Yet ANOTHER Iffy Lube horror story.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 6, 2015
Messages
1,974
Location
Stamford, CT
What The [censored], Jiffy Lube?

Andrew P Collins
Friday 4:34pm
· Filed to: Fail

(All images via anonymous Jalopnik reader.)

Lots of “quick oil change” joints like Jiffy Lube have pits in their floors so they can work on your car without lifting it. That’s all well and good until they actually do need to use the lift, and somebody royally screws it up.

A reader just sent in these pictures of their friend’s Honda Pilot, which appears to have fallen off a lift and right into this shop’s oil change pit.


We’re told the incident occurred last week at the Jiffy Lube in Towson, Maryland, which passed along the following through the company’s media office:


“We are investigating the situation thoroughly. However, we believe the incident may have been caused by the improper balance of the vehicle in the lift and removal of tire may have caused a shift in distribution of the vehicle. We are assessing to determine what additional training is necessary for our service center employees to ensure this does not happen again. Thankfully, no one was injured during the incident. The safety of our employees and customers as well as the integrity of the vehicle are always top priorities in operating our business.”

“We are currently working with the customer to return the vehicle to its original condition at the time of the service as quickly as possible. We deeply regret that this occurred.”




As our tipster tells it:

While in the waiting room, [the Pilot’s owner] hears a scream and a crash as her SUV topples off the lift into the oil changing pit. Took two tow-trucks, 4 jacks from underneath and in the pit and 4 hours to get the car out.”

Apparently the car was then taken to a Honda dealership to determine the extent of the damage, but not before the staff at Jiffy Lube assured the Pilot’s owner “that once they got the car out and the wheels back on, she could just drive it home and be fine.”

I mean, maybe it would have been fine, but I probably wouldn’t have been in a rush to shrug this off myself.

The takeaway here is to take your car’s service seriously! That might not mean doing the work yourself, but be careful about... oh [censored], who are we kidding. An oil change and tire rotation is so simple you should be able to get it done at a kid’s lemonade stand without worrying about your car being totaled. Somebody [censored] up hard here, and I sincerely hope this Honda’s owner gets recompense one way or another.

Be careful about where you get your car wrenched on.
 
Last edited:
This is the part that really burns me up...


Apparently the car was then taken to a Honda dealership to determine the extent of the damage, but not before the staff at Jiffy Lube assured the Pilot’s owner “that once they got the car out and the wheels back on, she could just drive it home and be fine.”



The absolute gall of these JL people, which could have possibly put the woman owner in serious danger of injury or death...


qu0qxaxxixua8unmzafa.jpg
They need to FIRE the manager at that store pronto!
 
Last edited:
I see improperly lifted vehicles all the time, not just jiffy lube. Like a vehicle positioned too far one way or another on the lift about to fall off if someone pushed on it hard enough.
 
The sad thing is that vehicle is old and isn't worth anything, the poor lady will get a check for $5000 unless she sues.
 
I also see one of the tires flipped wheel side down, probably starching the heck out of the finish. I feel bad for this lady, hopefully she will never use one of these places again.
 
Jiffy Lube will continue to be a successful franchise despite these rubbernecker stories.
 
Three things I'd rather do than bring any of my vehicles to Jiffy Lube:

1. Put a cigarette out in my eye.

2. Stare at the sun with a pair of binoculars.

3. Punch a hornet's nest at Point Blank range.
 
Originally Posted By: montero1
Three things I'd rather do than bring any of my vehicles to Jiffy Lube:

1. Put a cigarette out in my eye.

2. Stare at the sun with a pair of binoculars.

3. Punch a hornet's nest at Point Blank range.


Thank you sir for the laugh!
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Accidents happen, no one was killed and $5-6k vehicle was likely totaled.


It really ISN'T an "accident" it is the result of incompetent and or sloppy workmanship!
 
I'm sure Jiffy Libe provides little to no standarized training for its employees. It's all "on the job" training and most of that training is centered around upselling extras.


Many moons ago I worked for a national fast food restaurant. One evening I was closing and I offered to service all of the deep fryers. This involved filtering the oil and scrubbing the fryer vats. I liked this job because it was time consuming and I didn't have to deal with customers or other [censored]. Anyway, the girl in charge said no. I asked again and assured her that I was famiar with the procedure. She adamantly said no again and explained that she wasn't trained on fryer cleaning. Apparently the company policy was that the MOD had to have completed the training themselves before they could delegate the task to another employee even if that employee was trained. I'm sure jiffy lube has policies like this but they're often overlooked.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Accidents happen, no one was killed and $5-6k vehicle was likely totaled.


It really ISN'T an "accident" it is the result of incompetent and or sloppy workmanship!


Your idea of an accident must be something special. This is no different than a traffic accident, like somebody being incompetent in their driving, running a red light and plowing into this SUV. There are literally thousands more scenarios that this car could've made it's end, all cause by some level of incompetence, but all would've been called "an accident".
 
LOL @ people making a big deal of this. millions of cars serviced, a few mistakes. That Honda looks like it's barely touching the ground. Probably has hit speed bumps at the mall harder.
 
Originally Posted By: Gasbuggy
LOL @ people making a big deal of this. millions of cars serviced, a few mistakes. That Honda looks like it's barely touching the ground. Probably has hit speed bumps at the mall harder.


Plenty of incidents you don't hear about because the shop pays off the victim immediately. It looked like in this case this place wanted to
slap the wheels back on the car and send her off, which could have put her life in danger..
 
Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel



qu0qxaxxixua8unmzafa.jpg


That doesn't look like the hub, brake disk, and drive shaft aren't touching something near the pit entrance?!?!?! It does to me...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top