Jiffy Lube--Stiffing Customers

[The Critic]

You don't think charging 3/4hr of labor to do an oil change, tire rotation, and a thorough inspection is reasonable?

While I personally refuse to pay for it

, I don't think its unreasonable, either.

 

[javacontour]

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I feel bad for all those single moms that have no other choice but to take their car to the dealership for auto service.

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Don't get me started on some single moms. They are not all angels. Some of them left faithful, non-abusive men to have affairs and have to reap what they've sewn.

Perhaps Jiffy Lube is #@$%!'s way of getting even with them

 

[LouDawg]

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I feel bad for all those single moms that have no other choice but to take their car to the dealership for auto service.

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Don't get me started on some single moms. They are not all angels. Some of them left faithful, non-abusive men to have affairs and have to reap what they've sewn.

Perhaps Jiffy Lube is #@$%!'s way of getting even with them

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AMEN, BROTHER! BEEN THERE...DONE THAT...TWICE!!!

 

[caprice_2nv]

I never got to watch that show on Jiffy Lube, and while I'm sure they were screwing people and this does happen I think from some of the comments I'm seeing on here a very high majority of you guys on here are extremely cheap. I worked as a service advisor at Ford, GM and Saturn for a total of about 2 years until I quit a couple months ago for medical reasons. Medical reason being I was drinking myself to death because of my job. I was the only service advisor there and it was a very busy shop. Trying to constantly keep up with several customers in the waiting room, other customers waiting at home, getting whiney customers loaner vehicles for #@$%! oil changes. I can't believe how demanding a lot of the customers are these days and how many of them come in wanting something done for nothing when they could probably go and do it by themselves at home, or coming in long past the warranty period and thinking something should be done for free. People who think that an oil change is the only required maintenance that should ever have to be done before 100k miles. I had a stressful enough job just keeping up with all the work without having a%^holes give me a hard time.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Also I'm 23 years old and I'd have some 40 year old come in wanting us to do something and making it very obvious that he was not going to pay for it, technicians are on flat rate so if the shop does not get paid they don't get paid, I would end up having to go and work on the #@$%! car on my own, doing something that I know he was perfectly able to do it on his own, while I'm trying to catch up doing a whole bunch of other work at the same time. The technicians often lost a lot of money working for free especially on warranty work, spending hours trying to diagnose a problem that is not currently there for some whiney #@$%! customer. I would love to see a lot of these #@$%! out there take my place or a technicians place. I don't know if all of this made sense I know I'm kind of ranting here and trying to do this quick. Sorry for the venting.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Oh and to do with shop supplies:the Saturn dealer which I worked at last would charge a small percentage of the total labor charge on non-menu priced items to cover shop supplies like grease, penetrating fluid, etc. up to a maximum charge of 19.99. It usually works out a better deal than the way they recently changed it to at the Ford dealer I used to work at. If you need 1L of top up coolant (say you lost some after changing a water pump or thermostat or something) you would be forced to buy the whole 4L jug of coolant and then you would have 3L of extra coolant lying around forever that you would likely not need for a long time as long as your coolant leak was fixed. Comprende?

 

[LouDawg]

I don't doubt there are some real PITA customers, but I also know there are some real PITA dealers. I think there's enough blame to go around.

 

[brianl703]

I'd have been happy if that idiot service advisor at the Ford dealership would've listened to me when I told him that the TSB applied to the noise I was hearing. Nope, he wasted an hour of the technician's time and then told me "no problem found" so I got the tech in the car and handed him a copy of the TSB...and the problem was fixed.

In my experience, some service advisors are just plain useless. If they're not lying to you, they're not listening to you.

 

[caprice_2nv]

^^ When I had enough extra time I would try and look up TSB's before the technician even got a chance to look at the vehicle. More often than you'd think, the right TSB would pop up almost immediately and save everyones time. When I worked at the Ford dealer I actually had time to look that stuff up quite often. The Saturn dealer had me doing the workload of about 3 or 4 people at a regular dealership so it was much harder.

