Jiffy Lube Attempted Rip Off

I worked at an independent 10 minute oil change in college.

I can honestly say we were never like jippy lube. We only did oil, wipers and air filters. It was a 2 car bay, waiting room and a 4x8' window for the 4 chair waiting room.

In the 15 years the owner had it, he never had to replace an engine. We vacuumed, check tire pressure, change oil, grease chassis, and washer fluid. Some customers would come in 3 times a month and literally had a tab with him.

The pit guy was on 1 guy allowed, he was a vested partner so not some dumb kid.

But JL will never touch my vehicle or my company 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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I took a 72 C10 to "Mr Transmission" in Asheville years ago. When cold it would have a long delay between shifting and going into gear, when warm it was fine. They said it needed a rebuild. When I picked it up it was fine. The next morning it had the exact same problem. I took it back and they seemed to fix what the problem was, without a "rebuild". No refund of not needed expense though. I never liked automatic transmissions, I couldn't work on them myself, and in years of experience most shops are crooks. I currently have a Chevrolet HHR panel that has some kind of issue, when it shifts back climbing a hill, it has very hard shifts from then on, and is always trying to shift far too early into the next gear. It shudders when coming to a stop, like it isn't shifting back, sometimes it will stall. I have learned to shift back manually when I think it needs it, I'm not getting screwed again, when that no longer works, junk yard time. I will go back to using my old rusty 91 S-10 Blazer with a 5 speed. It still is very reliable, got it tagged again for the winter. Salt brine sucks, I would rather use a pre-rusted vehicle than the other ones.
 
Had a quick lube place fail the inspection on my truck because they were convinced that the master break cylinder was leaking. I told them the truck had 200K on it and there was bound to be some wet spots here and there on the engine, but there were no drops forming from leaks, regardless they failed it, of course with a written estimate in hand on replacing the master brake cylinder. I went next door to AutoZone, bought a can of brake cleaner and sprayed the hell of it, cleaned it up nice. Brought it back and they passed it.
 
heavydoc said:
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!
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Jiffy Lube did the same to me once. I made it home and it started squealing. Shut it off, nothing on the stick and no leaks. I filled it back up, ran it a bit and changed it again, this time myself, and drove it a few more years.
Since then I found a locally owned shop that I trust. Even things I've asked about servicing they may tell me I don't need to. I used to do all my own maintenance, but these days find my time is better spent doing other things.
 
It is not just Jiffy Lube. The franchise dealers are sometimes just as bad, if not worse. Last year, I wrecked my Ram 1500. I wanted another pickup, but needed a more family friendly vehicle to commute to work and drive my kid to hockey tournaments up and down the east coast. So I started looking at midsize SUVs with decent gas mileage. I ended up getting a good deal on a brand new Kia Sorento at Fred Anderson Kia over on Glenwood Avenue by the Angus Barn in Raleigh. They even threw in "free" oil changes every 5000 miles. So, when I got right to 5000 miles, I took it back to the dealership to get the oil changed. The next day, as I am going out to go to work, I notice a nice shiny 16"-18" diameter puddle under the vehicle in my driveway. I look, stick my finger in it and it is fresh engine oil. So I call the dealership and they tell me to bring it back. I get there and when I pull up to the pull through entrance to the service department, I stop about a car length or two short of the door and park so that my engine is sitting on top of the nice white concrete crosswalk/walkway, and not the blacktop. I go inside and talk to the service guy. He basically tells me that I am an idiot and there is no way that my vehicle can be leaking oil. So I tell him to come outside and take a look. He walks out, gets down in front of my vehicle, and there is a 6" puddle of fresh oil on their nice, white concrete. with more dripping as he watches. So he cusses a minute, tells me to go have a seat and they will fix it. So I go into the waiting room and sit for another 30-45 minutes. The service guy eventually comes in and tells me that they are completely re-doing the oil change at no charge to me (how very generous of them!) and that my vehicle would be ready in a few minutes. I asked him what happened and he told me that they had a high school kid who wanted to be a mechanic "interning" in their service department, and that he had done the oil change on my vehicle and forgotten to tighten the oil plug down. So I asked him why they were letting unsupervised high school kids work on customer's cars without an adult checking his work? He had no answer for that, just another apology.
 
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East of Here said:
It is not just Jiffy Lube. The franchise dealers are sometimes just as bad, if not worse. Last year, I wrecked my Ram 1500. I wanted another pickup, but needed a more family friendly vehicle to commute to work and drive my kid to hockey tournaments up and down the east coast. So I started looking at midsize SUVs with decent gas mileage. I ended up getting a good deal on a brand new Kia Sorento at Fred Anderson Kia over on Glenwood Avenue by the Angus Barn in Raleigh. They even threw in "free" oil changes every 5000 miles. So, when I got right to 5000 miles, I took it back to the dealership to get the oil changed. The next day, as I am going out to go to work, I notice a nice shiny 16"-18" diameter puddle under the vehicle in my driveway. I look, stick my finger in it and it is fresh engine oil. So I call the dealership and they tell me to bring it back. I get there and when I pull up to the pull through entrance to the service department, I stop about a car length or two short of the door and park so that my engine is sitting on top of the nice white concrete crosswalk/walkway, and not the blacktop. I go inside and talk to the service guy. He basically tells me that I am an idiot and there is no way that my vehicle can be leaking oil. So I tell him to come outside and take a look. He walks out, gets down in front of my vehicle, and there is a 6" puddle of fresh oil on their nice, white concrete. with more dripping as he watches. So he cusses a minute, tells me to go have a seat and they will fix it. So I go into the waiting room and sit for another 30-45 minutes. The service guy eventually comes in and tells me that they are completely re-doing the oil change at no charge to me (how very generous of them!) and that my vehicle would be ready in a few minutes. I asked him what happened and he told me that they had a high school kid who wanted to be a mechanic "interning" in their service department, and that he had done the oil change on my vehicle and forgotten to tighten the oil plug down. So I asked him why they were letting unsupervised high school kids work on customer's cars without an adult checking his work? He had no answer for that, just another apology.
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That is how they can do 'free' oil changes for life.
 
I have a 2018 Nissan Altima with 43,000 that is used for work because the drive is 100 miles per day.
It sat in my yard for a few months during Covid With limited use.

Time came for a state inspection and an oil change.
Nissan had a special on the oil change so went to the dealer who had done some warrantee work a year earlier Without issue.
I waited for the car and after about 45 minutes they told me that they had not done the oil change and wanted approval to do an additional $1500 worth of work because the brakes were rusty.
They were surprised when I told them they were only authorized to do the oil change and and inspection, but since they hadn’t done the oil change just bill me for the inspection and give me my car back.
After about 30 minutes of “discussion“ I was charged for the inspection and got the car back. Without a failed sticker.

I then went to VIP - less than a mile away- to get the oil changed - military discount.
When they returned the car they said that they saw it was due for a sticker and they put one on it.
Since I was former military there was no charge for the sticker.

Nissan will never see me again. I took my truck to VIP for its oil change and free sticker.
 
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