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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Thursday, August 04, 2011 at 19:25:57 :
In Reply to: Automotive service ethics posted by Gordon Maney [208.126.138.206] on Thursday, August 04, 2011 at 18:34:20 :
I wouldn't trust any chain repair shops with anything. Midas probably started this whole racket. Years ago I stood there and listened to them tell a woman friend that her Dodge Dart needed pretty much every part in the brake system replaced, when all it needed (possibly) was new shoes. They really tried to put the fear of god into her, telling her that by law they couldn't let her car out of the shop until they'd done all this work. I more or less dragged her out of there. Probably the only reason she didn't go for it was they quoted $500 (this was somewhere around 1985) on a car that wasn't even worth $500, to a woman who didn't have $100 in the bank and didn't use credit cars.
It sounds like Jiffy Lube has taken the old Midas racket to a new level by doing only the most trivial of "repairs" (changing oil and filters is as advanced as they get) and charging insane prices for it. Frankly, when they're charging $300 for a transmission oil change and fuel filter, I don't know why they don't just go ahead and put the filter in. They probably get bottom-of-the-line private labeled filters for $5 or so and their oil is comparably cheap. It's almost like it's a game with them to see how thoroughly they can rip people off. Simply charging them $300 for 30 minutes' labor by a kid who isn't even a real mechanic isn't enough for them any more. Now they have to see if they can get away with not even actually changing the oil or filter as well.
Of course dealers over-charge too, but at least they generally do the work.
One thing I'd like to have seen those TV reporters do is ask for a lawyer's opinion on whether a customer could successfully sue JiffyLube for their transmission or engine failing as a result of JiffyLube not really changing the oil and filter.