This kind of thing has been going on as long as people have been driving cars. It happens in other service industries too. Sad, but a true fact of life.

If you are on flat rate it's an incentive to work well & work fast. Flat rate weeds out the poor mechanics.

I doubt however that those guys at Jiffy Lube are on flat rate. More than likely they are paid a commission to up-sell the service you're there for. A lady I work with took her new car in for a oil change with only 3000 miles on her car. They changed the oil, sold her an air filter & PCV valve.

I change my own oil & try & do everything myself on my cars. Trouble is it's getting very hard to do that. It won't be long before there's a sticker on the hood that says "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE". That will be a sad day, but I fear it's coming.

People knock dealer's, but I feel the chances of being scammed are fewer. One must always be vigilant though.

 

A co-worker driving a company vehicle serviced only by Jiffy Lube developed a serious oil leak. A quick look revealed that the drain plug was missing and a plastic plug was inserted into the oil pan where the drain plug should be, which is where the oil leak was ocurring. The vehicle had only had three oil changes, and the same Jiffy Lube did them all. That's not to say all Jiffy Lubes are bad, and one could get equally bad service at a Wal-Mart or Pep Boys. A good friend of mine was a mechanic for a dealer who's name I won't repeat, and after 11 years of service he left when the new ownership started asking him to 'create' some repair jobs on vehicles brought in for regular service. But whether it's a bad mechanic, or a mechanic's bad boss, it's ultimately up to whoever's name is on the outside of the shop to keep everything honest.

 

oh please... you think you get it easy when you work in the office?
let's see you handle fortune 100 customers (global management level clients)
on a daily basis moving millions of dollars in products.

busting a knuckle here and there is painless. just put a bandaid on it.



ok, got my helmet and suit on.

 

TonyB, I wish it wasn't so, but I found it to be true long ago & that's why I ever leave my cars anywhere where I can't stand there & watch what's being done

 

Thats true! Several years ago I had a 1993 Mustang that was due an oil change. Since we were in a neighboring town shopping at a Wal-Mart Super Center(this was before there was a Super Center in every town) I had it done there while we were shopping. When we were finished, the Service Dept was closing.

About half way home (a one hour drive) the headlights suddenly went off. I turned them back on and about 2 minutes later it happened again. This time, when I turned them back on, the whole headlight switch assembly fell out of the dash into my hand. We manged to get the lights turned on, and had to hold the switch in our hand all the way home.

Unfortunately this before we had a cell phone so we had to wait until the next morning to call the Wal-Mart and complain. The list of excuses of why it wasn't their fault and they wouldn't/couldn't pay to fix the switch was endless. My favorite was they couldn't correct this problem because we hadn't turned around and brought the car back to the Service Dept when the problem was discovered. When I asked who we would have talked to in the CLOSED Service Dept the response was silence.

I still can't figure out how the switch got broken. It was on the top L part of the dash, sort of behind the steering wheel. It was no where near anything they would have had to touch to do an oil change. Basically, you would almost have had to go out of your way to damage it.

I ended up replacing the switch myself because it was such a PIA trying to deal with Wal-Mart(and I had a friend who got me a replacement CHEAP!). I have not been back--nor will I go back--to a Wal-Mart Service Center.

 

Quite true. As someone who doesn't work in an office I agree--up to the part where the people busting their knuckles are charging for a repair that isn't done, doing repairs that aren't necessary, overcharging for work, etc.

What gets me is that if someone went to these businesses and shoplifted something, the business would press criminal charges(as they should).

But they knowingly steal (by charging for services not provided) and say "Oh, we're sorry! We'll "check into this" and give you your money back, and everything is okay." Why aren't criminal charges filed against these businesses/employees?

 

Once I took my car to a Jiffy Lube (in CA too) and they cracked the air cleaner housing. Since then, I do all my own work and will be when the Mini warranties are over with. By the way, we've got 4 cars and a boat and I do ALL the work. Put a piece of cardboard under the car before an oil change and you won't have a mess. <grin>

 

Let's say I work on a specific vehicle every day and I am doing an oil change. Joe over in the next stall takes 30 minutes to do an oil change and inspection on this vehicle. The job pays .5 hours. I take 15 minutes to do the very same oil change and inspection on the very same vehicle. Should I get paid less because I am faster and better?

