Jiffy Lube Attempted Rip Off

Etruett

Etruett

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Today I took my company car to Jiffy Lube for service. Never liked them, but it’s the only place nearby I’ve found that accepts our fleet card and actually they have a fleet account with Enterprise who supplies the cars. I noticed a complete new crew. The previous guys just did what I asked and sent me down the road. Today this little girl came running out so overly friendly and talkative I was getting tired just dealing with her. I ask for an oil change and tire rotation same as previous trips. Sat down in the waiting room and started working on my iPad. About 10 minutes later I looked out and laid out on the floor in front of my car was an oil filter, air filter, wiper blades and a serpentine belt. They had already installed one wiper blade and was taking the other one off. I stepped out and asked what was going on. Miss bubbly said it’s ok, they will approve everything. I told her to put it all back up and take the new wiper blades off because i Didn’t need them or any of the other stuff other than the oil filter. She got a little pissed and told me again it was no problem, the fleet would approve all of it. She pouted and started putting the crap back. I checked the maintenance schedule and it did say air filter should be replaced at 30k miles. Since I had 32k, I told her it was ok to replace but nothing else. At that point twonof the 3 that was working on the car walked away. Not sure why, but the fast service all of a sudden went into slow motion. Finally they finished and the manager came in to talk to me. He showed me on his computer where certain products and services were pre approved including all they intended to put on mine. I pointed out it also said IF NEEDED and made it clear no one asked me if I needed wiper blades or anything else, that all the stuff was brought out before even lifting the hood. That’s when he responded, “what do you care? It’s not your money”. I almost lost it. After some choice words about them planning on doing non requested work and how I was damn thankful for a company vehicle that I felt responsible for treating as it was my own, he said he didn’t understand my not wanting to do everything the company would pay for. Probably should have just left but found myself telling him that was why being a middle age man, the highest he had climbed on the career ladder was the manager of a Jiffy Lube. I’ve heard complaints before about these places trying to oversell but this was my first experience and it royally pissed me off.
 
Wife too our “fleet” to Take5 last Saturday. To say I was disappointed with what they did would be “politically correct”. 🤬
 
My nephew took my old truck to one of those places after we gave it to him to get the oil changed, they drained the oil, changed the filter, but failed to put oil back in. Engine locked shortly there after. They refused all liability!
 
“It’s not your money”
Etruett said:
Probably should have just left but found myself telling him that was why being a middle age man, the highest he had climbed on the career ladder was the manager of a Jiffy Lube. I’ve heard complaints before about these places trying to oversell but this was my first experience and it royally pissed me off.
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"Its not your money, why do you care."

That line pisses me off to no end.
 
Employees get commission, store makes profits, that's their motivation, they see fleets as easy pickins figure nobody is checking the invoice. They'll do the same to anyone they think doesn't know better, many dealerships are worse, they'll try threatening your warranty coverage.
 
My dad was down in Charleston with my mom for a long weekend last October. While down there, he needed to get an oil change and stopped at a jiffy lube. Apparently, they suck the oil out through the dipstick on most vehicles now. Somehow, the tube got stuck and they broke it off trying to remove it. They ended up damaging the dipstick connection and finally gave up and told my dad. Fortunately, he got everything in writing on his receipt. It ended up taking almost 2 months dealing with corporate to get it fixed at the local dealership. Ended up costing $4000 because they had to remove the engine in his Acadia Denali to take the oil pan off and remove the tube. He got it back the week before his previously ordered BMW X5 came in.
 
I had a lady come in to the dealership about a month ago complaining about her transmission. I wrote the work order and sent it to the shop. The tech came up a few minutes later and told me that he found the problem. She had the wrong transmission fluid in it and the transmission was ruined. The fluid was full of metal shavings.
Turns out, she had taken it to a quick lube place. The quick lube place sent a guy over to look at it. After finally agreeing that they had screwed up, the quick lube place ended up paying $8,300 for a remanufactured transmission. Sometimes saving a few bucks by not going to the dealership can cost quite a bit more in the long run. I forget what the cost of a new tranny was but it was way more than $8,300!
 
