Jiffy Lube scam caught on tape
This video is pretty shocking. After seeing this, I will never get my car serviced at a Jiffy Lube. And you wonder why people hate taking their cars to mechanics.
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Don’t get me started on Jiffy Lube! A few years ago, prior to a big family road trip, I took my Nissan Pathfinder into my neighborhood Jiffy Lube for their “Signature Service†(oil and transmission fluid change, etc.). The next day we set off with the Pathfinder packed to the roof with my wife, kids and a ton of camping gear, including dinner for two other families awaiting our arrival at a remote backcountry campsite.
An hour down the highway our transmission began grinding badly. It sounded like low fluid. We limped back to town stuck in second gear, drove into Jiffy Lube and cornered the manager. “Let’s take a look,†he said, opening the hood. The next thing I knew, he checked the fluid level and–without a word–filled the transmission fluid reservoir. Then he asked me to direct my complaint to the owner when he returned to the shop in a couple of hours.
When I came back to speak with the owner, he checked the fluid level and said it was fine. “Of course there’s enough fluid,†I replied. “Your employee filled the reservoir as soon as I returned!â€Â.
“Really?†said the owner. “Where is that employee who can back up your story?†You can guess the rest: the employee who topped off the fluid was nowhere to be seen, and the owner dismissed my complaint.
As it developed, my tranny was completely destroyed. I escalated the issue to Jiffy Lube corporate, who refused to be held responsible for their franchisee. So I went after the franchisee, who owned several Jiffy Lubes. His rep came by the transmission shop to examine “the transmission whose fluid we left lowâ€Â, then he engaged me in what turned out to be weeks of haggling over the repairs, while I drove a costly rented car all the while.
At one point the rep offered me a junkyard transmission as a replacement. When I held out for a rebuild, he said “our conversation is over, and I never offered you a replacement transmission…you cannot prove I didâ€Â.
Clearly, this was well-practiced stonewalling. So I consulted an attorney, who suggested that Jiffy Lube probably ran a legal machine built around tying up and waiting out claims in the $4,000-$10,000 range, so my best bet would be to get what I could in small claims court even though the small claims limit would still leave me $2,000 in the hole.
So that’s what I did. Jiffy Lube didn’t even appear to contest the claim. The small claims judge expressed his weariness at yet another such case in his court, awarded me the maximum, then moved on to the next case on the docket…a nearly identical suit from someone made poorer by Grease Monkeys Inc!
“Never trust your car to these little lube shops,†said the transmission shop owner as I handed over a whopping check. “Their employees were probably flipping burgers a month before; they are not mechanics.â€Â
Learn from my mistake. Don’t get jiffy screwed.
David,
Weirdly enough, I bit the bullet and went to a jiffy lube this weekend just because I needed a quick oil change and knew they took quick walk-ins. Though nothing bad has happened to my car, they had incredibly shitty customer service, and there workers were just *weird*. I can’t figure out any other way to describe it. The one I spoke to the most was totally spaced out, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was high on something.
To David. The employee that was spaced out and high on something was probably high on minimum wage crappy management and customers who only go to jiffy lube to get their cars vacuumed. All the customers blame and criticize workers but don’t realize its the company that forces them to “steal” or they lose there job. I bet you continue to still go to jiffy lube on top of your bad experience.
I went to jiffy lube for a quick oil change as i pulled up AN employee suggested the signature oil change starting at 35.98 witch is well above cost basic oil change is 24.95 almost anywhere else I was told they wash your windows and vacum the car which is not worth the extra $10.00 they never vacumed and only wiped the outside of the windows witch made no difference at all. the worker came in the office and called me into the garage showed me a computer that he said recomends penzoil synthetic motor oil for my VW passat I said ok if that’s what it recomends minutes later he came back to the office said the job was done. I pulled out $40.00 to cover the 35.98 plus tax the worker said excuse me that’s $72.00 can anyone believe that more than double the price regular oil change anywhere else even dealerships 24.95 I beleive Jiffy lube is a RIP OFF