Is your mechanic cheating?

[scharmer05]

is outrageous. I will do my own oil changes thank you.

[PurdueGuy]

I'd seen pt 1 before, but not 2 & 3. Took them that long to fire those guys... yeah, that instills confidence. IMO, they had one chance to clean things up after the first time around (assuming that the corruption was from the district manager down), and they didn't do it. That puts upper management in question, and further confirms that, like sharmer, I'm going to continue doing my own oil changes.

[siegen]

Lol

Jiffy Lube and Mechanic are not two words that go together.

[Intrepidation]

Disgraceful. I hope they go out of business.

[regfootball]

i have great luck with VIOC but unfortunately the jiffy lube is real close to my house.

[american_revolution_2005]

That is absolutely disgusting and crooked. I work at Canadian Tire in the parts department but I look into the shop all of the time there. This never happens. I sign parts out even to go to the mechanics and they don't come back. Our shop does all work that is charged. I don't know if this can apply to just Jiffy Lubes or any mechanic. Our news station did the same things but with GM Goodwrench technicians a few years back and it was the same thing. I don't know if this is just lack of courtesy for customers in larger volume cities where they get more customers or not. Everything I see in our shop was payed for and all was done. If something else is needed as well we always show the customer. That budget system also disturbs me. They have that budget per customer? Yet they also have the signs outside saying $19.99 for the lube service. That is really awful of Jiffy Lube to create that system if it is true. I have never seen anything like that and would rather not. Luckily unlike some customers, I always get my car fixed when I am working. That way they can get in touch with me if anything happens or they need to do something else. Plus I can also keep an eye on them every once in a while to see that my work is being done. That doesn't mean I don't trust them but after seeing stuff like this it makes you wonder.

[mustang84]

Here's my experience with Jiffy Lube.

Last summer when one of the gasket seals blew on the Lumina, spraying coolant everywhere, so I limped it to a Jiffy Lube to get it fixed and barely made it before overheating the engine (I had buckets of water with me, but the five mile trip to Jiffy Lube sucked through them fast). At Jiffy Lube, I asked if they could repair it and they said yes, but I needed to pick up a gasket from an auto parts store. They pointed me toward O'Reilly which was about two miles down the road, but I said I didn't think the car could make it that far and asked if the Napa literally 500 feet away would have it. They said yeah, but he thought they would overcharge me. Honestly, I had no idea that the gasket was a $2.60 part, so I started driving to O'Reilly and after a block realized there was no way I would make it there without overheating the engine, so I drove back and walked down to Napa. If I had known it was that cheap, I wouldn't have even bothered trying to drive to O'Reilly. My thinking after the fact is that they were hoping I would overheat the engine or further damage the car to give them some extra business...apparently they didn't realize that I can read a temperature gauge!

Anyway, so I was there with the gasket and since I was living in Des Moines, I had no tools of my own and asked them if they could fix it since I was sorta stranded. The guy was kind of a grease ball and said yeah. I said what's your price? He said "I don't know, I'm poor." I looked at him and asked him again what his price was. Ten bucks he says. Obviously this was not on the books if we were having to negotiate a price, but I just wanted to get done so I could get out of there and get home. After he was done, they took it into the bay to inspect the engine and I asked if they could flush the water out and fill it with coolant. I was watching them from the window and there were three or four guys standing around the car, but I didn't seem like much was being done. About ten minutes later, the guy came in and said it was all done and I asked how much he was going to charge for the coolant and flush, he said nothing...it was on them and they just wanted my business again the next time I needed an oil change. I thought to myself that I change my own oil, but whatever.

After I left, I drove a little ways to an auto parts store and checked to see how much coolant they put in. To my surprise, they had touched not a single thing...didn't even flush the water out like I asked. That really pissed me off. For anyone that wants to know, this was the southside Jiffy Lube on SE 14th Street in Des Moines.