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Coworker had new transmission installed in his truck, the Jiffy Lube young sweet thang comes out to talk to him, shows him the ATF dipstick on white towel and that the fluid should be changed and flushed. WTF, Cornell tells her to put that back where it came from because that transmission has a warranty and jut change the oil and filter.
In 1995 I rebuilt the 4cyl engine (rings, bearings, etc) in the '85 Tempo my wife owned, needed inspection only so I'd use Jiffy. Young idiot comes out with some small booklet (not an official NC DMV book) and tells me I tampered with the fog pump on the engine. Spent time trying to educate the idiot and even his POS manager agreed with the idiot. Showed them the decal on the hood and nowhere is a fog pump, this engine had silicone hoses from exhaust to intake manifold so no reason for a fog pump. I left w/o the inspection and they kept my registration! I get letter from DMV that I need to have the car examined by DMV officer. Wasted my time and the officer said the JL guys were idiots.
I replaced the engine in my '85 Horizon in 1998 with one from a 1995 vehicle, another JL guy runs to his manager 'he has a 1995 engine in there'!
Manager said so what, it goes by the year of the car not the engine. Manager was good guy.
 
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Beef15 said:
Employees get commission, store makes profits, that's their motivation, they see fleets as easy pickins figure nobody is checking the invoice. They'll do the same to anyone they think doesn't know better, many dealerships are worse, they'll try threatening your warranty coverage.
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You are right. I’m positive if I had let them have their way and signed the ticket, it would have gone right through and not one word said. Maybe it’s not my money but I’m guessing wiper blades and serpentine belt would have cost the company $150 at least. My division has approximately 1500 cars. At just $100 per car overcharged that would be $150k. That’s a lot no matter how big the company is.
 
It’s about 4 miles from Take5 to our garage. Monday, I drove about 8 more miles. While I was gone, my wife found this on the garage floor. By the time I arrived back at Take5 (12 miles driven and 48 hours), more than 1/2 quart had disappeared.

0EAA39AC-BFB1-4B9A-BDF6-24C9E5C31C40.jpeg
 
Etruett said:
You are right. I’m positive if I had let them have their way and signed the ticket, it would have gone right through and not one word said. Maybe it’s not my money but I’m guessing wiper blades and serpentine belt would have cost the company $150 at least. My division has approximately 1500 cars. At just $100 per car overcharged that would be $150k. That’s a lot no matter how big the company is.
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It's a danged shame that there are so few good employees such as as yourself in the world. It's a shame. I bet very few bat an eye about what they are doing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's "not YOUR money". But it is YOUR company property. In YOUR care. As a representative of whoever you work for you are the steward of any item, tool, information, whatever it may be. An employee is given tools to do their job. From a shovel to a private plane. An individual should take care of any item entrusted to their care.
 
JL: "OK, sir, here's your bill for the oil change, tire rotation, air filter, windshield wipers, and serpentine belt."

Etruett: "Here's $75. Thanks for the complimentary wiper blades, air filter, and serpentine belt. I didn't realize you were running a special today!"
 
Our techs send the customer a video of what they see on the car, worn tires, brakes, dirty filters, leaks, etc. They explain any recommendations and then I call them or go talk to them if they are waiting at the dealership. The customers love the transparency of it all. It usually sells itself but some folks still leave with brake pads measuring 3mm or less and even tires with cord showing! I don't hard sell anyone, just show them their options and let them decide if they want us to fix it or they can take it somewhere else. We do tell them up front that there is a labor charge for any diagnosis that they request unless they have us fix it and then the diagnostic charge goes towards their repair. You wouldn't believe how many people think that our techs should spend an hour diagnosing a problem and then they take it somewhere else to get fixed and they think that we shouldn't charge them anything for our time.
 
Etruett said:
You are right. I’m positive if I had let them have their way and signed the ticket, it would have gone right through and not one word said. Maybe it’s not my money but I’m guessing wiper blades and serpentine belt would have cost the company $150 at least. My division has approximately 1500 cars. At just $100 per car overcharged that would be $150k. That’s a lot no matter how big the company is.
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Yep. This represents a headcount, or holiday bonuses, or being able to replace some broken tools…

They are trying to line their company’s pockets at the expense of your company and ultimately that impacts you or someone you work with.
 
