I’m not exactly surprised, although I have to say I’ve never been ripped off. That I know of.
In a Team 4 Reports undercover investigation, Joel Grover exposes how some of the state’s biggest car repair chains could be cheating customers — even breaking the law.
There’s one thing most car owners do every few months — change their oil. In fact, several well-known chains specialize in doing quick and easy oil changes. But is that all their doing?
After hearing complaints from our viewers, we put three of the biggest names to the test. They’re popping up in almost every neighborhood.
[…]
Joel Grover: “Do you feel pressure to cheat customers?”David Dickason, Former EZ Lube Manager: “Yeah, definitely.”
Team 4 Reports obtained an internal document signed by every [EZ Lube] store manager pledging to sell at least $68 in repairs per customer.
This news just in … water is wet. DUH!
No kidding. They’re salesmen. Do you expect them do be honest?
Bastards!…. I wonder if Dealerships are any better?
I second Improbus!
Stefan
Your kidding right? lol 🙂
Do note that this report is three years old…
Can’t we all just get along. Man is basically good, so something has gone terribly wrong here. Thanks for pointing out this anomaly in human behavior.
comment by Susie Euphorian
My dealer sold me a “lifetime” lube subscription for about $100. It’s really part of their pack, but the wife and I both have one, and both use it. They’re probably losing money on us. However there has been little or no pressure to do other things when the car’s there.
The mud monster, OTOH, takes her Toyrus to one of two “jiffy lube” (I’m not sure what the actual “brand name” is), and always seems to spend about twice what’s on the ads. (Can’t get her the “subscription” – didn’t buy the car from a local dealer – long story.)
I’ve taken her car in myself, and used another “jiffy lube” for my last car, and experienced the same thing – at least some pressure, but mostly they just found things that probably should have been done anyway that aren’t in the $20 or whatever. My dealer’s people have to be asked…. (Strange dealership – very definite “count your fingers” when dealing with them to buy a car, but the service department seems to be honest. Except for the time that they fixed my A/C and probably forgot to add the refrigerant they charged me for…. It seemed OK but didn’t quite feel right. About two weeks later I took it in again, paid again, and (knock wood) it’s been fine….)
Telling tales out of school: IMHO all carpet cleaners live & die on selling you “another room” when they get to your house for the “$25 Special”…. This is often shared with the guys on the truck. I wasn’t here, I didn’t say this….
Regards
If Team 4 News doesn’t know the difference between “their” and “they’re” then why should I believe anything else in the story? A news agency that can’t afford a copy editor probably doesn’t really do a very good job of reporting the news, either.
Steve, while I agree, realize that most stories on TV news sites are copied straight from the script for the most recent newscast… where spelling doesn’t matter.
Yeah, they try to sell me more stuff, EVERY time. The oil change shop I go to is pretty reputable. They give you a free carwash with the oil change, and do inspections. It’s convenient, so I go there. You don’t want to know the number of times I’ve been there, and they tried to sell me a new air filter. I just hold it up to the light, and say, “If you can see light through it, it’s still good. That’s what I was told.” They lay off after that.
I think that others like me have done the same thing, because I don’t get the hard sell any more.
And I get a decent carwash out of it too. Yeah, I am spending 25 bucks for something that should cost less, but I am simply too lazy, and my time is worth more than that anyway.
Guys like the ones in this story wouldn’t stand an iceburg’s chance in hell if they were around here.
A reasonably-well-trained chimp can change car oil, even transmission fluid. He showed me, after all. You could do your own fluid and filter changes and avoid all of this.
Whats the KICKER here???
Jiffy lube CORP, sells the oils and filters and soforth to the Stations.
the SAME stuff the Station could get CHEAPER if they bought DIRECT.
Jiffy Lube CORP, buying in LARGE amounts gets BIG discount, lass then 0.50 per Quart., about $1 per filter…ALMOST Doubles the price and SELLS to the stations. THEn asks for a % back for each sale.
Our Gov, REALLY has to look into business practices.. And HOw to fix them. Some of the business practices are REALLY complicated.
It’s called a franchise, ECA.
Also watch out for your “Dealer Recommended Service”
If you break it down it comes down to a bunch of BS ‘check this and that’.
I went into my dealer one time and they recommended ~$450 Dealer Recommended Service Package (typically sold at a 60-point dealer inspection package (put in any random number for the 60). Basically the normal 30,000mi Manufacturer Service package + all their extra crap.
Anyway, I had the guy break it down for me into what real work they were going to do. He listed off something like 1/2 dozen things that I expected needed to be done anyway (which is why I came in).
So I said, “Ok, if you just did these things, separately, what am I looking at?”
He said, “Oh, about $220 or so but you’ll be missing out on the 60-point inspection.”
So I then asked, “Ok, so if your mechanic in under the hood and sees a coolant line leaking while he’s doing one of these things he isn’t going to tell me about it and, thus, make a sale for you?”
Dealer: “Well, yeah – he’d tell you about it.”
Me: “Ok, let’s just do these (real) things here and I’ll trust that if anything major is wrong your mechanic will notice it and tell me about it.”
So I walked out with a bill of about 1/2 of what most people would just go in and pay without thinking for the same work, all piled up into useless ‘X-point inspection’ jargon.
I do the oil changes on my Jeep myself. I find it much cheaper (about $18 in total) and quite therapeutic.
~chewy
#8
Following you out on the branch and away from the point, I agree. There, their, and they’re as well as two, to, and too are all words that irrate me when used incorrectly.
