oil change and when I try to take off the oil petcock(no jokes please):D guess what? They put in on so tight I couldn't get it off! I swear they put it on with a friggin empact wrench!! In fact that's what it took to get it off. So I really don't have to tell you how I feel about JL.....:eek:

KB
 
In a previous life I worked at an auto dealership as a tech. I made below minimum wage because I actually fixed the cars people brought in. In one year I worked on 1000+- cars. Out of all those cars, only three came back a second time for the same problem. My manager said I could make more money if I allowed 75% of those cars to come back at least once and bill for the problem not be fixed the first time. WHAT!!!! only repair 25% of the cars I work on, that was crazy. I told them I looked at each repair as if it were my car. They told me I should stop doing that and not be so meticulous about the work. There was this stoner that worked there and destroyed cars. They loved him because he turned over lots of hours for billing.

I watched one guy pull an intake off a pristine ZR-1 because it had a leak at the seal. He just used one of those abrasive 3M whiz wheels with all the sand paper on it to clean up the gasket surfaces and put a new gasket on. I was like you idiot, now you will have to pull the motor and clean all the sand out of the engine. He looked and me and smiled as he took an impact to the intake to re-tightened it.

There were two driveablilty guys there who were scary smart, they knew what they were doing and did things right the first time. I picked up what I could from them.
 
This is part of the reason my friend seems to not be able to keep a job with a dealership. He honestly loves working on cars, and treats customers cars like his own. Very few come back again, and its usually for something he recommended that the customer didn't want to pay to have done at the time.
If I need something done I cant do myself, I have my reputable shops with techs I know personally. or I take it to my friends house and we work on it there. Some I went to school with, others I have worked with in other jobs. I learned the hard way too. The "local" shop would surprisingly fix one thing with my car, and either find two other things, or mysteriously something else would go wrong a few days after leaving there. I decided to work on my own cars right then and there. Learn everything I could. I wont let a shop so much as touch a car for a brake job, oil change, nothing. If I need an inspection or alignment, or something needed a press or a tool I can't afford to buy myself, I take it to one of my trusted shops.
That original shop that screwed me over enough times went out of business. I guess they pushed the limit too far on one too many people.
Its sad when you have to rely on TV news magazines like dateline and 20/20 to be industry police.
 
Yup, I've been on both ends of the spectrum. Worked for Jiffy Lube while I was finishing my education, now I'm at a dealership.

We weren't THAT bad, we didn't sell easy jobs like trans flushes and just not do them. But occassionally you'd get a fuel filter that was completely rusted onto the lines, tell the manager about it, and they'd bill it anyways. Of course we would recommend things like filters and fluids constantly, if the customer isn't smart enough to keep track of their maintenance records and they replaced that same air filter 4 months ago, that's their problem. You don't make any money on a $19.99 oil change. Just like at a dealership, the cheap lube coupon is to get the customer in the door. You make your money on everything else that you sell them.

Now that I'm at a dealership I see things from the other end. Had a Toyota Solara that had the wrong oil filter on it and destroyed the engine. 2 Jiffy Lube "reps" came out and looked at the car right in front of myself and 2 other techs and kept saying it was the correct filter, even though it was clearly too small to seat the o-ring on the surface, and the car would leave a puddle of oil in a matter of seconds.

At least once a day I'll get a car that's been taken to a cheap lube place and find the drain plug all messed up, rounded off, over-tightened, stripped threads, and I won't touch the car until we confront the customer about it, because I'm not about to spend 45 minutes tapping out the threads in the oil pan for something I didn't do.

Bottom line, Jiffy Lube is there to take advantage of people. And it goes full circle, because the only people who would ever trust a quick-lube place are the ones who don't know how to take care of their vehicles, and they're easily taken advantage of. Jiffy Lube is there to make money off of suckers, and there are plenty of them out there. You're supposed to take your vehicle to the dealership. Hell I do $17.98 oil changes all day, even cheaper than Jiffy Lube, so there's no reason to take it to a place that employs high school kids who are PRESSURED to sell dishonestly like that.

Frankly I don't feel too bad for a lot of those people. Those are the people that come in with a quick lube sticker on their windshield, and then when you try to sell them needed maintenance as a factory certified mechanic, they act like you're the dishonest one, "why didn't Jiffy Lube tell me I needed brakes, I was just there two months ago". Why? Because they don't care enough to look at your brakes, jerk.

I had a lady like that a few weeks back. Her car was towed in. Right front wheel the brake pads had FALLEN out from wearing so thin. Of course as I proceed to do the brake job (NEW rotor, new pads), I find that the caliper piston had come out too far, passed it's seals, and I couldn't get the piston to compress back into the caliper. We walk her out into the shop with my service manager, tell her that in addition to the brake job, she needs a new caliper, and she goes ballistic. "I come to the dealer ship EVERY TIME, why didn't they warn me that my brakes were so low, you're supposed to do a free inspection every single time, this is ridiculous, I'm not paying for this!!!". Of course she ended up buying the caliper, I finish up the job, hop in her car to pull it back into the service aisle, and what do I see, the most recent service sticker is from FIRESTONE SERVICE CENTER. Yeah right b****, you come to the dealership "EVERY TIME". Go get ripped off at Firestone again.

