Jiffy Lube and EZ Lube scamming customers!

[GMFan]

The scary thing is that dealerships pull the same kind of garbage, although the good ones don't.

When it comes to your health you wouldn't go to a drive through for quick surgery. When it comes to healthy eating, you don't drive up to a takeout window. When it comes to your car, don't do it either.

Find a mechanic who has a reputation to uphold (mom and pop place) and has enough integrity to tell you straight. Those chain places could care less about your satisfaction because they will always have the next customer driving up looking to get that dreaded car maintenance done.

Just like you wouldn't let an idiot babysit your child, don't let idiots repair your car.

IMHO, they shouldn't even bother going after the managers of those places. Somebody is obviously training them to rehearse those "every 15,000 mile" lines.'

"Only an idiot lets a fool keep their money." <-- think about that one for a minute....blood will shoot out of your nose!

 

[sparkplug]

Ugh, Jiffy Lube needs to be shut down. Then again its partially the customers fault for not reading the owners manual.

 

[PT1]

Juffy Lube...is the ACORN of auto repair...

anybody who takes their car to one of those shops after all the repeated scam videos shown nationwide is an idiot. I will NEVER use one of those places ever.

 

[tonycarguy]

Come on, why is anyone surprised? You CANNOT make a profit selling oil changes for $15 to $25. The labor, materials, rent, liability insurance, disposal, and utilities exceeds this. They'd probably have to charge $45 to make a reasonable profit and not need to upsell anything. Their business model is to take a loss or barely break even on the oil change, and make money on other services.

The oil change is their loss-leader. It gets customers into the shop. Just like when the supermarket sells milk at a loss for $2.

 

[Spector]

Dealers are just as bad at pushing these services!

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: tonycarguy
Come on, why is anyone surprised? You CANNOT make a profit selling oil changes for $15 to $25. The labor, materials, rent, liability insurance, disposal, and utilities exceeds this. They'd probably have to charge $45 to make a reasonable profit and not need to upsell anything. Their business model is to take a loss or barely break even on the oil change, and make money on other services.

The oil change is their loss-leader. It gets customers into the shop. Just like when the supermarket sells milk at a loss for $2.


I see your point, but is the supermarket scamming you in to buying other stuff? No you can just walk in, grab the milk and go out.

You are justifying lying to the customers and scamming them into products/services they don't need for the sake of making a profit. This business model is just wrong and should not even be allowed, as it puts unfair competition to legitimate places by undercutting the basic maintenance.

Would it be OK for me to go and rob a bank just because my job only pays the bills and I don't have any money left over? Of course not, but when a business essentially does the same, it's ok, they have to make a profit.

And you can't exactly blame the customers, although just reading the owner's manual would save them from unneeded services, but not everybody knows cars and you just can't prey on these people.

 

[PT1]

Yeah, the cashier at the Supermarket isn't telling you your doctor says you need to eat yogurt every week in order to live longer.

 

[Scdevon]

These crooked places love to use buzz words like "flush". All I've ever done to any of my vehicles is drain and refill fluids and dispose of the used fluids in an environmentally responsible manner.

They try to brainwash people into thinking everything on your car needs to be "flushed" with high dollar equipment for your vehicle to last.

They're really good at flushing people's wallets and not much else. I agree with the other poster. If anyone's offering oil changes for less than, say, $50, I'd be very suspicious about their business model and their need to sell you useless, overpriced junk you don't need to make up the difference.

 

[StevieC]

IMO Flushes are only needed when someone hasn't "Looked after" their engine. So if it causes it to seize because it releases goop due to lack of maintenance in the past then I think that should be the owner "Idiot Tax". With the exception of the sludge monsters in the early 2000's.

 

[Liquid_Turbo]

It's entirely unacceptable. It's a scam. There's no other way around it. You guys are talking about pushing services customers don't need, but what about the customers NOT GETTING any service at all?! Paying hundreds of dollars for a new fuel pump, but nothing gets installed.

I feel sorry for these people. It's just simply another "caveat emptor". Buyer Beware!

 

[daves87rs]

It's all marketing. It's simple-You get what tiy pay for.

 

[firemachine69]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: punisher
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
It's definitely bad that they are lying about what is recommended, but they probably should have left transmission flushes out of it. A transmission flush with the correct ATF is beneficial and should be done regularly on most vehicles.


I don't really agree with that. The trans flush machines I used never actually replaced all of the fluid, and never replaced the filter either. I can understand if you have a transaxle that has no pan or accessible filter or ability to drain the converter. Otherwise a transflush is really pointless. If you are going to do the job, do it right.


Replacing most of the fluid is better than replacing a few quarts of fluid. A lot of vehicles don't have a way to drain the converter. As for the pan/filter, you can always do a flush then change the filter if it's due.

I do believe in doing the job right...which is why I want to change as much of the fluid as possible. I have had two trucks with automatics and have never had to do any transmission repair of any kind.



There's a specific protocol in the Toyota Yaris shop manual for such a full drain - which is interesting, considering that as far as I know, it's the ONLY current 'yota with such a procedure to drain the TC.