Jeppo said:
It’s about 4 miles from Take5 to our garage. Monday, I drove about 8 more miles. While I was gone, my wife found this on the garage floor. By the time I arrived back at Take5 (12 miles driven and 48 hours), more than 1/2 quart had disappeared.

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You are such a great guy. You are keeping the roads and your garage floor from rusting!
 
SPST said:
I had a lady come in to the dealership about a month ago complaining about her transmission. I wrote the work order and sent it to the shop. The tech came up a few minutes later and told me that he found the problem. She had the wrong transmission fluid in it and the transmission was ruined. The fluid was full of metal shavings.
Turns out, she had taken it to a quick lube place. The quick lube place sent a guy over to look at it. After finally agreeing that they had screwed up, the quick lube place ended up paying $8,300 for a remanufactured transmission. Sometimes saving a few bucks by not going to the dealership can cost quite a bit more in the long run. I forget what the cost of a new tranny was but it was way more than $8,300!
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$8,300 for a tranny, was she driving a dump truck?
 
Etruett said:
Today I took my company car to Jiffy Lube for service. Never liked them, but it’s the only place nearby I’ve found that accepts our fleet card and actually they have a fleet account with Enterprise who supplies the cars. I noticed a complete new crew. The previous guys just did what I asked and sent me down the road. Today this little girl came running out so overly friendly and talkative I was getting tired just dealing with her. I ask for an oil change and tire rotation same as previous trips. Sat down in the waiting room and started working on my iPad. About 10 minutes later I looked out and laid out on the floor in front of my car was an oil filter, air filter, wiper blades and a serpentine belt. They had already installed one wiper blade and was taking the other one off. I stepped out and asked what was going on. Miss bubbly said it’s ok, they will approve everything. I told her to put it all back up and take the new wiper blades off because i Didn’t need them or any of the other stuff other than the oil filter. She got a little pissed and told me again it was no problem, the fleet would approve all of it. She pouted and started putting the crap back. I checked the maintenance schedule and it did say air filter should be replaced at 30k miles. Since I had 32k, I told her it was ok to replace but nothing else. At that point twonof the 3 that was working on the car walked away. Not sure why, but the fast service all of a sudden went into slow motion. Finally they finished and the manager came in to talk to me. He showed me on his computer where certain products and services were pre approved including all they intended to put on mine. I pointed out it also said IF NEEDED and made it clear no one asked me if I needed wiper blades or anything else, that all the stuff was brought out before even lifting the hood. That’s when he responded, “what do you care? It’s not your money”. I almost lost it. After some choice words about them planning on doing non requested work and how I was damn thankful for a company vehicle that I felt responsible for treating as it was my own, he said he didn’t understand my not wanting to do everything the company would pay for. Probably should have just left but found myself telling him that was why being a middle age man, the highest he had climbed on the career ladder was the manager of a Jiffy Lube. I’ve heard complaints before about these places trying to oversell but this was my first experience and it royally pissed me off.
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Yeah, every shop with one exception locally I have ever taken the company car to tried to pull that crap. When the Jiffy lube oil change was taking forever I asked what was up. The guy said they got the company to approve a few more things. Including a brake job. I told him stop all the crap right now. I do not have time for all that today, and if you ever start work without MY approval I’ll never cone here again. Dude waddled away and Mgr apologized before I left. They’ve been good since then. Although there‘s been some employee turnover so that may have helped.
 
The Valvoline that I take my fleet truck to is awesome. I’ve had several instances where I come in for an oil change or the like and they will ask me about other things that are authorized at that moment.
 
The Columbine killers worked at jiffy lube . They had 5 quart days. No matter how much or what kind of oil they put in 5 quarts. They also had h334 day. One oil filter for all cars even if they had to beat it on.
Every franchise has a fund to replace one motor a quarter. These clowns blew out a dozen or more motors before it was figured out.
 
Jeppo said:
It’s about 4 miles from Take5 to our garage. Monday, I drove about 8 more miles. While I was gone, my wife found this on the garage floor. By the time I arrived back at Take5 (12 miles driven and 48 hours), more than 1/2 quart had disappeared.

View attachment 421835
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wrecked gasket on the oil pan drain plug, or just not tightened right?
I had a spot like that show up once. i was at my friend's place and he spotted it before i did. step 1 was me asking "can i borrow a 15mm socket wrench right quick?"
not sure how I didn't tighten it enough, but i've been known to get distracted from time to time.
 