 

[ewetho]

Have them demonstrate the problem and when they can not, ask them to bring it back when there is a problem. Then get on to work you can do. Hard to diagnose a problem that ain't there. Sure check for codes that are related to reported issue but if nothing is their what do want to fix???? All you have is a guess. Sure some things will be obvious but hard to fix a squeak that is not squeaking.

 

[Jim 5]

My wife's friend had a 2 year old VW Jetta. She took it to a local VW dealership and they told her that they couldn't in good conscience let her leave the dealership because the front brake pads were metal to metal, and that the rotors were worn out. They said it would be around $750 to repair.

This car had 35k km's (29k miles) on it of easy driving. It just didn't add up, so I told her to insist on getting her car back. She brought it over so I could check. I checked the pads and they looked like at least 70%. Just to be sure, I calipered them, using a thickness spec I got off the internet and determined they were around 75%. Next I calipered the rotors, and they were way way above the minimum machine thickness spec stamped on the rotor. I put a dial indicator on the rotors and there was almost no runout, and the surface looked good.

These lowlifes probably wouldn't have done a single thing to her front brakes, since they were already in perfect operating condition and had a ton of life left in them.

I had another friend who knows cars come over and double check my work because these are brakes we are talking about (a friend's safety), and I frankly couldn't beleive a reputable dealership could be so extraordinarily dishonest.

This was two years ago and the car has provided her with reliable service ever since. No brake problems whatsoever.

They just saw a single woman who knows nothing about cars and knew it was a perfect opportunity to rip her off. This is a so-called "reputable" VW dealership in a city of one million people. Total scum.

 

[gfcrane]

Utah safety inspections can be done, paperwork completed, and new tags and registration issued at places called spot shops in the city where I live. There are two of them and, you guessed it, both Jiffy Lubes. Last week I decided to use the local Subaru dealer where I bought the car instead. The law limits the fee to $17, but the dealer managed to add $1.84 for "shop supplies." I used a dealer coupon for new wiper blades and they replaced them. The receipt showed the blades replaced under "warranty" and charged Subaru of America 1/2 hour labor and for the blades. Everybody seems to have a rice bowl out there.

 

[Panzerman]

One of my co workers took his 2004 f-150( 4.2L) company truck to a Tire Kingdom for a oil change, they called corporate and said it needed a tune up, plugs, fuel filter and air filter and fuel system clean. My buddy told the offfice it ran fine, but they told TK to go ahead and service the truck, total bill came to $649.87. $over a hundred bucks for the plugs, you do the math x6. Go figure, I do all the maintence on my truck, and they pay me parts and my wages, I need to raise my rates.

 

[Cutehumor]

I had a similar experience. about ten years ago when I didn't know anything about cars and a freshman in college, I took my car to just brakes because of a squeeling sound. quoted me 500 bucks for pads/rotors. saying I was going to get in a car accident if I drove off and justified it by showing me the dark brake fluid. When I declined the repair, they wouldn't put my tires back on the car! They just went to the next car in the shop bay. I followed him around the shop until he put my tires back on. I went home, got me a haynes manual, put on 80 dollar brake pads. those brake pads lasted another six years until I sold that car. motivated me to learn about cars and maintenance. I've always had bad experiences with shops/dealers. maybe because I have a foreign name they try to rip me off.

 

[Trucku]

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Find an independent mechanic that you trust and you've found pure gold.

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Still looking for one around my area. All I need is a good shop for extended warranty work. No Luck Yet

 

[Trucku]

Jetta got broken into and lock was toast. I ordered one for 65 dollars I believe. Guy at dealer said I needed a special tool to install it. They had to remove the door trim and use special tools to remove it. I got the lock and figured I take a look.....ONE SCREW! Thats all. The cylinder had one screw you access when door is open. Now why isn't it legal for you to go beat the #@$%! outta someone when they try that #@$%!

 

[JustinH]

What a shame.