I know I can do the TC drain myself - but it requires recalibration afterwards on a Toyota machine (at their $89/hr. rate). I'll gladly pay the extra fifty bucks for Toyota to properly drop my pan, flush it all out, and fill it back up, and recalibrate it. Somethings in life aren't worth the hassles for the extra fifty dollars.

(Now don't anyone go spewing Magnuson-Moss rhethoric. We are completely at the mercy of dealers and manufacturers in Canada.)

 

[cjhepburn]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
It's definitely bad that they are lying about what is recommended, but they probably should have left transmission flushes out of it. A transmission flush with the correct ATF is beneficial and should be done regularly on most vehicles. I hope people don't interpret the news story as saying "never do anything to the transmission fluid, ever," but they probably will.

I don't ever remember doing any "engine flushes" when I worked at JL.

They are not saying don’t do transmission flushes just don’t use the machine to flush. Apparently it could damage the valves in the transmission.
Honda, for example, has a step by step approach for flushing the transmission which involves multiple drain/run cycles.

 

[1999nick]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
In the video, they show a picture of an engine that is severely sludged, as if most every vehicle on the road has a similarly sludged engine, and will die if an engine flush is performed. That is obviously not the case. Dishonesty on both sides of the story, IMO.
If you used syn oil and changed it every 3,000

miles there would be little if any sludge!!!

If you changed your oil every 3,000 miles, or even 4,000 or 5,000, using most name brands of dino, your engine should be nice and clean. If you are using REAL synthetic, you should be good for 10,000 plus miles, or one year.

 

[Audi Junkie]

My older Honda CRV manual has the trans flush instruction written right there.

 

[KrisZ]

That's what really bothers me with the new cars, they have less and less instuctions in the owner's manuals.

Not too long ago I was trying to help a guy at Mazda 3 forums with his maintenance question. He was concerned that not changing oil at the dealer or mechanic will void his warranty, I replied that how can it void the warranty if the owner's manual specifically says you can change your oil and coolant, and has instructions how to do it. I found out that my 06 manual is different from his 08 manual, Mazda revised the manual for 08 and there is no instructions on how to change the oil or coolant, just a blurb, that some maintenance items can be performed by the owner, but the preference is Mazda dealer.

 

[Scdevon]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
That's what really bothers me with the new cars, they have less and less instuctions in the owner's manuals.


That's because it's a waste of time. Most people know NOTHING about cars and don't want to know anything about them either.
BITOG people are the exception, not the rule.

Cars have become light light bulbs: flip the switch....it either works perfectly or not at all. There's very little middle ground anymore as far as things needing adjustments and being "out of tune". Most people really don't care.

 

[Vizzy]

Originally Posted By: Scdevon
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
That's what really bothers me with the new cars, they have less and less instuctions in the owner's manuals.


That's because it's a waste of time. Most people know NOTHING about cars and don't want to know anything about them either.
BITOG people are the exception, not the rule.

Cars have become light light bulbs: flip the switch....it either works perfectly or not at all. There's very little middle ground anymore as far as things needing adjustments and being "out of tune". Most people really don't care.



You MAY have been right several years ago but with the collapse of the economy, people are once again relearning the benefits of DIY when it comes to many things. Many folks today don't have the luxury of going to the chain lube place and pay 35$ for a simple oil change. They can save that important 10$ or so and get the satisfaction that the job is done right.

THINGS are changing!

 

[fdcg27]

I agree with you, Vizzy.
How many thousands of dollars can you save over the years if you do your own work?
I also agree that nobody will take better care of your car than you will.
Problem is, vehicle maintenance and repair is a life-long learning process. We all know men who cannot even change a tire, and who probably shouldn't attempt even a simple oil change.
Most of us started doing our own work at a young age, driven both by curiosity and economic necessity.

 

[Challenger71]

Well said. This is the impression I get also in that (the majority) of individuals have zero desire to learn anything about cars likely since they are overly occupied on the finer aspects in life (sarcasm), esp the younger gens. They are college (book educated) and the appeal does'nt exist to do the work themselves, yet when you overhear them run their mouths about vehicle maintenance they are Master ASE techs as long as they dont have to do the labor. These Jiffy Boob scams are nothing to be shocked over, what really shocks me is the incompetence of owners. If Jiffy Lube tells you that these are the requirements of your particular vehicle all the owner has to do is go into the manual and find out if this is true or not, if not in the manual research it. There is no mystery to any of this, the customers are just as inept as these quick lube scammers. Jiffy Lube simply recognizes this and takes advantage of it to their benefit, the lowly employee who makes little money turns out to be the fall guy in these "investigations", not management.


Originally Posted By: Scdevon
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
That's what really bothers me with the new cars, they have less and less instuctions in the owner's manuals.


That's because it's a waste of time. Most people know NOTHING about cars and don't want to know anything about them either.
BITOG people are the exception, not the rule.

Cars have become light light bulbs: flip the switch....it either works perfectly or not at all. There's very little middle ground anymore as far as things needing adjustments and being "out of tune". Most people really don't care.