jiffy lube scam
 

most people here probably change the oil and do other maintenance by themselves, but check out how jiffy lube routinely scams their customers.

i do all the work on the z by myself, but i'm worried b/c i've had the oil on my van changed by jiffy lube many times - or so i thought.....

Jiffy Lube is investigated. [VIDEO]

That's just screwed up!

I get so Fu**** sick of the SOP in business being about lying.
Seems to be standard no matter what business you're in. I got an email at work yesterday that contained the phrase, "...without letting the customer know...". Pissed me off big time.
This video is just a microcosm at what goes on. Most places, including dealerships, are not about "service", they are about sales.
I had a Toyota service writer tell me that he got fired from one dealership because he wouldn't push unneeded service on customers.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I'm glad I do my own maintenance, too. Thanks for posting the link.

When I was working as a teller at a bank, I was soundly chastised for missing a 'sales opportunity' and not pushing a Visa Platinum on a 74 year old grandmother who was living on her pension.

Within a month I took an extended leave of absence in order to pursue training for another line of work.

Kudos to you. :tiphat:
Seems to me nearly EVERYTHING is "all about the Benjamins" anymore. Sad.

oh man, i was a service writer at a honda dealership. On several occasions we had customers come in for 60k mile services on their cars. This 'service' cost $400 and was supposed to take at least 4 hours when it actually took the technician about 45mins. The technicians and managers would hide the cars from customers after the service was done and make the customer sit there for the entire 4 hours. They had to hide the cars b/c they couldnt justify the $400 for 45 mins of work. not really a scam its more of a moral problem.

Trust no one. Period.

That scam was exposed in TV Report a few yrs back. That has been going on for a long time now.

There was a guy on the vette forum where the lube idiot comes to tell him that he needs a new air filter and I think a drain plug. The guy insists he has a K&N filter that he recently oiled and the drain plug was an aftermarket magnetic unit.

Now its a pissing contest because his K&N is gone who knows where and the techs insist the car came in with the dirty filter they were showing him... I don't know how/if it got resolved.

Honestly this type of stuff happens all over the place, quick lubes, dealerships, mom & pop shops, etc. I'm glad that they are starting to get caught.

Scammers.

A few years back when I took my G35 in for an oil change, they showed me an air filer that was really dirty and asked me if I wanted to change it, I said no. I then did it myself and I noticed it was not as dirty as the one they showed me!

Things that make you go Hmmmmm

EZ-Lube was once really bad as well, they are getting better after being sued by the State of California for deceptive business practices:

Bureau of Automotive Repair takes disciplinary action against EZ Lube, Inc. - California Department of Consumer Affairs

I stopped going to these places years ago after I went to one of them and they installed my oil filter incorrectly as well as spilled oil all over my engine bay..

i'm sure some of that goes on at dealerships and quick stops all the same. i will say that i never marked up work that didn't truly need to be done when i worked in the shop or wrote service.

counterpoint: my mom recently took her 02 altima to the nissan dealership to get a recall performed (she normally takes the car to a local mom&pop shop to get oil changes done etc). the mechanic came out with a filthy pollen filter and told her she needs to change it. she said no at the time. my grandpa, after hearing this, went into a rage that they were trying to mark up work on the car that was not needed (they also recommended a trans fluid, brake fluid and power steering fluid flush). the car has ~89k miles. she went ahead and did the transmission fluid that day. i replaced the pollen filter (the first time since new) and sure enough it was just completely black and nasty. i also looked under the hood and noticed the brake fluid was black as used oil. i told mom they were not trying to take advantage of her and that she really did need to get these things done. she recently got the rest of the fluids flushed but did it at the local shop where it was about $40 cheaper combined.

apparently it's not just jiffy lube. i heard that ez lube was doing the same thing and a lot of the mom and pops also. it's just too easy for them to do that and get away with it. now it makes sense to me that a couple of times when i tried to get them to change the oil on my van while i waited, they said that i had to drop it off and just pick it up later - even though they didnt seem that busy to me. they probably did this b/c then they dont even have to "pretend" to work on the car. they basically just did NOTHING and charged me as if they did.

i ended up changing the oil by myself this time on the van, and i put the date on the oil filter so next time if i have a shop do it, i can tell if they actually did it or not. except for the z, i dont like to change the oil by myself b/c it just doesnt make sense money and time-wise. bring it to a shop and they'll charge $20-25. do it by yourself and just the oil and filter alone are about $25-$30. not to mention my time and getting dirty, cleaning up disposing of the oil, etc. etc.

hopefully more and more people know about their scam so that they can lose enough business that they'll stop doing it. the news investigators said that even after catching them 3 or 4 times in the past few years, they continue doing this, even now!