MotoringSpeed, I completely agree. If a mechanic is faster, and performs the service the same as Joe, they should be rewarded for being faster. I never said, or meant to imply, that the mechanics I worked with were dishonest. The intent of my message was to provide insight into how dealerships prioritize work.

It's not about what your mechanic does, it's about what they know. Everyone has to put food on the table but not everyone can have a nice and tidy office job. Busting your knuckles for a living isn't easy.

Again, I agree. As you may suspect, mechanics with the most experience made more money and rightfully so.

What make you think I have a "nice and tidy office job?" While it's true my current positon is a "office job" over the course of my life I spent 13 years doing labor in the construction industry. Most of that was doing moving machinery which means "busting your knuckles." Quite frankly, if I could make the same money "busting my knuckles" that's what I would do. Having reviewed my original post, can't find anything that would degrade people "busting their knuckles."

The dealership I take my vehicle to is perfectly honest and I would trust them for pretty much anything. I'm happy to pay the price to know it's being done correctly by competent individuals. I've seen far too many shops that have no business working on anything but a lawnmower, perhaps. It really scares me...

Great. I'm happy you have a dealership you trust but not all dealerships are honest. Thought about giving details of the worse case I was involved with on my original post but didn't want to deal with all the "why didn't you tell the owner" questions. You have forced my hand so here goes (honestly this is true):

While working at the Jeep/Eagle dealership a owner brings in his Cherokee. Sympton was low oil pressure. After the original 1.0 hour diagnosis, mechanic comes back and says the oil pump needs replacing. I call the owner and he agrees to replace pump. Mechanic replaces pump and oil pressure gauge still reads low. Mechanic says the gauge is bad. At this point I asked the mechanic (btw, the most experienced mechanic in a shop with 15 mechanics) if he checked the oil sending unit. Mechanic say he has and that is not the problem. Call the cars owner, he agrees to the repair, order the gauge (takes 3 days,) mechanic install the gauge, oil pressure still reads low. Mechanic says it's the main bearings, which essentially means a engine overhaul. Again, I asked if he is sure the sending unit isn't bad. Mechanic assures me the sending unit is fine. Call the owner he agrees to a $1,800 overhaul. 2 weeks later, you guessed it, oil pressure is still low. Oil sending unit was the real problem. I went to the dealership General Manager and explained the situation. He couldn't have cared less. "We performed a service and we are going to get paid." Went to the owner, thinking he may be honest, and he basically said the same thing "mistakes happen but we are going to get paid." So a $40.00 repair ended up costing the vehicles owner over $2,300. The next few nights I ended up waking up in a cold sweat. This is when I quit and went to the Acura dealer. To this day I don't know if the mechanic checked the oil sending unit (with another bad sending unit) or not. The Acura dealership was also a multi-millionare who only cared about $$. Difference was Acura actually kept the owner somewhat honest (remember this was just a few years after Acura came to the U.S.)

Again, the intent of my original post was to give insight into how dealerships service departments work. There was nothing degrading mechanics for the hard work the do.

 

I would NEVER take my car to Jiffy lube. I also worked as a service advisor for a about a year. At the time Saturn had just come out with their L-series car. Someone took it to Jiffy lube for their first oil change, jiffy lube didn't have the right filter so they shoved something else in the canister that didn't work right. Turns out the woman needed a new engine on a few month old car because she wound up running out of oil because it all leaked out because of misfitting filter.

 

If anyone needs a referral for a mechanic in NYC, let me know. At least i know my guy's honest.

 

I also do ALL of my own mechanical work. Except for A/C service and alignments since I don't have the equipment. My sister in law took her BMW to one of the quick lube places and they stripped the oil pan plug. Another time they did not properly tighten the oil filter on her Acura. I now do all of her oil changes too. I once many years ago worked at a quick lube and tune place, and the owner insisted that I suggest to every customer that they needed a new fuel filter and valve cover gaskets. When I asked why his response was: "We are doing them a service by changing them while the car is here; rather than have the customer come back another time." Or something close to that. So, please watch if you have your car serviced by one of these lube places!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:impatient

 

I had that happen to me for a previous car (Toyota Corolla) at a Toyota Dealer once. Brought my Corolla in for a tune-up. A month later the car started hesitating. I had to replace spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter and adjust the timing. Things I sort of expected to be taken care of in a standard routine tune-up service.

 

Flate rate rewards hacks. It is also behind most of the "could not verify" complaints that people make about thier dealer.

Hey, as long as you get a warm fuzzy from your mechanic, more power to you.