Posted on 07/19/2007 3:30:58 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
Not even that. They solidly rip you off. If I have to drive an extra 10 miles I will do it, but I will only get my oil changed at WalMart Tire & Lube.
I only use Mobil-1 10w-30 synthetic so it makes a big difference.
I watch my tires being rotated. But then it’s free anyway since I buy all my tires from the same place.
If you are familiar with ‘Just Brakes’..their advertised rate as visible from the road is $99 for a brake job — shoes, pads..whatever. When all was said and done and the keys handed to me, I was a good six hundred dollars poorer.
A lot of it depends on the size of your engine/ oil pan too, when I changed from a 92 Sentra to an 04 my oil changes went up in price, then the overall oil price increased and my oil changes got more expensive again. I don’t know about more fun, I did an oil change once, blech.
I was just there Saturday and the manager honored an expired coupon for a FREE oil change for another customer.
AND NO I am not a Jiffy Lube Franchisee. (:^D)
Many years ago, I took my car to this place called “All Tune and Lube” for an oil change, and they ended up charging me for “replacing a bad spark plug wire” (WTF???)...and they put this blue wire in there that didn’t even match the others, and was way too long...it ended up flopping onto the exhaust manifold and melting...what a bunch of morons.
Needless to say I never went back there, and told everyone I knew to never go there.
I do take special delight in busting fraudsters like that nowadays...it’s great to watch them squirm like the little worms they are.
The problem is there are way too many people who wouldn’t lower themselves to getting their hands dirty and doing the menial work. If they’re that snooty, well, they’re taking their chances. They can’t complain when it happens, then.
OTOH, there are some old people just not capable of doing that kind of thing themselves, but they should be going to their own mechanic and having him look at the stuff while he’s under the hood anyway.
All these franchise places are highly skilled at charging for “extras” like putting the things on your car. I’m glad my wife had found a very good ABS guy (police departments three towns over use this guy, and this is the west three towns is a long way to tow a vehicle for a brake job) and he hooked us into the good mechanic pipeline.
Well...when they told me my rotor was ruined.....I didn’t know that I could of only had one replaced. They did all 4. I won’t even get into the refrigerator guy....I was so mad I reported him to the better business bureau and called their shop asking them to reimburse me for over charges and they said Nope. It’s alwyas that way....they don’t tell you your salary of others. In my last job they paid me literally $20,000 less than the guys!!! And more of the guys did not have a bachelors degree like me!! I am not lying....I am still livid.
Yes, I’ve always had good dealings with Jiffy Lube here in Chicago.
The Jiffy Lube in Burbank was caught big time last year....they replaced everyone and brought some manager in from Orange County....also installed these giant plasma tvs with cameras on each bay.
My car still is around 36k miles...so they havent pushed any of the extra crap on me. I just get oil changes.
I’ve had reasonably good luck w/ Jiffy Lube
Oh, I take my vehicles to them all the time. Oh course since they are supposed to be "quick" I don't just drop them off. And I don't hang out in their waiting room. I usually stand around watching them.
Funny though, they never ask to clean my K&N air filter.
I used to have a neighborhood mechanic I went to that I could trust (grew up with the guy). Chief mechanic at an independent Shell station 5 minutes from my house. Their repair business was always hopping, everyone in the area knew them and took their cars there for the minor stuff. It was really one of the only garages in the area.
Shell forced the independent out and it became a company store. They were going to take out the garage bays and turn the space into a convenience store. Now it should be noted that at that intersection, there was a Speedway, and a Village Pantry. There was a grocery store and a CVS. But only the one mechanical garage.
Shell's business dried up. (I stopped going there for any reason.) They started to rethink their brilliant decision to take out the bays (they hadn't yet made the transition) and after several months they were working on cars again.
But the damage was done, while they did get a few cars to work on now and then, probably from n00bs to the area who didn't know any better; all the old customers were gone, even for gas.
I think they're going to put in the convenience store again, but I will never patronize that place again. Or any Shell for that matter if I can help it.
Business' can be really stupid. Don't *iss (lie to, steal from etc.) off your customers!
I agree with your tagline.
He’s a twit.
A mechanic that you have to stand around and watch isn’t that useful though, if you have to be that involved in the process you might as well just do it yourself.
It is a shame when bad business decisions kill good things. Good mechanics are hard enough to find that once you develop the reputation you shouldn’t mess with it. Of course Shell isn’t well known for their farsighted business decisions.
Well, since Jiffy Lube gets busted for these antics with great regularity, I'm guessing their "investigation" is pretty minimal.
I thanked him for his diligence and told him that I would take it back to Ford for warranty work. The Ford mechanics laughed themselves silly and showed me the real lube from the rear differential. It was fine.
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