Button Pusher said:
I'm fortunate to do all my own work except for tires, alignments and inspections. Years ago I got ripped of once and that will never happen again
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Same here. I’ve had enough bad experiences with shops either not caring or not being knowledgeable enough to fix an issue, that I do as much as I possibly can in my 2 car garage.
I bought a TPMS programmer after 4 different shops couldn’t fix a TPMS light on my wife’s 4Runner. I went back to the last one, explained to them that they failed, how the system actually worked, how I fixed it, and that I wanted my money back. I got a brief apology and friendly refund.


As for the OP, the mentality of “why do you care, you’re not paying for it” is simply infuriating!! These are the same people who think the government is giving them something for free. In this example, they’re just milking it because they know they can and it helps them hit their sales number; zero integrity.
 
I do all my service work and as much repair work as I can. I use only one inspection shop. I have told my wife and daughters that when they were getting inspections and was told something needed to be taken care of, tell them to "FAIL" it and I will take care of the problem and take it back for re-inspection. Never had any issuses.
 
I only take my vehicles to those places for inspection. I don’t see how a 10 minute oil change is good. I like to get as much old oil out of my engine as possible and usually let it drain for 20 minutes or so.
 
What amazes me is how many shops will fail something that isn't a safety issue AND they aren't even able to repair it. No common sense at all. Just trained (incorrectly most of the time) doing what they were told by some booger picker.

I have worked in the office at a repair shop for the last 15 years and the stories customers tell that went to the wrong place would be funny if not so sad.
 
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There is a shop near me that will put new wiper blades on every car that comes in. I brought a car up there for an inspection. The car had just gotten a new battery and I hadn't put enough miles on it to pass the inspection so it failed. When I went to pick it up the guy gave me a bill for new wiper blades. Even after failing the car.

The wiper blades were only three months old. They were like new. There was still a receipt for them in the glove box.

I told the guy behind the counter that I didn't authorize the replacement and I would not be paying for them. He just said "well we thought it was going to pass" I told him I wasn't paying for them again and said I'm getting ready to leave. Either you will comp them for free or you will give me back my property. He said "well they are already in the dumpster"

THEN GO START DIGGING!!!!!

he sent another employee to go fetch them out of the trash. After the guy got them out I forbade him from touching the car again. I took the ones that just came out of the dumpster into the office and showed them to the guy behind the counter. I asked him what was wrong with them. They were obviously brand new. His response was "are those the ones that came off of your car?"

I told him I don't really know. But I just watched your employee dig them out of the dumpster and they fit my car. If they weren't from my car then you screwed someone else just the same. Ended up going to get the receipt for them to show a purchase date and match the brand.

I took the new blades off and dropped them right there in the parking lot. Put mine back on and left.

the guy behind the counter and the dumpster diver are brothers. They are also the owners of the company. The one who had to get my property out of the trash was literally yelling profanity at me across the parking lot.

i have stopped a LOT of people from going to them. Its also my most popular Google review.
 
CZfool68 said:
Yeah, every shop with one exception locally I have ever taken the company car to tried to pull that crap. When the Jiffy lube oil change was taking forever I asked what was up. The guy said they got the company to approve a few more things. Including a brake job. I told him stop all the crap right now. I do not have time for all that today, and if you ever start work without MY approval I’ll never cone here again. Dude waddled away and Mgr apologized before I left. They’ve been good since then. Although there‘s been some employee turnover so that may have helped.
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I haven't had that pulled on me yet. Usually I'll bring my car in for something specific to be fixed, the service department will inspect it to find out what it'll take to fix it, then throw in a bunch of other stuff that ought to be worked on.

When they show me the print out, I only authorize what I brought the vehicle in for. Most of the other stuff is something I wouldn't have done for one reason or another...something I can do, something that doesn't need to be done (I don't do flushes, for example), or something that would be nice to fix but isn't worth the expense. One time the total of everything on their list probably exceeded the book value of my 2005 LeSabre.

Nobody ever gets upset when I tell them only the thing I wanted to have fixed. They just fix it and move on.
 