I think its important that everyone have some knowledge about the workings of cars. My girlfriend for example had absolutely no clue about anything regarding a car. Her father had no clue either, and he taught her just to take it to a shop and let them do what they think they should do.

Now I'm showing her to look at the manual, and see what service the manufactuer recommends for what mileage interval, and most of the service we do here in the driveway.

Oil changes, coolant changes, transmission fluid changes, we all have done this year, she would have spent hundreds at the repair shop. We spent a few dollars buying most of the supplies at walmart, and over the internet.

We did the rear disc brakes (pads and rotors) on her neon for around 60-70 dollars. I'd bet a shop gets 3-400 dollars for such a service, and we did the job in no more than an hour with hand tools.

Teach someone to do preventative maintenance on a car, and you will have a much more reliable car that will need less major repairs.

I was so proud of her the other day when she told me that the mileage was almost up on her neon for an oil change, and could I show her which oil filter to buy and which oil.

We left the store spending 8 bucks on supertech oil and a ST filter. Not 30 dollars on an oil change place.

 

[wavinwayne]

I purchased a 2000 VW GTI 1.8T in November 2003. The car had 15k miles on it (has 88k now). I took it to the dealer for scheduled 20k mile maintenance in Feb. 04. Although they did only what was called for in the owners manual (good for them), the price of the service prompted me to buy a Bentley VW service manual & all the tools I need for basic maintenance services, and to do all the work myself.

If I had kept going to the VW dealer for service up to this point, I'd have spent well over $1000, just for oil changes, air & cabin filter changes, rear brake pads, and new spark plugs. Doing all the work myself has cost me maybe $250 at the most, plus maybe another $100 for basic tools. There is definitely a lot of money to be saved if someone is willing to spend a little time learning how to do things for themselves. I know there are a lot of people who simply cannot do that, for many reasons, and I feel sorry for how much money they end up throwing away.

With that said, there are still jobs that seem routine to many of you, that I simply refuse to do, because of complexity and/or the PITA factor. Things such as changing ATF, flushing heater cores, replacing radiators, alternators.....things like that; I'll leave those to a couple of professional independent shops that I have come to trust over the years.

There is a timing belt/water pump replacement in my VW's near future. I still haven't decided whether or not I should attempt this myself. I have the Bentley service manual, and I can do the job for $250, whereas my local trusted VW mechanic will charge $750 for the same job. I just don't know if I should attemp this myself or not, since I have never done a timing belt before, and there is an expensive uh-oh factor if I don't do it right.

 

[Doc8404]

So, I make the mistake of asking the tech at JL what they use in my vehicle..they have no idea, just that “the fluids meet the manufacturer’s specs”

So I send an email to JL Corp and the regional manager gets back to me…what’s his answer? You got it… “the fluid meets the specs” Just wondering what fluid they actually used…

“Mr. Sylvester,
I had a chance to get out to Yorkville yesterday. I was able to print out the invoice from your service based on your plate info (thanks). I double checked everything. The fuel filter application was correct, the oil filter application was correct, the Fuel System Cleaner was correct, and the Transmission Fluid application was correct. The only thing that I noticed that might differ from the manufacturer's specs was the oil weight. Ford recommends a 5w20 weight oil for your vehicle with 5w30 as a secondary option. We used the Full Synthetic 5w30. So while it is not Ford's first choice it does "meet the manufacturer's specs." I hope that this answers your questions and settles any concerns...if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns please don't hestitate to send me a message or give me a call.

Thanks!”

 

[Doc8404]

AND TO ADD FURTHER INSULT TO INJURY...anyone think this will be an issue???

The transfer case and Tranny both require a Mercon 5 fluid. What we use is an Automatic Transmission Fluid +3 and we add an ATF Modifier which brings the fluid to a level that exceeds all of Ford's specs. Again, I hope that this helps and let me know if there is anything further you need.

-Brian

Robert wrote:
Thanks Brian...that's pretty much what the tech told me, "they meet the specs"
more or less, I was wondering what fluids they actually use in the transfer case and tranny.
Thanks again for the effort...off to another meeting.

Rob