Minor errors from folks like those posting here are easily forgivable. After all, most of us are not professional writers. But a careless disregard for grammar from a pro is a red flag toward the credibility of the source in my mind.
The original story is from November of 2003, but I doubt anything has changed. In fact, I saw a similar story about Jiffy Lube just a few months ago.
#8 & 16.
I agree. Posting on this blog is very informal, and should really be just an extension of natural speech. When done professionally though, there shouldn’t be these errors. And the script writer for the local news show is a professional writer.
A couple of years ago I took ma-in-law’s car in to have the oil changed. Next thing you know they start poking around under the hood. They called me out to show me the oil vapor filter in the air breather was hardened and broke when the attendant checked. Did I want a new one installed? Sure I said, go for it.
When they presented the bill, I took out my pen, scratched off the filter, labor, and tax until I had the $16.95 advertised out front. Sure we argued about the filter but I held my ground that I didn’t ask the attendant to break it. If they wanted to return the oil I would take it with me instead of paying the $5 disposal fee. When it looked like the manager was about to phone the police, I calmly pulled out my cell phone and called them myself. At that, the manager charged me only for the actual oil change.
And I felt good about the experience too. In fact, m-in-l even tried to pay me for the oil change.
OK,
Dave…
These stations get the material to fix your car, at
What happened to my msg??
So, dave, you THINK its ok, to TAKe the poor mans money??
GIVE ME some
you might as well say a ROBBER has the same rights to your GOODS, because he WANTS them more…
Just one from the memory bank:
>> Sears to pay $20M to settle auto fraud – Sears, Roebuck and Co
>> CHICAGO – Sears has agreed to pay as much as $20 million to settle 19 class action lawsuits that stemmed from California state charges that it bilked auto repair customers by recommending unneeded repairs.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n18_v31/ai_12736011
I remember this one, well, because I had used a Sears super-cheap coupon for a brake inspection and they found something huge to repare. I then came to my senses and went back to my somewhat-expensive regular guy and he didn’t find that supposed problem.
Then, a few months later, this lawsuit was settled. Then I concluded it was not just an honest mistake by Sears but a systematic rip-off scheme. Now I find a mechanic I feel good about and stick with him. I think this saves me money in the long-run.
PS: It is lawsuits like this that make me very skeptical about “tort reform”. Settlements against corporations must be huge to work. 20 million may SEEM like a lot but, for Sears, I’ll guess this wasn’t even a deterrent.
AND,
thats a problem ALSO…
DENT them for 1 years profits, AT LEAST……
they do the same to US, if we get caught stealing…10-25 IN JAIL…
do you REALLy want a life after 10-25?? you can retire on NOTHIING.
#21: What are you talking about? Your original post (#12) was ranting about how the corporation and the stations buys things like oil filters, oil, etc at quantity rates and mark them up. That is how retail works. Sometimes you mark things up a few percent (grocery stores) and sometimes you mark it up hundreds of percent. Nothing illegal about that. It’s capitalism.
A franchisee pays a percentage back to the corporation in exchange for the name, national advertising, etc. Again, nothing illegal there.
What is illegal is a store lying about something needing fixing to get you to buy something you don’t need. That is fraud. They should be prosecuted.
Having said that, consumers should become knowledgable about their cars so they won’t be taken on things like this.
Given all that, what exactly are you complaining about what I said?
Dave…
Do you KNOW how much a farmer gets for his goods??
REALY its not the farmer, as 60-70% of ALL farms are owned by Corps..
The Farmer gets
So what does a farmer have to do with an oil change shop? They have nothing in common.
You can’t change your oil cheaper than the volume types do, and then there is the disposal situation, so I use the same local Meineke shop whenever oil change time comes around. Sometimes they point out a potential problem, but never pressure me to spend more money than the service calls for.
Thing is, people are lazy and ignorant, and proud to be so. The same people that get taken by crooked mechanics are the same people who expect the IT guy to wave his magic wand and fix everything in a minute. The Internet, or web, or whatever, presents to the determined researcher pretty well anything he or she needs to know to protect themselves from a wrench toting, grease spattered crook. Usually all that is needed is a well turned phrase that shows the crook you know enough to know when somebody is blowing smoke.
26, dave…
Why not…
Crude oil is broken down into about 10-12 products, that I know of.
And in the END, its about a 100/1 break down.. 55 gallons of Crude, turns into over 550 gallons of salable product.
Propane, butane, gas, Diesal, tars, pesticides, herbicides, and other products.
BUT, dont THINK that just because the prices in Saude araibia are HIGH, that the costs are the SAME in the US, when we get 60% of our crude from Canada… then alaska, then mexico, then S. america(venisula(sp)).. there arnt that much in shipping costs, and the MAIN company OWNS the riggs ANYWAY, BP, SHELL, and the rest.
figure that $0.70 per gallon is State and Federal TAX…And the Fuel costs MAYBE 0.50 per gallon, and everything ELSE is profit. And sence there ARNT that many layers of distribution, except the reseller(about 0.20 per gallon) . AT LEAST $1 per gallon is PURE profit.
It wouldnt be TO bad if it went abit MORe to taxes, to FIX all the roads, and even IMPROVE them…
I REALLy wount mind IF the extra money was going to IMPROVEMENTS int he oil facilities..and processing…But it AINT.
Ask BP in Alaska.
OK, ECA. I agree that the oil companies are gouging us. They are bumping up the wholesale price to unreasonable levels to reap unwarranted profits. What that has to do with Jiffy Lube, et al which don’t even sell gas, I can’t imagine. Where are you going with this?