Crankbait said:
I only take my vehicles to those places for inspection. I don’t see how a 10 minute oil change is good. I like to get as much old oil out of my engine as possible and usually let it drain for 20 minutes or so.
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What you want isn't just the oil...you want everything that's in the oil. Which means don't change your oil when the engine is cold. Cold as in "hasn't been run for the day" thing.

Part of what the oil is supposed to do is maintain crud in suspension so that it can be circulated through the filter to be removed. But when the engine has sat for a while, anything which may be suspended in the oil since the last time it was run may have time to settle out somewhat. If your using a quality filter, of course, that stuff will be really fine. But still, you want it in suspension when you drain the oil. So you want the engine to have been at least running long enough to come up to temperature sometime during the day so that you can be sure any such material is still suspended in the oil when you change it later.

As for how long to drain...I drain until the oil starts dripping.
 
Etruett said:
You are right. I’m positive if I had let them have their way and signed the ticket, it would have gone right through and not one word said. Maybe it’s not my money but I’m guessing wiper blades and serpentine belt would have cost the company $150 at least. My division has approximately 1500 cars. At just $100 per car overcharged that would be $150k. That’s a lot no matter how big the company is.
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Copy that. We got 2 new company vehicles one time and the boss sent me to the dealer to get enuff oil, air and fuel filters for 2 changes on both vehicles. The price tag on the 2 vehicles was north of 300k. I still called the boss and got his approval after the told me the price for what I asked for was over $600.


Pogue said:
Sounds shady, but as a middle age man who’s only climbed to a mechanic’s position, what do I know…
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Lol, Well I am retired(forced to from Injuries) and I only ever made it to a road mechanic(pardon me, a field service representatives) position. But I dare say I made more than most who sit at a desk.
 
Couple stories from when I owned my shop.

Before we did inspections, we put a transmission in a customers vehicle. Customer went to the quick lube the next week to get an inspection. It's typical for them to "check over" a vehicle to see if it needs anything when any vehicle comes in for any reason. They brought a vial of trans fluid out that was black as night and burnt. Customer told them "It's under warranty, don't service anything". Customer came back to us and we showed him his fluid is as clean as new fluid.

Second story. I did a front and rear brake job on my wife's car. She had to take it to the dealer for a recall on it and it needed an inspection as well (we still didn't do inspections at that time). They failed it for brakes. I lost my crap on whoever answered the phone in the service dept when I called them.
 
They don't call it "Jippy Lube" for nothing. They are also responsible for creating and fostering the 3000-mile oil change mentality.

I am very lucky to have a great independent shop less than 2 miles away. Seven quarts of synthetic blend and a filter, plus tire rotation is $48.00. (I get my tires there, so rotations are free for the life of the tires.) No way I'm crawling under my truck when I can get it done that cheap, and these guys are seasoned pros who are less likely to make a mistake than I am. The downside is that I have to leave it there for a day, but it's worth that little bit of inconvenience. If my wife is busy and can't pick me up when I drop it off, one of the guys will use my truck to drive me home.

But, nobody puts a wrench on my motorcycles but me.
 
Needed inspection on my car up north in 1985, Firestone guy says wipers are bad, I had older set as spare in trunk but told him get the refills.
They changed both blades $35. Told him I wanted the old parts back, the hand then to me with the rubber peeled back like a banana. Asked why not just the refills, said they were out of stock. I got upset and told him you got the exhaust for the pickup over there from NAPA.
Sent letter to Firestone President, wrote that the Firestone brand has been tarnished for their poor business practices. Got a check with full refund in the mail. Never went back.
 
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Schattenreiter said:
Copy that. We got 2 new company vehicles one time and the boss sent me to the dealer to get enuff oil, air and fuel filters for 2 changes on both vehicles. The price tag on the 2 vehicles was north of 300k. I still called the boss and got his approval after the told me the price for what I asked for was over $600.





Lol, Well I am retired(forced to from Injuries) and I only ever made it to a road mechanic(pardon me, a field service representatives) position. But I dare say I made more than most who sit at a desk.
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I've made more than my boss quite a number of times.

He gets straight time pay if he goes into overtime. I get time and a half. When you're putting in hundreds of hours of OT a year, it's easy to rake it in.
 
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