This video is a couple of years old, but it reminded me of the story The Stranger ran last month about the way (or one way, at least) that Jiffy Lube misleads its customers. The difference between that story and the one below: Jiffy Lube executives evaded the TV reporter, but agreed to talk with The Stranger, and fully admitted that the bullshit was happening. (“We want to thank you for identifying that opportunity to improve our customer service,” they said.)

As Goldy wrote in a post earlier today to Occupy Seattle’s media team: “It’s more effective to spin the facts than to ignore them.”

Maybe the TV story below taught the Jiffy Lube higher-ups that lesson.

Thanks to Slog tipper Ned.

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....

9 replies on “More Shenanigans from Jiffy Lube”

  1. About eight or nine years ago, I went to Jiffy Lube for an oil change just before driving down to Portland for a Valentine’s Day weekend trip with my wife, but their crappy oil filter had a crack and we had no oil about halfway between Tacoma and Olympia. That’s when I stopped going.

  2. You’d think it’d be fucking common knowledge by now–You DON’T go to Jiffy Lube. Ever. Their whole basis of operation has always been ripping off customers.

    Who are the morons who keep this chain in business?

  3. People who are trying to sell you things are going to try and sell you things. If you are dumb enough to get all your information from a salesperson you deserve what you get.

  4. Jiffy Lube literally destroyed my car–removed the fluid plug and did not replace it. Car stopped running minutes after I left. Cost me thousands.

    I went to small claims court. Judges, however, are elected and rely on contributions to get elected. The judge at Shoreline Court did not want to cross a national chain. Ruled in their favor.

  5. So how often should you lube a bike chain? I’ve heard everything ranging from never cleaning or oiling your chain unless it starts making noise because factory lubricant is superior, to always clean and lube your chain every 2 months or you’ll ruin your bike.

    Also what’s a jiffy lube?

  6. @5 Depends how much time your bike spends rusting in the rain and how many miles you ride it. Lube or no, chains wear, as well as the chainrings, and need replacing. My wife gave me her old folder, and it was making hella noise when I lugged it up the hill. I popped the chain off, laid it out end to end with a new one, and sure enough, it was stretched by over a half-link. She’s a lube fanatic, too and is always cleaning her chain. So, it depends.

    As for cars, I always do whatever maintenance I can do myself. It saves a lot of money. Plus, driving a classic Saab, you have to keep them out of the hands of inept mechanics. You don’t want them sticking an air-wrench on your oil plug. The engine’s “oil pan” is actually part of the cast aluminum housing for your transaxle. You crack that, and you need a $3000 repair. It happened to someone I used to work with. At a Jiffy Lube.

    Mechanics don’t read the shop manuals, don’t pay attention to recommended torque settings, and don’t give a shit about your car. Anything they fuck up is just another thing they can charge you for. Plus, honesty is not a common enough trait in the profession.

    There are all kinds of scams, where they try to prey on your ignorance. I’ll never forget the guy who, after checking my oil for me, grabbed ahold of a fan belt and showed me how much he could push it down between the pulleys and declared I needed new ones. They were well within the tolerances of a correct setting. Besides, if they weren’t, it’s just an adjustment. Now, if they were glazed, or frayed, that’s different. Or the guy who “checked my oil” with his finger keeping the stick from going all the way in and then telling me I was a quart low. I think that was the last time I said, “Just close the hood and step away from the car, please.”

  8. “You DON’T go to Jiffy Lube. Ever. Their whole basis of operation has always been ripping off customers.”

    You’re deluding yourself if you think other quick-lube shops are going to treat you any better. Everything Jiffy Lube does is industry standard. Jiffy Lube just happens to be the biggest and most obvious chain – Grease Monkey, Firestone, Pep Boys etc. all work the same way. If you don’t want to be ripped off, you shouldn’t go to any quick-lube places at all.

    Every single quick-lube place has the same practice, and so do all the auto-parts chains. Every oil manufacturer slaps the 3000 mi recommendation on their advertising (the notable exception being Mobil, who markets separate 5000, 7500, and 10,000 mile oils, and charges escalating prices for them).

    Everything Jiffy Lube does is easy Do It Yourself work; that’s why they can hire untrained minimum-wage laborers to do absolutely every job. There’s no reason to ever take your car to a quick-lube shop.

  9. Slog commentator:

    I was a manager of a jiffy lube location for about two years.

    You’re far from the first person to have that happen to. I used to spend about $2000 a week in repair shop bills just from fixing cars my untrained, illiterate employees screwed up. And that’s at one, small, location.

    I gotta be skeptical of your story, though, because during my tenure at JL, I paid for many customers engine & transmission replacements that were only tangentially related to my drunken lower-bay tech’s botched job. The entire back of the “invoice” is printed with a warranty document stating that we’ll arrange for repairs and a rental car at our expense, so long as you have the car brought to us (and we’ll reimburse for towing to us).

    The profit margins on these places are just so huge that the warranty expenses are a drop in the bucket. I never knew any manager in the franchise to turn down a warranty claim.

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