So whatever, these people act like they're such victims, but they have the opportunity to bring it to the dealership and have quality work done, but they want their $20 five-minute oil change instead. Yeah it's a free country and we can't force you to come back to the dealership. In an ideal world, you could go to a Jiffy Lube and not get ripped off. But that's no gunna happen.

And as far as the other comments in this thread about working for a dealership and being encouraged to have comebacks... I don't know where the hell you work but that certainly doesn't happen to me lol. We get our asses kicked if someone brings their vehicle back sooner than expected. Maybe we just have enough work/customers that we don't need to create more.
 
Turbo6Chicago said:
Yup, I've been on both ends of the spectrum. Worked for Jiffy Lube while I was finishing my education, now I'm at a dealership.

We weren't THAT bad, we didn't sell easy jobs like trans flushes and just not do them. But occassionally you'd get a fuel filter that was completely rusted onto the lines, tell the manager about it, and they'd bill it anyways. Of course we would recommend things like filters and fluids constantly, if the customer isn't smart enough to keep track of their maintenance records and they replaced that same air filter 4 months ago, that's their problem. You don't make any money on a $19.99 oil change. Just like at a dealership, the cheap lube coupon is to get the customer in the door. You make your money on everything else that you sell them.

Now that I'm at a dealership I see things from the other end. Had a Toyota Solara that had the wrong oil filter on it and destroyed the engine. 2 Jiffy Lube "reps" came out and looked at the car right in front of myself and 2 other techs and kept saying it was the correct filter, even though it was clearly too small to seat the o-ring on the surface, and the car would leave a puddle of oil in a matter of seconds.

At least once a day I'll get a car that's been taken to a cheap lube place and find the drain plug all messed up, rounded off, over-tightened, stripped threads, and I won't touch the car until we confront the customer about it, because I'm not about to spend 45 minutes tapping out the threads in the oil pan for something I didn't do.

Bottom line, Jiffy Lube is there to take advantage of people. And it goes full circle, because the only people who would ever trust a quick-lube place are the ones who don't know how to take care of their vehicles, and they're easily taken advantage of. Jiffy Lube is there to make money off of suckers, and there are plenty of them out there. You're supposed to take your vehicle to the dealership. Hell I do $17.98 oil changes all day, even cheaper than Jiffy Lube, so there's no reason to take it to a place that employs high school kids who are PRESSURED to sell dishonestly like that.

Frankly I don't feel too bad for a lot of those people. Those are the people that come in with a quick lube sticker on their windshield, and then when you try to sell them needed maintenance as a factory certified mechanic, they act like you're the dishonest one, "why didn't Jiffy Lube tell me I needed brakes, I was just there two months ago". Why? Because they don't care enough to look at your brakes, jerk.

I had a lady like that a few weeks back. Her car was towed in. Right front wheel the brake pads had FALLEN out from wearing so thin. Of course as I proceed to do the brake job (NEW rotor, new pads), I find that the caliper piston had come out too far, passed it's seals, and I couldn't get the piston to compress back into the caliper. We walk her out into the shop with my service manager, tell her that in addition to the brake job, she needs a new caliper, and she goes ballistic. "I come to the dealer ship EVERY TIME, why didn't they warn me that my brakes were so low, you're supposed to do a free inspection every single time, this is ridiculous, I'm not paying for this!!!". Of course she ended up buying the caliper, I finish up the job, hop in her car to pull it back into the service aisle, and what do I see, the most recent service sticker is from FIRESTONE SERVICE CENTER. Yeah right b****, you come to the dealership "EVERY TIME". Go get ripped off at Firestone again.

So whatever, these people act like they're such victims, but they have the opportunity to bring it to the dealership and have quality work done, but they want their $20 five-minute oil change instead. Yeah it's a free country and we can't force you to come back to the dealership. In an ideal world, you could go to a Jiffy Lube and not get ripped off. But that's no gunna happen.

And as far as the other comments in this thread about working for a dealership and being encouraged to have comebacks... I don't know where the hell you work but that certainly doesn't happen to me lol. We get our asses kicked if someone brings their vehicle back sooner than expected. Maybe we just have enough work/customers that we don't need to create more.
Click to expand...

Good points, but I can tell you that dealership techs aren't all the cream of the crop. Being in the biz myself, I know a bunch of techs from local dealerships, and many of them take the same shortcuts. Several of them have said that if a filter is stuck in place and difficult to get off, they'll just leave the old one on. When you're getting 1/3 of an hour to do an oil change and 35 point inspection, it doesn't pay to be too picky. Sad.

For the record, anyone who takes their vehicle to a Jiffy Lube or other cheapy quick lube, deserves what they get. If you really think you're going to get quality service and products for $12.99, you're nuts. Generally speaking, the dealership is where to go.

