I wouldn't exactly say they are honest. They tried to get her to replace her battery when there was no need for it to be replaced. She declined that one.
My daughter let herself be ripped off today.
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$30 isn’t terrible. Now, if the quick lube pushed all sorts of unnecessary add-ons(like fuel system service, oil system cleaner, CAF, brake treatment, etc) then she got hosed. That service at a stealership is at least $70. A friend more or less tells her quick lube to buzz off when it comes to the upsells and has me replace the filters.
Some of those taillights are a pain to get to.
Some of those taillights are a pain to get to.
$30 sounds fair to me.
What should they have charged? Nothing?
What should they have charged? Nothing?
Last oil change at the Subaru Dealer, they pulled the engine air filter and showed me it was kind of dirty. They do those inspections anyway and would have to put it back in place, if I denied the replacement.
I said go ahead and install a new filter. They charged me $25 labor! I just swallowed hard and paid the bill. LOL!
I said go ahead and install a new filter. They charged me $25 labor! I just swallowed hard and paid the bill. LOL!
The price of the bulbs were $2.64 each. The rest of the $30 was labor. I don't know what the shop rate is where she lives.
Did I ever say that? No I didn't.
$30 including the bulbs, tax etc. out the door total? No rip off. You're just mad at yourself for not seeing her text in a timely manner and transferring it to them for conducting reasonable business. Look at it as $30 to fix a safety system that could save her life plus rotating the tires which they did for no extra charge and it's a very cheap $30.
I understand that you think it's overpriced for something simple and it is when compared to doing it yourself on this specific car, but that seems to be a flat-rate price and not all cars are that simple to change a bulb. Some can get pretty involved. My local inspection station would charge slightly more for the same service so it's probably not as an excessive charge as you'd think.
And you get to save some time and effort with driving over to her, or her to you, buying bulbs and doing it yourself. In the meantime, your daughter is driving a slightly safer car with all 3 middle brakelight bulbs on instead of just 1, so that's a win.
And you get to save some time and effort with driving over to her, or her to you, buying bulbs and doing it yourself. In the meantime, your daughter is driving a slightly safer car with all 3 middle brakelight bulbs on instead of just 1, so that's a win.
You think that's bad, wait till you go to a nice restaurant... or a hospital!
I get that not all bulbs are simple to change and ones that do would cost more in labor. I was meeting her for lunch anyway so there really wasn't any time and effort on my part. I showed her how easy the bulb housing was to remove.
Anyway, I guess I'm just in the minority in thinking that it was a good deal like everyone else seems to think so. It's all good.
And they didn't really charge her $30. Somewhere $2.50-$3 of that would be tax they just collect and forward on, so more like $27 for the job.
Minimum wage in Missouri is still $11/hr, so if it takes you 4 hours to keep $30, then it kind of does seem like a lot for a pretty simple job... Probably most of us would feel a bit silly if we spent half a days pay on something quite simple to do yourself...
That's what got me into some basic part swapping auto repair, it seemed kind of dumb to pay half a days actual take home pay, for the convenience of not breaking out the tools myself for pretty simple jobs that I could do, or learn to do myself... Or paying the oil change place $200 to drain and replace $30 in fluids... For sure, its worth it to lots of people, but an average intelligence able bodied person can do basic maintenance if they want to keep some money for something else.
For sure $30 is nothing to lots of people, doesn't mean its nothing for everyone.
That's what got me into some basic part swapping auto repair, it seemed kind of dumb to pay half a days actual take home pay, for the convenience of not breaking out the tools myself for pretty simple jobs that I could do, or learn to do myself... Or paying the oil change place $200 to drain and replace $30 in fluids... For sure, its worth it to lots of people, but an average intelligence able bodied person can do basic maintenance if they want to keep some money for something else.
For sure $30 is nothing to lots of people, doesn't mean its nothing for everyone.
And now she'll know that for the future so it won't happen again. Get her involved with you when you do car repairs and maintenance. That'll pay dividends later on.
I recommend starting with taking her to an auto parts store and tell her to go inside and ask to buy a 1.21 GW flux capacitor. O'Reilly's should have them under part # 121g.
She does get involved when I work on her car. She helped me do the front brakes a couple of months ago. She has helped with doing oil changes and has helped me in the past when I've been working on my own cars.
She bought all of the brake parts by herself at O'Reilly's so she knows how to be involved. She could have changed the bulbs herself but she was at work when they called and she wasn't supposed to be talking on the phone so she just agreed to let them do it. She said after the fact that it was a dumb decision and she could have saved herself that money.
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