...unless you live in upstate SC, then call Carolina Pit Stop. We come to you! :):)
 
I especially like the customers that say "I just had that done!", when we find something that genuinely need attention. This is VERY common in the air filter and automatic trans fluid department.

"No that's OK, I just had Jiffy Lube flush the transmission a few months ago." Really? Is that why the fluid is a nice shade of brown, and smells like sh!t?

Thank God, we're cutting down our retail sector quite a bit lately. Fleet service FTW...
 
BTW Turbo6Chicago, what kind of auto trans fluid exchanger do you guys use? We need to get another one, just wanted some opinions.

We got rid of the RTI a year ago (piece of crap), and bought one from Mighty. Works like a champ, haven't had to recalibrate it ONCE. Fluid polarity switch built right in, etc.
 
Turbo6Chicago said:
And as far as the other comments in this thread about working for a dealership and being encouraged to have comebacks... I don't know where the hell you work but that certainly doesn't happen to me lol. We get our asses kicked if someone brings their vehicle back sooner than expected. Maybe we just have enough work/customers that we don't need to create more.
Click to expand...

I pretty much lost all faith in that place when management approached me with what I needed to do to get more money. They told me that my pen was the most powerful tool in my toll box. They suggested I write a small repair in that may or may not completely fix the problem. When it comes back, maybe put the right parts and time into the car to fix the problem. The 95-98 Chevy Blazers had a problem with a carrier water leak at the passenger rear door. The way it was always noticed by the customer was the drivers power seat stopped working. The connector under the carpet was so corroded, it lost contact. I was yelled at by the service department manager for replacing the carpet in several of the Blazers that customers brought in with that problem. The stuff smelled like sewage, I wouldn't want that in my car. They said it should only take me five minutes to fix the failed drivers seat power, that job would take me at least half a day, after I did the initial inspection and ordered the carpet. They would have wanted me to fix the power until the customer brought it in for repairing a water leak. I did make lots of people happy though. The dealership overlooked that part.
 
And I avoid Jiffy Lube like the plague. Half the time they do a **** ass job of just changing oil, not screwing filters all the way on, leaving rags in the engine compartment...I was even reluctant to let them perform a state inspection on my car.
 
Wal mart not much better. had 4 tires switcht and 2 weeks later they were leaking around the bead. took it back and they tried to charge me for the resealing that should have been done right in the first place. I doo most work for my self or get my friend that is a mechanic to help me in my driveway!!:biggrin:
 
Hasn't that video been around for like 5 years already? But it seem to get dug up every few months and resurfaces...

-BC
 
bobc455 said:
Hasn't that video been around for like 5 years already? But it seem to get dug up every few months and resurfaces...

-BC
Click to expand...

Well, I'm glad is still around. It kind of helps us to be reminded as to what some shops are willing to do just to make a quick buck out of good people...
 
QuickBuick87 said:
I had a bad experience at a local JL about 10 years ago. Went in there for an oil change for the wifes car as it was the dead of winter and I don't do oil changes in the COLD! Well anyways, the 'tech' came into the waiting room to tell me that I needed new filters ie; air, air cleaner, and even the GAS filter. Now here's the good part, I just did a tune up not 2 months before and REPLACED all those filters!! I told the tech this, and then he says 'ok' not a problem and walks away. I'm thinking, ok I know how they operate........NOT 5 minutes later he comes back to tell me that the REAR END gear oil looks old and should he replace it? At that point I told him just do the oil change and NOTHING else. 10 minutes later, I pay and go on my way. About 4000 miles later I go to do oil change and when I try to take off the oil petcock(no jokes please):D guess what? They put in on so tight I couldn't get it off! I swear they put it on with a friggin empact wrench!! In fact that's what it took to get it off. So I really don't have to tell you how I feel about JL.....:eek:

KB
Click to expand...

Almost the same experiance in NH for me too. The guy tried to UPSELL me on everything. I said I came here for OIL CHANGE. He said filter & said KN is in there. I beat him to every punchline. Imagine the people they sucker into buying stuff. I will wait for that 1 warm freak winter day & do the change myself.
 
HAHA, after highschool, I worked in a full service garage for a few years. Our garage was across the street from a Jiffy Lube. We had a least 2 cars a week that were pushed across the street to us after they screwed them up:tongue: Their favorite thing to do was to strip out the tranny cooler fittings....I got good at replacing radiators thanks to JL!
 
Little6pack said:
Almost the same experiance in NH for me too. The guy tried to UPSELL me on everything. I said I came here for OIL CHANGE. He said filter & said KN is in there. I beat him to every punchline. Imagine the people they sucker into buying stuff. I will wait for that 1 warm freak winter day & do the change myself.
Click to expand...

Here is a good one - the opposite of that for me. It was uber hot July and I'm on my way out of town and there was no time for me to go home change get oil and filter and then clean up and go. I was also not going on the road trip on that old oil.

They did the change and told me everything looked good - The car was in need of at least an air filter. But the car was stock back then and they did not know how or want to even look in that factory air filter setup.
 
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